Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī

(d. 1238 AH / 1822 CE)

Introduction

The Indian subcontinent has produced some of the greatest experts in the Islamic sciences over the centuries. A significant contributor to this chain of prestige scholarship, especially from the 17th century onward, has been the scholars of the Farangī Maḥall and their esteemed Dars-i Niẓāmī curriculum. 

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī (d. 1822 CE), the distinguished grandson of Mullā Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī (d. 1754 CE), was a scholar of both the outward and inward sciences and served as the special spiritual deputy of his father, Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī (d. 1821 CE) , whose renown is widespread. 

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq’s influence was such that, after him, the scholarly chains of transmission of the majority of the scholars of the Farangī Maḥall came to pass through him. What follows is a brief synopsis of his life. 

Studies, Teaching, and Writings

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī was the noble son of Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī, grandson of Mullā Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī, great-grandson of Mullā Muḥammad Saʿīd, who was himself the direct son of Mullā Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shahīd.

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq and his younger brother, Mawlānā ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, travelled with their uncle to Rampur and then to Būhār (in the Burdwan district of Bengal). There, they entered the service of Baḥr al-ʿUlūm Mullā ʿAbd al-ʿAlī Farangī Maḥallī, the direct son of Mullā Niẓām al-Dīn al-Sihālawī. After completing their studies, both brothers formally concluded their education by reading the Fātiḥah al-Farāgh with Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, the “Ocean of Knowledge.”

Upon returning home to the Farangī Maḥall in Lucknow, Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq devoted the remainder of his life entirely to the service of knowledge and teaching.

Mawlānā ʿInāyat-Allāh Farangī Maḥallī (d. 1941 CE) writes of him that he was an extremely eminent scholar, solid and reliable in his scholarship, and fully accomplished beyond the ordinary. His students were among the great, fully accomplished senior ʿulamāʾ of their age. Among them was Sayf-Allah al-Maslūl Mawlānā Faḍl al-Rasūl Badāyūnī, author of al-Muʿtaqad al-Muntaqad, as well as the great ṣūfī master Mawlānā Faḍl al-Raḥmān Ganj-Murādābādī, whose biographical legacy shines like the midday sun across the subcontinent. 

The dedication with which Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq upheld the responsibility of teaching and furthering the Farangī Maḥall tradition is evident not only in the large numbers of students who attended his classes, but also in the sheer volume of his teaching and spiritual exercises (riyāḍāt), which often caused him severe back pain. Although treatment would provide temporary relief, it never fully subsided.

It was precisely this very selfless devotion that resulted in the scholarly chains of transmission of the majority of the scholars of the Farangī Maḥall passing through him, connecting them back to Mullā Niẓām al-Dīn al-Sihālawī and, ultimately, to Imām Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī.

Among Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq’s writings is a valuable commentary on Sūrah al-Fātiḥah, which was studied by ʿAbū al-Ḥasanāt Mullā Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥayy Farangī Maḥallī, who wrote concerning it:

طَالَعْتُهُ فَوَجَدْتُهُ نَفِيسًا حَسَنًا شَاهِدًا عَلَى جَلَالَةِ مُؤَلِّفِهِ

“I studied it and found it to be precious and excellent, bearing witness to the grandeur of its author”.

Beyond this, like other scholars of the Farangī Maḥall, he contributed extensively to the sciences and to the works of the classical Dars-i Niẓāmī curriculum. Mawlānā ʿAbd al-Bārī Farangī Maḥallī, along with other members of the Farangī Maḥall, record that he authored marginal glosses (ḥawāshī) and supercommentaries on a number of the core curriculum texts.

Mullā Nūr al-Haqq’s Saintly Father and Grandfather

Before examining the renowned spiritual wayfaring of Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq, it is necessary to first introduce his grandfather and father, as they provide the essential context for his spiritual formation.

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq’s grandfather was Mullā Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī (d. 1754 CE), the distinguished student and nephew of Mullā Niẓām al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Sihālawī (d. 1748 CE). He played a pivotal role in the early establishment of the Farangī Maḥall and is venerated as a saint within the family. 

Mullā Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq was first initiated into the Chishtī Ṣufi order during his childhood by his esteemed father. Later, in his youth, he entered the Qādirī order at the hands of Ḥaẓrat Sayyid Shāh ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qādirī Bānsawī (d. 1136 AH), from whom he received both authorisation (ijāzah) and spiritual succession (khilāfah) in the Qādirī-Razzāqī branch of the order. He would later go on to initiate others into the same path as well, including his son Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq, the father of Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq. 

