Syed Ibne Hasan Nonaharvi

Maulana Syed Ibne Hasan Naunaharvi (مولانا سيد ابن حسن نونهروى) was born in Nonahara, Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, India in 1899.

He went to Islamic school in Naunahra and then moved to Lucknow for higher Shia religious education. He graduated from Sultanul Madaris and became a teacher, later principal of Madrasatul Waizeen.

Maulana Ibne Hasan is renowned for his oratory and Urdu language speeches. He was a pious and sincere scholar with tremendous control over religious matters and reciting majalises. He read majalises at Husainia Irshadia, Rudauli by invitation of Syed Irshad Husain Zaidi for 58 years and also read at Hyderabad, Rampur, Jalali, Lucknow and many other places.

Maulana Naunaharvi learned the art of oratory from his teacher Allama Sibte Hasan, who was the pioneer of the format of majalises which are recited to the present day. Before his time, majalises in Lucknow and other places contained marsiya, recited by great poets like Meer Babbar Ali Anees and Dabeer. The new format has Khutba in Arabic, some tafseer, Fazail of Ahlul Bayt then Masaeb of Karbala.

Maulana Naunaharvi is known for his beautiful language and delivery of difficult tafseer and Islamic philosophy. He is also considered the best orator of the topic of Meraj and the battles of Islam. His picturisation of the battlefield and meraj had such an effect on people that the description was said to take the imagination of the listener into the event itself. He travelled a lot and was able to recite a single majalis for 4 hours, not repeating the same topic twice. His choice of words, extempore flow of Persian, Urdu, and Arabic, control over his audience and making topics interesting made him extremely popular. He was also known as an orator who used to ask his audience to recite salawat more than 100 times in a single majlis.

He continued his teaching work at Sultanul Madaris and then became Principal of Madrasatul Waizeen. During the last few years of his life he became ill and cut down on travelling. He died at the age of 81 years on 25 March 1980 in Lucknow and was buried in Imambara Ghufran Ma'ab.