Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah (Buya Hamka) was born on 17 February 1908 at Sungai Batang, Maninjau, West Sumatra, the son of the reformist scholar Haji Abdul Karim Amrullah. Largely self-taught and schooled at Sumatra Thawalib, he made the hajj and stayed in Mecca in 1927, then became a Muhammadiyah leader, novelist (Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah, Tenggelamnya Kapal Van der Wijck) and editor of the magazine Panji Masyarakat. A Masyumi member of the Constituent Assembly, he was imprisoned in 1964–1966, completing his Qur'an commentary Tafsir al-Azhar there, and became the first chairman of the Indonesian Ulama Council (1975–1981). He attended the founding of PUSA in Aceh in 1939, defended Aceh's image as the 'Veranda of Mecca', extolled Abdurrauf as-Singkili and led the conversion ceremony of Karo converts in 1979. He died in Jakarta on 24 July 1981 and was declared a National Hero in 2011.