| Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari | |
| Other Name: | Shah jee |
| Birth Name: | Syed Ata Ullah Shah |
| Birth Date: | 23 November 1892 |
| Birth Place: | Patna, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Death Place: | Multan, West Pakistan, Pakistan |
| Resting Place: | Multan, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Citizenship: | (1892–1947) (1947–1961) |
| Denomination: | Sunni |
| Movement: | Deobandi |
| Term Start1: | 29 December 1929 |
| Term End1: | 1930 |
| Term Start2: | 1946 |
| Term End2: | 1948 |
| Term Start3: | 1949 |
| Term End3: | 1961 |
| Predecessor3: | None (office created) |
| Successor3: | Qazi Ahsan Ahmed Shuja Abadi |
| Party: | Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam |
| Background: |
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| Children: | Syed Abuzar Bukhari Syed Ata-ul-Mohsin Bukhari Syed Ata-ul-Muhaimin Bukhari Syed Ata-ul-Momin Bukhari |
Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari (Urdu سید عطاء اللہ شاہ بخاری)[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 leaders of the Ahrar movement which was associated with opposition to Muhammad Ali Jinnah and opposition to the 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.[5]
Born in Patna, British India, in 1892, he received his early religious education in what is now Gujrat, Pakistan and learned the Qur'an by heart from his father Hafiz Syed Ziauddin.[6] 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.[7] He shared friendship with a section of socialists and communists but did not accept their ideology completely.[8] He was ‘imbued with a brilliant exposition of romantic socialism, and led Muslims to a restlessness activism'.[9] He studied the Sahih Bukhari[10] in jail when he was imprisoned for an anti-government religious speech.
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.[11] 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.[12] After Nehru report[13] Bukhari created All India Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam[14] 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 orator Syed Faiz-ul Hassan Shah also joined them. 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."[15] He led a movement against Ahmadis and held an Ahrar Tableegh Conference at Qadian in 21–23 October 1934. 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.
He became known for his oratory. He was also a poet and most of his poetry was in Persian. His poetic verses were compiled by his eldest son Syed Abuzar Bukhari in 1956 under the name of Sawati-ul-ilham.[17]
Bukhari died on 21 August 1961.[18] He is buried in Multan, Pakistan. on Tareen Road Children Complex.
