Q: We always hear of Deoband and the Deobandis. Some speak negatively about Deobandis, while others will laud their achievements. Can you shed light on what is Deoband and who are Deobandis? Is this some type of cult or sect? Please explain.
A: Deoband is the name of developing town situated in Northern India in the Utter Pradesh province, about 150 km’s from Delhi. In this town, in the year 1866, a madresa was started under a tree, with one teacher and one student; both the teacher and the student’s names were Mahmood. The teacher was Moulana Mahmood Deobandi, and the student went on to become the famous Shaikhul-Hind, Moulana Mahmoodul-Hasan. By the end of that year the role of students increased to 78. Within years it developed into a fully fledged Islamic institute producing hundreds of Ulema annually. Today, the Deoband Insitute boasts a role of over 10,000 students. It is noted as the largest Islamic Institute after the famous Azhar Shareef of Egypt. Those who lived and studied in this institute are known as Deobandis, just as people who live in Pakistan are called Pakistanis, and those who reside in Iraq are Iraqis. The madresa later on become known as Darul-Uloom Deoband. The Deoband madresa bases its entire syllabus on Quran and Sunnah; hence, it teaches the famous works of tafseer and hadeeth, such as Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood etc. The Aqeedah of the Ulema of Deoband has been and still is that of the Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jama’ah. The Deoband is acclaimed throughout the world, even in the Arab countries. In 1980, when the Darul-Uloom hosted a Jalsa to commemorate 100 years of its existence, delegates from more than 10 Arab countries attended the occasion. The Ulema of Deoband always adopted a strong stance against bid’ah and beliefs that were corrupt; this led many of their antagonists to spread accusations and false claims against the proponents of the Truth. When such absurd claims were not verified by people, many misconceptions about Deoband and its Ulema began taking root. This explains the negativity you referred to. Thousands of books in Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi (Persian) on every conceivable Islamic topic were written and published by the Scholars of this great institute. For more information on Deoband visit the following websites: https://www.deoband.org/ http://www.deoband.net/