A'la Hadrat Maulana Shah Abdul Wahab

Early life Shah Abdul Wahhab was born on 1 Jumādā al-Ūlā of Hijri 1247 (19 October 1831) in Vellore. His father, Abdul Qadir Sahib, died when he was 4 years old in Madurai, India. He moved into his mother's household in Vellore and gained early education there.

Early education In Vellore, after having finished his pre-school education with his mother and uncle, Shah Abdul Wahhab did his primary schooling with Hakeem Jainul Abideen, a teacher and medical practitioner, who lived in the same street. He completed his primary education in Arabic and Persian languages with him.

To complete the necessary education of the time, Shah Abdul Wahhab left for Madurai. There he stayed together with Abdus Salaam Ibrahim, along with whom he learnt from Bahrul uloom Saahibul Karaamaat Ash Sheikh Meer Amjad Ibrahim Chinna Hazrat the second of Madurai Maqbara hazrats in Madurai for seven years.

Having finished his schooling, Shah Abdul Wahhab returned to Vellore. He married and started his family life. On 15 Sha'ban 1284 AH, he left for Hijaz, Arabia, while his three-year-old son and family stayed in India.

The teacher of Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi in his higher studies was Shah Abdul Ghani and his teacher was Shah Muhammad Is-haaq. Returning from Hyderabad, the first thing he did was to make himself financially stable. He sold off his ancestral land in Zameen Attur and bought land in Vellore. This provided him with an income. After he attended to his personal financial statement, he commenced his Islamic Social Services. So he founded the Islamic Madrasa Al-Baqiyat As-Salihat in 1884. He also started the Khanqahey Baqiyat in Vaniambadi, which served as a centre for the Qadiriyya and Chishtiya orders.

Madrasa Al-Baqiyat As-Salihat

On the lines of his teacher Rahmatullah Kairanawi, Shah Abdul Wahhab started a madrasa in his house without many resources. Rahmatullah Kairanawi was founding the Madrasa Sawlatiyya in Mecca around that time. There is no reference to the name of this small Madrasa.

This madrasa founded in a small house grew into the Madrasa Al-Baqiyat As-Salihat with a new Syllabus at its present location in 1884 (Hijri 1301).

The nadrasa had three objectives. The first was Islamic education, the second was emphasise and call Muslims towards the Sunnah and the third was to create service minded Islamic scholars who would be steadfast in their fight against Bid'ah or un-Islamic innovations in Islam.

Following the footsteps of his teacher Rahmatullah Kairanawi, who wrote authored the famous Islamic works, Izhar ul-Haqq, Izalathush Shukook, Izalathul Awham, A'la Hadrat spearheaded the Islamic Da'wah and answering Christians in South India. It is astonishing to find that there was no other Islamic scholar of his calibre when it came to Islamic social reform during the later part of the 19th century or the earlier part of the 20th century in Tamil Nadu.

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