Ali Manikfan’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

M. Ali Manikfan (where “M.” stands for Muraiduganduar, also known as Muräduganduar Ali Befanu; manikfan is family name and befanu is actually a title) (born 16 March 1938, Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep) is an Indian marine researcher, ecologist, shipbuilder, and a polyglot. He is noted for his autodidactic research skills in the marine, ecology, and agricultural fields, not holding any formal educational qualification, and for promoting a life of simplicity.

Life

Ali Manikfan was born to Musa Manikfan and Fatima Manika in Minicoy Island of Lakshadweep on 16 March 1938. His father Musa sent him to Kannur for formal education. As he was not interested in formal education, he left his studies and returned to his home land. According to him formal education is artificial and pointless and best way to acquire knowledge is getting wisdom by observing our environment. Ali Manikfan knows a great number of languages. Besides his mother tongue Divehi (Mahl), he learned English, Hindi and Malayalam, Arabic, Latin, French, Russian, German, Sinhalese, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu. His other areas of interest are marine biology, marine research, geography, astronomy, social science, traditional shipbuilding, education, fisheries, agriculture and horticulture. In 1956 he worked as a teacher and then became a clerk in Minicoy. (Indian government’s chief civil official on the Island). But his interest was in marine life. In 1960s he joined the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute of India.

New fish species discovered

While working with the marine biologist Dr. Santhappan Jones, Manikfan discovered a new fish species. Jones, impressed by Ali’s observation skills and his wide knowledge about marine life, called the species Abudefduf manikfani. Later, his knowledge was used for a paper describing the fish species in the Laccadive archipelago found in the specimen collections, on which he was listed as a co-author.

Technical and agricultural experiments

Ali Manikfan follows non-aggressive agricultural methods that take nature in consideration. For his 15-acre (0.061 km2) land in Valliyur in Thirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, he produces his own electricity from a windmill which he designed himself. He built a house there with eco friendly materials that are naturally available in the region.

Shipbuilder

In 1981 Ali Manikfan was given the responsibility of making a reconstruction of an ancient Arab trading ship, the Sohar, by Irish adventurer Tim Severin. He went to Oman to direct the team of carpenters. The ship, named after the city of Sohar in Oman, was completely hand-made, using traditional boat-building techniques, and no metal was used in its construction. It took one year to build the 27 metres long ship and four tons of coir were needed to sew the planks of its hull, in the same way that ancient Maldivians had built ships. Tim Severin traveled 9,600 km from Oman to China by this ship. Severin described his eight-month-long journey in a book, The Sindbad Voyage. The Sohar is now displayed at a Museum in Oman.

Calendar

Ali Manikfan has designed a lunar calendar based on the new moon times published by Fred Espenak who calculated the new moon times based on Astronomical Algorithms of Jean Meeus. He recommended Muslims all over the world to follow his lunar calendar.

The Islamic calendar (Hijri calendar) is a purely lunar calendar. It contains 12 months that are based on the visible new moon of every month, and because 12 synodic months is only 12 x 29.53059=354.3671 days, the Islamic calendar is consistently shorter than a tropical year, and therefore it shifts with respect to the Christian calendar. The calendar is based on the Qur’an (Sura IX, 36-37) and its proper observance is a sacred duty for Muslims.

Unfortunately some Muslim astronomers have suggested that lunar date lines should be marked on the world map for the Muslims to begin their fasting and celebrating their Eid. According to them this would depend on the first visibility of the crescent and the date would begin from then. The so-called curved lunar date lines always keep on changing and they pass through cities, towns and even houses.

According to his criterion “If the new moon ie. The geocentric conjunction of the sun and moon occur before 00:00 UT the following calendrical day will be the first day of lunar month. For eg. New moon of February 2015 happened on 18th at 23:47. So the month of Jumādá I of 1436 started from the next calendrical day 19 February, which was 13mins passed new moon. Likewise, New moon of the month of October in the same year happened on 13th at 00:05, So the month of Muharram of the year 1437 started on the next calendrical day 14 October, which was 23hrs 55mins passed new moon. The criterion has no logic except greenwich midnight. His criterion simply follows the day convention of the Christian calendar and the new moon time referred in Greenwich mean time. This criterion is widely criticized by the muslim scholars and astronomers in India.

His calendar is followed by a minority in the State of Tamilnadu in India, Where He is the Chairman of the Hijra Committee of India

Bicycle

For his own purpose he invented a cycle fitted by a roller motor, which can easily ride at a speed of twenty-five km per hour for many hours in a row. Ali Manikfan traveled up to Delhi on this cycle along with his son. He owns a patent for this cycle.

Flat Earth theory

His view of Qiblah is just opposite to the teachings of Islam. He invented Meeqat Qiblah, which is widely criticized as a Bid‘ah he introduced in the religion. Bid‘ah means the innovation made by someone after the completion of religion. He claims that someone who crosses the International Date Line should change his Qiblah in the opposite direction. So that people eastward IDL should face east for Qiblah and people westward IDL should face west for Qiblah. Moreover he says people on the either sides of the IDL should standing backwards to each other and face Qiblah at the opposite directions. This clearly proves that he thinks the earth to be a flat object. In a globe if concentric circles are made around a point, just like the saffs around Ka’ba, the concentric circles enlarge towards the half of the globe and dwindle towards the antipod of the earlier point. Ali Manikfan is not aware of this fact and his theory of Calendar and Qibla, both proves that he is a flat earth theory supporter

Vision

Ali Manikfan promotes self-sufficiency as well as harming the surrounding environment as little as possible. He says – Nobody has to do anything but refrain from destroying the natural growth. For the past decades the life of Ali Manikfan is closely attached to nature. He eats many kinds of different leaves and fruits. Ali Manikfan himself says one can eat all kinds of leaves that goats eat. Ali Manikfan casts the message “We must depend on ourselves” through his own example.