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

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

scholar, poet, historian, and cleric from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. 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 in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, but migrated to the newly formed

immediately after it achieved

independence Independence is a condition of a 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 status of ...

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

Wazirabad Wazirabad (Urdu/) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the administrative capital of Wazirabad District (formerly a Tehsil of Gujranwala District). Famous for its cutlery products, it is known as the city of cutlery and is also quite famous f ...

. He spent much of his life in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, 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. He served as the Secretary-General of the Punjab Shia Conference (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'' 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#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

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 tabligh. A large amount of his efforts were focused on the

Khoja The Khoja are a caste of Muslims mainly members of the Nizari Ismaʿiliyyah sect of Islam with a minority of followers of Shia Islam originating the western Indian subcontinent, and converted to Islam from Hinduism by the 14th century by the Pe ...

community.

Legacy

Scholars in

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United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, and

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

Publications

Most of his writings are in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. 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. 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 is a major city in central Iraq. It is the capital of Karbala Governorate. With an estimated population of 691,100 people in 2024, Karbala is the second largest city in central Iraq, after Baghdad. The city is located about southwest ...

in the words of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

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

Tārīk̲h̲-i Ḥasan Mujtabá on Google Books

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