Thānvī, Ashraf ʻAlī

Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakimul Ummat and Mujaddidul Millat (19 August 1863 – 20 July 1943) was a nineteenth and twentieth-century Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, thinker, reformist and the revival of classical Sufi thought from Indian subcontinent during the British Raj, one of the chief proponents of Pakistan Movement. He was a central figure of Islamic spiritual, intellectual and religious life in South Asia and continues to be highly influential today. He wrote over a thousand works including Bayan Ul Quran and Bahishti Zewar. He graduated from Darul Uloom Deoband in 1883 and moved to Kanpur, then Thana Bhawan to direct the Khanqah-i-Imdadiyah, where he resided until his death. His training in Quran, Hadith, Fiqh studies and Sufism qualified him to become a leading Sunni authority among the scholars of Deoband. His teaching mixes Sunni orthodoxy, Islamic elements of belief and the patriarchal structure of the society. He offered a sketch of a Muslim community that is collective, patriarchal, hierarchical and compassion-based.