Hujjat al-Islam Professor Khwaja Muhammad Latif Ansari (1887-1979), alternatively spelled Muḥammad Latīf Anṣārī, was a 20th-century

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the ...

Muslim scholar, poet, historian, and cleric from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Ansari was born in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, but migrated to the newly formed

immediately after it achieved

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...

. In Pakistan, he took up residence in the city of

Wazirabad Wazirabad (Urdu/ pa, ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Wazirabad District. Famous for its cutlery products, it is known as the city of cutlery and is also quite famous for its foods. Wazirabad is situated on the banks of ...

. He spent much of his life in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, where he is remembered to this day by the Shia community for bringing active and organized Shi'ism to the country. Ansari spent the last ten years of his life partially paralysed. Although he was a prolific author, many of his books were not published.

Years in Pakistan

Ansari was a member of the Shi'i scholarly community, both in the years leading up to Partition in British India and over the first decade of

Pakistani independence The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the p ...

. He served as the Secretary-General of the

Punjab Shia Conference Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprisin ...

(PuSC) under British rule in the 1940s, struggling against the passivity of the organization and its inability to extract annual membership dues and regularly publish its weekly journal, ''Razâkâr.'' Migrating to Wazirabad after Partition in 1947, Ansari was elected as the first Secretary-General of the All-Pakistan Shia Conference (APSC) in a lively contest. Ansari was intensely concerned with the state of Shi'i ''

tabligh Tablighi Jamaat (, also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party") is a transnational Deobandi Islamic missionary movement that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encouraging fellow members t ...

'' in these years, writing and speaking extensively on what this phenomenon's implications for the future of the Shi'ism would be. In one article from March 1956, he contends the following:

Migration to Kenya

Ansari left

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

for Kenya in the 1950s, fulfilling his dream of preaching to distant, foreign Shi'i communities that he mentions in the above quote. He was already a reputed cleric by that time, but nevertheless joined a number of scholars coming from South Asia into the relatively unheard of Shia community of Kenya. After becoming a resident alim there, Ansari helped the community to become large and prosperous as it is today. He is remembered to this day in the country for an address he delivered at the Arusha Conference in December 1958, in which he emphasized the need for

. A large amount of his efforts were focused on the

Khoja The Khojas ( sd}; gu, ખોજા, hi, ख़ोजा) are a mainly Nizari Isma'ili Shia community of people originating in Gujarat, India. Derived from the Persian Khwaja, a term of honor, the word Khoja is used to refer to Lohana Rajput ...

community.

Legacy

Scholars in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

, and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, among other places, have used his works as source material.

Publications

Most of his writings are in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

. His works today survive in several university catalogs and libraries. Ansari is also mentioned as a source in ''"A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims"'' by

Sayyid Ali Ashgar Razwy ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhamma ...

. Some of his publications are as follows: * Islam Aur Musalmano Ki Tareekh (The History of Islam and Muslims) *Tārīk̲h̲-i Ḥasan Mujtabá (History of Al-Hasan Al-Mujtaba) *Shazada-e-Yathrib Alam-e-Hijrat Mein * Ma'arejal Irfan * Karbalā kī kahānī, Qurʼān kī zabānī (The Story of

Karbala Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Govern ...

in the words of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

References

External links

WorldCat Profile

VIAF

University of Chicago Tārīk̲h̲-i Ḥasan Mujtabá File

OpenLibrary.org Profile

Books in University of Wisconsin-Madison Catalog

OCLC Classify

Islam Aur Musalmano Ki Tareekh at ziyaraat.net

* [https://books.google.com/books?id=1P6qAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:997695607X&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Sl2AVICyG5DWavrKgOgC&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Highlights of Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania (1965 - 1986)]
Synopsis of the Khoja Shia Ithna Asheri

E-Book of 12 Personalities
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Muhammad Latif Shia scholars of Islam Pakistani scholars Muhajir people Najjarite people Shia Islam in Pakistan Shia fiqh Pakistani Shia clerics 1887 births 1979 deaths Pakistani emigrants to Kenya People from Wazirabad