Syed Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri

Syed Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri (Bengali: সৈয়দ রশীদ আহমদ জৌনপুরী; 1889–2001) was a Sufi saint,[1] author, scholar of Hadith and Quran, and Muslim missionary in Bangladesh.

[3] As a Sufi master, he was initiated in Qadiriyya,[4] Chishti, Naqshbandi, Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya, Shadhili, Uwaisi, Qalandariyya, Saberiyya and Nizamiyya orders.

[6] Syed Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri's devotees state that his maternal lineage goes back to Caliph Abu Bakr,[7][8] the first political successor of Islam, and his paternal lineage to Ali, the fourth political successor (caliph) of Islam.

[6] Just forty days after his birth, a fakir came to their house and told his father that he had come under orders from Mohiuddin Abdul Qader Jilani to take the child.

His father felt some kind of hesitation, but his mother, immediately agreed to the proposal and handed over the new born baby to the fakir.

[12] Since his second wife Rabeya Khatun was barren, and he did not have any children by her, he married Aqia Begum, the daughter of Mohammad Shamsher Ali,[13] of Genda, Savar in suburban Dhaka.

[citation needed] He adopted Helena Begum in 1965,[12] an orphan, whose parents died of hunger in dire poverty.

On 13 August 2001, he married Umme Kulthum Monowara Zerin, daughter of Sheikh Wajed Ali, who hailed from Howrah, Kolkata.

M Harunur Rashid, who was a devotee of Jaunpuri,[18] wrote a number of works based on his philosophy and vision.