Maulana Qasim Nanotwi’s رحمه الله attachment to the Sunnah

Discussing Hadhrat Maulana Qasim Nanautwi’s رحمه الله (the founder of Darul Uloom Deoband) love and attachment to the sunnah, Hadhrat Maulana Yusuf Motala رحمه الله  writes:

[Just] as other Elders had participated in the jihad of 1857 against the English (British), Maulana [Qasim] Nanautwi had personally taken part in the jihad of Shamli and had also been wounded. When the tyrannous English issued warrants of arrest for Maulana Haji Imdad Allah, Maulana Nanautwi and Maulana [Rasheed Ahmad] Gangohi (may Allah have mercy on them all) and rewards too were announced for arresting them, people started looking for them.

But since Allah had endowed Maulana Nanautwi رحمه الله  with intrepidity [fearlessness],perservarance and courage, he used to go about publicly, unconcerned with all sorts of consequences. However, when relatives and sympathisers intensely insisted upon him to go into hiding in view of the critical nature of the time, he went into hiding for three days, but as soon as three days were over, he emerged from hiding and began to go here and there openly. When people again begged him earnestly to go underground, he said , ”to go into hiding for more than three days is not proven from the sunnah, because the Holy Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) too had remained hidden in the cave of Thaur, at the time of migration, for three days only.”

Obedience to the Messenger [Ita’at-e-Rasul)] Page 85