Abu Nasr Waheed

Muhammad Wahid was born on 21 September 1878, to a middle class Bengali Muslim family in the Moulvi Bari of the Hawapara neighbourhood of Sylhet, which was then under the North-East Frontier of the British Raj. His father, Muhammad Jawed Bakht, was a qari and khalifah of Karamat Ali Jaunpuri. His family were originally from the village of Kalaruka in Chhatak, Sunamganj.[7]

Wahid was initially homeschooled with an Islamic education by his father, Qari Muhammad Jawed Bakht. He then joined the Sylhet Government High School from where he completed his matriculation in 1892. He then gained admission to the local Murari Chand College where he received his FA in 1895. Wahid then enrolled at the Presidency College in Calcutta, undertaking a bachelor's and master's in Arabic language. He was the first Bengali Muslim to undertake degrees in Arabic under the British system, having graduated in 1897.[8] He did another BA from Dacca University.[9]

After completing his education, Wahid became a teacher at the Sylhet Government High School and among his students were Abdul Hamid and Basanta Kumar Das. After a while, Wahid returned to Calcutta to study law whilst teaching at the Calcutta Alia Madrasa. Among his students in Calcutta were Amiruddin Ahmad, A.S.M. Akram and Amin Ahmed.[2]

Wahid later abandoned his legal studies and became the professor of Arabic and Persian at the Cotton College in Gauhati, Assam. He also briefly taught logic and English. Among his students in Gauhati was Muhammed Saadulah. The government attempted to transfer Wahid to Hooghly Mohsin College, but this was stopped by Khwaja Salimullah, the Nawab of Dacca,[10] who assisted in Wahid transferring to Dacca Mohsinia Madrasa.[2] Wahid served as superintendent of the Dacca Mohsinia Madrasa from 1905 to 1919. In 1906, he travelled across the Muslim world in countries such as Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. He also toured European institutions, visiting Berlin, Budapest, Paris and Vienna.[11] On his return to the subcontinent, Wahid also visited Darul Uloom Deoband and the Islamic seminaries of Rampur and Lucknow. His travels were a means of surveying and researching different educational systems to inspire his Islamic educational reforms in Bengal. After consulting numerous ulama across the world, he formulated the reformed New Scheme madrasa system as the head of the Mohammedan Education Advisory Committee in 1914.[12] The scheme modernised Islamic education in Bengal.[13] In 1919, he became the first principal of Islamic Intermediate College in Dacca, with other Islamic Intermediate Colleges being found in Hooghly and Chittagong.[14] He was a member of the 13-member founding committee of Dacca University.[15] After its establishment in 1921, Wahid additionally served as a professor and the inaugural Head and founder of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the university. Wahid also founded the same department at a university in Patna, Bihar. Wahid served as secretary and as a member in many university committees such as the Madrasah Reform Committee in 1906, the Earle Conference in 1907, the Sharf Committee in 1909, the Nathan Committee in 1912 and many more.[16] Wahid retired in 1927. At his initiative in 1935, the Sylhet Government Alia Madrasah became the first madrasa in Bengal to receive kamil status.[17]

Wahid was also known to have brought to light a Shah Jalal Dargah inscription kept in the house of Sheikh Abdul Haq, his sister's father-in-law, in Ambarkhana, Sylhet. He presented it to Dacca Museum where it is still kept.[18][19]

Wahid was married to Syeda Masuda Khatun, but after her death, he married her sister Syeda Ammatul Batool Nanni Begum. His father-in-law, Syed Abdul Jabbar of Taraf, a zamindar based in Comilla.[note 1] Wahid had two sons. His daughter, Afsari Begum, married Syed Ahmadullah, son of Syed Azizullah.[1] He embarked on the Hajj pilgrimage in 1934.[2]

In 1909, Wahid was awarded the title of Shamsul Ulama.[24] He was made a cadre of the Indian Education Service in 1921.[7]

Wahid died on 31 May 1953, in Dacca, East Bengal. He was buried in the family cemetery of Shah Ahsanullah, the Pir of Musurikhala in Narinda.[8]

• Al-Mamun, Muhammad Abdullah (2008). ব্রিটিশ আমলে বাংলার মুসলিম শিক্ষা সমস্যা ও প্রসার [Education problems and expansion for Muslims of Bengal during the British period] (in Bengali). Bangla Academy.
• Abdus Sattar (2015). আলিয়া মাদ্রাসার ইতিহাস [History of Alia Madrasa] (in Bengali). Translated by Harun, Mostafa (3 ed.). Islamic Foundation Bangladesh. ISBN 978-9840609109.
• Chowdhury, Dewan Nurul Anwar Hossain (1997). জালালাবাদের কথা [About Jalalabad] (in Bengali). Bangla Academy. ISBN 9840735276.