Ḥanafī scholar of the Farangī Maḥall family, pupil of Mullā Ḥasan, whose Mirʾāt al-shurūḥ is the fullest and clearest commentary on Sullam al-ʿulūm.
Life
ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Ḥasanī’s Nuzhat al-khawāṭir calls Mubīn b. Muḥibb b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Saʿīd b. Quṭb al-Dīn al-Anṣārī al-Laknawī ‘one of the great Ḥanafī jurists’. A descendant of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Sihālawī, the founder of the Farangī Maḥall family, he was born and grew up in Lucknow and studied with Mullā Ḥasan (Muḥammad Ḥasan b. Ghulām Muṣṭafā), staying with him for a long time. He then taught and wrote, and, Nuzhat says, surpassed his contemporaries in teaching, writing and preaching; ʿAbd al-Ḥayy’s teacher Muḥammad Naʿīm told him that Mubīn was the first of Quṭb al-Dīn’s descendants to hold public preaching sessions (tadhkīr) at Farangī Maḥall. He died in Lucknow on 22 Rabīʿ II 1225.
His main work is Mirʾāt al-shurūḥ (‘the mirror of the commentaries’), which Nuzhat describes as an extended commentary on Sullam al-ʿulūm ‘received with acceptance by the scholars’. Asad Q. Ahmed’s study, as summarised in ‘The commentaries on Sullam al-ʿulūm’, dates its completion to 1200/1786, says it covers the whole Sullam and the debates around it, and calls it ‘arguably the most lucid and extended exposition’ of the tradition; Ahmed’s notes to his translation of the Sullam draw heavily on it. Its very clarity kept it out of the classroom, where the aim was to sharpen the student on a difficult text: students were told ‘Mubīnrā mabīn chūn mubīn!’ (‘Do not look at Mubīn, because it is clear!’).
He also wrote an extended commentary on al-Bihārī’s Musallam al-thubūt in legal theory, commentaries on Mīr Zāhid’s three glosses (Mīr Zāhid Risāla, Mīr Zāhid Mullā Jalāl and Mīr Zāhid Sharḥ al-Mawāqif), a gloss on a section of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s commentary on Hidāyat al-ḥikma, and works on fasting, almsgiving (Kanz al-ḥasanāt) and the virtues of the Prophet’s family.
Uncertain or disputed
- His father’s name: Nuzhat has Muḥibb; other sources used for the Sullam catalogue give Muḥibb Allāh (and add ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq to the grandfather’s name).
- The TDV calls the author of Mirʾāt al-shurūḥ ‘Muhammed Mübîn el-Leknevî’.
- Year of birth is not recorded.
Works
- Mirʾāt al-shurūḥ مِرْآةُ الشُّرُوحِ — atas Sullam al-ʿulūmExtended commentary on the whole Sullam, completed 1200/1786 (Ahmed). Printed Lucknow 1288, 1300, 1322; Kanpur 1311, 1314 (TDV).syarah
- Sharḥ Musallam al-thubūt — atas al-BihārīExtended commentary on al-Bihārī’s legal theory (Nuzhat).syarah
- Commentaries on Mīr Zāhid Risāla, Mīr Zāhid Mullā Jalāl and Mīr Zāhid Sharḥ al-Mawāqif — atas Mīr ZāhidNuzhat.hasyiyah
- Ḥāshiya ʿalā Sharḥ Hidāyat al-ḥikma li-l-ShīrāzīOn the section on repetition (al-muthannāt bi-l-takrīr) of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s commentary (Nuzhat).hasyiyah
Reception
The TDV names Mirʾāt al-shurūḥ among the main commentaries on Sullam al-ʿulūm with its Lucknow and Kanpur prints; it entered the Indian course only late and drew few glosses (see ‘The Dars-i Niẓāmī’).
Asad Q. Ahmed’s English translation of the Sullam relies mainly on it in its notes.
Sources (3)