Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari

Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari[1] (23 September 1892 – 21 August 1961), was a Muslim Hanafi scholar, religious and political leader[2] from the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam's founding members. His biographer, Agha Shorish Kashmiri, states that Bukhari's greatest contribution had been his germination of strong anti-British feelings among the Indian Muslims.[3] He is one of the most notable leader of the Ahrar movement which was associated with opposition to Muhammad Ali Jinnah and establishment of an independent Pakistan as well as opposition to the Ahmadiyya Movement.[4] He is considered as a legendary rhetoric, which made him famous among the Muslims.

Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari
Born	Syed Ata Ullah Shah Patna, British India
Died	21 August 1961(1961-08-21) (aged 68)
Resting place	Multan, Pakistan
Pen name	Shah jee
Occupation	Khatabat, Orator, Poet, Political Activist, Historian, Islamic Scholar
Nationality	Pakistani
Subject	Sunni Islam
Literary movement	Khatme Nabuwwat
1st Emir of Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat
In office 1949–1961
Preceded by	None (office created)
Succeeded by	Qazi Ahsan Ahmed Shuja Abadi

Birth and education

Born in Patna, British India, in 1892, he received his early religious education in Gujrat, Pakistan and learned the Qur'an by heart from his father Hafiz Syed Ziauddin.[5] He migrated to Amritsar in 1914 when he was 22 years old. He completed his early education by subscribing to a purist view of Islam, and remained associated with the Deoband School in Saharanpur district. Bukhari began his career as a religious preacher in a small mosque in Amritsar, and taught the Quran for the next 40 years.[6] He shared friendship with a section of socialists and communists but did not accept their ideology completely.[7] He was ‘imbued with a brilliant exposition of romantic socialism, and led Muslims to a restlessness activism'.[8] He studied the Sahih Bukhari[9] in jail when he was imprisoned for an anti-government religious speech.

Religious and political career

He started his religious and political career in 1916. His speeches graphically portrayed the sorrows and sufferings of the poor, and would promise his audience that the end of their sufferings would come about with the end of British rule.[10] As the first step of his political career, he began to participate in the movements of the Indian National Congress in 1921 from Kolkata where he delivered a loaded speech and was arrested on 27 March 1921 because of that speech. He became an eyesore to the administration, and an official view about him said: Ata Ullah Shah is a man, who it is better to lock up in jail, away from Congress leaders than to parley with. He has spent a considerable part of his life preaching sedition. He is an amusing speaker, who can influence a crowd.[11] After Nehru report[12] Bukhari created All India Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam[13] with Mazhar Ali Azhar, Chaudhry Afzal Haq, Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi, Hissam-ud-Din, Master Taj-uj-Din Ansari and Zafar Ali Khan on 29 December 1929. Later on the prominent Brelvi orater Syed Faiz-ul Hassan Shah also joined them to. He was also the founding father of Majlis-e-Ahrar, Indian nationalist Muslim political movement in India. In 1943, Ahrar passed a resolution opposing the partition of India and "introduced a sectarian element into its objections by portraying Jinnah as an infidel in an attempt to discredit his reputation."[14] He led a movement against Ahmadis and held a Ahrar Tableegh Conference at Qadian in 21–23 October 1934. In 1949 he founded Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat and served as first Emir[15]Bukhari was a central figure in the Khatme Nabuwwat Movement of 1953,[16] which demanded that government of Pakistan declare the Ahmadis as non-Muslims

Oratory and poetry

He became known for his oratory. He was also a poet and most of his poetry was in Persian. His poetic verses was compiled by his eldest son Syed Abuzar Bukhari in 1956 under the name of Sawati-ul-ilham.[17]

Death

Bukhari died on 21 August 1961.[18] He is buried in Multan, Pakistan. on Tareen Road near Gultex Showroom near Children Complex.

References

1. Sayyidah Umm-e-Kafeel Bukhari. Sayyidi wa Abi (PDF) (in Urdu). Multan: Bukhari Academy. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
2. Chaudhry Afzal Haq, Tarikh-e-Ahrar, (Lahore:Maktabah Majlis-e-Ahrar, 1940) P.47
3. Samina Awan, Political islam in colonial Punjab Majlis-e-Ahrar 1929–1949, P.153, Politics of Islamic symbolism, The MAI: Politics of Personalities, Oxford university Press
4. Bahadur, Kalim (1998). Democracy in Pakistan: crises and conflicts. Har Anand Publications. p. 176.
5. Shorish Kashmiri, Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari (Lahore: Maktaba-i-Chattan, 1969), vol. 1, p. 19.
6. Shorish Kashmiri, Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari (Lahore: Chattan, 1978)
7. Samina Awan, Political islam in colonial Punjab Majlis-e-Ahrar 1929–1949, P.154, Politics of Islamic symbolism, The MAI: Politics of Personalities, Oxford university Press
8. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Modern Islam in India, p. 277.
9. Janbaz Mirza, hayat-e-ameer-e-shariyat, (Lahore: Maktaba-i-Tabsra, 1968), p. 14.
10. Abdul Latif Khalid Cheema, Prof. Abbas Najmi, Syed-ul-Ahrar, p.98 (Maktabah Tehreek-e-Talba-e-Islam, Chichawatni, 1977).
11. See REPORT of THE COURT OF INQUIRY constituted under PUNJAB ACT II OF 1954 to enquire into the PUNJAB DISTURBANCES OF 1953 (Lahore: National archives of Pakistan, 1954).
12. Janbaz Mirza, Karvan-i-Ahrar (Lahore: Maktaba-i-Tabsra, 1968), vol. 1, p. 80.
13. "Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari or Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam". Geourdu.com. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
14. Khan, Adil Hussain (2015). From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia. Indiana University Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780253015297. Soon thereafter, in 1943, the Ahrar passed a resolution officially declaring itself against partition, which posed a problem in that it put the Ahrar in direct opposition to the Muslim League. The Ahrar introduced a sectarian element into its objections by portraying Jinnah as an infidel in an attempt to discredit his reputation.
15. Allah Wasaya (24 October 2014). "عقیدہ ختم نبوۃ کا تحفظ دین کی بنیاد ہے". nawaiwaqt.com.pk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
16. REPORT of THE COURT OF INQUIRY constituted under PUNJAB ACT II OF 1954 to enquire into the PUNJAB DISTURBANCES OF 1953
17. Syedah Umm-e-Kafeel, Syedi-wa -abi, (Multan:Maktabah Ahrar, Bukhari academy, 2007), P.156
18. Janbaz Mirza, last chapter, hayat-e-ameer-e-Shariyat

Sources

• Syed Ata ullah shah bukhari ka aqeeda-e-khatm-e-nubuwwat
• Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhaqri ka khitab (Nawai-waqt Newspaper)
• Column of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan
• Column of Professor Khalid Shibbir Ahmad
• Agha Shorish Kashmiri. Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari.
• Janbaz Mirza. Hayat-e-Ameer-e-Shariat.
• Syed-ul-Ahrar, Ameer-e-Shariat, Khateeb-ul-Hind, Maulana Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari (rehmatullah-e-allaih
• Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari ki zindagi (Nawai-waqt Column)