Biography of Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri

Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri was born in 1903 in Derah Ghazi Khan, he was from the Baloch tribe. His elders left Derah Ghazi Khan to live in the state of Bahawalpur in the city of Uch Shareef. Shaykh Sultan Mahmood started his studies at the age of 8 in the village of Gamani in the Madrasah of Shaykh AbdulMajeed and Shaykh Habeebullah. This was a Hanafi Madrasah and Shaykh Sultan Mahmood learned there Arabic grammar and morphology, jurisprudence and its fundamentals, philosophy and logic, and also Bayan and Ma’ani.

Afterwards Shaykh Sultan Mahmood studied Bulugh Al-Maram and Sihhah Sittah from Shaykh Abdul Haq Hashmi and became Ahl e Hadith. Afterwards he studied as well from Shaykh Abdul Haq Multani, Shaykh AbuTawab Multani

After completing his studies, Shaykh Sultan Mahmood came first in 1928 to Jalalpur Peer Wala to participate to a religious conference. In 1934 he came again to Jalalpur Peer Wala and decided to reside there and established a Madrasah called “Daar Al-Hadith Muhammadiyah”. Upon the insistence of Jamiyah Salafiyah Faislabad, he taught there for one year and returned after to his Madrasah in Jalalpur Peer Wala which had become one of the most reputed Madrasah of Ahl e Hadith.

Many people from rich Madaris came to invite him to teach in their Madaris and offered him more income but he preferred to teach in his Madrasah. It is said that he would receive 2500 rupees in his last years and would give back 500 to the Madrasah for poor teachers. He had a very simple life and was contended with little.

Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri was very active as well in preaching, he would go to many villages in the state of Bahawalpur, Multan, Muzafarrabad and other areas. These areas were very deprived and there were not many build roads, so sometimes he had to walk great distances to reach some villages or go by horse carriage and he would not even take travel expenses from villages in which he was invited for a talk. Likewise when Shaykh Ataullah Haneef Bhujiyani would come to take the annual exams in his Madrasah in Jalalpur Walah, he had to take a horse carriage to reach it. Despite all these difficulties Shaykh Sultan Mahmood preferred to stay in such a place rather than more developed cities. He would also not only go to gatherings in which thousands would come, rather he would go to talks even if a small attendance was present.

Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri took part with his son Shaykh Muhammad Yahya in the creation of Markazi Jamiat Ahl e Hadith Pakistan. He helped Shaykh Isma’eel Salafi in structuring the organisation in his area. All Ahl e Hadith from Muzaffarabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, Derah Ghazi Khan joined Markazi Jamiat Ahl e Hadith under his advice. For a long time Shaykh Sultan Mahmood remained the president of the Multan Branch. Shaykh Dawood Ghaznawi, Shaykh Ismaeel Salafi and Shaykh Ataullah Haneef Bhujiyani would consult him separately for important matters regarding Markazi Jamiat Ahl e Hadith Pakistan.

His writings:

1) “Fath Al-Hameed al-Bari Sharh Kitab At-Tawheed lil Imam Al-Bukhari” (not published). This is an Arabic explanation of 258 large file size pages explanation of the chapter of Tawheed from “Sahih Al-Bukhari”

2) “Tarjamah wa Ifadat Bulugh Al-Maram” (Not published)

3) “Ifadat Sahih Al-Bukhari”: His notes on Sahih Al-Bukhari have been copied. Shaykh Muhammad Afzal Athari from Karachi is publishing different chapters of Sahih Al-Bukhari with his notes. Kitab Al-Adhahi, Ad-Da’wat and many others have been printed.

4) “Ifadat Jami’ Tirmizi”: Many of his students copied his explanation of Jaim Tirmizi and Shaykh AbdurRahman Cheemah is compiling them.

5) “Istalahat Al-Muhadithin” which is an epistle on Mustalah Al-Hadith which is in the curriculum of Wafaq Al-Madaris As-Salafiyah.

6) “Ni’ma Ash-Shuhood fi Tahreef Al-Ghaleen fi Sunnan Abi Dawood”: a small Urdu and Arabic epistle about the word “Laylah” being replaced by “Rak’ah” by some Ahnaaf in their printed Sunnan Abi Dawood.

7) “Fatawa Daar Al-Hadith Muhammadiyah”: A compilation of his Fatawa by Shaykh Muhammad Rafeeq Athari and which should be published by Shaykh Muhammad Afzal Athari.

His preeminent students:

1) Shaykh Muhammad Rafeeq Athari, he is teacher since a long time at Daar Al-Hadith Muhammadiyah in Jalalpur. He also taught for some time at Jamiyah Muhammadiyah in Okarah. He is considered as the scholarly heir of Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri.

2) Shaykh Allah Yaar Khan: He is also among teachers at Daar Al-Hadith Muhammadiyah.