Mullā Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq (the grandfather) had two wives. From the first, he had a son named Mullā Muḥibbullāh, and from the second, two sons, Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq and Mullā Iẓhār al-Ḥaqq.

Among his sons, Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq (d. 1235 AH) distinguished himself not only as an eminent scholar from the Farangī Maḥall but also as a gnostic (ʿārif billāh) and a spiritual guide of the Qādirī-Razzāqī order.

He studied under several notable teachers of the Farangī Maḥall, including Baḥr al-ʿUlūm Mullā ʿAbd al-ʿAlī Farangī Maḥallī. From childhood, he exhibited a strong inclination toward spirituality, largely due to the influence of his maternal uncle. As a result, he showed little interest in the rational sciences (maʿqūlāt) and remained focused on the study of religious texts.

At the age of sixteen or seventeen, he took spiritual allegiance (bayʿah) from his father, Mullā Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī, and eventually began initiating disciples into the Qādirī-Razzaqī order himself.

It is noteworthy that Mawlānā al-Shāh Aḥmad Riḍā Khān al-Qādrī’s (d. 1340 AH) great-grandfather, Ḥāfiẓ Kāẓim ʿAlī Khān, was also a spiritual disciple (murīd) of Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī. 

Moreover, Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq also served as the teacher of Shāh Āl-i Rasūl Mārehrwī, the spiritual guide of Mārehra and classmate of Imām Faḍl al-Ḥaqq Khairabādī under the tutelage of Shāh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Muḥaddith Dehlawī. 

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq’s Spiritual Wayfaring

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī was a scholar of both the outward and inward sciences, and he served as his father’s special deputy in the spiritual path. He remained consistently occupied with teaching of the sciences and the remembrance of Allah Almighty.

Despite attaining profound mastery in both the rational (maʿqūlāt) and transmitted (manqūlāt) sciences, he remained extremely humble, marked by a self-effacing disposition, and gracious in conduct. Alongside the outward sciences, he acquired the inward, spiritual sciences from his noble father, Mullā Aḥmad Anwār al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī (d. 1821 CE).

Having pledged spiritual allegiance (bayʿah) to his father, he learned the prescribed invocations and structured spiritual exercises (adhkār and ashghāl) from him, and he also received formal authorisation from his noble father to provide spiritual guidance.

He attained such perfection in the inward sciences that his own father would say of him,“Miyān Nūr is nothing but light”.

His spiritual unveilings (kashf) and saintly miracles (karāmāt) were very numerous. His selflessness and reliance upon Allah Almighty were of such a degree that, in his time, there was none comparable to him.

When his noble father passed away, although he was the eldest son and, among all the sons, the most capable and deserving in every respect, and fully entitled to succeed him, he nevertheless appointed his younger half-brother, Mawlānā Muḥammad Aḥmad Farangī Maḥallī, who was only nineteen or twenty years old at the time, as his father’s spiritual successor.

Despite hardship and difficulty, he consistently refrained from the company of nobles and would never go to their doors for his own needs. However, if a person in need came to him seeking a recommendation to a noble, or asked that he personally go to make such a recommendation, he would not refuse, regardless of whatever hardship or inconvenience he might have to endure.

He had many spiritual disciples, and during his father’s own lifetime he began accepting disciples for spiritual training at his father’s instruction.

His Students and Sons: Fountainheads of Knowledge

Among the students of Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq were the Qādirī sage Shāh Sayyid Āl al-Rasūl Mārehrwī, Sayf-Allāh al-Maslūl ʿAllāmah Faḍl al‑Rasūl Badāyūnī, and the Naqshbandī ṣūfī master ʿAllāmah Faḍl al‑Raḥmān Ganj‑Murādābādī.

These three names alone suffice to illustrate the depth of his impact on the subcontinent. Each of these students became a fountainhead of sacred learning and spiritual guidance in his own right, leaving a lasting imprint that continues to be felt to this day.

For further details on Shāh Āl al-Rasūl’s period of discipleship in the court of Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq, see From the Farangī Maḥall to Makkah: A Pure Connection Etched in Time (listed in the bibliography).

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq also had two noble sons, Mullā Sirāj al‑Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī and Mullā Burhān al‑Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī, each of whom will be treated in a separate biography, detailing their lives and contributions, inshāʾAllāh. 

