Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 20th century sunni muslim jurist who became an influential figure of the hanafi school of sunni jurisprudence”. Today it says “pakistani independence activist and islamic jurist who became an influential figure of the deobandi movement”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “20th-century Islamic scholar and influential figure of the Hanafi school of thought”. It now reads “Pakistani Islamic scholar”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
20th-century Islamic scholar and influential figure of the Hanafi school of thought Zafar Ahmad Usmani (also known as Zafar Ahmad Thanwi ) ( ) (4 October 1892 – 1974), was a 20th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence 's Deobandi Movement. He also was a prominent Pakistan Movement activist. He is most famous for having written I'la Al-Sunan, a 20 volume Hadith encyclopedia of Hanafi proofs, written as a refutation by the Hanafi school against the objections raised by the growing Ahl-i Hadith movement, as per the request of his uncle Ashraf Ali Thanwi .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1143376225.
The opening as it stood in 2020
20th-century Islamic scholar and influential figure of the Hanafi school of thought Zafar Ahmad Usmani or Zafar Ahmad Thanwi ( ) (4 October 1892 – 1974), was a 20th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence 's Deobandi Movement. He also was a prominent Pakistan Movement activist. He is most famous for having written I'la Al-Sunan, written as a refutation by the Hanafi school against the objections raised by the growing Ahl-i Hadith movement, as per the request of his uncle Ashraf Ali Thanwi .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 960892946.
The opening as it stood in 2025
20th-century Islamic scholar of the Hanafi school Zafar Ahmad Usmani (also known as Zafar Ahmad Thanwi ) ( Arabic : ظفر أحمد العثماني ) (4 October 1892 – 1974), was a 20th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence 's Deobandi Movement. He also was a prominent Pakistan Movement activist. He is most famous for having written I'la Al-Sunan, a 20 volume Hadith encyclopedia of Hanafi proofs, written as a refutation by the Hanafi school against the objections raised by the growing Ahl-i Hadith movement, as per the request of his uncle Ashraf Ali Thanwi .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1286626147. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 20th century sunni muslim jurist who became an influential figure of the hanafi school of sunni jurisprudence”. Today it says “pakistani independence activist and islamic jurist who became an influential figure of the deobandi movement”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “20th-century Islamic scholar and influential figure of the Hanafi school of thought”. It now reads “Pakistani Islamic scholar”. Read the current article and compare.
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
a 20th century sunni muslim jurist who became an influential figure of the hanafi school of sunni jurisprudence
Now
pakistani independence activist and islamic jurist who became an influential figure of the deobandi movement
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
