Tahdhib al-Akhlaq | Original Arabic Text

Shaykh Sayyed ‘Abdul Ḥayy al-Ḥasanī ﵀ (d. 1341 AH / 1923 CE)

The historic region of Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh, India) served as the cradle for Shaykh ‘Abdul Ḥayy Fakhruddin al-Ḥasanī ﵀, who represents a monumental pillar of historical preservation. Raised in a family celebrated for its deep religious scholarship, he spent his youth mastering advanced jurisprudence (Fiqh), prophetic tradition analysis (Hadith), Arabic literature, and traditional Greco-Arab medicine (Tibb), studying under his father, Fakhruddin Hasani ﵀, alongside the leading muhadithin of the era. This multi-disciplinary genius eventually led him to serve as a prominent physician and the rector (Nazim) of the prestigious Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow. His entire academic life unfolded during the height of the British Raj — a painful era of cultural fracture where the centuries-old Islamic intellectual, linguistic, and educational foundations of the subcontinent were being systematically dismantled under colonial rule.

His most enduring, monumental contribution to the Muslim world was a massive, life-long rescue mission of historical memory to save the academic identity of South Asian Muslims from colonial erasure. His greatest research obstacle was a complete lack of centralized historical archives, with records scattered across private, unorganized libraries over an immense subcontinent. Battling chronic illness and heavy administrative weights, he dedicated decades of his life to gruelling research travel, personally reviewing old manuscripts before they could be lost to imperial acquisition. This monumental labour culminated in Nuzhat al-Khawāṭir wa Bahjat al-Masāmi' wa-l-Nawāẓir (later published as Al-I'lam biman fī Tārīkh al-Hind min al-A'lām). This definitive, eight-volume biographical encyclopaedia meticulously documented the lives, masterworks, and spiritual lineages of over five thousand Indian Islamic scholars, saints, and leaders from the first century of Islam up to his own era. His invaluable historical texts include Al-Thaqafah al-Islamiyyah fi al-Hind and Yad-e-Ayyam. His scholarly gift for the laymen is preserved in his foundational text accessible both in its original Arabic language as, Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq and as a fluid English translation titled Tahdhib al-Akhlaq: A Hadith Guide for Personal & Social Conduct.

This fierce intellectual and physical independence came at an immense personal cost, as he consistently rejected lucrative government honours, refusing to allow his work or the Nadwatul Ulama academy to become tools of imperial policy. Al-Hasani's lasting impact was preserving the historical and academic identity of South Asian Muslims from being lost or obscured within global Islamic history. When he returned his soul to his Creator in 1923, he left behind an organized historical legacy that future revivers—including his own legendary son, Shaykh Abul Hasan ‘Ali Nadwi — would use to inspire generations.