Muḥaddith al-ʿAẓīm Qazi Mu'tasim Billah | |
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কাজী মুতাসিম বিল্লাহ | |
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| Personal life | |
| Born | Qazi Mu'tasim Billah Bahar 15 June 1933 |
| Died | 15 July 2013(2013-07-15) (aged 80) |
| Resting place | Shahjahanpur Graveyard, Dhaka |
| Parent |
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| Alma mater | Darul Uloom Deoband |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Hanafi |
| Tariqa | Chishti(Sabiri-Imdadi) Naqshbandi Qadri Suhrawardy |
| Movement | Deobandi |
| Muslim leader | |
| Teacher | Hussain Ahmad Madani Ibrahim Balyawi Izaz Ali Amrohi Muhammad Tayyib Qasmi |
| Disciple of | Hussain Ahmad Madani Tajammul Ali |
Influenced by | |
| Principal ofJamia Shar'iyya Malibagh | |
| In office 1969–2013 | |
| Succeeded by | Ashraf Ali |
| Principal ofJamia Islamia Darul Uloom Madania | |
| In office 1969–1977 | |
| Succeeded by | Tajammul Ali |
| Personal details | |
| Party | Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam |
| Islam in Bangladesh |
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Ideology/schools of thought |
Qazi Mu'tasim Billah Bahar (Bengali:কাজী মুতাসিম বিল্লাহ বাহার; 15 June 1933 – 15 July 2013) was aBangladeshiIslamic scholar, teacher, author and politician. He was the principal ofJamia Shar'iyya Malibagh for over four decades, a former professor at theUniversity of Dhaka and the founding principal ofJamia Islamia Darul Uloom Madania inJatrabari, Dhaka. He has written many books and articles in theBengali language and pioneered the introduction of a Bengali-medium among theQawmi madrasas of Bangladesh.[1]
Qazi Mu'tasim Billah Bahar was born on 15 June 1933, to aBengali Muslim family ofQadis in the village of Gopalpur inKaliganj,Jhenaidah subdivision, which was then a part of theBengal Presidency'sJessore District. Other sources claim that he was born in the village of Zamzampur inJessore Sadar.[2] His father, Qazi Sakhawat Husayn, was anIslamic scholar and politician, and his mother's name was Qurratun Nesa. His grandfather, Qazi Abdul Wadud, and great-grandfather, Qazi Rawshan Ali, were also prominentSufis in the greater Jessore region.[3][4][5]
Mu'tasim Billah's education began under his parents, and then at the Gopalpur primary school. He studied there until class 2, when he moved to his maternal home where he studied until class 4. After that, Mu'tasim Billah became a student at his father's workplace, the Lauri-Ramnagar Alia Madrasa inManirampur where he completed hisFazil qualification. In 1953, he set off forHindustan afterRamadan to study at theDarul Uloom Deoband seminary inSaharanpur, where he enrolled at the Faculty of Arts. In 1956, he enrolled at the Faculty ofHadith studies and gained asanad fromHussain Ahmad Madani. Among his teachers in Deoband were Hussain Ahmed Madani,Ibrahim Balyawi,Izaz Ali Amrohi andMuhammad Tayyib Qasmi, Bashir Ahmad Khan and Jalil Ahmad Kairanvi. In Bangladesh, he studied underTajammul Ali, Qamaruddin Silhati andAshraf Ali Dharmanduli.[4][5]
Mu'tasim Billah returned to Bengal in 1957 after graduating, and began his career as a teacher at the Lauri-Ramnagar Alia Madrasa. In 1959, he joined the Bara Katara Madrasa inDhaka, and subsequently the Jamia Imdadia inKishoreganj in 1962. He was appointed as theShaykh al-Hadith (Professor of Hadith studies) of the Katlasen Alia Madrasa inMymensingh towards the end of 1966. Mu'tasim Billah established his ownmadrasa, theJamia Islamia Darul Uloom Madania in 1969 at the suggestion ofAbdullah Darkhawasti. From its establishment, he served as its principal andShaykh al-Hadith for eight years. He then returned to Katlasen Alia Madrasa in 1977. He also served as a teacher at the Jamia Hussainia Arzabad madrasa inMirpur for one year in 1979. The following year, Mu'tasim Billah was appointed as the principal ofJamia Shar'iyya Malibagh. During his time in Malibagh, he was also a professor at theUniversity of Dhaka's department of Islamic Studies where he coveredSahih Muslim. He resigned after one and half years as a result of violations of religious precepts in teaching authority. Towards the start of 1992, he was a teacher at the Daratana Madrasa in Jessore, and the principal andShaykh al-Hadith of Jamia Islamia Tantibazar in 1994. He returned to his two positions at Malibagh in 1997, and served there for the rest of his life.[4]
