A mujaddid (Arabic: مجدد‎), according to the popular Muslim tradition, refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity. A mujaddid might be a caliph, a saint (wali), a prominent teacher, a scholar or some other kind of influential person.^{[citation needed]}

The concept is based on the following Prophetic tradition (hadith): Abu Hurairah narrated that the Islamic prophet Muhammad said;

Shaikh-Ul-Hadith-Wa-Tafseer Hadhrat Moulana Mufti Muhammad Zar Wali Khan is a Hanafi Islamic scholar from Pakistan. He is the founder of the Jamia Arabia Ahsan-ul-Uloom seminary located in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Pakistan. He is an expert in the fields of Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh), hadith, tafsir and tasawwuf. His seminary is notable for being one of the first Deobandi institutions to offer the takhassus (PhD equivalent degree leading to mufti status) degree program to women.

Shaikh-Ul-Hadith-Wa-Tafseer Moulana Mufti Zar Wali Khan laid the foundation of a jamiah in 1398 Hijra (jamiah arabia Ahsan-Ul-Uloom). The objectives and goals of that jamiah is to formulate intellectual and endowed scholars who can guide the Muslim Ummah on the precise pathway.

Jamiah Arabia Ahsan-Ul-Uloom provides complete Islamic Education that includes Tafseer-Ul-Quran, Hadith Shareef, Fiqqah, Islamic rulebooks, Arabic literature and more free of expenditure. Other than Knowledge of Islam, Hifz and Nazrah Quran, Darjah-e-A'adadiyah i.e. (equivalent to eighth grade books including books with beginners Arabic, Persian and other Islamic books) are also taught.

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Dín ibn Ibráhím al-Ahsá'í (Arabic: شيخ أحمد بن زين الدين بن إبراهيم الأحسائي‎) was (1753–1826) was the founder of a 19th century Shi`i school in the Persian and Ottoman empires, whose followers are known as Shaykhís.

He was a native of the Al-Ahsa region (Eastern Arabian Peninsula), educated in Bahrain and the theological centers of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq. Spending the last twenty years of his life in Iran, he received the protection and patronage of princes of the Qajar dynasty.

Little is documented about the early life of Shaykh Ahmad, except that he was born in Ahsa, in the northeast of the Arabian peninsula, to a Shi'i family of Sunni origin in either the year 1166 A.H. (1753 C.E.), or 1157 A.H. (1744 C.E.). Nabíl-i-A`zam, a Baha'i historian, documents his spiritual awakening in his book The Dawn-Breakers as follows:

While it is unclear how much of Nabil's interpretation is consistent with Shaykh Ahmad's true feelings, the underlying motivations for reform, and ultimately for messianic expectation, become somewhat clearer.