About

Ashrafiya Islamic Foundation (AIF) is devoted to the service of Islamic scholarship and the preservation of its classical literature. Founded in 2010 in Hyderabad, India, AIF began by translating essential Urdu works into English to meet the needs of a new generation seeking authentic Islamic literature in English. From these beginnings the Foundation’s work rapidly expanded in scope and ambition.

What we do

• Publishing: AIF has translated and published around 500 titles across Urdu, English, Persian and Arabic, spanning a wide range of subjects and disciplines.
• Translations & Authorship: What began as Urdu→English translation for contemporary readers grew into authoring original works and expanding translation activity both ways and between multiple languages (Arabic ↔ English, Persian ↔ English, Urdu ↔ English, etc.).
• Manuscript recovery & critical editions: AIF sources rare and unpublished manuscripts, commissions fresh research, and re-issues these works in scholarly editions through collaboration with researchers and traditional scholars.
• Education: In partnership with other organisations, AIF organises and supports basic Islamic courses to make classical learning accessible to students and researchers.

Dar al-Hadith wal-Isnād al-Hindiyyah

AIF established Dar al-Hadith wal-Isnād al-Hindiyyah, a departmental wing dedicated to the academic study and transmission of ḥadīth. Major initiatives of this department include:

• The publication of the “Arbaʿīn” (Forty ḥadīth) series drawn from the classical tradition.
• Research into chains of transmission (asānīd), tracing links that connect the blessed Salaf generations through classical scholars to contemporary muṣnids — documenting some of the rarest and shortest chains and reviving certain chains in the Deccan and elsewhere.

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Our Founder

Basharath Ali Ashrafi was born into a religious and literary family in Hyderabad, India. His early formal religious training took place in Jeddah, where he studied Tajwīd, Qirāʾat and the Holy Qurʾān under Allāma Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Salām ʿAzīz Siddīqī Nizāmī – the son of Shaykh ul Jami’a Mufti Abdul Hameed Siddiqui عليه الرحمه, alongside his schooling. Returning to Hyderabad, he earned an MBA in Finance & Marketing from Osmania University.

During his time in India he studied for about a decade under many esteemed scholars and benefited from the ṣoḥbah (companionship) of:

• His uncle, Allāma Dr. Farhat Ali Siddiqi Ashrafi — Khalīfah of Shaykh al-Islām Madanī Miyān
• Allāma Mufti Raza al-Ḥaqq Ashrafi Misbahi
• Allāma Mawlānā Qamar Aḥmad Ashrafi Misbahi
• Allāma Mawlānā Akhtar al-Islām Qādrī Razvī Misbahi

He holds ijāzāt (religious permissions) and khilāfah from numerous eminent scholars across the Muslim world, including khilāfah from Shaykh al-Islām Raʾīs al-Muḥaqqiqīn Allāma Sayyid Muḥammad Madanī Ashrafi al-Jīlānī Kichochavi, and ijāzāt or authorisations from, among others:

