Patti Narwar or Naraur

The lush Greenery on the way

Ganges as seen from Naraur

View form the mosque

another view

Ganges flowing towards Basedhi and Kurai

The ups and downs of the hill are beautiful

Captivating

Here once stood the house of Hanfis.....

The present mosque inside the village

This was the oldest and the primary mosque of the village

Old mosque now dilapidated

This is the Eidgaah where the ignorants have engraved in Hindi "Gram Patti Narvar"

The broken half of the persian inscription on the wall of Mosque

The Grave of Shah Manjhan Ghauri 

Other graves in the compound of Shah Manjhan's tomb

Tomb of Shah Manjhan Ghauri ( Rahmatullahi Alaihi)

Adjacent Masjid in the compound of Shah Manjhan's tomb

Area around the Compound of Shah Manjhan Ghauri

Tomb compound as seen from the ground

THe encircling area is full of Mazar

Mosque from the ground

Hakeem Mazhar Husain Sahib

Hakeem Sahib listening to me

Hakeem Sahib telling me about his family

Hakim Mazhar Husain's residence

View of Ganges from the mosque

The Qabr of Qazi Sirajuddin Urf Umar Sahib ( Rah)

This is Parau Miyan ka Purwa

Mr.Imtiaz Alam Hanfi 

Old Manuscript giving the details about Shah Ghulam Ali Haqqani

A gunman friend from the neighbouring village
 insisted that he should be photogrpahed 

Patti Narwar or Naraur

Name & location.

Patti Narwar is an old village lying on the banks of River Ganges under the development block Mooratganj of Pargana Chail in District Kaushambi (Formerly Allahabad). It is commonly pronounced as Naraur and sometimes Naraul.

Patti Narwar is a mid-sized village with a population of about 3284 persons living in around 639 households as per the latest Census.

Nearby villages are Moorat Ganj , Adampur Nadir Ali , Amni’lokipur , Sumerpur, Ashokpur,, Alamchand. As in the case of all the river-side villages this village too has been bifurcated into two. Patti Narwar Uparhar is the actual inhabited village while the Kachhar is un-populated.

Narwar is beautifully perched on the top of a river-side hillock and gives us a fascinating view of the Ganges passing beside the village. When I visited Narvar I was a bit astonished at the landscapes as well as the panoramic views it presented. Marvellous indeed.

History

It is a small village that gained importance after it was taken as an abode by a branch of the Bukhari Naqvi Sayyids who settled here in the late 7th Century Hijri. We do not find any important historical event related with this village during the sultanate or mughal era.  

As mentioned, the history of the settlement of zamindars of Narvar village is associated with the life and times of Qazi Husam-ud-Din Hasan Bukhari.

Through my earlier writings, you must be aware about Qazi Husam-ud-din who was sent by Firoz Shah Tughlaq to put down the rebellion of Bhars around Kara and how Qazi Sahib defeated the Bhar chiefs and settled in Parsakhi.

When Firoz Shah Tughlaq heard the news of the victory of Qazi Sahib, he was elated and gifted 22 villages as reward to Qazi Sahib for his sustenance and settlement in this area. Narna was indeed amongst those villages since we find that Qazi Sahib gave it to one of his sons Qazi Sayyid Siraj-ud-din Umar.

Bukhari Sadat

Qazi Sayyid Siraj-ud-Din Umar is the ancestor of the Bukhari Naqvi Sadaat of Narvar. We do not find any anecdote or other information about him except that he settled between the two villages of Naraur and Basedhi. When I visited Narvar I could trace his Qabr and offer Fatiha.

Siraj-ud-Din Umar had three sons while only two of them had further issues:-

1. Sayyid Abdul Qadir

2. Sayyid Muhammad – La’walad

3. Sayyid Kareem Dad 

The Sadaat of Narvar or Naraur are descended from the two above.


