Amin Ahsan Islahi

امین احسن اصلاحی

1904–1997 · Pakistan · Scholar, Qur'an commentator, pupil and interpreter of Hamiduddin Farahi

Amin Ahsan Islahi was born in 1904 in the village of Bamhur in the Azamgarh district of British India and graduated from the Madrasatul Islah in 1922. He first worked in journalism, editing and contributing to Urdu periodicals, until in 1925 the Qur’an scholar Hamiduddin Farahi invited him to study with him. Islahi became Farahi’s chief disciple, and after Farahi’s death he studied hadith with Abdul Rahman Mubarakpuri and in 1936 founded the Daira-i Hamidiyya to spread Farahi’s ideas.

He was a founding member of the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941 and sat on its central council for some seventeen years, serving in the 1950s on Pakistan’s Islamic Law Commission. He left the party in 1958 after disagreements with its leader Abul A’la Maududi, partly over the role of electoral politics, and thereafter devoted himself to Qur’anic study and teaching in Lahore.

His major work is the nine-volume Urdu commentary Tadabbur-i Qur’an, begun in 1958 and finished in 1980, which applies Farahi’s principle that each sura and the Qur’an as a whole has a unifying structure and theme (nazm). Alongside it he wrote shorter books on faith and practice, among them studies of polytheism, monotheism, prayer and piety, and on Islamic law, the state and the status of women, as well as works on method in understanding the Qur’an and hadith.

In 1981 he established the Idara-i Tadabbur-i Qur’an-o Hadith, which publishes the journal Tadabbur. He died in Lahore in 1997. His students included Khalid Masud and Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, through whom his approach to the Qur’an has continued.

Photo: Rajaprince, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Archived 19 October 2026 · Biography sources: en.wikipedia.org · openlibrary.org

Works

Language:

Books 11

BOOK 1944 · Urdu

Haqiqat-i Shirk حقیقتِ شرک

A study of the nature of shirk (associating partners with God) as understood from the Qur'an.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Haqiqat-i Shirk. 1944. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-haqiqat-i-shirk

No free copy online

BOOK 1948 · Urdu

Pardah awr Qur'an-i Majid پردہ اور قرآنِ مجید

A study of the Qur'anic rulings on hijab and the veiling of women.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Pardah awr Qur'an-i Majid. 1948. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-pardah-awr-qur-an-i-majid

No free copy online

BOOK 1952 · Urdu

Haqiqat-i Tawhid حقیقتِ توحید

A companion to his study of shirk, setting out the Qur'anic meaning of the oneness of God.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Haqiqat-i Tawhid. 1952. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-haqiqat-i-tawhid

No free copy online

BOOK 1963 · Urdu

Islami Qanun ki Tadwin اسلامی قانون کی تدوین

A study of how Islamic law might be codified for a modern state.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Islami Qanun ki Tadwin. 1963. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-islami-qanun-ki-tadwin

No free copy online

BOOK 1964 · Urdu

Haqiqat-i Taqwa حقیقتِ تقویٰ

An account of taqwa (God-consciousness) and its place in the believer's moral life.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Haqiqat-i Taqwa. 1964. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-haqiqat-i-taqwa

No free copy online

BOOK 1965 · Urdu

Tazkiyah-i Nafs تزکیۂ نفس

A book on purification of the self.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Tazkiyah-i Nafs. 1965. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-tazkiyah-i-nafs

No free copy online

BOOK 1971 · Urdu

Mabadi-yi Tadabbur-i Qur'an مبادیِ تدبرِ قرآن

A statement of the principles of Qur'anic interpretation behind his commentary, especially coherence and the Qur'an's own usage.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Mabadi-yi Tadabbur-i Qur'an. 1971. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-mabadi-yi-tadabbur-i-qur-an

No free copy online

BOOK 1977 · Urdu

Islami Riyasat اسلامی ریاست

A treatment of the principles of an Islamic state.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Islami Riyasat. 1977. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-islami-riyasat

No free copy online

BOOK Urdu

Da'wat-i Din awr us ka Tariqah-i Kar دعوتِ دین اور اس کا طریقۂ کار

On the method of calling people to Islam, drawing on the way earlier prophets preached; published in English as Call to Islam and How the Holy Prophets Preached.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Da'wat-i Din awr us ka Tariqah-i Kar. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/dawat-e-deen-aur-uska-tareeqe-kar. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-da-wat-i-din-awr-us-ka-tariqah-i-kar

READ AT SOURCE ↗

BOOK English

Haqiqat-i Namaz حقیقتِ نماز

A study of the purpose and inner reality of the ritual prayer; available online in an English edition as The Reality of Salah.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Haqiqat-i Namaz. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/haqiqat-i-namaz-english. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-haqiqat-i-namaz

READ AT SOURCE ↗

BOOK Urdu

Tadabbur-i Qur'an تدبرِ قرآن

His nine-volume Urdu commentary on the Qur'an, written over 1958-1980, built on Farahi's idea of the Qur'an's structural and thematic coherence.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Tadabbur-i Qur'an. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/amin-ahsan-islahi/#amin-ahsan-islahi-tadabbur-i-qur-an

No free copy online