Abul Hasan Ali An-Nadwi

Ali Miyan was downright moralist and spiritualist. While to some modernistic scholars the past is the intellectual albatross that the Ummah sooner discarded the better for it, to Ali Miyan it is a legacy that must be made a subject of study. According to them, you look at the past to find out 'why' you are, and 'where' you are in your decline. To Abul Hasan Ali, you look at the past to find out 'how much' you had declined. To some, the Ummah needs a fresh agenda. Abul Hasan Ali envisaged the Ummah's journey into the future as a continuation of the past on the well-trodden path as taken by the Salaf, the Imams, the Mujaddidun, renowned scholars, and - not to forget - what is anathema to some: the Shuyukh and the great Sufis.