Hazrat Maulana Munir Nanautawi (RA)

He was a younger brother of the famous divine and author Maulana Muhammad AhsanNanautawi and Maulana Muhammad Mazhar. He was born at Nanauta in 1247/1831. Primary education he received from his father, Hafiz Lutf Ali, and then entered the Delhi College, where he derived academic benefit from MaulanaMamluk Ali Nanautawi, Mufti SadruddinAzurda and Hadhrat Shah Abdul GhaniDehelwi. Maulana Muhammad Munir was a very active and ardent participant and fighter in the war of inde­pendence of 1857. He participated shoulder to shoulder with other elders in the battle of Shamli and fought very intrepidly. After this battle he went into hiding. After the declaration of general amnesty he went to his elder brother, Maulana Muhammad Ahsan, at Bareilly and in 1861/1278, got an employment in the Bareilly College. He stayed in Bareilly till he got pension. During this stay at Bareilly he also acted as manager of his brother, Maulana Muhammad Ahsan's press, Matba-e Siddique, Bareilly.

Maulana M. Munir paid allegiance to the Naqshbandia order. He has translated Imam Ghazali's book, MinhajulA'bidin, into Urdu under the title, SirajusSalikin, which was published in 1281/1864 from Matba-e Siddiq. His other work entitled Fawa'id-e Ghariba also consists of the problems of Tasawwuf.

MaulanaMunir held a very high rank in honesty and integrity. An event regarding him has been given in the Arwah-e Salasa that the Maulana took two hundred and fifty rupees and went to Delhi to get the Annual Report of Darul Uloom printed. By chance this amount was stolen there. MaulanaMunir without informing anyone of this mishap came to his native-place Nanauta, collected money by selling his land, got the report printed and came back. When the members of the Majils-e Shura came to know of it, they inquired the proposition (mas'ala) regarding this from HadhratMaulanaRasheed Ahmed Gangohi. The reply came from there that "the vice-chancellor was a trustee and since the money was lost with­out any wrongdoing, he cannot be penalized for it". Showing HadhratGangohi's fatwa to MaulanaMunir the members of the Majlis requested him to take back his money, but he said: "It is not a matter of fatwa. Had such an incident befallen MaulanaRasheed Ahmed, would he have taken the money"? As such, despite insistence, he refused to take back the money.