Born on 5 August 1898 in the village of Pancor, Lombok, Muhammad Zainuddin Abdul Madjid was one of the most charismatic scholars of West Nusa Tenggara and a Tuan Guru known by the title 'Maulana Syaikh'. After long years of study at the Grand Mosque in Mecca he returned to Lombok and in 1953 founded Nahdlatul Wathan, the largest Islamic mass organisation in the region, in East Lombok. He trained thousands of scholars, tens of thousands of students and hundreds of educational institutions. He died on 21 October 1997 at his home in Pancor and was buried in the Musalla al-Abror complex within the Darunnahdlatain school in Pancor. His tomb is a place of pilgrimage that draws large crowds, especially on commemorative days. He was designated a National Hero of Indonesia.