Muḥammad Shafī‘ ibn Muḥammad Yāsīn ‘Us̱mānī Deobandī (; , Muḥammad Shafī‘ ibn Muḥammad Yāsīn al-‘Uthmānī ad-Diyūbandī; 25 January 18976 October 1976), often referred to as Mufti Muhammad Shafi, was a Pakistani Sunni Islamic scholar of the Deobandi school of Islamic thought.
A Hanafi jurist and mufti, he was also an authority on shari'ah, hadith, Qur'anic exegesis, and Sufism. Born in Deoband, British India, he graduated in 1917 from Darul Uloom Deoband, where he later taught hadith and held the post of Chief Mufti. He resigned from the school in 1943 to devote his time to the Pakistan Movement. After the independence he moved to Pakistan, where he established Darul Uloom Karachi in 1951. Of his written works, his best-known is Ma'ariful Qur'an, a commentary on the Qur'an.
Birth and early childhood
Muhammad Shafi, son of Muhammad Yasin, was born on 25 January 1897 (21 Sha'ban 1314 AH) in Deoband, British India, to an Usmani family. He was given the name "Muhammad Shafi" () by his father's sheikh, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, though he was originally named "Muhammad Mubin" () by his grandfather, Khalifah Tahsin Ali. Shafi grew up in a religious environment. As a child he played in the courtyard of Darul Uloom Deoband and sat in the company of his father, who was a teacher at the school.
Education
Aged five, Shafi began memorising the Qur'an with Muhammad Azim and Namdar Khan at the Darul Uloom. In 1907 or 1908 (1325 AH), he commenced the study of Urdu, Persian, mathematics and other subjects at Darul Uloom Deoband, which he completed within the next five years under the supervision of his father.
He studied arithmetic and Euclid from his uncle Munshi Manzur Ahmad and Quranic recitation from Muhammad Yusuf Miruthi. Along with teaching Shafi the Persian books, Maulana Yasin also instructed him in the elementary Arabic books of sarf (morphology), nahw (grammar), and fiqh (jurisprudence), up to Fusul-i Akbari, Hidayat an-Nahw, and Munyat al-Musalli.
In 1330 AH (1912) or 1331 AH (1913) Shafi was formally enrolled in the upper level Arabic classes of Darul Uloom Deoband. He did Daurah Hadith in 1335 AH (1916/1917) under the supervision of Anwar Shah Kashmiri, and completed his education in 1336 AH (1917/1918). The teachers under whom Shafi formally studied included:
Anwar Shah Kashmiri
Shabbir Ahmad Usmani
Azizur Rahman Usmani
Mian Asghar Hussain Deobandi
Izaz Ali Amrohi
Muhammad Rasul Khan
Muhammad Ibrahim Balliyawi
Ghulam Rasul Hazarwi
Hafiz Muhammad Ahmad
Among his teachers was Anwar Shah Kashmiri, who was the school's head teacher. Some of the books Shafi studied with him were Sahih al-Bukhari, Jami' at-Tirmidhi (with the exception of a small part), at-Tirmidhi's Shama'il and 'Ilal, al-Falsafah al-'Arabiyah on modern philosophy, and Sharh an-Nafisi on medicine (tibb). Shafi was among Kashmiri's closest students, and Kashmiri would later select Shafi for assistance in refuting the Ahmadiyya Movement. Shafi studied Sahih Muslim and half of Hidayah with Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, whom he would later accompany in the movement to create Pakistan. With Mian Asghar Hussain Deobandi he studied the hadith collections Sunan Abu Dawud, Sunan an-Nasa'i, and the remainder of Jami' at-Tirmidhi. With Azizur Rahman, head of the Darul Uloom's Fatwa Department, Shafi studied the Muwatta of Imam Malik in the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya and the transmission of ash-Shaybani, at-Tahawi's Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Mishkat al-Masabih, Ibn Hajar's Sharh Nukhbat al-Fikar, and Hisn-i Hasin. He studied Sunan Ibn Majah with Ghulam Rasul Hazarwi. With Izaz Ali Amrohi he studied all the books of literature, Maibazi's Sharh Hidayat al-Hikmah, at-Taftazani's Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyah, Ubayd Allah al-Mahbubi's Sharh al-Wiqayah, and some other treatises. With Maulana Muhammad Ibrahim he studied Sadra and Shams al-Bazighah.
After Daurah a few books still remained, including Qazi, Mir Zahid, and Umur-i 'Ammah—these were completed in 1336 AH (1917/1918). In that year Shafi was also appointed to teach some lessons.