Ilyas Kandhlawi

Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi
1st Amir of Tablighi Jamaat
Succeeded by	Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi
Title	Founder of Tableeghi Jamaat
Personal
Born	Akhtar Ilyas 1885 (1302 Hijri year) Kandhla, Muzaffarnagar, North-Western Provinces, British India
Died	July 13, 1944(1944-07-13) (aged 58–59) (1363 Hijri year) Delhi, British India
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Movement	Deobandi
Main interest(s)	Da'wah
Notable work(s)	Tablighi Jamaat
Alma mater	Darul Uloom Deoband
Occupation	Da'i
Muslim leader
Disciple of	Rashid Ahmad Gangohi Muhammad Ismail Kandhlawi Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri Muhammad Yahya Kandhlawi
Influenced by Rashid Ahmad Gangohi Muhammad Ismail Kandhlawi Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri Muhammad Kandhlawi Muhammad Yahya Kandhlawi Husain Ahmad Madani Abdul Qadir Raipuri Ashraf Ali Thanwi
Influenced Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi Manzur Nu'mani Ihteshamul Hasan Kandhlawi Saeed Ahmad Khan Makki Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi Inamul Hasan Kandhlawi Muhammad Abdul Wahhab Abdul Muqeet Izhar ul Hassan Iftikhar-ul-Hasan Kandhlawi Maulana Zubair ul Hassan Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi Tariq Jameel Israr Ahmed

Part of a series on the
Deobandi movement
Ideology and influences
Dars-i Nizami Maturidi theology Hanafi fiqh
Founders and key figures
Mamluk Ali Nanautawi Imdadullah Muhajir Makki Rahmatullah Kairanawi Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi Rashid Ahmad Gangohi Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi Sayyid Muhammad Abid Mahmud Deobandi Muhammad Ali Mungeri Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri Ashraf Ali Thanwi Ubaidullah Sindhi Anwar Shah Kashmiri Kifayatullah Dehlawi Hussain Ahmed Madani Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi Shabbir Ahmad Usmani Muhammad Idris Kandhlawi Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi
Notable institutions
Darul ulooms and madrasas Deoband Mazahir Uloom Nadwatul Ulama Aminia Shahi Dabhel Hathazari Ashrafia Karachi Banuri Town Bury In'aamiyyah List of Deobandi universities
Centres (markaz) of Tablighi Jamaat
Bhopal Dewsbury Dhaka Nerul Nizamuddin Raiwind
Associated organizations
All India Muslim Personal Law Board Bangladesh Qawmi Madrasa Education Commission Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh Islamic Fiqh Academy, India Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Tablighi Jamaat
v t e

Muḥammad Ilyās ibn Muḥammad Ismā‘īl Kāndhlawī Dihlawī (1885 – 13 July 1944) was an Indian Islamic scholar of the Deobandi movement who founded the Tablighi Jamaat, in 1925, in Mewat province.^[1][2]

Muhammad Ilyas was born in 1303 AH (1885/1886) in the village of Kandhla, Muzaffarnagar district, North-West Provinces, British India (in present-day Shamli district, Uttar Pradesh, India). His year of birth can be computed by the tarikhi (chronogrammatic) name "Akhtar Ilyas" (اختر الیاس) using abjad numerals.^[3][4]

In a local maktab (school), he memorized one and a quarter ajza' of the Qur'an, and he completed memorizing the Qur'an under his father's supervision in Nizamuddin area, Delhi. Thereafter, he studied the elementary books of Arabic and Persian language mostly under his father. Later on, he lived with and studied under Rashid Ahmad Gangohi. In 1905, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi died, when Muhammad Ilyas was 20. In 1908, Muhammad Ilyas enrolled in Darul Uloom Deoband. He also studied under Mahmud Hasan Deobandi.^[5]

In the early 1920s, he prepared a team of young madrasah graduates from Deoband and Saharanpur and sent them to Mewat to establish a network of mosques and Islamic schools movement.^{[citation needed]} He once said that if he had to attribute a name to his movement, it would have been Tehreek-e-Imaan ('Imaan/Faith movement'). The people of South Asia started calling the devotees Tableeghi and this name eventually became popular among the common people.^[6] The Tablighi Jamaat has since gone on to become one of the most widespread grassroots Islamic movements in the world with a presence in many countries, including Canada, South Africa and the UK.^[7]

Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi wrote a biography named Life and mission of Maulana Mohammad Ilyas.

• Nadwi, Abul Hasan Ali Hasani (2001). Shafi, Muhammad (ed.). Urdu Daira Maarif Islamiya (PDF) (in Urdu). Vol. 19. Lahore, Pakistan: University of the Punjab. pp. 373–375.
• Nadwi, Abu'l-Hasan `Ali. Life and Mission of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas.
• "Profile of Maulana Mohammad Ilyas Kandhlawi". Madrasa Islamia Arabia Khadimul-Uloom Baghonwali and Bajheri. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
• Yoginder Sikand (17 April 2010). "The Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat -- Part 2". TwoCircles.net. Retrieved 3 May 2017.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ilyas Kandhlawi.