Shah Karamat Ali Jaunpuri

Early life and family Muhammad Ali Jaunpuri was born in the neighbourhood of Mulla Tola in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh in India on 18 Muharram 1215 A. H. (12 June 1800 CE). His father, Abu Ibrahim Shaykh Muhammad Imam Bakhsh, was the only son of Shaykh Jarullah and Musammat Jamila Bibi. Bakhsh was a student of Shah Abdul Aziz and was employed as a sheristadar at the Jaunpur Collectorate. Jaunpuri's mother, Musammat Bati Bibi, was the daughter of Shaykh Lutf-e-Ali. His younger brother, Shah Rab Ali Jaunpuri, was a faqir and khalifah of Syed Ahmad Shaheed.

It is said that the name Karamat was later prefixed to his name as people started to notice his karamat. From his own books, it can be seen that he used to refer to himself as simply 'Ali Jaunpuri' or 'Ali Jaunpuri better known as Karamat Ali'.

Education Jaunpuri's early education in Arabic and Persian began with his father, and he later started Hadith studies and other Islamic studies under Qudratullah Radaulvi and Ahmadullah Anami. He studied reasoning with Ahmad Ali Abbasi Chiraiyakoti and was taught tajweed and Qur'an by Qari Sayyid Ibrahim Madani and Qari Sayyid Muhammad Iskandarani, eventually mastering all seven qira'at.

At the age of eighteen, Jaunpuri became interested in tasawwuf. After taking his father's permission, Jaunpuri pledged bay'ah to Sayyid Ahmad of Raebareli, who was the founder of the Tariqah-e-Muhammadiya movement. He played an important role in Arabic, Urdu and Islamic studies in the country. Starting in Calcutta, he travelled to various places including Dhaka, Mymensingh, Dinajpur, Faridpur, Noakhali, Chittagong, Goalpara, Dhubri, Kamrup and Rangpur.

For most of Karamat Ali Jaunpuri's career, he had to sail in Bengal and Assam for religious activities. For this reason, he established a travelling madrasa within a large boat. His students lived in the boat and Jaunpuri used to bear their expenses and teach them there.

Political views The Tariqah-i-Muhammadiya split into two in 1867 with Jaunpuri leading a faction which came to be known as the Taiyunis. The Taiyunis considered cooperating with the British authorities as the more ideal option rather than rebelling. Karamat Ali Jaunpuri and the Taiyunis were also opponents of Haji Shariatullah's Faraizi movement which declared British India as a Dar al-Harb (house of war) and discarded the Friday prayer and Eid prayers. Instead, he issued a fatwa declaring the colonised territory as a Dar al-Aman as the British government allowed freedom of religion. His fatwa was used by other Muslim scholars as well as Muslim modernists of the subcontinent like Nawab Abdul Latif and later Syed Ahmad Khan to justify their loyalty and cooperation to the British Empire. During his lifetime, Jaunpuri engaged in debate with the Faraizis, most prominently Abdul Jabbar Faraizi.

Disciples Jaunpuri had hundreds of spiritual successors (khalifas) including:

Hafiz Ahmad Jaunpuri (1834–1899) Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique of Furfura Darbar Sharif (1865–1943) Qari Muhammad Jawed Bakht of Chhatak, Sunamganj Nadiruzzaman Bhuiyan of Kaliganj, Gazipur Khwaja Tamizuddin of Cachar (d. 1899) Qazi Muhammad Sami of Rangpur Ashraf Ali Majumdar of Barsala, Sylhet (1817–1883) Moulvi Qudratullah of Dhaka Zulqad Ali of Sivasagar, Assam (1796–1891) Maulvi Sarfaraz Ali of Delhi (fl. 1857) Sayyid Muhammad Shah of Rampur (d. 1920)

Eponyms Institutions named after him include: Noakhali Karamatia Kamil Madrasa (1850), Noakhali Keramatia Mosque and Mazar (1860s), Rangpur City Char Fasson Karamatia Kamil Madrasa (1945), Char Fasson, Bhola Island Buzurg Santoshpur Karamatia Fazil Madrasa (1948), Mithapukur, Rangpur Pabitrajhar Karamatia Fazil Madrasa (1950), Pirgacha, Rangpur Sayedpur Karamatia Fazil Madrasa (1952), Pirgacha, Rangpur Bara Rangpur Karamatia Kamil Madrasa (1959), Rangpur City