The Jamia's Fourth Sheikhul Hadith

The Jamia's fourth Sheikhul Hadith was one of the subcontinent's foremost scholars of religion, Faqihul Millat Mufti Abdur Rahman (rahimahullah). He was born in 1925 in Imamnagar village, Fatikchhari, Chattogram. After completing his primary, secondary, and higher-secondary studies at Nazirhat and Hathazari Madrasas, he travelled to Darul Uloom Deoband, where in 1950 he passed Dawra-e-Hadith — the highest level of the Qawmi madrasa curriculum — with distinction. He was the first graduate of Darul Uloom Deoband's Ifta (fatwa-issuing) department. On returning home, at the invitation of Hazrat Mufti Azizul Haq (rahimahullah), founding director of Al-Jamia Al-Islamia Patiya, a historic institution of East Asia, he began his career as a senior teacher there. He went on to serve simultaneously as the Jamia's chief mufti, assistant director-general, and head of the education department, while also teaching the first volume of Sahih Bukhari, the highest text of the Dawra-e-Hadith curriculum. In 1991 he established a distinctive institution of higher education in the important Bashundhara Residential Area of Dhaka, naming it Markazul Fikril Islami, which today stands as a unique centre for higher Islamic education across the entire subcontinent. He also founded numerous mosques, madrasas, maktabs, and Hifz schools in remote regions of the country. Until his death he served as Mohtamim and Sheikhul Hadith of various madrasas in Chattogram, Dhaka, and North Bengal. He served a full year as this Jamia's Sheikhul Hadith, and passed away on 10 November 2015.