Gulamur Rahman Explained

Gulamur Rahman
Honorific Suffix:Maizbhandari
Birth Name:Syed Gulamur Rahman
Birth Date: 1865
Birth Place:Maizbhandar, Bengal Presidency, British India
Death Place:Maizbhandar, Bengal Presidency, British India
Resting Place:Shrine of Syed Gulamur Rahman Maizbhandari, Maizbhandar, Bangladesh
Known For:2nd leader of the Maizbhandari Sufi Order
Religion:Islam
Denomination:Sunni
Sufi Order:Maizbhandari
Jurisprudence:Hanafi
Relatives:
Syed Ahmad Ullah (uncle)
Ziaul Haq (grandson)
Module:
Embed:yes
Ism:Ghulām ar-Raḥmān
غلام الرحمن
Nasab:ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Muṭīʿ Ullāh ibn Ṭayyab Ullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Ḥamīd ad-Dīn
بن عبد الكريم بن مطيع الله بن طيب الله بن عبد القادر بن حميد الدين
Laqab:Bābā Bhandārī
بابا بهنداري
Nisba:al-Māʾijbhandārī
المائجبهنداري
as-Sayyid
السيد

Gulamur Rahman Maizbhandari (Bengali: গোলামুর রহমান মাইজভাণ্ডারী; 1865–1937), also known by his sobriquet Baba Bhandari (Bengali: বাবা ভাণ্ডারী), was a Bengali Sufi preacher who succeeded his uncle, Syed Ahmad Ullah, as the head of the Maizbhandari Sufi Order, the first such Sufi order in Bengal.

Background and ancestry

Gulamur Rahman's father was Abdul Karim Shah, younger brother of Syed Ahmad Ullah, and his mother was Musharaf Jaan. His paternal ancestors were Syeds and originally migrated from Madinah to Gaur, the former capital of medieval Bengal, via Baghdad and Delhi. His ancestor, Hamid ad-Din, was the appointed Imam and Qadi of Gaur, but due to a sudden epidemic in the city, Hamid later migrated to Patiya in Chittagong District. Hamid's son, Syed Abdul Qadir, was made the imam of Azimnagar in modern-day Fatikchhari. He had two sons; Syed Ataullah and Syed Tayyab Ullah. The latter had three sons; Syed Ahmad, Syed Matiullah and Syed Abdul Karim, and the youngest son was the father of Gulamur Rahman.

Early life and education

Rahman was born into a Bengali Muslim family in the village of Maizbhandar in Fatikchhari, Chittagong on 14 October 1865. His uncle, who called him "the rose of my garden", entrusted him with the teaching of students, particularly adepts.[1] He spent time wandering alone in the woods as part of his spiritual studies. Around 1914, he entered a state of meditation and stopped speaking except on rare occasions, thus becoming known as a magdub pir. In 1928, he moved out of his father's house into his own, where disciples and his four sons took over responsibility for the order's administration.

Succession from Syed Ahmad Ullah

According to German scholar Hans Harder, there is disagreement over the type of spiritual mandate Gholam Rahman received from Syed Ahmad Ullah and his status as a saint. Writers from Rahmaniyya Manzil, the house of the descendants of Gholam Rahman, class him as a ġawṯ al-aʿẓam, the highest category of walī Allāh, alongside Ahmadullah, and sometimes claim that he was installed by Ahmadullah as his spiritual successor (sağğādanašīn). The descendants of Syed Ahmad Ullah, however, insist that he was Ahmadullah's main delegate (pradhān khaliphā), and object to him receiving the title of ġawṯ al-aʿẓam, though it does appear in one of Delawar Hosain's writings.

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Notes and References

  1. Bertocci . Peter J. . February 2006 . A Sufi movement in Bangladesh: The Maijbhandari Tariqa and its Followers . Contributions to Indian Sociology . 40 . 1 . 9. 10.1177/006996670504000101 . 144167466 .