Mushahid Ahmad Bayampuri

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Patronymic (Nasab)
ibn ʿAlīm ibn Dānish Miyān
بن عليم بن دانش ميان
Toponymic (Nisba)al-Bāyamfūrī
البايمفوري
Muslim leader
Teacher
Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Shah Yaqub Badarpuri
Member of the 3rd
Ayub Khan
Preceded byFaizul Hasan
Succeeded byAjmal Ali Choudhury
ConstituencySylhet-II

Mushāhid Aḥmad Bāyampūrī (

Bengali Muslim theologian, teacher, writer and politician. He was a member of the 3rd National Assembly of Pakistan as a representative of Sylhet-II.[1][2]

Early life and education

Mohammad Mushahid Ahmad was born on a Friday in

Hafiza Sufia Begum. His father died in his childhood, so he was raised mostly by his mother.[3] Locals referred to him as Kalamanik due to his dark skin tone and large nose.[4]

Bayampuri studied the

Qur'an, Bengali and Urdu with his mother at the age of seven years. At that age, he was then enrolled to the local school at Bayampur and later at the Kanaighat Islamia Madrasa (now Darul Uloom Kanaighat) from the age of ten.[3]

He began his career as a teacher after completing his studies at the madrasa but returned to education later on in North India. He studied for five years at the Madrasa Aliya of Rampur State and two year at the Alia Madrasa of Meerut. He wrote two books in this period which were published under the name of his teacher. Although he went back to teaching in Bengal after these seven years, Mushahid later enrolled at the Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur in 1936 where he graduated with a degree and got the highest mark in Hadith studies after one and a half years of studying there.[5][6][7]

Career

Bayampuri briefly taught at the Lalarchak Primary School before spending seven years at North India. He gave Hadith studies classes at the Alia madrasas of Badarpur and Rampur. Prior to his studies at Deoband, he taught at his local Lalarchar Rahmania Madrasa too.[3]

When he returned to Bengal, he was offered a position as Shaykhul Hadith at the Sylhet Government Alia Madrasah. He also served in this position at the Gachhbari Jamiul Uloom Kamil Madrasa, and during his term here, this madrasa was nicknamed The Second Darul Uloom Deoband. However, as he did not get on well with the management at Gachhbari, Bayampuri left the madrasa to join the Kanaighat Islamia Madrasa in 1953. He eventually became the principal and Shaykhul Hadith of this madrasa until his death, and renamed it to Darul Uloom Kanaighat. In order to unite the madrasas of eastern Sylhet (Sylhet and Moulvibazar), he established the Azad Dini Arabic Madrasa Education Board in 1953. He served as the board's president for the rest of his life. The board now has authority over 175 madrasas. In Ramadan, he used to give lectures at the Bandarbazar Jame Mosque from tarawih to suhur.[3]

Political career

As a student of

independence of Pakistan in 1947, Bayampuri continued to be a part of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. He participated in the 1962 basic elections as an independent candidate, defeating opponent Begum Serajunnessa Choudhury and successfully gaining a seat in the 3rd National Assembly of Pakistan representing Sylhet-II constituency.[8]

During his term, he felt that the strength of Islamic parties were even close to the strength needed to change the political landscape. As a result, he joined

Ayub Khan's Convention Muslim League for the greater good. He benefitted by taking grants from the government for funding Kanaighat Darul Uloom and Akuni Madrasa. However, joining this party made him unpopular. He lost this seat at the 1965 basic elections to Ajmal Ali Choudhury. At the 1970 Pakistani general elections, Bayampuri competed for the seat as a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam candidate but failed for a second time.[4]

During his time in parliament, Bayampuri petitioned for the erstwhile

Ayub Cabinet was forced to cancel the anti-Islamic clause from an ordinance. Bayampuri also called for the establishment of an Islamic university in East Pakistan. In one part of his political career, Bayampuri briefly left Pakistan for Assam in India due to political oppression. A Pakistani minister later invited him back to the country after a compromise by the King of Saudi Arabia.[4]

Works

Mushahid Ahmad has written a number of works in Arabic, Urdu and Bengali:

