Uthman bin Yahya

Habib Uthman bin Yahya was born in Pekojan, Batavia in 1822 (17 Rabi' al-awwal 1238 AH). Uthman came from the Ba 'Alawi sada family from his father, Sayyid Abdullah bin Aqil bin Umar bin Yahya. His mother was Aminah, a daughter of Shaykh Abdurrahman, who was the cousin to the scholar Abdullah al-Misri. His father, Abdullah, and his grandfather, Aqil, were born in Mecca, while his great grandfather, Umar, was born in the village of Qarah al-Shaikh in Hadhramaut, who later moved and died in Medina. Snouck Hurgronje explained that his grandfather was a respected scholar as Sheikh of Sadah for 50 years and died in Mecca in 1823 (1238 AH). His father moved to Mecca when Uthman was 3 years old, so Uthman was taken care of by his grandfather, Aqil. His grandfather has many other sons, besides the father of Uthman. Many of his sons became scholars in Mecca, such as Sayyid Ishaq, who died in the city of Ta'if, and Sayyid Qasim who continued Agil's leadership as Shaikh of Sada in Mecca. ==Education==

Uthman studied Qur'an, Tafsir and other Islamic sciences such as Akhlaq, Tawhid, Fiqh, Sufism, Nahwu Sharaf, Hadith and Astronomy under the care of his maternal grandfather, Shaykh Abdurrahman bin Ahmad Al-Mishri. After the death of his grandfather when he was 18 years old, Uthman went for hajj and met his father and relatives in Mecca. There, for seven years he studied Islamic sciences under his father and Ahmad Zayni Dahlan, the Mufti of Mecca at the time. Uthman continued his journey in the pursuit of knowledge to Hadhramaut in 1848. There, he studied under Habib Abdullah bin Umar and his maternal uncle Habib Husein bin Abdullah (later on, one of his teacher's grandson, Sayyid Muhammad bin Agil which was married to Uthman's daughters). He also went to and studied in Egypt and once married to an Egyptian woman. He continued his journey to Tunisia, where he often exchanged ideas with the Mufti of Tunisia. From Tunisia he then studied in Algeria and later continued on to Morocco to study under various Moroccan scholars. He deepened his knowledge in Shariah in those North African countries before going to Syria to meet with scholars there. He continued his journey to present-day Turkey, which was still under the Ottoman Sultanate. Later, he went to Jerusalem in Palestine before returning to Mecca. ==Career==

In 1862 (1279 AH) he went back to Batavia after 22 years of journey to seek knowledge and settled in Petamburan, Tanah Abang area. Over there, he wrote and compiled books, especially about amalil yaum (daily remembrances) and books about sins, unbelieving, polytheism and on subjects that are contrary to Aqidah. In his life, he has written about 116 books. He also opened his Majelis Taklim (a gathering to seek religious knowledge) which was attended by many people including some other scholars from all over Batavia and surrounding areas, Among his students was Habib Ali Alhabsyi. As a mufti, many parties criticized Uthman for his closeness with the Dutch orientalist, Snouck Hurgronje. Hamid Algadri in his book ==Controversies==

Habib Uthman's attitudes in politics were sometimes quite controversial, especially in his position on jihad and Holy War, particularly concerning a riot against the Dutch in Cilegon, Banten. Although Habib Uthman had good reason in his argument, many scholars alleged him as a colonial stooge. Moreover, he was also hard against mystical practices, as he wrote in the book Manhaj al-Istiqamah. In a letter dated March 26, 1891, Snouck wrote about Sayyid Uthman's opinions in regards to jihad which was interpreted incorrectly by some Indonesian Muslims:'' "Many people were 'misled' by some law doctrines of jihad, and they thought that a Muslim person is justified in the presence of God to do acts such as to take possessions of the unbelievers, Chinese or dutch people for himself ... "'' ==His work==

: "an Arabic, Malay, Sundanese dictionary") by Uthman Uthman published religious books in Arabic and Malay (written in Jawi script) on his own lithographic press. ==References==