A persona of piety. The former head of the Tablighi Jamaat movement in Britain Hafez Muhammad Patel was a pioneer and a visionary in terms of Islamic identity and of the Muslim community in the UK. He came to Dewsbury, England, in 1960 and established Dewsbury as a centre for European Muslims in 1978. He believed in the community as being British Muslims. He devoted and sacrificed his long life for Muslims and went door to door in spreading the message of Islam. His persona was always respectful, humble and approachable. Hafez Patel toured the length and breath of the globe spreading the message of Islam. Hafez Patel who reputedly tramped the streets, spreading the word of Islam and dedicated his life to the Tablighi Jamaat movement, established by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Deobandi (1885 - 1944). The 'dismal Islamic situation' in the Mewat region near Delhi made him to move in Basti Nizamauddin in the old quarters of Delhi to begin his Da'wah and it was here, in 1926, the Tablighi movement began. Muhammad Patel was born in a village, Manekpore Tankoli in the district of Navsari in Gujarat, India. In 1956, he arrived in Britain. After his demise thousands of his supporters from around Britain and Europe flocked in his burial, in Dewsbury, to pay their respect to the departing man revered as a persona of piety.