• Allāma Mawlānā Mufti Abdul Haleem Ashrafi Razvi Nagpuri
• Qāyid al-Millah Allāma Mawlānā Sayyid Mahmud Ashraf Ashrafi al-Jīlānī Kichochavi (the Sajjadah-Nashin of Zawiya al-Ashrafiya, Kichocha Muqaddasa)
• The ‘Muḥaddith’ — Allāma Mawlānā Mufti Qamar Alam Ashrafi Qadri Misbahi (Shaykh al-Ḥadīth, Dar al-Ulum Alimiya, JamdaShahi, Basti, U.P.)
• Ustāz al-Ulamā Allāma Mawlānā Farogh Ahmad Qadri Habibi Misbahi Aʾzami (Principal, Dar al-Ulum Alimiya, JamdaShahi, Basti, U.P.)
• Sahibzadah Allāma Mawlānā Sayyid Wajahat Rasul Qadri Jilani Razvi (President, Idārah Taḥqīqāt Imam Aḥmad Raza, Karachi, Pakistan)
• The ‘Fāqīh’ of Ahl al-Sunnah Allāma Mufti Alay Mustafa Ashrafi Misbahi (Ustaz & Mufti, Jamīʿah al-Amjadiyah, Ghosi, India)
• Allāma Mawlānā Mufti Ikram al-Muhsin Fayzi Chishti (the grandson of Hazrat Allāma Mawlānā Mufti Manzur Ahmad Fayzi Chishti Bhawalpuri)
• Allāma Mawlānā Dr Sayyid Shamim Ahmad ‘Gawhar’ Qadri Abul Ulayiʾ Misbahi (well-known literary figure)
• Hazrat Allāma Faqeer Pasha Qadri Chishti Hyderabadi
• Hazrat Allāma Mawlānā Engr. Jameeluddin Siddiqui Qadri (the grandson of Shams al-Mufaṣṣirīn Bahr al-Ulūm Hazrat Allāma Mawlānā Abdul Qādir Siddiqui Qadri ‘Hasrat’ Hyderabadi)
• Sayyid Abdur Rahman bin Abdul Hayy al-Kittani al-Hasani al-Idrīsī al-Maghribī
• Sayyid Abul Huda Yaqoobi al-Hasani al-Idrīsī al-Dimashqī al-Maghribī
• Shaykh Sayyid Jaʿfar al-Ḥaddād
• Shaykh Sayyid Muḥammad bin Abī Bakr al-Hibshi

and many others across disciplines such as Taṣawwuf, Ḥadīth, Fiqh.

Scholarly and Literary Contributions

Basharath Ali Ashrafi has to his credit the publication of Muhaddith al-Aʿzam Hind Sayyid Muḥammad Ashrafi Jilani Kichochavi’s Qasida Mayrajiya – an eulogy of the Beloved Prophet ﷺ describing the Israʾ and Miʿrāj in 535 verses, of which he holds the only known available text. Al-ḥamdu lillāh, it has been published and has received wide acclaim and critical reviews from both literary and religious circles across the Indian subcontinent.

He also preserves numerous other works of Muhaddith al-Aʿzam that have not been published in over a century and of which he is the lone known collector. He is striving to have these works published with extended notes, textual verification and scholarly referencing.

Apart from his specialisation in the life and works of Muhaddith al-Aʿzam and other classical Sunni scholars, he has spearheaded the largest known Arabic-to-Urdu translation drive in recent years in India. Under his supervision and financial assistance, numerous Arabic works of classical scholars have been translated and published in Urdu for the first time. These include the writings of Imam Ibn Abī Dunyā, Imam Sulamī, Imam Ibn Rajab Ḥanbalī, Imam Ibn Jawzī, Imam Ibn Ḥajar ʿAsqalānī, Imam Ibn Ḥajar Haythamī, Imam Suyūṭī, Imam ʿAlī al-Muttaqī al-Hindī and Imam Mullā ʿAlī Qārī, among others. Almost all of these books received their first ever Urdu translation under his leadership, as he deliberately avoids duplication and repetition of already translated works. The translation project remains in full swing, al-ḥamdu lillāh.

Basharath Ali Qadri has himself written dozens of books and hundreds of articles in both Urdu and English. He has compiled, authored and translated over 100 books, including the translation of classical and significant texts into English by such great scholars as Imam Ibn Kathīr, Imam Ibn Jawzī, Imam Ibn Rajab, Imam Suyūṭī, Imam Mullā ʿAlī Qārī, Imam Yūsuf bin Ismāʿīl Nabahānī and Imam Aḥmad Raza Khan Qadri.

Basharath Ali Ashrafi continues to collaborate personally and through Ashrafiya Islamic Foundation and its Dar al-Hadith wal-Isnād al-Hindiyyah with organisations such as The Kabikaj Foundation, sourcing rare manuscripts, conducting research, and bringing these works back into publication.

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Our Mission

Through rigorous publishing, careful manuscript revival, collaborative research, and accessible courses, Ashrafiya Islamic Foundation seeks to connect contemporary seekers and scholars to the rich intellectual and spiritual heritage of Islam—preserving its classical texts, reviving lost chains of transmission, and supporting scholarship for generations to come.

For enquiries about publications, manuscript projects, courses, or scholarly collaboration, please use the contact details on our website.