The Kashmiri Scholar Who Traveled Beyond Time

By Syed Majid Gilani

I arrived in Handwara in the autumn of 2018, carrying a notebook, a pen, and a sense of anticipation I could hardly explain.

This was a town my great-grandfather, Maulana Syed Mohammad Yasin Shah Gilani, had once walked, prayed, and taught.

Growing up, I had heard stories of him. Tales from family friends, mentions in letters, and the pages of his diaries that survived time in careful hands.

Most of his work was in Persian, elegant but unintelligible to me. His Kashmiri writings were more approachable, but it was his Urdu that spoke directly to me, offering glimpses of his voice across decades.

The first stop was an old compound shadowed by walnut trees. A marble plaque, with worn edges and intact letters, announced his name: Maulana Syed Mohammad Yasin Shah Gilani – Khanqah Moulla.

Beneath it, the inscription noted he had laid the foundation of the Eid Gah. I touched the cool marble, trying to imagine him here: calm, devoted, and deeply present among the people he served.

It felt as though time had compressed, letting me witness the weight of his actions in a single, still moment.

I wandered into nearby villages, guided by locals who remembered him in fragments and anecdotes.

The elderly spoke of his patience and clarity, how he explained religious texts in ways that made them feel alive. One man, with hands weathered by decades of labour, told me how Maulana had corrected his recitation of the Quran with a gentleness that lingered in memory as much as in practice.

Another remembered the day the foundation of the Eid Gah was laid, describing the excitement and reverence in voices that still resonated in the hills.

Travelling from Srinagar to Handwara in his time was arduous. Roads were rough, transport scarce, and journeys long. Yet he undertook them repeatedly, motivated by duty and care.

He travelled across Jammu and Kashmir and beyond, to Campbellpur (now Attock), Muree, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. He performed Hajj by a six-month sea voyage, a journey that cost only a few hundred rupees at the time but demanded spine and spirit.

His travels were acts of devotion as much as scholarship, each step an extension of his commitment to those seeking knowledge and guidance.

Born on 18 July 1890 in the historic Khanqah Moulla of Srinagar, Maulana Syed Mohammad Yasin Shah Gilani devoted his life to learning, teaching, and service. He mastered Islamic teachings, Fiqh, the Quran, and Hadith, moving effortlessly between Persian, Urdu, and Kashmiri.

He was also a Unani healer, tending to physical ailments with herbs and remedies, always with compassion.

His scholarship was rigorous, but his guidance carried an understanding of human fragility.

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