TheRamadanOfShaykhAl-hadithMuhammadZakariyyaKandhelviAndOurEldersByShaykhDrMuhammadIsmailMemonMadani

the ramadan of shaikh muĤ ammud zakariyyĀMakka in Śafar/ August, 1861. He arrived in Mumbai in the beginningof Rabi‘ al-Awwal/ September,1861 and arrived home in Jamāda al-Thānī/December, 1861. He boarded a sailing ship from Karachi forhajj and began memorizing Qur’an and reciting it in tarāwīĥ duringhis trip on the ship. After Eid, when he reached Al-Mukkala [port inSouth Yemen on the Gulf of Aden- translator] he bought sweets andgave it to friends to celebrate his memorization of Qur’an.Before this, no one knew he had memorized the Qur’an. Afterhe memorized the whole Qur’an, he would say, “I memorizedthe whole Qur’an in two years in Ramadan and did one quarteror a little more every day.” After he completed memorization, hewould recite a lot. I know that once he recited 23 parts in one rak‘a.If anyone stood behind him, he completed his rak‘a and then toldthe person not to stand behind him. He then stood again, alonethis time, and spent the whole night reciting Qur’an. 64The most authentic opinion is that he memorized the Qur’an inone year while Shaikh Muĥammad Ya‘qūb is of the opinion thathe took two years. If he learned one quarter a day, it means thathe probably memorized some parts of the Qur’an in incrementsof a quarter part in the first Ramadan and from then onwards onewhole part until he completed memorization of the whole Qur’anin the next Ramadan while on his way to Ĥijāz.Devotions of Shāh ‘Abd al-Rahīm RaipūrīThe devotions of Shāh‘Abd al-Rahīm are narrated in Tadhkirat al-Khalīl as follows:Ĥađrat had a deep love for spreading knowledge of the Qur’an [heestablished twenty to thirty centers [makātīb] for beginners [usuallysmall children] to learn to recite and memorize Qur’an-translator] inthe Daun 65 region. He himself was in love with recitation of Qur’anand being a ĥāfiż, would spend almost the whole night reciting. Intwenty four hours, night or day, he rarely slept more than an hour64 Sawāniĥ-e-Qāsmī65 All villages in the outskirts of the city of Dehradaun [India] are calledDaun.128