Syed Fakhruddin Ahmad studied Quran with his mother and
Persian with family elders. Aged eight, he began studying Arabic grammar and syntax. He enrolled in Madrassa Manba al-Ulum Gulaothi, where he studied with
Majid Ali Jaunpuri and then went to Delhi with him and studied books of rational sciences in the
madrassas of Delhi. In 1908, he entered the
Darul Uloom Deoband and studied Daura Hadith (the final class) in two years instead of one, as per the instructions of
Mahmud Hasan Deobandi. Ahmad began teaching at the Darul Uloom Deoband and later went to the
Madrasa Shahi in
Shawwal 1339 AH, where he served for 48 years. He was the principal of the Madrasa Shahi and taught
Sahih al-Bukhari and
Sunan Abu Dawood there. 1161 students studied
Sahih al-Bukhari from him between 1377 and 1383 AH. He was appointed the senior hadith professor (Shaykh al-Hadith) at the Darul Uloom Deoband following the death of
Hussain Ahmad Madani in 1957. During the presidency of Hussain Ahmad Madani, Ahmad twice served as the vice-president of
Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind. Aged 82 or 83, Ahmad died on 5 April 1972 (20
Safar 1392 AH). His funeral prayer was led by
Muhammad Tayyib Qasmi at
Moradabad. ==Literary works==