Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique

Moḥammad Abū Bakr Ṣiddīque al-Qurayshī (15 April 1845 – 17 March 1939) was a

Siddique's father died when he was nine months old, and so he was raised by his mother, Mohabbat-un-Nesa Begum.[13]

Education

His childhood education started at home around 1850. After learning basic Islamic knowledge, he enrolled in a local primary school and intended to begin teaching non-islamic subjects including English. One night as a child, he dreamed that the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, was advising him to abandon this teaching.^[14] He then left this education and joined Sitapur Madrassah, an ancient educational institution (established in 1772) near Furfura. After completing his primary education here, he took first place in the then highest Jamaat-e-Ula class from Mohsinia Madrasa in Hooghly city.^[15][16]

Then went to Calcutta city and enrolled in Jamaluddin Education Center in the then Sinduria Patti Masjid (now Kalutla, Kolkata). There, Hafez studied Hadith, Tafsir and Fiqh under Jamaluddin Mungeri. Hafez Jamal Uddin was the caliph of Syed Ahmad Barelvi.^[17][18][19] He then studied Hikmah and philosophy under Nazar Shah Belayati from Firangi Mahal.^[20][15] He stayed at the Nakhoda Mosque while studying with Belayati.^[21]

After completing his formal education, he researched various aspects of Islam for 18 years.^[22][23] During this time he established his own library, where there were many rare books.^[24] The library is currently attached to the Furfura title madrasa he founded.^[25] In 1892 he traveled to Mecca and Medina. During his stay in Medina, he obtained the certificate of 40 Hadith books from the Muhaddith Syed Mohammad Amin Ibn Ahmad.^{[26][24][27][28]}

Contribution to education

He established 1100 madrassahs and 700 mosques.^[7] The Madrassahs he established in his village became one of India's leading educational institutions, and even Haji Shariatullah, the founder of the Faraizi movement in East Bengal, came to this village to learn Arabic and Persian.^[3] He was a member of the managing committee of Calcutta Alia Madrassah in 1928.

Hadith studies

M. Obaidul (1903-1984), principal of Feni Alia Madrassah in Bangladesh, said about him,

"ইলমে জাহের ব্যতীত আল্লাহ তাকে ইলমে লাদুন্নিও (আল্লাহ প্রদত্ত বিশেষ জ্ঞান) প্রদান করেছিলেন। তিনি ফলে কুরআন, হাদিস ও ফিকহের, ও ইসলামের মারেফতি শিক্ষার গভীরে জ্ঞান অর্জন করেছিলেন। বিশেষ করে তিনি হাদিস শাস্ত্রে অভূতপূর্ব জ্ঞান অর্জন করেছিলেন, যার জ্ঞান সারা উপমহাদেশে ছড়িয়ে পরেছে।

In addition to ilme jahr, Allah also bestowed upon him ilme ladunni (special knowledge given by God). He consequently acquired profound knowledge of the Qur'an, hadith and jurisprudence, and the teachings of Islam. In particular, he acquired an unprecedented knowledge of hadith, the knowledge of which spread throughout the subcontinent.

— M. Obaidul, From a biography of Abu Bakr Siddique^[29]

During his lifetime there was no teaching of Hadith in Alia Madrassah. He introduced this system, the practice of this system started in 1902 by teaching hadith in Kolkata Ghaspatti Mosque.^[30] Shamsul Ulama Shah Safiullah was appointed to this mosque to teach hadith on a salary of 20 rupees.^[31] He himself used to teach hadith in this mosque.^[32]

He acquired special erudition on hadith scriptures, his nephew Abu Jafar Siddique obtained the certificate of 20 hadith books from him. Maulana Mansoor Hussain, one of his relatives of Furfura village, received from him the recitation and attestation of the hadith book

Abu Bakr Siddique imbibed two methods of attaining nearness to Allah namely jizba and suluk. Much is said about his spiritual state during his student days at the Hooghly Madrassah, a four-way connection with his heart most nights. When this connection was associated with the Tariqa, he would eagerly chant that Tariqa. Also many times his apada-masat would be covered by a light and his self-forgetfulness would occur.^[34]

He was a