Shaykh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliteration of Arabic, transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonl ...

Muhammad Salih Bengali ( bn, মুহম্মদ সালেহ বাঙ্গালী, fa, ) was an 18th-century

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...

and teacher from

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. He is mentioned in the works of

Abd al-Hayy al-Lucknawi Abdul Hayy Lucknawi Firangi Mahali (1264 - 1304 A.H./1848 - 1886 C.E) was an Indian people, Indian Islamic scholar of Hanafi school of Islamic thought. Lineage Abdul Hayy was born in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, Banda, India, in 1847. He was a descend ...

and

Muhammad Ishaq Bhatti Muḥammad Isḥāq Bhaṭṭī (Urdu: ‎; Muhammad Ishaq Bhatti; 15 March 1925 – 22 December 2015) was Pakistani Islamic scholar, journalist, historian and biographer of Islamic scholars. He was one of the leading writers of Islamic schol ...

, where he is described as one of the leading scholars in the fields of

Islamic jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and e ...

, its principles, ''

hikmah ''Hikmah'' (also ''Hikmat'', ar, حكمة, ', literally wisdom, philosophy; rationale, underlying reason, from Semitic root ) is a concept in Islamic philosophy and law. Mulla Sadra defined ''hikmah'' as "coming to know the essence of beings a ...

'', ''

kalam ''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...

'' and

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

Biography

Muhammad Salih originated from

, hence the suffix ''Bengali'' is found attached to his name in historical literary works. He studied the

Islamic sciences The Islamic sciences ( ar, علوم الدين, ʿulūm al-dīn, lit=the sciences of religion) are a set of traditionally defined religious sciences practiced by Islamic scholars ( ), aimed at the construction and interpretation of Islamic relig ...

under Shihab ad-Din, the

Qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

Gopamau Gopamau is a town and nagar panchayat in Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Located just west of the Gomti river, Gopamau is a historic town that once served as a pargana headquarters. Important industries include cap making, tobacco, and ag ...

, in

Hindustan ''Hindūstān'' ( , from '' Hindū'' and ''-stān''), also sometimes spelt as Hindōstān ( ''Indo-land''), along with its shortened form ''Hind'' (), is the Persian-language name for the Indian subcontinent that later became commonly used by ...

. After that, he joined the

halaqa Halaqa ( ar, حلقة, Ḥalaqah, circle/ring) in Islamic terminology refers to a religious gathering or meeting for the study of Islam and the Quran. Generally, there are one or more primary speakers that present the designated topic(s) of the ha ...

of Mir Zahid Harawi (d. 1689) who was one of the teachers of

Shah Abdur Rahim Shah Abdur Rahim ( fa, ; 1644-1719) was an Islamic scholar and a writer who assisted in the compilation of Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, the voluminous code of Islamic law. He was the father of the Muslim philosopher Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. He became a dis ...

that was serving as a ''Qadi'' at the Mughal imperial court. He benefitted a lot from this teacher. Thereafter, Salih became a teacher of Islamic studies himself. Among his many students was

Qutb ad-Din Qutb ad-Din or Qutb-ud-Din ( ar, قطب‌ الدین, translit=quṭb ad-dīn; ) is an Arabic male given name translated as 'the pivot of the faith' or 'axis of the faith'. Notable people with this given name include: *Qutb al-din Hasan (died 110 ...

, the son of his former teacher Shihab ad-Din, who also became a ''Qadi''. Qutb ad-Din traced (

isnad Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism) consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...

) the works of Zahid Harawi from Muhammad Salih, and was the teacher of

Majduddin Majd ad-Dīn al-Madanī ( ar, ; d. 1813), also known as Madan Shāhjahānpūrī ( ar, ), was an 18th-century Indian Muslim theologian. He served as the first principal of the Aliah University, Calcutta Madrasa, the first Alia Madrasah Education ...

References

18th-century Bengalis Bengali Muslim scholars of Islam 18th-century Indian Muslims Indian Sunni Muslims 18th-century Muslim theologians 17th-century births 18th-century deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown {{Bangladesh-bio-stub