The partition of the country and the subsequent migration played a havoc with the glory and glitter of Narvar. The village lost its best of people and that too not partially but entirely. Except few Shia families who gradually migrated to the City of Allahabad  Narvar lost the entire Bukhari clan altogether. Today none from the original Bukhari family lives at Naraur. However there is an extended family of Naraur who are now settled at Parau Miyan ka Purwa, a hamlet situated at the outskirts of Narvar who have changed or transformed so much that I could not recognize them with their other brethren of the same clan. It confirms the notion that Sohbat plays more important role than Nasab in defining or refining a person.

Haqqani Sadat 

About 120 years ago a Sayyid Family of Saiyid Sarawan , form the descendants of Sayyid Muhammad Haqqni Rahmatullaahi Alayhi , migrated and settled at Narvar to look after the property they inherited from their maternal.This family had a long tradition of Islamic learning and Tibb and it produced few leading Ulama and Hukama in the past century from Narvar. Today a lamp of this family is still residing there, keeping the tradition of ilm o Hikmat alive and it is the only former zamindar family that is still settled and based at Narvar Patti now .

This last yaadgar of the yesteryear is Janab Hakeem Mazhar Husain Sahib s/o Hakeem Izhar Husain Sahib who is a descendent of Shah Ghulam Ali Rah (ultimately of Sayyid Haqqani Rahmatullahi alaihi).He appears to be the last person of his family that has learned Hikmat and Ilm-i-Deen but unfortunately does not seem to have passed the baton on to the posterity. 

Zamindari

Narvar had few big zamindars in the 18th Century AD but they lost heavily for their participation in the uprising with Maulvi Liyaqat Ali.Zamindari never came back to Narvar as it was before the 1857 uprising. However few pattis in villages Sailabi, bhojpur, Bajaha, Muhiuddinpur Ghaus, Fatehpur were held by the zamindars of Narvar till 1952.

Famous persons 

To relate yourself with Naraur, please read the names here and trace your connection with the village:-

Mohammd Siddiq, Mohammad Umar, Mansoor Alam, Qubool Ahmad, Abdullah, Imdadullaah,  Sham-ul-Haq, Afzal-ur-Rahman, Mohammad Isa, Masih-ud-din, Qamar-ud-din, Mohammad Basheer, Mohammad Ishaq , Laal Miyan, Kamaal Miyaan Sahibaan were the famous Sadaat from the Bukhari Khandan of Narvar and their descendents are found scattered in Indo-Pak.


A Shia family of the Bukhari descent have now shifted to Allahabad.Mr.Anwar Husain and Azadar Husain are from this family.

Hakeem Maulvi Mohammad Moosa was a famous Aalim-i-Ba’amal and an esteemed person of his time.  

Sayyid Abdul Hakeem, Hakeem Izhar Husain , Shah Ghulam Ali were the scions of the Haqqani Sadat from Narvar.

Luminaries

Shah Manjhan Ghauri Rahmatullahi Alayhi

The sole historical monument in Narvar is the tomb of Hazrat Shah Manjhan Ghauri beside an old mosque. Shah Manjhan Ghauri was a saint and a man of great piety. He came to this village close to 8th Century Hijri and most probably from the western part such as Kara etc. His structure of his tomb is pre-Mughal which has been repaired from time to time. The location is atop a mound overlooking the beautiful Ganges flowing down peacefully. It is picturesque spot and I have been told that few wealthy Non-muslims of Allahabad and Benares had been frequent visitors to the tomb and a halting place was constructed by them for the visitors that has gone into ruins now. There is an Persian inscription inside the mosque which is unfortuantely not legible due to the neglect it was subjected to over the years. It was found stuck in the mud and is now fixed permanently on the northern wall. Had it been read, more information could be had about the year of death or the construction of the mosque? I found his name in Manba al Ansab with not much of a detail except that Shah Manjhan was a Siddiqui , a direct descendent of Khalifa-i-Awwal Hazrat Abu Bakr As Siddeeq Radhi Allahu Anhu and was a famous saint of his time. He moved to Narvar after finding the village quite peaceful and helpful in his Ibadat & Riyazat.

