Hazrat Mujadid Abdul Wahab Siddiqi
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Hazrat Allama Pir Muhammad Abdul Wahab Siddiqi (ra) (1942-1994) was a Sunni Muslim religious scholar. He was born in 1942, the third son of Hazrat Allama Pir Muhammad Umar Icharvi, one of Pakistan's leading religious scholars of the time, who held the honorary title of Munazare-Azam (the greatest debater) because of his success in defeating the leaders of rival Islamic sects. Despite being the third son, Hazrat Abdul Wahab was made the head of the branch of the Naqshbandi Sufi order by his father.
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[edit] Migration
Hazrat Abdul Wahab emigrated to the UK and founded the England's first ever Madrassah: Jamia Islamia in Coventry. However Hazrat Abdul Wahab had a vision to revive a model of Islamic scholarship whereby religious scholars would be trained not just in traditional religious sciences but also in contemporary worldly subjects such as the physical sciences, social sciences and humanities, which would in turn produce an Islamic Renaissance. He carried out this experiment on his sons Shaykh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, who is a barrister-at-law and the current principal of Hijaz College, Shaykh Noor-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi and Shaykh Zain-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, who are solicitors in Birmingham and Shaykh Qamar-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi who is a doctor. This led him to becoming the founder of the Hijaz College, Nuneaton Hazrat Abdul Wahab also founded the International Muslims Organisation which was set up in the wake of the Rushdie crisis and has met intermittanly since then to tackle international issues facing the Muslim community, by gathering religious scholars worldwide to present a unified voice. and the Naqshbandi Hijazi Sufi Order.
[edit] Efforts for the revival of Muslim Community in Europe
He worked throughout his life for the revival of the Muslim community in Europe gaining many followers in the UK, Holland, Belgium and Germany. Yasser Arafat on his first European tour visited Hazrat Abdul Wahab as his name had been mentioned to him everywhere he had gone in Europe before he reached the UK He also gained numerous followers in Canada, Trinidad and Surinam. Hazrat Sahib was also a founder member of the now largely defunct Muslim Parliament and was instrumental in leading demonstrations against Salman Rushdie's novel the Satanic verses. He is considered by many to be the Mujaddid of his time.
[edit] Final resting Place
Hazrat Abdul Wahab Siddiqi was considered a Qutb, a very high form of Awliya (Muslim Saint) and as per custom in the Muslim world, a Mausoleum has been built over his grave which is in the grounds of Hijaz College.