3) Shaykh Abdullah Muzafarabadi

4) Sayid AbduShakoor Athari

5) Shaykh Aziz Zubaydi, who also had studied in Delhi in Madrasah Zubaydiyah from Shaykh Ahmadullah Parthabghari, hence his Isnad was very short.

6) Hafiz Abdul ‘Azeem, from Darussalam Lahore.

7) Shaykh AbduGhaffar Awan

8) Hafiz AbdulKhabeer

9) Shaykh Faiz AbdurRahman Thawri

10) Shaykh Sa’eed Mujtaba Sa’eedi, who was the son of Shaykh Abdul Aziz Sa’eedi.

11) Hafiz Hammad Shakir, the eldest grand son of Shaykh Ataullah Haneef Bhujiyani

12) Shaykh Sultan Nasir Mahmood

13) Shaykh AbdulJabbar

14) Shaykh Muhammad Ashraf Javed who studied from him during his one year teaching at Jamiyah Salafiyah Faislabad.

15) Shaykh AbdusSattar Hammad who also studied from him at Jamiyah Salafiyah Faislabad. Shaykh AbdusSattar Hammad’s Urdu Sharh of Sahih Al-Bukhari has recently been published by Darussalam.

16) Shaykh Muhammad Dawood Madni

Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri had students from Arab and Africa who would come to Jalalpur to read him Ahadith and obtain Ijazah. Among them Shaykh Abul Izz Muhammad Muiz Al-Yabini As-Salihi.

Among scholars who took Ijazah from him we count Shaykh Muhammad Aman Al-Jami, Shaykh Mustafa Abuhu Shanqiti, Shaykh Ali Shibl, Shaykh Salih Aidh Ash-Shalahi Kuwaiti, Shaykh Abu Turab Zahiri, Shaykh AbdulWakeel Hashmi Makki.

Many other scholars such as Imam Ka’bah Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdillah ibn Subayal went to visit his Madrasah in Jalalpur, likewise Shaykh Abdul Aziz Rashid from Kuwait, Shaykh Ubaydullah ibn Ahmad Qahtani from KSA.

Also among his preeminent student who count his son, Professor Muhammad Yahya Jalalpuri, who was his only son.

Presentation of Shaykh Muhammad Yahya Jalalpuri

Shaykh Muhammad Yahya Jalalpuri was born in September 1940, he passed his Matric in 1956 and in this time he also took religious knowledge at Daar Al-Hadith Muhammadiyah. He did his BA honours in economy and Arabic from Emmerson College Multan. In 1962 he did his MA Arabic from Punjab University and obtained the first position in it.

When he had moved to Lahore to do his MA Arabic, Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri had written to Shaykh Sayid Muhammad Dawood Ghaznawi to look after his only son so that he does not get under wrong influence in hostel of Punjab University. Shaykh Dawood Ghaznawi after receiving the letter told Shaykh Yahya to reside in his Madrasah Taqwiayul Islam in the room next to his.

Though Shaykh Muhammad Yahya had studied Sihhah Sittah from his father, his father instructed him to study “Sunnan Nasa’i” again from Shaykh Ataullah Haneef Bhujiyani.

After his MA in 1962, he was appointed as Arabic lecturer in Government College Raheem Yaar Khan. In 1966 he was appointed as Punjab University Lecturer. In 1977 he went to Nigeria to join its education ministry. In 1980 he was appointed as Arabic teacher in the university in Nigeria. In 1985 he returned to Pakistan he remained one year in the department of Islamic studies of Islamiyah University Bahawalpur.

Since 1986, he has been living in Lahore. He joined the Mutahidah Ullama Council Pakistan in order to unite the different Sunni schools of thoughts. In 1992 when the first International Islamic conference took place in Islamabad under the Muslim World League, he was the Ameen of this conference. He was also the secretary of the second international conference in 1994 in Peshawar. According to the decision of this conference, a group of scholars tried to reach peace between the different Afghan factions but it was not successful.

Shaykh Muhammad Yahya Jalalpuri has been working for a long period as research scholar in Darussalam Lahore, he wrote an Urdu Sharh of Sahih Muslim which will be printed soon, his translation of Sahih Muslim has already been printed by Darussalam. He checked many of Darussalam’s works such as their Seerah Encyclopaedia in 16 volumes to which he wrote a lengthy introduction. The Shaykh is nowadays retired from Punjab University and carries on his research and authoring books.

Shaykh Mahmood Ahmad Mirpuri was also among the students of Shaykh Muhammad Yahya Jalalpuri like many other scholars.

His death

Shaykh Sultan Mahmood Jalalpuri passed away on the 4th November 1995. He taught continuously since 1934 for 61 years.

Sources: “Karwan e Salaf” and “Dabistan e Hadith” of Shaykh Ishaq Bhatti, “Molana Sultan Mahmood Muhadith Jalalpuri, Hayat, Khidmat wa Athar” by Shaykh Muhammad Rafeeq Athari.