Aljamiatul Ashrafia Mubarakpur Azamgarh

d 9 pies. He emerged as the harbinger of a new enthusiasm in the Madarsa and created a unique Islamic atmosphere in the town. The Madarsa became famous far and wide for its quality education and it drew many student from outside Mubarakpur and soon the Madarsa was packed to its capacity. At the time of Hafiz-e-Millat's arrival, those in the opposition got panicky with these developments and they intensified their activities. Hafiz-e-Millat accepted these challenges and got ready for constructive thoughts and deeds. Now he delivered speeches to put counter challenge to the opponents and devoted all his energy to make the Madarsa thrive and flourish and Hafiz-e-Millat 's efforts on those fronts were crowned with success. This process of replies and counter replies continued for four months. Hafiz-e-Millat's speeches exposed the weakness of the opponents who were extremely defamed. He gave the slogan-Unity is life and dissension is death-to the people of Mubarakpur and won over their hearts. Some elderly and well intentioned Muslims of Mubarakpur established a madarsa called Misbahul Uloom in 1317 (A.H.) / 1899 (A.D.) next to the mosque of Rani Deena baba in a thatched house on the western side. The Madarsa was aimed to impart the education of the Holy Qur'an and the primary religious texts. This institution was run with the assistance and contributions of the people in spite of their bad economic condition. Those were the days when there was no discrimination between the Sunnis and the deobandis. Except for some Shi'ites the entire Muslim population comprised the Sunnis. The early teachers of the madarsa were Maulana Mohammad Siddique Ghusavi , Maulana Noor Mohammad Mahmood. Unfortunately maulvi mahmood, who belonged to Pura Ma'roof, a village in the district of Azamgarh, was from the Deoband school and he did not keep his inclinations secrets. Two students and the managers of the Madarsa and some others came under his influence. The difference rose with the emergence of the Deobandi School of thought. When heated debate started on whether Allah can tell a lie or not. Some students under the impact of Maulvi Mahmood believed that it was possible while the Sunnis believed that Allah can not tell a lie. This controversy grew in magnitude and affected the Madarsa, rather adversely. The Deobandis started their own Madarsa,called Ehya-ul-Uloom while the ambitious Muslims retained the name of Misbahul Uloom and continued their madarsa as such. They shifted it to the Mosque at Gola Bazar in 1326 (A.H.) 1908 (A.D.) According to the wishes of Maulana Mohammad Umar Lateefi , a desciple of Hazrat Shah Abdul lateef Chisti, a sufi descendant of Bahadur Shah Zafar and several other disciples of Shakhul Mashaikh Hazrat Syed Shah Ali Hussain Ashrafi Kichhauchhavi,(d. 1355/1936) Madarsa Misbahul Uloom got two more prefixes and came to be known as "Madarsa Lateefia Ashrafia Misbahul Uloom". It worked on a limited scale along with traditional line. Then the Madarsa kept on shifting from place to place and it finally established itself in 1341 (A.H.) /1922 (A.D.)in Purani Basti. This madarsa is generally known as Purana Madarsa. Then, for unknown reason the prefix "Lateefia" was omitted and the madarsa came to be known as "Madarsa Ashrafia Misbahul Uloom." Madarsa Misbahul Uloom could not progressed as desired after the death of its sincere teacher Maulana Mohammad Siddique Ghusavi (a cousin of Hazrat Sadras Shariah Maulana Amjad Ali Azmi) due to the frequent entry and exit of many other teacher s during those days . Maulvi Shukrullah Mubarakpuri, after having graduated from Darul Uloom, Deoband came to Mubarakpur in 1336 (A.H.) and started working for the propagation of his school of thought. The followers of this school separated their Friday prayers in an another mosque, on their own, in 1337 (A.H.), while these people said their Friday prayers and Eid prayers in Jama Masjid, Raja Mubarak Shah. With the continuous and consistent efforts of Maulvi Shukrullah, the Sunnis started feeling rather intensively the need for a high statured Sunni scholar who may take over, pose a counter challenge to the opponents and take Madarsa Ashrafia Misbahul Uloom on the way to progress. The people of Mubarakpur invited Sadrus Shariah Hazrat Maulana Amjad Ali Azmi (d. 1367 / 194A) and Muhaddith-e-Azam Hazrat Maulana Syed Mohammad Ashrafi Kichhauchhavi (d. 1381 / 1960) and both the scholars in their own wisdom, according to the wishes of the people of the mubarakpur and the needs of the time selected a pious and qualified teacher. The teacher was Hafiz Abdul Aziz Moradabadi who is known as Ustazul Ulema Jalalatul Ilm Hafiz-e-Millat Allama Shah Abdul Aziz Moradabadi for his wide spread valuable religious and academic services and he came to be known as a bright star in the page of History. Just at the heated discourses and debates held during Moharram 1353 H. came to a close, the members as well-wishers of Ashrafia started a new constructive front under the leadership of Hafiz-e-Millat. A meeting was held in Jama Masjid Raza Mubarak Shah and on Friday the project for constructing buildings for Ashrafia was started and a move for raising fund began. In spite of their economic poverty, the sunni muslims of Mubarakpur spent out whatever they had on their hand. The work of collecting the contribution went on for two months. About the dedication and enthusiasm of Mubarakpur for collecting the contributions some office bearers of Ashrafia write in the annual report :

" The people of Mubarakpur spent out their rupees, sold their cattle, live stock, pots and pans, cloth, jewelleries to raise the fund of Ashrafia. The Muslims of Mubarakpur dedicated every type of valuables to raise the fund for Ashrafia. The Muslim women of Mubarakpur gave their jewelleries- there most favorite and dear valuables. What a real and genuine religious fervour! For the construction of the first storey the women gave out approximately 50 kilograms of jewelleries save gold jewelleries, to Ashrafia. (Rudad-Darul Uloom Ashrafia, P3, 1356 A.H.) For the construction of the new building of Darul Uloom Ashrafia, Hafiz-e-Millat and the Sunni Muslims of Mubarakpur took a plot of land from Sheikh Mohammad Ansari (d. 1388 / 1968) at Gola bazaar, Mubarakpur. In 1935 people decided to lay the foundation stone. The foundation stone laying ceremony was attended by Sheikhul Mashaiekh Hazrat Ashrafi Mian Kichhauchhavi, Hazrat Sadrus Shariah Azmi, Hazrat Muhaddithe-Azam Hind and other distinguished Ulema. After the Friday prayer Hazrat Hafiz-e-Millat and the distinguished Ulema laid down the foundation stone and prayed for its development. Its foundation year came to be "Bagh-e-Firdaus" when computed according to the numbers as in chronogram. Its name was proposed to be Darul Uloom Ahl-e-Sunnat Madarsa Ashrafia Misbahul Uloom and later it became famous as Darul Uloom Ashrafia. It took a decade to construct its two storeyed building. The classes were held in the same building for about forty years. Afterwards, this two storeyed building has been constructed in its place on 8th of Jamadi Akhir 1421 A.H./ 8th of September 2000 A.D. The building of Ashrafia was not sufficient enough to accommodate the students. The far sighted vision, practical wisdom and the educational need urged Hafiz-e-Millat to look for a spacious site for the Madarsa, Out side the town. Thus a spacious plot of land was brought in the southward region of Mubarakpur to materialize the desired goal of "Aljamiatul Ashrafia" and it was announced that a three-day historic educational conference will be held on 5th ,6th and 7th of may 1972. The educational conference was held in the vicinity of today's Aljamiatul Ashrafia.