Shaykh Allāmah Muhammad Zāhid al-Kawthari (Rahimahullah), in his celebrated article Rihlat al-‘Ilm (“The Journey of Knowledge”), explains that throughout Islamic history the primary centre of sacred learning has continually shifted from one region to another. He writes that in the earliest period, the foremost seat of Islamic scholarship was Madinah Munawwarah. Thereafter, it moved to Syria (Bilad al-Sham), then to Iraq, and subsequently to the lands beyond the Oxus (Ma Wara’ al-Nahr), encompassing present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and neighbouring regions. Finally, he observes that the mantle of Islamic scholarship came to rest in the Indian subcontinent.It is noteworthy that Shaykh al-Kawthari, who was Turkish, made this observation during an era when the Muslim world still possessed numerous eminent scholars in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and other renowned centres of learning. His recognition of the Indian subcontinent was therefore, not based on the absence of scholarship elsewhere, but rather on the exceptional depth, precision, and intellectual maturity that characterised the scholarship of the subcontinent’s ‘ulama.Equally significant was the manner in which the scholars of the subcontinent embodied the knowledge they acquired. Their commitment to practising what they taught, their adherence to the Sunnah, their piety, humility, and sincerity, together with their balanced approach to preserving and transmitting the Islamic sciences, distinguished them in a remarkable way. It was this rare combination of profound scholarship and exemplary practice that elevated the Indian subcontinent to a position of unique prominence in the preservation and dissemination of the Islamic intellectual tradition.
–Shaykhul Islam Mufti Muhammad Taqi Uthmani (Hafizahullah)
Muslims First 