Enayetpuri, Ahmed Ali

'Enayetpuri, Ahmed Ali (1898-1959) social worker, politician, journalist and an Islamic scholar. Born on 21 January 1898 in the village of Enayetpur, Jessore. He was the son of Abed Ali and Sayeda Khatun. His forefathers had come from Iraq. He had no formal education. But he came in contact with Abu Bakar, a religious leader of Furfura, and learnt Arabic and Persian well and acquired knowledge in Islamic theology. He also learnt a good deal of English. His P'i'r conferred on him the title of Shamsul Ulama'; for his depth of knowledge.

In 1924, Enayetpuri published a newspaper entitled sariat. Later the title of the paper was changed to sariat-i-Islam and he edited it for long thirty-two years. He was associated with the Muslim League and was elected an MLA on Muslim League ticket from the Jhenidah constituency in 1937. He tabled a bill for full free primary education.

Ahmed Ali established several Madrasahs and a number of primary and secondary schools. He received the title of 'Khan Shaheb'; with a silver crest in 1934 and 'Khan Bahadur'; with a gold crest in 1938 from the British government. He was a member of the Jessore District Board. He wrote several books on Sufism and Fatw'a'h. 

He died on 4 January 1959 at Enayetpur and was buried there. [M Afaz Uddin] [Afazuddin, M  Professor of Dawah and Islamic Studies, Islamic University]