Sultan Taqiyuddeen is one of the forefathers of Shaykhuna who had come to India from the sacred City of Madinah via the Island of Kiesh in the Arabian Gulf.

Sultan Taqiyuddeen married a daughter of the Pandiyan King Mara Varma Kulasekara Pandiyan I (1268-1308 AD.). From 1269 to 1310 AD, Sultan Taqiyuddeen ruled the area around Kilakarai as the Sixth Pandiyan.

His marriage with the Pandiyan Princess and his just rule in a part of the Kingdom in which the vast majority of the people were Hindus, laid the foundation for the growth of secular forces and strengthened the same.

Shaykh Abdul Kadir, better known as 'Seethakkathi', was one of the descendants of Sultan Taqiyuddeen. He was the prime minister of the Raja of Ramnad Sree Vijaya Ragunatha Sethupathy, also known as Kishwar Sethupathy.

He was a great philanthropist and a patron of men of letters, especially poets. The majority of the people who were the recipients of his unlimited favours were Hindus, who, not being able to pronounce the Arabic name Shaykh Abdul Kadir, lovingly referred him as 'Vallal Seethakkathi' which term became very popular and remains as such to this day as a part of Tamil literary history.

Labbai Naina Maraikayar (1693-1772 AD) was a grand son of the famous saint Shaykh Sadaqatullah through his daughter. He succeeded Seethakkathi as the prime minister of King Sethupathy, in which capacity, he rendered yeomen services to all sections of the people without any distinction of caste and creed. He purchased an Island in the Palk Strait. It was named after him as 'Naina Theevu' (which is now called as Naga Deepa) and in the said island, he built not only a Mosque, but also a Hindu temple and a Buddhist Vihara.

In appreciation of his services to the land, the Ruler Sethupathy conferred on him the following title:- "Sreemath Hiranya Karpayaji Ravikula, Muthu Vijaya, Raghunaatha Maara Maarthanda Periya Thambi Maraikayar". His descendants were given the title of 'Pattathu Maraikayar'.

In those days, it was the established convention in the area that whenever any ruler (who, of course, was a hindu) died, his successor had to be necessarily crowned by the 'Pattathu Maraikayar' of the day (who, of course, was always a Muslim belonging to the family of Labbai Naina Maraikayar) and only then the subjects of the ruler, the vast majority of whom were Hindus, recognised him as the legitimate ruler.

It may thus be seen that the forefathers of Shaykhuna, with the co-operation and encouragement of the Rulers of the time in the areas, laid the foundation for secular forces to take roots and nurtured secularism not only as an ideal but also as a practical reality. No wonder, then, that the same strain of secularism is running through the family of Shaykhuna till this day.

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