HAJI SHARIATULLAH

HAJI SHARIATULLAH

(1781-1860)

 ●      INTRODUCTION:

He was born in 1781 in Faridpur district in east Bengal. His family was poor. In 1799 He went to Arabia on pilgrimage and stayed there for nineteen years . He was greatly influenced by the teaching of Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Wahab.

●      BELIEFS:

He believed that the miserable condition of the Muslims in India led to the country being Dar-Ul-Harb (Country under Foreign Rule). He told that Friday prayer and Eid prayer cannot be offered here. He also believed that Muslim community had moved away from Islamic practice. He wanted them to return to what he thought was the proper observation of Islamic duties called Faraizi. This was why he started his movement was called Faraizi Movement. The Faraizi Movement supported the idea of Jihad against the non-Muslims who were undermining the true principles of Islam.

●      WORK:

He started Faraizi movement to restore the Pride of the Muslims and remove what he thought were the Hindu practices. Emphasis was placed on praying for past sins and promising to lead a righteous life in the future which had crept into their worship. The success of this movement caused British and Hindu Landlord’s and they did not want Haji Shariat Ullah to create difficulty for them by uniting a desire to improve their lives and purify their religion so they drove Haji out of the reign to Nawabganj in Dhaka where he died in 1840. His work however was carried by his son Mohsin-ud-Din who continued to improve the position of Muslim in East Bengal and introduced important economic measures. He divides East Bengal into circle under control of each Khalifa to carry out religious activities. He helped the peasants to oppose land taxes and he threatened to declare Jihad against the British so he was captured and put in prison where he died in 1860.

●      IMPORTANCE:

Work of Haji Shariat Ullah was important to Faraizi Movement because it gave encouragement to Muslims at a time when they demoralised by oppression suffered from Hindus and British. It also brought about a spiritual revival which led to a revival in Islamic religion in East Bengal. Hindu influences were removed from Islamic practices. It might be said that some seeds for the Pakistan Movement were sown by the Faraizi Movement.