Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866 in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India, as part of the anti-British movement.

[1] The Islamic education system of the Deobandi movement, as well as the necessary components of social and political organizations such as Tablighi Jamaat, Sufism and Jamiat, are fully functioning effectively in South Africa, as they do in India.

Through the work of several spiritual personalities of the Deobandis, the tradition of Deoband's Tasawwuf (Sufism) has taken root in South Africa.

In the 19th century, some Muslim students from Surat and Bharuch districts of Gujarat were admitted to Darul Uloom Deoband, and among them were some notable religious scholars.

He was responsible for providing free boarding facilities for students in accordance with the arrangements of Darul Uloom Deoband.

He founded a writer's organization in Dabhel called Majlis-e-Ilmi where the credit for publishing important books by Indian scholars was due.

Deoband played a role in shaping his politics because most of his teachers were members of the Indian National Congress or the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.

He was a prominent political activist in South Africa and was a member of the Joint Passive Resistance Committee in 1946 and was arrested for leading a group of women resistors.

[7] Abdul Hakeem Umarji, a senior scholar from South Africa who was a student of Madani, served as the president of the Jamiatul Ulama KwaZulu-Natal.

[11] Due to the partition of India, a significant portion of the funding sources for Darul Uloom Deoband moved to Pakistan.

[13] In 1963, Darul Uloom Deoband's rector Qari Muhammad Tayyib traveled to South Africa, which greatly helped strengthen the Deobandi ideology.

As a result of this journey, the misunderstandings about the Deobandi movement were dispelled and the identity of Darul Uloom Deoband became stronger.

[14] During this journey, he took a step so that the backward[clarification needed] Muslim community could send their children to madrasas for religious education.

The Sheikhul Hadith of Mazahir Uloom, Zakariyya Kandhlawi, and then Mahmood Hasan Gangohi had a great influence on South African students.

[16] Masihullah Khan, Khalifa of Ashraf Ali Thanwi and principle of the Masihul Uloom Madrasa, also attracted students from South Africa.

[17] Jamia Islamia Talimuddin in Gujarat was a central madrasa that played a key role in creating the Indian Muslim community in South Africa.

They spread his extensive influence in their own regions, and some became famous in South Africa, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, including Ebrahim Desai.

[27] They have introduced a 1-year bridging course or preparatory course, which is aimed at students who have no prior knowledge of the recitation of the Quran in Arabic, Urdu and other essentials.

[28] In the fifth year, tajwid and tafsir continue along with the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence with focus on a text known as Nur al-Anwar by Mulla Jiyun (d. 1715).

The new subjects are rhetoric, Islamic theology (aqidah), the Principles of tafsir and some of the rules on the modes of recitation of the Quran.

The final year is dedicated to a study of the six canonical books of Hadith, al-Muwatta and Sharh Ma’ani al-Athar.

[28] In comparison, the curriculum at Darul Uloom Deoband is similar with a few additional subjects because of the lengthier duration of the course.

The different commentaries written on Al-Hidayah kept the scholars engaged and also ensured that the respective schools extrapolation of laws to new situations would always be of the highest quality.