Al-Kawthari | |
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الكوثري | |
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| Personal life | |
| Born | Muhammad Zahid Hasan c. 1879 |
| Died | 1952 (aged 72–73) |
| Main interest(s) | Aqidah,Kalam (Islamic theology),Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence),Hadith studies,Shari'a (Islamic law),Tasawwuf,Literature |
| Notable work(s) | Maqalat al-Kawthari,Mahq al-Taqawwul fi Mas'alat al-Tawassul,Al-Lamadhhabiyya Qantarat al-Ladiniyya |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Hanafi |
| Creed | Maturidi |
| Muslim leader | |
Muhammad Zahid Hasan (Arabic:محمد زاهد حسن,romanized: Muḥammad Zāhid Ḥasan;c. 1879–1952), commonly known by thenisbaal-Kawthari (Arabic:الكوثري,romanized: al-Kawtharī), was an Islamic scholar and theologian. A prolific author of over 40 works, al-Kawthari followed theHanafi school ofjurisprudence and championed theMaturidi school oftheology.
ACircassian, al-Kawthari was born inDüzce,Ottoman Empire and studied at theFatih Mosque,Istanbul. After thefall of the Ottoman Empire, al-Kawthari fled to theKingdom of Egypt to avoid crackdown by the Kemalists. He then resided inCairo and became a well-known scholar there.
Al-Kawthari was a staunch critic ofSalafism and wrote works againstIbn Taymiyya andIbn al-Qayyim. Al-Kawthari is widely honored by modern Hanafis. He is considered a leadingShaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman era.
Muhammad Zahid Hasan was born in 1879 inDüzce, then part of theOttoman Empire. His family was ofCircassian descent. After thefall of the Ottoman Empire, theAtatürkists began a violent crackdown on the religious scholarly class.
Fearing that his life may be in danger, al-Kawthari fled toCairo, then to Syria and finally returning to Cairo. There, he edited classical works ofFiqh,Hadith andUsul al-Fiqh, bringing them back into circulation. In particular, he wrote short biographies of prominent personalities of theHanafi school of thought. A staunchMaturidi,[1][2][3][4][5] he held a critical view of the medieval scholarIbn Taymiyya and his studentIbn al-Qayyim.[6]
Mufti Muhammad Anwar Khan Qasmi, a Deobandi scholar, has recently translated many of al-Kawthari's works into Urdu and published them in Indian academic journals and magazines. For example,al-La Madhhabiyya Qintarat al-La Diniyya, an article al-Kawthari wrote equating non-adherence to the schools of jurisprudence to irreligiousness, was translated by Qasmi with extensive footnotes and introduction by him and published by Deoband Islamic Research and Education Trust in 2013 under the title ofGhayr Muqallidiyyat: Ilhad Ka Darwaza. Also, Qasmi translated al-Kawthari's extensive introduction to ImamIbn `Asakir'sTabyin Kadhib al-Muftari, published by the same center in Deoband in 2013, under the title ofIslami Firqe: Eik Jaiza. Qasmi also translated and edited in Urdu one of his great books calledFiqh Ahl al-`Iraq wa Hadīthuhum, initially an introduction toNaṣb al-Rāyah, which was published separately with ʿAbdul Fattāḥ's footnotes. On the same pattern, other books of al-Kawthari likeMin ʿIbar al-Tārīkh fi al-Kayd lil-Islam, and his introduction to the bookal-Asmā wa al-Sifāt ofal-Bayhaqi, and al-Kawthari's footnotes on al-Dhahabi'sBayan Zaghal al-Ilam were also edited and translated by Qasmi and published by the same center in Deoband.
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