from 2015
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).
The verse on the tombstone is
داغِ فراقِ صحبت ِشب کی جلی ہوئ
اک شمع رہ گئ تھی، سو وہ بھی خموش ہے
غالب
“Dagh-e-firaq-e-sohbat-e-shab ki jali hui,
Ek Shama reh gai thi, So woh bhi Khamosh hai.”
Ghalib
