Jamaat Ali Shah

Pir Syed Jamaat Ali Shah (1834 – 1951) was a Pakistani author, Islamic scholar and Sufi saint of the Naqshbandi order.¹ He presided over the All India Sunni Conference, led the movement for the Shaheed Ganj Mosque in Lahore, and was a leader of the Pakistan Movement.¹

He was born in 1834 in a Sayyid family at Alipur, Sialkot; his father was Sayyid Karim Shah, and his ancestors had come to India with the Mughal emperor Humayun and settled at Alipur in Akbar's time.¹ The Urdu article gives his birth at Alipur Sayyidan in Sialkot district in the same year, and records that he memorised the Qur'an by the age of seven and studied the religious sciences under teachers including Ghulam Qadir Bhairavi, Faiz-ul-Hasan Saharanpuri and Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri.² He completed his religious studies in jurisprudence and especially in the sciences of hadith.¹

The Urdu article states that he entered the Naqshbandi silsila at the hand of Faqir Muhammad Churahi and was granted the khirqa of khilafa at once, and that he also took spiritual benefit from Syed Muhammad Channan Shah Nuri of Allo Mahar Sharif.² The English article records that he was authorised to accept murids into many Sufi orders but worked in the Naqshbandi order of Sufism, and estimates that he had over one million murids worldwide.¹

He laid the foundation stones of and funded hundreds of mosques throughout the subcontinent, was a central figure in the Khilafat Movement, worked against the Arya Samaj's Shuddhi movement, and opposed the rise of Ahmadiyya and Wahhabism.¹ In March 1901 he established the Anjuman Khuddamus Sufia, Hind, and published the monthly Anwarus Sufia from Lahore.¹ On pilgrimage he refused to pray behind the official imams appointed in Mecca and Medina, answering the order to visit the king: "I am a faqeer, he is a king."¹

He was a leader of the Shaheed Ganj Mosque movement in Lahore, presided over the first session of the conference organised to protest, and "Shaheedganj Day" was held on 20 September 1935 under his leadership.¹ When three hundred Sunni scholars founded the All India Sunni Conference at Moradabad on 16–19 March 1925, Shah was elected its president, with Naeem-ud-Deen Muradabadi as general secretary, and his keynote address spoke against Wahhabism and for Islamic unity.¹ At the conference's Badaun session in October 1935 he was declared Ameer-e-Millat, leader of the Muslim community.¹

He supported the Aligarh Movement and contributed funds to it, toured the country for the Muslim League after the Lahore Resolution, and declared that he would not lead the funeral prayers of followers who did not support the Pakistan Movement; his campaigning in 1945–46 brought success to Muslim League candidates, and in 1947 he visited the North-West Frontier Province during its referendum.¹ He wrote many letters to Muhammad Ali Jinnah offering advice and support, and gave him prayer beads and a prayer mat to encourage him in Islamic practice; Jinnah in turn said his firm belief that Pakistan would come into being rested on Ameer-e-Millat's assurance.¹

His works include the Malfuzat-i Amirul Millat, his recorded teachings; Amir-i Millat aur All India Sunni Conference, his speeches of 1925–1946; and Zarurat-i Murshid, on the need for a spiritual guide.¹

He died in 1951 at Alipur, Narowal, where his tomb is situated — on 30 August 1951 by the Urdu article (26 Dhu al-Qa'da 1370 AH), which Wikidata confirms.¹²³ His grandson Pir Syed Munawar Hussain Shah Jamaati manages his dargah as sajjada nashin of Alipur Sayyidan, and his death anniversary is observed in Pakistan and the United Kingdom.¹

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