Name Munshi Meherullah | Role Poet Died 1907 | |
 | ||
Munshi Mohammad Meherullah (26 December 1861 – 1907) was a Muslim poet, religious leader and social reformer from Bengal. He is best known for his oratory and writing on Islam and comparative religion and his efforts has been compared to Raja Ram Mohan Roy's defense of Hinduism against British colonialism and Christian proselytization.
Contents
Early life
Munshi Mohammad Meherullah was born to Munshi Mohammad Wares in Jessore District in 1861. He learnt Arabic, Persian and Urdu at the local madrassah. When Meherullah was a 9 or 10 years old, the death of his father and penury compelled him to pursue further education. He thereby took up tailoring as a profession.
Religious conversions
Christian missionaries started making inroads into Muslim society in the last decades of the 19th century. Professor Abdul Hai writes: "During the last decades of the nineteenth century, Muslims started getting converted themselves into Christianity in different districts of Bangladesh. Lack of education, inadequacy of conviction in Islam and temptations for material interests motivated the Muslims in question to accept the rulers’ religion."
Meherullah himself confessed that he was greatly attracted to Christianity at this point. M.A. Majid mentions this in Chotoder Munshi Mohammad Meher Ullah. According to Majid, Meherullah became a Christian, moved to Darjeeling and lived under the patronage of Christian missionaries. There, he studied the books written by Muslim dais and reverted to Islam.
Religious activism
Munshi Mohammad Meherullah, returned to Jessore District and with his converted disciple Munshi Jamiruddin, adopted oratory method known as bahas (disputation) and sought to refute Christian missionaries. He was able to re-convert numerous Muslims who had been converted to Christianity. He established Madrasaye Karamatia and Islam Dharmottejika Sabha in 1889 at Manoharpur village in Jessore. He contributed regularly to Muslim newspapers like the Sudhakar and Islam Pracharak published from Kolkata.
According to Kenneth W. Jones, no other Muslim preacher contributed to polemical literature in that period. However, while debating Christian missionaries, Meherullah called for intra- communal harmony and unity of Muslims.
Notable works
Munshi Meherullah wrote at least 10 books between 1886 and 1908, which include
Death and evaluation
He died on 7 May 1907. Professor Abdul Hai, remarked "Meherullah proved to be the Ram Mohan of the Muslims of Bengal — Ram Mohan saved the Hindus from being converted to Christianity in the early nineteenth century and Meherullah saved the Muslims from being proselytized to Christianity in the late Nineteenth century."
E M School in Jessore was renamed as Munshi Meherulla Academy in his honor. Organizations such as Munshi Meherulla Social Welfare Organization and Meherullah Foundation were working in Jessore as of 2014.
Bangladesh published a stamp of face value 2 taka in his honor in 1995.