Kausar Yazdani

Kausar Yazdani (born 1935 in Katalpur village, Uttar Pradesh), is an Indian Islamic scholar, author, journalist and activist and former Secretary for Dawah, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. His specialisation is in comparative studies of Hindu scriptures and literature with Islamic literature. He stays in Delhi.

After retirement from the Jamaat he is engaged in translation of rare Islamic manuscripts into the Hindi language. Recently he has translated Bukhari in three volumes. He belongs to the famous Deobandi Muslim family of Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani.

Biography

Kausar Yazdani was born 1935 in Katalpur, Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. His father was in the police department and retired when he was studying in class VII. He did his metrication in 1951, BA in 1955 from Shibli College and married in his own family in same year. Then he entered in the practical life.

Education

He completed his graduation from Shibli College, Azamgarh, and Masters and doctorate of philosophy (PhD) in the Hindi language from Agra University. He is also completed Aalimiat from Sunni Muslim seminary called Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow, and Fazeelat from Rampur.

The topic of his PhD was Sufi Darshan evam Sadhna ka Kramik Vikas tatha Kutban, Manjhan evam Jaysee. (Development of Mysticism in Hindi with reference to the Poetry of Kutban, Manjhan and Jaysee).^[1]

Association and activism with Jamat Islami Hind^[2]

Yazdani came into the contact of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), when he was in Intermediate at Tanda. Jamaat was writing new chapters in Islamic dawah and awakening for non-Muslims as well as Muslims. He learnt, Islam is for everybody. Yazdani, whose subject in BA was not Hindi, chose Hindi journalism as his lifelong career under the influence of the Islamic movement. At that time, Muslims of north India had a hate relationship with Hindi. Urdu had not become their preferred language but it was crushed just after the Independence. It is a historical fact that Urdu was vastly used in government and non-government works before 1947. But its use stopped in government offices, its teaching banned in schools and other educational institutions and it was labelled as anti-Indian. It place was given to Hindi, which was finally declared the official language of the province in 1951 by Congress government in UP, under its chief minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. But no reciprocal safeguard was given to Urdu language. Yazdani chose Hindi as his first love.

Jamaat decided to publish a Hindi magazine and called him for the job in 1956-7. After some preparations 'Kanti' monthly started its publication in 1958. It became a weekly after a decade and changed its place of publication from Rampur to Delhi.

When Nadvi joined the Kanti, he did not know the Arabic language. But as he chose the dawah path, he decided to learn Arabic and studied the language from Maulana Salman Qasmi at Rampur. Then he took three years leave to study Arabic and Islamic sciences at Nadwa College, Lucknow. Jamaat chief Maulana Abul lais^[3] allowed him to work from Lucknow and granted him the required leave. Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi gave special permission to enroll him for Almiat. He cleared all the papers in one year and got Almiat degree. Later he completed his Fazilat at Rampur. Kanti was banned during emergency and its editor was jailed for few months. In this critical period he did his MA in Hindi Literature and a PhD in 1980. His thesis was on Sufism and Sadhna. Kanti was divided into weekly and monthly in the same year. Weekly was generally for Muslims and monthly was for non-Muslims. But according to Nadvi, its readership were prominently Muslims, although non-Muslims also read it.

He remained its editor for about 37 years and left it in 1995. Nadvi told us that 'generally Hindus have a little or no interest for understanding Islam. We reached them and explained its message'. So its circulation in his time remained between 3 to 5 thousands. It published extracts from the Holy Quran and Hadith, episodes from Islamic history and true principles of Islam. It also tried to remove misunderstandings against Islam and Muslims. It had one or two short stories. After 1968, political and social issues increased considerably. Then it became a weekly. To a query, whether Kanti criticised Hindu Dharam also former editor replied that we criticised very little and never made such criticism a formal topic. 'It was not appropriate in the early phase of Dawah'. Islam's fundamental teachings were introduced in a positive way, polytheism was mildly criticised. If reverse was done, it could have caused a riot and then nobody would have heard our message, he explained. He concluded that when Islam would be described in more details, in the next phase of our dawah, such criticism may increase, then it would be relevant.

He was not just a journalist or writer, but an active worker and a leader also. He became chief of J. I. H. (Delhi & Haryana State) in 1979 and remained so till 1995. At that time, he used to start his day before morning prayers (salat Fajr), read daily newspaper and wrote editorial, etc. Later, he worked for the Kanti till about 1 o'clock. After 3 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, to 11 in the night, he spent his time, visiting different places of Delhi & Haryana for Dawah and Islamic awakening. It was his daily routine. In 1995 he was called to central office of the Jamaat as its all India secretary to look after the Dawah work from which he just retired. As his health deteriorated, he spent most of his time at his residence at Abul Fazl Enclave in New Delhi. He has three sons and one daughter. His wife died in 1990.

Books published

Nadvi translated about 40 books in Hindi and wrote a dozen books. He also wrote more than 500 articles published in different national and international journals and magazines.

1. Hazrat Umar (R)
2. Yusuf Kandhlawi' Muntakhab Ahadith – Hindi (Translated from Urdu to Hindi)

References