  • al-Fatḥ al-Karīm fī Siyāsah an-Nabī al-Amīn (1948, Urdu). (Translated into Bengali by Abu Saeed Muhammad Omar Ali as Islamer Raśṭrīyô O Ôrthônoitik Uttôradhikar)
  • al-Furqān bayna al-Ḥaqq wa al-Bāṭil fī ʿIlm at-Taṣawwuf wa al-Iḥsān
  • al-Furqān bayna Awliyāʼ ar-Raḥmān wa Awliyāʼ ash-Shayṭān
  • Śôtter Alo (2 vols)
  • Islame Bhoṭ o Bhoṭer Ôdhikar
  • Semā al-Qurʼān
  • Iẓhār-e-Ḥaqq
  • al-Laṭāʼif ar-Rabbāniyyah fī Sūrah Tafsīr al-Fatiḥah

Personal life

Bayampuri married 10 times,[9] and is the father of 11 children.[10] He completed

state constitution for review and Bayampuri suggested that it be amended at 14 places.[citation needed
]

Although he was a student of both

khilafah (spiritual succession) from his other teacher Shah Muhammad Yaqub Badarpuri, who was a disciple of Hafiz Ahmad Jaunpuri and teacher of Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali. Bayampuri's murid/khalifahs were Darul Uloom Kanaighat's Muhtamim Shahrullah and Muhammad bin Idris, Muhtamim Abdul Karim Chhatrapuri of Lafnaut Madrasa, Muhtamim Habibur Rahman of Gachhbari Muzahirul Uloom and Muhtamim Tayyabur Rahman of Shitalang Shah Madrasa.[citation needed
]

Death and legacy

Bayampuri died in his village, on the night of

janaza was performed on Eid day, after the Asr prayer, and he was buried in front of Darul Uloom Kanaighat. It was reported that a strong fragrance came out of his grave a few days later.[11]

A bridge on the Surma River in Kanaighat Upazila is named after Bayampuri. He has been praised by numerous scholars and is mentioned in various books. During Bayampuri's return from Assam to Sylhet, Hussain Ahmed Madani mentioned that "an enlightenment is going towards Sylhet". Abdul Karim Shaykh-e-Kouria mentioned that if all of the ilm of the scholars of Sylhet District were put together, they would match only up to the knee of Bayampuri.[12]

His son, Sheikhzada Faruq Ahmad, contested in the

Habibur Rahman (Tota Mia).[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Assembly, Pakistan National (1963). Debates: Official Report. Manager of Publications. p. 1522.
  2. ^ Harun, Mizan (2018). رجال صنعوا التاريخ وخدموا الإسلام والعلم في بنغلاديش للشاملة [Men Who Shaped History And Served Islamic Science In Bangladesh: A Comprehensive Perspective] (in Arabic). Dhaka: Darul Bayan. pp. 183–190.
  3. ^ a b c d Faizul Bari, Muhammad. আল্লামা মুশাহিদ (রহ.) জীবন ও কর্ম (in Bengali).
  4. ^ a b c d e "সিলেট-৫: একাল সেকাল". Sylhet Report (in Bengali). 28 December 2018.
  5. ^ Mawlana Nur Muhammad Azmi. "2.2 বঙ্গে এলমে হাদীছ" [2.2 Knowledge of Hadith in Bengal]. হাদীছের তত্ত্ব ও ইতিহাস [Information and history of Hadith] (in Bengali). Emdadia Library. p. 30. মাওলানা মোশাহেদ ছাহেব
  6. ^ Tarikh al-Hadith Ma`arif
  7. ^ "শায়খুল হাদিস আল্লামা মুশাহিদ বায়মপুরী(রহঃ)". Kanaighat News (in Bengali). Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  8. ^ "LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE 3RD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF PAKISTAN FROM 1962-1964" (PDF). na.gov.pk. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  9. ^ Durlavpuri, Khalid Saifullah. যুগের দিশারি আল্লামা মুশাহিদ বায়মপুরী রাহ (in Bengali).
  10. ^ Rahman, Fazlur. সিলেটের একশত একজন (in Bengali).
  11. ^ ৬০ সালা দস্তারবন্দী মহাসম্মেলন স্মারক দারুল উলুম কানাইঘাট মাদরাসা (in Bengali), 2014
  12. ^ Rahman, Muhibur. আল্লামা মুশাহিদ বায়ামপুরীর জীবন ও চিন্তাধারা (in Bengali).

Bibliography

  • al-Kumillai, Muhammad Hifzur Rahman (2018). "الشيخ الفاضل مولانا مشاهد بن القاري علم مِيَان السلهتي". كتاب البدور المضية في تراجم الحنفية (in Arabic). Cairo, Egypt: Dar al-Salih.