By Asim Ahmad

• Love and Reverence for Friends of Allah

Maulana Yahya instilled a deep love in his son for the people of taqwa and the pious shaikhs of Deoband. As a child the shaikh ul hadith visited the great  shaikhs with his father. He observed this father, despite his position as a leading scholar, attending to the friends of Allah. This bread a strong love in his heart for the pious and recognition of their elevated status in the eyes of Allah. One of his main teachings throughout his life was to be careful in their attitude toward the friends of Allah and the early Salaf.

   He was so adamant about reverence for the friends of Allah and pious scholars that he prescribed it to his students like the dhikr of Allah. He constantly warned that a person who remembers Allah too little can be forgiven for his laxity but a person who belittles or mocks the friends of Allah injures his faith and may even lose it altogether.

To back it up, he often quoted the divine hadith (hadith qudsi) “Whoever makes an enemy of my friends, I will declare war on him.”

He maintained that the friends of Allah of our times bridged the growing gulf of times between us and the Salaf, and that the break-down of our special relationship with the Salaf is intertwined with our irreverence to the friends of Allah, be they the upright scholars or pious shaikhs. He saw that the predominant culture of individualism and egoism has made skeptics out of us, and that the void that now exists, was an unimaginable phenomenon even a hundred years back. Now we question the authority of the Salaf and become opinionated in the matters of faith. He insisted that reverence of the friends of Allah would change our outlook of Islam, deepen our love for Allah and improve our depraved condition.  

Shaikh ul- Hadith himself attended to his own shaikh, Maulana Shaikh Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri, for nineteen years until his death in 1927.