He settled in Chana village, which was on the border of Siam and Kedah at that time. He earned his living as a trader and was reportedly a well-respected figure in the state. Sayyid Ahmad's son with Sharifah Aminah, Sayyid Harun followed his father's footsteps as a trader, in addition to being a well-known religious scholar. He was later admitted into the Kedah royal court and became a close aide of the Sultan of Kedah, Ahmad Tajuddin (II) Halim Shah. He later married a princess from the Kedah royal family, Tengku Safiah, and was later made the "Penghulu" (district chief) of Arau in 1797. When the Thai army invaded and occupied Kedah between 1821 and 1842, local Arab families supported the Sultan's efforts to lead resistance efforts against Thai rule. Arab leaders employed a two-pronged approach of religious militancy and diplomacy to free Kedah from Thai rule, among which the Jamal Al-Layl family played a leading role in these efforts and often carried out negotiations to persuade the Thais to regain the state's independence. The Thais later agreed to restore the Sultan of Kedah to his throne in 1842. The following year, Sayyid Hussein Jamal Al-Layl from Chana (now in Songkhla, Thailand) was installed by the Thais as the first Raja of Perlis, after the Sultan of Kedah gave his endorsement for the formation of Perlis. In 1933, the fourth Raja of Perlis, Syed Alwi Jamalullail looked to the State Council to elect an heir presumptive to the royal throne of Perlis. The State Council chose Syed Hassan among several possible contenders as the heir-presumptive. Syed Hassan was a nephew by his older half-brother Syed Mahmud. An illness struck Syed Hassan the following year; he died shortly after that. The State Council held another vote, and elected Syed Hassan's son, Syed Putra as the new heir presumptive. Another contender, Syed Hamzah, a younger half-brother of Syed Alwi and the Vice-President of the state council, dissented on the outcome of the choice as it ran afoul of the Islamic inheritance laws. The Raja (Syed Alwi) and the British maintained their support for Syed Putra, but as Syed Alwi fell ill at the outbreak of World War II in 1941, Syed Hamzah seized the opportunity to exert influence over the political affairs of the state.