Early life Husain was born into an aristocratic family in the northern Indian city of
Monghyr,
Bihar. He was raised a
Shi'ite, but later abandoned that faith. He began his studies in Sadiqpur in Bihar where he first came into contact with the revolutionary preacher
Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (1786–1831) in the 1820s. He later moved to
Delhi in 1826 where he studied under
Shah Abdul Aziz (1746-1824), son of the revivalist theologian
Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703–1762), and then Abdul Aziz's grandson and successor
Shah Ishaq Al-Dihlawi (1778–1846), the renowned
muhaddith in India. Self-consciously identifying himself with Shah Waliullah, and viewing himself as spiritual heir to his legacy, Husain took on the title
miyan sahib, a title closely associated with Shah Waliullah's successors. At Delhi's prestigious
Madrasah-i Rahimiyah seminary, which had broken up into a number of interlinked schools following
Shah Ishaq Al-Dihlawi's death in 1846, Husain led the most
Wahhabi-oriented school.
Attitude towards the British Nazeer Husain advocated political
quietism and was among a large number of Muslim scholars from both the Sunni and Shia sects who supported British rule and rejected calls for armed
jihad against it. He was also among a number of Muslim scholars, including the
muftis of
Mecca, who declared
British India to be
dar al-Islam (abode of peace) and not
Dar al-harb (abode of war). Despite having denied any involvement in the rebellion in its aftermath and having strongly opposed the declaration of jihad as sinful and a faithless breach of covenant, He was arrested in 1868 by the British on suspicion of being the leader of the Wahhabi insurgents in Delhi and detained for six months but was eventually released without charge after it had emerged that he had not supported the rebels. Husain consistently denied any links with the Wahhabis as well as any role in the Delhi uprising in 1857. However, their zealous opposition against co-religionists and non-Muslims alike, to the extent of using violence against mosques and shrines, and their strong anti-polytheist, anti-innovation, anti-Shia and anti-Christian message in close resemblance to the followers of
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), did not stop other Muslim groups from denouncing them as Wahhabis. Neither did the British Government of India cease using this term for them until the Ahl-i Hadith leaders published, in 1885, a book denying any links with Wahhabism and called for the Government to cease employing this term in reference to them. Husain taught
hadith at Delhi for half a century, gaining international renown in this field and attracting students from different parts of India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Almost all of the major scholars of the early Ahl-i Hadith movement studied under him. Husain held together a network of scholars who aligned themselves to the teachings of
Ahmad Sirhindi and
Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, but were more uncompromising in their rejection of what they believed were blameworthy innovations in the faith and the legitimacy given to the four Sunni
schools of law. The solicitude of the British also gained Husain favour among modernist Muslims associated with the
Aligarh Institute, whose
Aligarh Institute Gazette dedicated an obituary praising him when he died in 1902 at the age of ninety-seven. ==Teachings==