Yunus Jaunpuri

**Al-‘Allamah, hadith scholar Shaykh Muhammad Yunus ibn Shabbir Ahmad ibn Shir Ali al-Jaunpuri al-Saharanpuri** (Urdu: مُحَمَّدُ ىُونْسْ جُونْبُورَى) was a Muslim scholar and hadith scholar. He was one of the greatest hadith scholars of the 14th and 15th Islamic centuries. He was born in British India on 25 Rajab 1355 AH, which matches 10 October 1937 CE, in the area of “Kahita Sarai” in the district of “Jaunpur”. He started learning Islamic religious knowledge at the age of thirteen at Diya al-Ulum School in the area of “Mani Kalan” in the same district. He learned the Persian language and studied the basic books of the Dars-e-Nizami system used in India and Pakistan. He joined Mazahir Uloom University in India, one of the largest modern Islamic schools, in Shawwal 1377 AH and graduated in 1380 AH. He was then appointed as a teacher there in 1381 AH. He continued teaching until he became Shaykh al-Hadith in 1388 AH. He taught Sahih al-Bukhari for almost fifty years and continued until he died on Tuesday 17 Shawwal 1438 AH, which matches 11 July 2017 CE, at the age of 83.

Al-Jaunpuri wrote many useful letters and research works in Arabic and Urdu. Many of them were collected by his student Shaykh Muhammad Ayyub al-Surti and printed in four volumes called “Al-Yawāqīt al-Ghāliyah”. His close students also collected many of his lesson notes on books. Shaykh Yunus was strongly influenced by the early hadith scholars and by Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. He had very wide knowledge in hadith, its narrators, and its details. He continued learning and following new hadith books until the end of his life.

## Early life and education
Muhammad Yunus al-Jaunpuri was born in the village of “Kuraini” near “Jaunpur” in Uttar Pradesh, India. He was born on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. on 25 Rajab 1355 AH, which matches 2 October 1937 CE. His mother died when he was five years old, so his grandmother raised him. He joined village schools where he learned reading, writing, and basics. After that, he moved to Diya al-Ulum School in “Mani Kalan” near his village, where he learned more knowledge. He benefited greatly from Shaykh Diya al-Haqq al-Faydabadi and Shaykh Abd al-Halim al-Jaunpuri. He studied all of Sahih al-Bukhari with Shaykh Kandhlawi by reading and listening, part of the introduction to Sahih Muslim, half of Sunan Abi Dawud, the three treatises, and other works. He was given a general permission (ijazah). Other teachers who gave him permission included Muhammad As‘ad Allah al-Rampuri, Manzur Ahmad al-Saharanpuri, and Amir Ahmad ibn Abd al-Ghani al-Kandhlawi.

## Death
Al-Jaunpuri suffered from illness for much of his life, and his condition became very serious near the end of his life. He became very weak and close to death more than once, then recovered again. He finally died on Tuesday morning 17 Shawwal 1438 AH, which matches 11 July 2017 CE, at his home in Saharanpur. The funeral prayer was held in the afternoon, and many people from different parts of India attended. and many scholars expressed sadness at his death, including Dr. Rashid Boutarboush, head of the Islamic University in Europe, and the General Secretariat of the Muslim Scholars Association of Iraq. Indian poet and scholar Fuzail Ahmad Nasiri also expressed sadness and said that Jaunpuri was a great scholar of hadith.

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