​​Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq to Imām Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī

Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq’s scholarly lineage traces back to Imām Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī through 24 teachers. Below is one of his chains of transmission to Imām al-Ashʿarī. It is worth noting that multiple such chains exist, as several scholars within the transmission studied under more than one teacher, each path ultimately leading back to Imām al-Ashʿarī himself:

• Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq Farangī Maḥallī

• Mullā ʿAbd al-ʿAlī Farangī Maḥallī

• Mullā Niẓām al-Dīn Muhammad al-Sihālawī, Ustādh al-Kull (the teacher of all)

• Mullā Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shahīd

• Mawlānā Dāniyāl

• Mawlānā ʿAbd al-Salām al-Dīwī

• Mawlānā ʿAbd al-Salām al-Lāhorī

• ʿAllāmah Fathullāh al-Shīrāzī

• Mawlānā Jamāl al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Shīrāzī

• Imām Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ṣiddīqī al-Dawwānī 

• Mawlānā Saʿd al-Dīn Asʿad al-Dawwānī

• Al-Sayyid al-Sharīf Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī

• ʿAllāmah Mubārak Shāh al-Miṣrī

• ʿAllāmah Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Abū ʿAbd Allāh Quṭb al-Dīn al-Rāzī

• Qāḍī ʿAḍud al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad al-Ījī

• Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn al-Hankī

• Qāḍī al-Bayḍāwī Nāṣir al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Shīrāzī

• ʿAllāmah Tāj al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Urmawī

• Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥusayn, Imām Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

• ʿAllāmah Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn ʿUmar

• ʿAllāmah Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā

• Imām Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, Ḥujjat al-Islām Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī

• Imām al-Ḥaramayn, ʿAbd Malik al-Juwaynī

• Al-Ustād Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Istfarāʾīnī

• Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bāhilī

• Imam Ahl-Sunnah, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī (d. 324 AH)

May Allah have mercy on them all, including those scholars whose names have been omitted due to variations in the chain of transmission.

His Passing and the Manhaj of the Farangī Maḥall

Nineteen months after his noble father’s passing, the back ailment mentioned earlier worsened to such an extent that it rendered him unconscious. On the night of Sunday, 23 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1238 AH (corresponding to 1822 CE), he passed away. He was buried on the western side of his father’s mausoleum, at a short distance from it.

The life and services of Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq, as a leading member of the Farangī Maḥall family, and as a figure whose influence upon that tradition was so profound that, after him, the majority of its scholars traced their chains of transmission through him, offer a clear window into the intellectual and spiritual framework within which this family operated. This reality decisively undermines the notion, often advanced in a loaded and anachronistic sense, that the Farangī Maḥall tradition was in any meaningful way a “rationalist” project.

The ultimate aim of the scholars of the Farangī Maḥall was the formation of scholars who possessed complete mastery and traversal of the auxiliary sciences (ʿulūm āliyyah), enabling sound access to the ultimate, intended sciences (ʿulūm maqṣūdiyyah), the holy Qurʾān and the noble Sunnah. The inclusion of numerous works in Arabic language, for example, alongside a smaller number of works in tafsīr, was never indicative of a prioritisation of language over revelation (of the holy Qurʾān). Rather, the former was always conceived as a means placed firmly in the service of the latter.

Similarly, the study of the rational sciences was never undertaken in isolation or without a governing framework. One of its principal aims was to prepare scholars capable of articulating and defending the aqāʿid of Islam with precision and competence; that such study also refined intellectual clarity and discipline (tashḥīdh al-adhhān) was a consequential benefit, not an independent objective.

Much more could be said on this subject. However, what has been outlined here reflects the manhaj transmitted to us by scholars who directly benefited from the Farangī Maḥall tradition, among whom Mullā Nūr al-Ḥaqq stands as a pivotal figure. His life, in both its scholarly and spiritual dimensions, illustrates this inherited methodology with remarkable clarity.

Al-Fātiḥah.

Bibliography 

Āthār al-Awwal min ʿUlamāʾ Farangī Maḥall

al-Asānīd al-ʿĀliyah li-ʿUlamāʾ al-Jāmiʿah al-Qādiriyyah

Mumtaz ʿUlamāʾ Farangi Mahall

Tadhkirah ʿUlamāʾ-i Hind

Tadhkirah ʿUlamāʾ-i Farangī Maḥall

From the Farangi Mahall to Makkah: A Pure Connection Etched in Time