from 2015
داغِ فراقِ صحبت ِشب کی جلی ہوئ
اک شمع رہ گئ تھی، سو وہ بھی خموش ہے
غالب
“Daugh-e-firaq-e-sohbat-e-shab ki jali hui,
Ek Shama reh gai thi, So woh bhi Khamish hai.”
Ghalib
( written on tje tombstone)
I have passed by this tomb many a times in front of Zafar Mahal. The guard posted tgere told me it’s someone very important in the freedom struggle. I could not decipher the name as it’s very faint. Thanks to Kashif Ul- Huda and Nomaan who read it and gave me the links I learnt about Maulana Ahmed Saeed Dehelvi who along with Maulana Ahmad Hussain Madani were active in the Freedom Struggle. The latter was jailed during British rule in Malta ( he accompanied his teacher there to look after him) and after his releasw release, he returned to India and became actively involved in India’s freedom struggle. He had considerable influence over a section of the Muslims, more prominently those belonging to Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He was against the two-nation theory,and predominantly due to this a large number of Muslims from Eastern U.P. and Bihar declined to migrate to Pakistan at the time of partition. He became the President of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a post he held until his death in 1957. (He also held the post of Shaikhul Hadith at Darul Uloom Deoband till his death).