He also travelled across the country often to give public speeches. Among his famous speeches is the one-hour Mizan Maydan speech inFeni and his six-hourSeerah speech inBhaluka,Mymensingh.[5]
Mu'tasim Billah is credited for popularising the use of the nativeBengali language within the Islamic education system ofBangladesh. Immediately returning form Deoband in 1957, he formulated a Bengali-medium system forQawmi madrasas in erstwhileEast Pakistan. Mu'tasim Billah was known to have studied the works of many Bengali authors such asQazi Nazrul Islam andFarrukh Ahmad, and initiated a culture of Bengali newspapers, annual magazines and literary conferences within the madrasa ecosystem. He inspired a generation of writers among Bangladeshi scholars. Although he was criticized in the contemporary era for changing the traditional method, later the practice of his thought spread throughout the madrasa ecosystem. He was the first to shape the curriculum of the Qawmi madrasas in such a manner. Among his other activities was the exclusion of the elementary prose literature book "al-Ḳalyūbī" from the syllabus and the inclusion of theQasas an-Nabiyyin in the syllabus.[3][6]
He was known to have memorised hundreds of poems in Bengali,Arabic,Urdu andPersian. Many of his works pertaining totafsir andhadith have been published by theIslamic Foundation Bangladesh as well as annotated translations of theQur'an and theKutub al-Sittah. Mu'tasim Billah was also a member of theIslami Bishwakosh's editorial board. Although most of his works are in Bengali, he also wrote in the Arabic and Urdu languages. In his final year the Urdu-medium Darul Uloom Deoband, he competed in an annual writing competition where he wrote a research paper titled "Mawjuda Aalmi Kashmakash Aur Us Ka Hal". Six of his works have been published, with three remaining unpublished in Bengali, Urdu and Arabic respectively.[3]
Mu'tasim Billah was a long-time member of theIslamic Foundation Bangladesh's editorial board, having edited 42 of the Foundation's books and reviewed 51 books. Among his written works are:
Mu'tasim Billah was never associated with politics in his student life, although his family were actively connected with theJamiat Ulema-e-Hind andIndian National Congress. His father would take him to Jamiat conferences advocating againstpartition, and his paternal and maternal grandfathers were also Jamiat members. HismurshidHussain Ahmad Madani was the President of the party. After the independence of Pakistan, Mu'tasim Billah became a member of theJamiat Ulema-e-Islam's central committee and constitution formulation subcommittee. During theBangladesh War of Independence, he played an active role for the welfare of Bengalis and declared the deceased pro-independence fighters asmartyrs and harassed women asmazluma. Following independence, he publicly opposed the politics ofSyed Nazrul Islam andTajuddin Ahmad. He met with PresidentSheikh Mujibur Rahman alongsideAsad Madni andAbdur Rashid Tarkabagish, and Madni requested that the president allows the re-opening of madrasas in Bangladesh, explaining that theMuslim world is not having positive opinions about him. Mu'tasim Billah then consoled the president stating that the general scholars of Bangladesh were free from anti-independent movements and that they should not be harassed. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman promised Mu'tasim Billah that he will take his request on board.[4][7][5]
After completing his studies in Deoband, Mu'tasim Billah pledgedbay'ah toHussain Ahmad Madani in 1957. Despite being aHanafi, Madani used to refer to Mu'tasim Billah as a "Mujtahid of the fourteenth centuryA. H.". Madani died on 5 December of that year and he then returned to Bengal two to three months later. In Bengal, he became amurid ofTajammul Ali, who later granted himkhilafat (spiritual succession).[4]
On 12 June 1959, Mu'tasim Billah married the daughter of Shah Sufi Haji Abdul Hamid of Collegepara inMagura. They had four sons and one daughter (d. 2011). His eldest son, Qazi Arif Billah is a teacher at the Mahbub Hefzkhana and his second son, Qazi Mahmud, is a mosque and madrasa custodian. His third son, Mawlana Qazi Mansur, is based inSaudi Arabia and his fourth son, Qazi Maruf, is based in Jessore.[5]
Mu'tasim Billah died on 15 July 2013. Hisjanaza was performed in Khilgaon Balur Math by his studentAbdur Rahman Hafezji ofMymensingh at noon. After the prayer, he was buried at the Shahjahanpur Graveyard inDhaka.[8] In 2017, theJamia Shariyyah Malibagh madrasa published a book in memory of his life and contributions.[9]