17 Facts About Ahmad Surkati

Ahmad Surkati was born Ahmad bin Muhammad Surkati al-Anshori in around 1875 CE in Udfu, Arqu island near Dongola town, Sudan.

The word Surkati is taken from Dongolawi language meaning Many Books, because His grandfather had a lot of books when he returned from study.

Ahmad Surkati came from an educated family; both his father and grandfather had studied in Egypt, with his father graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Ahmad Surkati received his earliest education from his father and succeeded in memorizing the text of al-Quran at a young age.

Ahmad Surkati attended Ma'had Syarqi Na, an institute led by a distinguished scholar in Dongola.

Ahmad Surkati studied fiqh knowledge from two fiqh scholars at the time, Sheikh Ahmad Mahjub and Sheikh Mubarak an-Nismat, where for the Arabic studies, he learned it from a linguist named Sheikh Muhammad al-Barzan.

Ahmad Surkati lived in Hejaz for fifteen years in which more than eleven years he spent it in Mecca, where he received "mainstream" education with an emphasis on Hadith, where Ahmad Surkati graduated from Darul 'Ulum in Mecca.

Ahmad Surkati was the first Sudanese to earn the title of al-Allamah in 1326 AH.

Ahmad Surkati's first two years at this position was a great success, creating an assurance for the Jamiat Kheir to hire four more foreign teachers in October 1913.

Ahmad Surkati regarded her situation as disgraceful so proposed that the Hadramis in the area donate money to her or that she be married by a non-Sayyid Muslim.

Ahmad Surkati argued the marriage of non-Sayyid man to a Sayyid woman would be permitted according to the Islamic Law.

Ahmad Surkati's opinion was quickly heard by the Jamiat Kheir leaders in Batavia, and his relationship with the more conservative Sayyids began to deteriorate rapidly.

Ahmad Surkati then wrote his arguments and answers in Al-Masa `il ats-Tsalats in 1925 which contained the issue of Ijtihad, Bid'ah, Sunnah, Heresy, Ziyarat, Taqbil and Tawassul.

Ahmad Surkati tendered his resignation from his position on September 18,1914.

Ahmad Surkati initially intended to return to Mecca where he used to teach, but was persuaded to stay by a few non-Sayyid Hadhramis named Umar manqush the Kapitein der Arabieren in Batavia, Sholih 'Ubaid and Sa'id bin Salim al-Mash'abi, so he then opened another Islamic school named Al-Irshad Al-Islamiya in Batavia on September 6,1914, with the financial assistance of some Arabs, the largest of which of Abdullah bin Alwi Alatas as 60,000 Dutch gulden.

Ahmad Surkati was the spiritual teacher of Jong Islamieten Bond, where its activists such as Muhammad Natsir, Kasman Sigodimedjo and others often learned from.

Ahmad Surkati's was buried at the Karet Bivak cemetery with modest means, with no gravestone nor sign of anything on the grave to fulfill his last wish before death.