Wajihuddin Alvi


Shah Wajihuddin Alvi Gujarati, also known the epithet Haider Ali Saani, was an Islamic scholar and Sufi in the Shattari order.

Life

Wajihuddin Alvi Gujarati was born in Ahmedabad in 1504 into a family of Sufi scholars and jurists. In 1528 he founded the Alvi Madrasa which was Ahmedbad's most notable Islamic learning center for over a century and a half. He was made a member of the Shattariyya order by Muhammad Ghous. Under his leadership, Ahmedabad became a major centre of Islamic studies, attracting students from all over India, and many of his disciples became prominent figures, including Syed Sibghatallah al-Barwaji, who moved to Medina and established the Shattari tradition in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Qadir, who settled in Ujjain, and Sheikh Abu Turab, who moved to Lahore, and students from Bengal such as Usman and Yusuf, who contributed to Islamic education in medieval Hindustan. He died in his madrasa in 1590.

Works

Wajihuddin Alvi is reported to have written books in Arabic and Persian:
  • Hashiya Alvi Ala Tafsir Baydawi
  • Sharh Nuzhat Al-Nazar
  • Hashiya Alvi ala Sharh al-Jami
  • Aidah Haqiqat Sharh Haqiqat Muhamadi

    Shrine

He died in 1580 CE. He is buried in a memorial tomb in Khanpur, Ahmedabad, built by his disciple Syed Murtuza Khan Bukhari, the eleventh governor of Ahmedabad during the reign of Jahangir.