(Shaikh) İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca was an Islamic Scholar. He was born in Çorum, Turkey. He started his early education in his village. In 1893, he came to Istanbul for Madrasa (“school” in Arabic) education. In 1902 he started Darü’l-fünun ilahiyat Fafültesi (Darü’l-fünun Divinity School). He finished his faculty in 1903 and started working as Ders-i Amm ( Ulema, a person who teaches the Madrasa students) in the Fatih Mosque.
He was later arrested and taken to jail several times, but freed. He was the founding member of Cemiyet-i Müderrisin together with Mustafa Sabri.
[He was arrested by the secular government (of Mustafa Kemal Pasha) for continuously preaching Islam and ‘propagating about not imitating the disbelievers’, even after repeated orders warning him not to do so.]
Before the Westernization movement in Turkey, he wrote a book titled Frenk Mukallitliği ve Şapka (literally- Westernization and the (European) Hat) in 1924. In it, he advocated Sharia Law and opposed western influences like “Alcohol, Prostitution, Theater, Dance” and the “western hat”. Because the western hat was a symbol of the Non-Muslims, and wearing a hat would make Muslims to lose their Islamic identity.
After the passing of “The Hat Act”, a law that passed on 25 November 1925 and ordered that no other headwear except the ‘western hat’ was allowed (therefore banning the wearing the Fez, classical Turkish turban worn by Muslims), people rose in revolt in some provinces, which the government suppressed.
[The secular government wanted to remove all the symbols of Islam, so they banned the Turkish Turban (Fez) and the traditional dress of the Turkish Muslim scholars, the Turkish gown (thobe).]
He was arrested and sent to Ankara on 26 December 1925 where he stood trial on 26 January 1926. The attorney general demanded three years of imprisonment, but the court postponed the trial to the next day. The next day, the Shaikh İskilipli declared that he no longer desired to defend himself. He was sentenced to death and martyred by hanging on 4 February 1926.
The Tomb of Atıf Hoca, who was buried in secret from his family, was found 82 years later and buried in the Gülbaba Cemetery in Iskilip district.
Shaikh Mehmed Iskilipli Atif Hoca meets his martyrdom in public view. May Allah accept his martyrdom for His Religion, forgive his shortcomings and grant him Al-Firdaws.
مِّنَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ رِجَالٞ صَدَقُواْ مَا عَٰهَدُواْ ٱللَّهَ عَلَيۡهِۖ فَمِنۡهُم مَّن قَضَىٰ نَحۡبَهُۥ وَمِنۡهُم مَّن يَنتَظِرُۖ وَمَا بَدَّلُواْ تَبۡدِيلٗا
Among the believers, there are men who came true to the covenant they had with Allah. So, some of them have fulfilled their vows (by sacrificing their lives in the way of Allah), and some of them are (still) waiting, and they did not change (their commitment) in the least. (Surah Al-Ahzab,33:23)
Original Source: https://ilkha.com/english/latest/iskilipli-mehmed-atif-hoca-commemorated-on-the-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom-7218
Note: Whatever is in the square brackets was added by me to improve reader comprehension.
Saheehus-Seerah 