Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali

Abdun Nur Ali (1880-1963) of Gorkapon in Badarpur was a Mawlana who requested Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali to visit the mosque conjoined to Adam Khaki's shrine.

Abdul Latif Chowdhury (আব্দুল লতিফ চৌধুরী; 25 May 1913 – 16 January 2008), widely known as Saheb Qiblah Fultali, was a late-twentieth century Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, mufassir, qāriʾ, poet and orator.

As a prolific author, he completed several works in Arabic, Bengali and Urdu including Muntakhab as-Siyār and Anwar as-Sālikīn.

His books are part of syllabic studies under the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board.

Fultali was the leading figure of the Islamic Arabic University movement and the demand for Fazil and kamil qualifications to be recognised as bachelor's and master's degrees.

He is the founder of several influential organisations and institutions in Bangladesh and the United Kingdom such as Anjumane Al Islah, Hazrat Shahjalal Darussunnah Yaqubia Kamil Madrasa and Madrasah-e-Darul Qirat Majidiah.

Abdul Latif Chowdhury was born on 25 May 1913, to a noble Bengali Muslim Sufi Shah family in the village of Fultali in Badedeorail pargana, Sylhet district, Bengal Presidency (now in Zakiganj, Bangladesh).

His paternal lineage joins to Shah Kamal Pahlwan, one of the companions of Shah Jalal, via Shah Muhammad Ala Bakhsh, a sage who contributed to Ahmad Sirhindi's opposition against the Din-i Ilahi of Mughal emperor Akbar.

His father was Mufti Abdul Majid Chowdhury, a jurist and principal of Gangajal Hasania Senior Madrasa.

Fultali received his basic education from his own family.

He was then taught by his distant cousin, Fatir Ali, at the Fultali Alia Madrasa, where he also studied the Qur'an with tajweed under Qari Syed Ali.

In 1336 AH (1918 CE), Fultali became a student at the Rangauti Madrasa in Hailakandi at the request of its principal, Abdur Rashid, who was a student of Fultali's father.

After successfully completing higher secondary examinations at Rangauti, Fultali enrolled into the Badarpur Senior Madrasa in Badarpur in 1338 AH (1920 CE) where he studied various Islamic sciences under his murshid Abu Yusuf Muhammad Yaqub Badarpuri.

For higher education, Fultali then studied at the Rampur Alia Madrasah in Rampur State at the instruction of Badarpuri.

He then enrolled into Matlaul Uloom Madrasah to specialise in Hadith studies under Khalillullah Rampuri and Wajihuddin Rampuri (student of Anwar Shah Kashmiri).

He studied there for a few years and obtained first class, first position in the final Hadith exam in 1355 AH (1936 CE).

He also attained degrees in tafsir and Islamic jurisprudence.

By the age of 18, Fultali had ijazah in qira'at and in the Chishti, Qadiri and Naqshbandi (Mujaddidi-Muhammadi) tariqahs from his spiritual master Shah Muhammad Yaqub Badarpuri, who was a disciple of Hafiz Ahmad Jaunpuri.

Fultali also completed ijazah in qira'at under Abdur Rauf Karampuri Shahbazpuri, and an ijazah in Chishti-Nizami order from Ghulam Mohiuddin.

In 1363 AH (1944 CE), he travelled to Mecca where he received ijazah in qira'at from Grand Mufti Ahmed Abdullah al-Hejazi.

In 1940, Fultali founded the Darul Qirat Majidiah Trust and institutionalized his effort to teach the perfect recitation of the Quran.

Now there are more than two thousand branches of the trust throughout the world engaged in educating people in the field of Tajweed.

In 1946, Fultali announced that he would be travelling to Badarpur to give a lesson on qira'at at Adam Khaki's mosque.

Abd an-Nur Gorkaponi and his students purchased a horse for the scholar to ride on so the journey could be easier.

From 1946 to 1950, Fultali was a teacher at the Badarpur Senior Madrasa.

He began teaching Qur'an with tajweed from his own home in 1950.

As a result of riots in the 1950s, Fultali briefly migrated to Pakistan.

Fultali spent six years as a teacher of Hadith studies at the Gasbari Jamiul Uloom Kamil Madrasah.

After that, he taught Sahih al-Bukhari, Sunan al-Nasa'i, Sunan ibn Majah, Sahih al-Tirmidhi, Sunan Abu Dawood, Al-Itqān, Nur al-Anwar, Al-Hidayah and Tafsir al-Jalalayn at the Satpur Alia Madrasa and Isamati Alia Madrasa respectively.

He finally returned to Fultali Alia Madrasa, where he taught Hadith until his death.

On 11 May 1967, a conference was held at the Shah Jalal Dargah.

A memorandum strictly calling for the prohibition of shirki practices was signed by the leading Islamic scholars from Sylhet including Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali, Hormuz Ullah Shayda, Mushahid Ahmad Bayampuri, Ibrahim Chatuli and Nur Uddin Gohorpuri.

Fultali was the best known and most influential spiritual leader among the British Bangladeshi community.

He was based in Bangladesh, but made well-attended visits to the United Kingdom.

Among these visits, he established Madrasah-e-Darul Qirat Majidiah in 1978, which has since vastly expanded in London.

He was a founder of numerous organisations related to religion, culture and education and a patron to a number of humanitarian and charitable organisations such as Muslim Hands Bangladesh.

In 1983, he established the Hazrat Shahjalal Darussunnah Yaqubia Kamil Madrasa with the assistance of Haji Abdus Subhan Tafadar of Subhanighat, Sylhet.

Fultali married Begum Khadijah, the daughter of his pir Abu Yusuf Shah Muhammad Yaqub Badarpuri, in 1345 BS (1938 CE).

He also married Mehrunnesa, the daughter of Muhammad Abdur Rashid Khan of Fultali.

In total, he had seven sons and three daughters.