RENAISSANCE MARCH 2021

40 Monthly Renaissance March 2021 Biography Mawl ā n ā Mu ḥ ammad ‘Al ī Jawhar Am ī n A ḥ san I ṣ l āḥī The eminent scholar Mawl ā n ā Ra‘ ī s A ḥ mad Ja‘far ī has asked me to write a few impressions about Mawlan ā Mu ḥ ammad ‘Al ī Jawhar (May God have mercy on him). I have agreed to this request but would like to make it clear at the beginning of this article that I have only unseen regard for the Mawl ā n ā . Far from meeting with him, I have not even had the honour of seeing him from afar more than twice or thrice. At the height of the Khil ā fat movement, I do not remember the exact year (probably 1921 or 1922), the Mawl ā n ā came to the annual convention of the Madrasah al-I ṣ l āḥ , Sar ā ’ay M ī r A‘ ẓ am Garh, UP, India, where I was a senior student. At the meeting, I remember, a huge crowd gathered in the vast grounds of the Madrasah on hearing the Mawl ā n ā ’s name. Some other distinguished and famous people also accompanied the Mawl ā n ā . My mentor Mawl ā n ā Ḥ am ī d al-D ī n Far ā h ī (May God have mercy on him) who rarely went to any such gathering also attended it. It was an immense assembly. I had never seen such a huge meeting before this. The convention was held in out in the open. A fierce wind was blowing and at that time there was no usage of loud speakers. Because of this it was feared that the Mawl ā n ā ’s speech might not be audible which could cause unrest in the congregation. But when the Mawl ā n ā rose to speak, his dignity and awe inspiring personality captivated and impressed one and all such that people became like statues, transfixed wherever they were standing or sitting. The Mawl ā n ā ’s loud and resounding voice carried to every corner despite the strong wind and extraordinarily vast crowd. The effect of the speech was such that after a while I saw nary a dry eye. That crowd comprised of ordinary peasants and there were very few educated people in it. For those peasants it was not easy to understand the speech of a