Sayyid Shah Ghulam Ali Haqqani – was a prominent Aalim of Hadeeth who flourished in the last century. He travelled to Delhi around 1810 and took his lessons of Hadeeth from Shah Abd-ul-Azeez Muhaddith Dehalvi (1745- 1823) in the late 18th Century. He was indeed a luminary of his time and was visited by the learned ones frequently. His mazar is inside the compound of Shah Manjhan Ghauri. He passed away in 1878 AD

In our times the most famous luminary from Naraur is undoubtedly the former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Mr.Muhammad Imtiaz Alam Hanfi 

Imtiaz Alam Hanfi  was born on January 6, 1929 in Allahbad. He was the second of four brothers born to Mr.Sifaat Alam Hanfi, a railway employee, and Bibi Imtiaz-un-nissa He went to CAV High School in Allahbad and later went to Ewing Christian College Allahabad. At the time of partition his whole family migrated from India to Pakistan in November 1947. He did his masters in economics from Karachi in 1952 and joined the State Bank of Pakistan in 1952 as Class 1 Officer working there till 1981.In August 1988 he was appointed as the Governer of State Bank of Pakistan for the first time . He was the first governer to be appointed from within the bank. In December 1989 he resigned and joined a private group for a short time but again the government appointed him as the governer of the central bank in 1990. 

First term      (17-08-1988 TO 02-09-1989)

Second term  (01-09-1990 TO 30-06-1993)

He was the first person to be appointed as governor of State Bank of Pakistan twice. He retired from there in 1993 and joined Faisal bank as an advisor, later the CEO of Faisal bank in 1994. In 1998, when he left for a retired life, the government asked him to head a commission for the transformation of the financial system between 2000 and 2002. Last year, the Commission, which came to be known as the Hanfi commission, comprising some 10 people from religious scholars to economists, accountants and bankers, presented their report on Islamic banking to the government

Currently, he is member of board of diretors of Bank al Habib. Mr Hanfi's son, Hamid Imtiaz Hanfi is working as a senior professional with the Oil & petroleum industry.

I have been told that Famous standup comedian - Mr.Faisal Masood from Karachi is also from Naraur.He is a talented comedian who has participated in the -The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and several other program mes.

When I visited Narvar it was raining cats & dogs and the view down the hill was incredible. Silence and serenity prevailed all around and I found myself in a solitary place that prompts for some metaphysical exercises. Indeed it had been a spiritually uplifting corner of the earth where the people who fought with their Nafs halted and strived hard to attain the proximity of Allaah.


The most disappointing feature is the indifference of our brothers towards Deen and ilm-i-Deen.Anything that earns us a few bucks is the primary goal of our life and except that the whole world is of no use to us. Tareekh, Tazkirah, Quraan , Hadeeth, ilm-ul-Ansaab have no value or worth in the eyes of the present generation and that makes us sorry ......sorry unto us.....sorry that we are unable to guide them ,train them, goad them for......here and hereafter.


As I happen to see more & more villages, naturally I tend to contemplate upon the fate of the bygone generations, I am getting more and more disillusioned with the transient fame & fortune we scramble from this world. It cries aloud that we indeed are wasting our time in hoarding money & houses , plots & flats by hook or by crook but alas...nothing will come to our rescue......nothing will help........

In the words of the elders of our Ummah ‘‘ The blessed age of youth is extremely valuable; adorn it with the pleasant hues of Allah’s remembrance.’’


***********************
Alas! What a great sorrow ! 
My peers drank the wines of love of Allaah and departed
          They left the taverns empty and departed 
Those who were radiant migrated towards the skies
          And we, as shadows, were left behind on the earth 
The courageous men sacrificed themselves for the King
          Lowly ones such as us are enslaved in the clutches of souls 
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May Allaaah swt the Aleem and Hakeem kindle in ourselves the fire that is doused only by the ilm , Hikmat and of course Amal-i-Swalih. Aameen.