Najib Ali Choudhury

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Najib Ali Choudhury
TitleMaulana
Personal
Born
Bagbari, Karimganj thana, Sylhet District
Resting placeRauthgram, Karimganj district, Assam, India
ReligionIslam
ChildrenGulam Rob Choudhury
EraModern
DenominationChisti
MovementDeobandi
ProfessionIslamic scholar and teacher
RelativesAbdul Munim Choudhury (great-grandson)
Muslim leader
TeacherImdadullah Muhajir Makki
ProfessionIslamic scholar and teacher

Najib Ali Choudhury was a 19th-century Indian Islamic scholar and teacher. He was notable for his founding of the Madinatul Uloom Bagbari, the first madrasa in the South Assam-Greater Sylhet region.

Life[]

Born in the village Bagbari, near the city of Karimganj in what is present-day Assam, India, accounts are contradictory regarding Choudhury's ancestral origins. His family had either migrated from Ghor Province in Afghanistan during the Mughal period, or were descended from Shah Umar Yemeni, one of the 360 companions of the Sufi saint Shah Jalal.[1][2]

At some point, Choudhury became a disciple of Imdadullah Muhajir Makki, a Sufi scholar of the Chishti Order. He is said to have fought alongside Makki in an uprising against the British in Shamli, a part of the greater Indian Rebellion of 1857. Upon the failure of the revolt however, both men left the Indian subcontinent and migrated to Mecca.[2][3]

Tradition states that while in Mecca, Choudhury dreamt he was visited by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who instructed him to go back to India and preach Islam and provide Islamic education. Returning to his native village, in 1873, Choudhury established a madrasa in his own home, which received the name "Madinatul Uloom Bagbari Najibia Alia Madrasa" after its founder, shortened to Madinatul Uloom Bagbari.[2][note 1] Modelled after the recently established Darul Uloom Deoband, it is considered to be the first true madrasa in the Greater Sylhet region, offering a standardised religious education in contrast to the informal institutions which had existed there previously.[4] It came to play a very prominent role in producing Arabic language scholars in the Greater Sylhet region, a reputation it maintains to the present-day.[2]

Choudhury himself acquired considerable renown, with tales arising of him having possessed spiritual powers.[note 2] After his death, his grave became a shrine or Mazar, which is located in what is now Rauthgram, Karimganj district.[1][5]

He was the father of Maulana Gulam Rob Choudhury, a distinguished Islamic scholar in his own right, and the great-grandfather of , a former Member of the Legislative Assembly for Karimganj South.[1]

Notes[]

  1. ^ It is also known as the Darul Uloom Bagbari.[4]
  2. ^ One such legend states that several decades after his death, Choudhury had materialised in person to save one of his sons from danger.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Laskar, Ali Haidar; Barbhuiya, Atiqur Rahman (2019). Indigenous People of Barak Valley. Notion Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-64678-800-2.
  2. ^ a b c d Rahman, Md. Matiur; Bhuiya, Abdul Musabbir (2009). Teaching of Arabic language in Barak Valley: a historical study (14th to 20th century) (PDF). Silchar: Assam University. pp. 59–60.
  3. ^ Thanwi, Ashraf Ali (1982). "Imdad al-Mushtaq ila Ashraf al-Akhlaq". Islamic Culture. Islamic Culture Board. LVI (I): 321.
  4. ^ a b Khan, Bazlur Rahman (2012-05-25). "Madrasa Education System in South Assam". The Milli Gazette. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  5. ^ a b Talukdar, Dilwar Hussain (2015). "A study on Sufi Saints in Karimganj District of Assam (1346-1947)" (PDF). Pratidhwani the Echo. Dept. of Bengali, Karimganj College. III (IV): 76.
Retrieved from ""