MUFTI MUHAMMAD SAHOOL

    His native-place was Pureni, Dist. Bhagalpur (Bihar). Having taken primary education at home, he joined Maulana Ashraf Alam's teaching circle in Bhagalpur. From there he went to Kanpur and studied under Hadhrat Thanwi and Maulana Muhammad Ishaq Burdwani at Madrasah Jamiul Uloom, and then at Madrasah Faiz-e Aam under Maulana Muhammad Farooq Chiryakoti. The zest for the acquisition of knowledge then took him from Kanpur to Hyderabad; this journey he covered in two months – on foot! During his stay in Hyderabad he acquired the knowledge of logic, philosophy, astronomy, literature and Principles of Fiqh from Mufti Lutfullah Aligarhi and Maulana Abdul Wahhab Bihari. Reaching Delhi from Hyderabad, he attended lectures of Maulana Nazeer Husain; in the end he took admission in Darul Uloom and completed the study of Hadith under the instruction of the Shaikhul Hind. After graduation he served as a teacher in Darul Uloom for seven, eight years, and then as head teacher and Shaikhul Hadith at Madrasah Azizia, Bihar Sharif, Madrasah Aaliya, Calcutta; and Madrasah Aaliya, Sylhet (Assam). In 1920 he was appointed as principal in Madrasah Aaliya Shamsul Huda Patna. In short, he taught for as many as 46 years in the great Madrasahs of U.P., Bihar, Bengal and Assam. From AH. 1350 to AH. 1362 he was a member of the Majlis-e Shura of Darul Uloom. He passed away on 27^th Rajab, AH. 1367/AD. 1948, his grave is in Pureni.

    Maulana Muhammad Sahool discharged the duties of the Chief Mufti in Darul Ifta for nearly three years from AH. 1355 to AH. 1357. During his tenure, 15,185 fatwas were dispatched from Darul Ifta.