Early Life
Changawi was a native of Changa Bangial in Rawalpindi district (Pakistan). He was a scion of a respectable Rajput petty landowner family with no particular academic traditions. His preceptor and religious guide was his maternal uncle Maulavi Muhammad Umar Bakhsh (died 1887), a naqshbandi-mujaddadi Sufi of repute and an author of numerous books on religious subjects, under whose guidance Changawi completed the traditional course of Dars- i Nizami. By the age of 17 he had a fair knowledge of the religious sciences and a good command of Arabic, Persian and Urdu. His desire to acquire also modern education was fulfilled when he was admitted in 1885, at a rather late age, to the Mission School in Rawalpindi. He completed his academic courses within the short span of three years acquiring thereby good working knowledge of the English language. He later published numerous treatises in English. It was during this period that he was exposed to the natural sciences as well as confronted with the Christian mission.
After leaving school he took the job of a private preceptor with the former royal family of Afghanistan, parts of which were residing in Rawalpindi. He was in intimate contact with the Sufi circles of the town and in fact took the oath of allegiance (bai'a) at the hand of Khwaja Faqir Muhammad Tirahi, who happened to make a stop over in Rawalpindi shortly before or in 1887.
Read more about this topic: Muhammad Fazal Khan Changwi
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