Athar Ali ( bn, আতহার আলী; 1891-1976) was a Bangladeshi Islamic activist, author, teacher and politician. He participated in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, and was former president of the

Nizam-e-Islam Party The Nizam-e-Islam Party or simply Nizam-e-Islam ( bn, নেজামে ইসলাম, , Order of Islam), is a political party in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The party was founded in the city of Kishoreganj in 1952, by the Islamic scholars of erst ...

. Ali was also a ''khalifah'' of

Ashraf Ali Thanvi Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakim al-Ummat and Mujaddid e Millet; 19 September 1863 – 20 July 1943) was a late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Sunni scholar, jurist, thinker, reformist and the revival of classical sufi thought from In ...

, one of the founders of the Deobandi movement.

Early life

Ali was born into a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

family in the village of Ghungadia Nawangaon,

Beanibazar Beanibazar ( bn, বিয়ানীবাজার, Biyanībazar, Morning Market) is an upazila (sub-district) of Sylhet District in northeastern Bangladesh, part of the Sylhet Division. The area is the successor of the territory of Panchakhanda ...

, Sylhet District,

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His father, Azim Khan, was a Moulvi. Ali completed his primary and secondary education at the Jhingabari Alia Madrasah. He then moved to

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

where he studied the

Islamic sciences The Islamic sciences ( ar, علوم الدين, ʿulūm al-dīn, lit=the sciences of religion) are a set of traditionally defined religious sciences practiced by Islamic scholars ( ), aimed at the construction and interpretation of Islamic relig ...

at the

Jamia Qasmia Madrasa Shahi Madrassa Shahi (alternatively known as Jamia Qasmia) is an Islamic seminary in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. It was established in 1879 by the poor Muslims of Moradabad under the supervision of Islamic scholar, Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi, who also e ...

in Moradabad, the Madrasa Aliya of Rampur State and subsequently the Mazahir Uloom in Saharanpur. He then did

Hadith studies Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism) consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...

at the Darul Uloom Deoband under

Anwar Shah Kashmiri Anwar Shah Kashmiri (known with honorifics as ''Sayyid Muḥammad Anwar Shāh ibn Mu‘aẓẓam Shāh al-Kashmīrī''; 16 November 1875 – 28 May 1933) was a Kashmiri Muslim scholar and jurist who served as the first principal of Madrasa Ami ...

and Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, which he graduated from in 1338 AH (1919-1920 CE). Ali then served under Ashraf Ali Thanwi from whom he studied the Batin for three years and gained Khilafat from.

Career

Ali's career began with teaching at madrasas in Bengal such as the Jhingabari Alia Madrasah in Sylhet, Jamia Islamia Yunusia in

Brahmanbaria Brahmanbaria ( bn, ব্রাহ্মণবাড়িয়া, Brāhmaṇabāṛiẏā) is a city of Bangladesh and the capital of Brahmanbaria Sadar Upazila as well as Brahmanbaria District. It is the second largest city after Cumilla i ...

and the Jamia Millia in

Comilla Comilla (; bn, কুমিল্লা, Kumillā, ), officially spelled Cumilla, is the fifth largest city of Bangladesh and second largest in Chittagong division. It is the administrative centre of the Comilla District. The name Comilla was ...

. By 1909, he was working as an imam of the Shahidi Mosque in Kishoreganj. In 1945, Ali established the Jamia Emdadia Madrasa in Kishoreganj on the premises of the mosque. He also later founded the Darul Uloom Madrasa in

Mymensingh Mymensingh ( bn, ময়মনসিংহ) is the capital of Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh. Located on the bank of Brahmaputra River, about north of the national capital Dhaka, it is a major financial center and educational hub of north- ...

. His participation in politics began with the

1947 Sylhet referendum The 1947 Sylhet referendum was held in the Sylhet District of the Assam Province of British India to decide whether the district would remain in Undivided Assam and therefore within the post-independence Dominion of India, or leave Assam for Ea ...

campaigns which led to the incorporation of Sylhet into the

Dominion of Pakistan Between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, Pakistan was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created the Dominion of ...

. He was first a member of the

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam ( ur, جمیعت علماءِ اسلام, abbreviated as JUI) was founded by Shabbir Ahmad Usmani as an offshoot of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) on 26 October 1945. History The original Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind was formed in Br ...

party. In 1952, he was elected as the president of the

. Ali's party, which formed a coalition under the United Front, succeeded during the 1954 East Bengal Legislative Assembly elections, gaining 36 total seats in the National Assembly. Ali was a Member of Parliament in the 2nd National Assembly of Pakistan for the Kishoreganj West constituency. He had worked for including Islam in the legal system. He also advocated for the restoration of democratic rights during the presidency of Ayub Khan and was subsequently imprisoned. He was released before the start of the

1965 Indo-Pakistani War The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was ...

, and drifted away from politics. He began focusing more on propagating Islamic teachings to the Bengali Muslim masses through public lectures.

Bibliography

He wrote a number of books relating to Islam. These include: * bn, পর্দা ও ইসলাম, Pôrda O Islam,

Purdah Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu , , meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that wom ...

and Islam *Al-Wajru wa an-Nazru * bn, ইসলামী শাসন কেন চাই?, Islamī Shashôn Kenô Chai?, Why do I want Islamic rule? * bn, বাস্তব ক্ষেত্রে সমাজতন্ত্র, Bastôb Kkhetre Shômajtôntrô, Socialism in reality * bn, ইসলামে অর্থবন্টন ব্যবস্থা, Islame Ôrthôbônṭôn Bebôstha, System of economic distribution in Islam

Death

Ali died on 6 October in 1976 in the premises of a madrasa that he had founded, the Darul Uloom Madrasa in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, as a result of paralysis.

References

{{Islam in South Asia Pakistani MNAs 1955–1958 1891 births 1976 deaths People from Beanibazar Upazila Bangladeshi Islamists Bangladeshi Islamic religious leaders Nizam-e-Islam Party politicians 20th-century Bengalis Bengali-language writers Darul Uloom Deoband alumni Mazahir Uloom alumni Deobandis Bangladeshi Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Madrasa Shahi alumni Students of Anwar Shah Kashmiri Disciples of Ashraf Ali Thanwi