Rafi Usmani (21 July 1936 – 18 November 2022) was the Grand Mufti of Pakistan who served as the third president of

Darul Uloom Karachi Darul Uloom Karachi () is a Madrasa in Karachi, Pakistan. It was founded by Muhammad Shafi in June 1951 at Nanak Wara and later on it transferred to Korangi, Karachi, on 17 March 1957. It continues the tradition of the Darul uloom system ini ...

. He was an alumnus of

Darul Uloom Deoband Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic university and seminary ( darul uloom) in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, India, at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. Established in 1866 by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Sayy ...

University of the Punjab The University of the Punjab (UoP) is a public university, public research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1882, its international influence has made it one of the most prestigious universities in South As ...

and the Darul Uloom Karachi. He authored books including ''Ahkām-e-Zakāt'', ''Al-Tālīqāt al-nāfi'ah alā fath al-mulhim'', ''Islām mai aurat ki hukmrāni'' and ''Nawādir al-Fiqh''. He was a syndicate member of the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

, vice-president and a member of the executive council of Wifaq-ul-Madaris. His brother

Taqi Usmani Muhammad Taqi Usmani (born 3 October 1943) SI, OI, is a Pakistani Islamic jurist and leading scholar in the fields of Qur'an, Hadith, Islamic law, Islamic economics, and comparative religion. He was a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology ...

is also a senior scholar.

Background and early life

Muḥammad Rafi Usmani was born on 21 July 1936 into the Usmani family of Deoband, in British India, in a town called

Deoband Deoband is a town and a municipality in Saharanpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, about 150 km (93 miles) from Delhi. Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary and one of the largest Islamic Institutions of India is located ther ...

. He was named Muḥammad Rafī by

Ashraf Ali Thanwi Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakimul Ummat and Mujaddidul Millat; 19 August 1863 – 20 July 1943) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, thinker, reformist and a revivor of classical Sufi in the Indian subcontinent during the Briti ...

. Usmāni's father

Muhammad Shafi Muhammad Shafi (24 January 1897 – 6 October 1976), often referred to as Mufti Muhammad Shafi, was a Pakistani Sunni Islamic scholar of the Deobandi school, a Hanafi jurist and mufti, he was also an authority on shari'ah, hadith, Qur'anic ...

was a Grand Mufti of

and one of the pioneer figures of

Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement was a religiopolitical and social movement that emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. It was rooted in the two-nation the ...

. Islamic scholar

is his younger brother.

Soviet–Afghan War

In the late 1980s, he participated in the jihad against the Soviets with the group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI). From 1988 to 1991, he published his jihad memoirs in the Urdu monthly of Darul Uloom Karachi, ''Al-Balagh'', as well in the Urdu daily ''Jang'' and the Urdu monthly ''al-Irshad'' belonging to HUJI. These jihad memoirs were later published into a book titled ''Ye Tere Pur-Asrār Bande'' ().

Education

Usmani memorized half of the ''

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

'' at

, and migrated to

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# ...

on 1 May 1948. He completed memorizing the ''Quran'' at the Masjid Bab al-Islam in Aram Bagh, and recited the last lesson with the Palestinian Grand Mufti,

Amin al-Husseini Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (; 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. was the scion of the family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Hussein ...

. He entered the

in 1951, and graduated in the traditional " dars-e-nizami" in 1960. In 1378 AH, he passed the "molvi" and "munshi" (also known as "Molvi Fazil") examinations from

. He specialized in Islamic jurisprudence (

ifta Ifta is a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Al ...

) at Darul Uloom Karachi in 1960. Usmani studied ''

Sahih Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

'' with Rashid Ahmed Ludhianvi, ''

Sahih Muslim () is the second hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj () in the format, the work is valued by Sunnis, alongside , as the most important source for Islamic religion after the Q ...

'' with Akbar Ali Saharanpuri, '' Muwatta Imam Muhammad'' and '' Sunan Nasai'' with Sahban Mehmood, ''

Sunan Abu Dawood ''Sunan Abi Dawud'' () is the third hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. It was compiled by scholar Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (). Introduction Abu Dawood compiled twenty-one books related to Hadith and preferred those (plural of ...

'' with Ri'ā'yatullah and ''

Jami' al-Tirmidhi ''Sunan al-Tirmidhi'' () is the fourth hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. It was compiled by Islamic scholar al-Tirmidhi in (250–270 AH). Title The full title of the compilation is (). It is shortened to , , , or . The te ...

'' with Saleemullah Khan. He studied parts of '' Sunan ibn Majah'' with Muhammad Haqīq, and completed studying it under the tutelage of Ri'ā'yatullah. He was authorized to transmit

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

by Hasan bin Muhammad al-Musyath,

Muhammad Idris Kandhlawi Idris Kandhlawi (; 20 August 1899 – 28 July 1974) was a Pakistani Sunni scholar during the mid-twentieth century, widely recognized for his contributions to various fields of Islamic studies, including hadith, Quranic studies, Islamic jurisprud ...

, Muhammad Shafi Deobandi, Muhammad Tayyib Qasmi,

Zakariyya Kandhlawi Zakariyya Kandhlawi (; 3 February 1898 – 24 May 1982) was a mid-twentieth-century traditionalist Sunni scholar and an authority in the study of hadith, also known as Sheikh al-Hadith, hailing from India. He was an influential member and ideol ...

and

Zafar Ahmad Usmani Zafar Ahmad Usmani (also known as Zafar Ahmad Thanwi) () (4 October 1892 – 1974), was a 20th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence's Deobandi Movement. He also was a prom ...

Career

Usmani was a member of All Pakistan Ulema Council,

Council of Islamic Ideology Council of Islamic Ideology (CII; () is a constitutional body of Pakistan, responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic issues to the government and the Parliament. This body was founded in 1962 under the government of Ayub Khan. Functions ...

, Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and Zakat Council of the

Government of Sindh The Government of Sindh () () is the provincial government of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Its powers and structure are set out in the provisions of the 1973 Constitution, in which 30 Districts of 7 Divisions under its authority and ju ...

. He was an advisor to Shariat Appellate Bench,

Supreme Court of Pakistan The Supreme Court of Pakistan (; ''Adālat-e-Uzma Pākistān'') is the apex court in the Judiciary of Pakistan, judicial hierarchy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Established in accordance witPart VIIof the Constitution of Pakistan, it h ...

and a syndicate member of the NED University of Engineering & Technology and the

. He served as a member of the examinations committee and the executive council of Wifaq-ul-Madaris, and subsequently became its patron. He served as the vice-president of Wifaq-ul-Madaris between 5 October 2017 and 16 June 2021. After the death of Abdul Hai Arifi in 1986, Usmani succeeded him and became the third president of Darul Uloom Karachi. At Darul Uloom Karachi, Usmani taught all the books related to dars-e-nizami from 1380 AH to 1390 AH (the 1960s). From 1391 AH (1971) onwards, he taught the sciences of

and

in the seminary. He gave lectures on ''Sahih Muslim'' and trained the students of Islamic jurisprudence. His students included Muhammad ibn Adam Al-Kawthari. He always asked students to keep a distance from politics.

Literary works

Usmani authored about 27 books in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

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 Urdu translation and commentary of Inayat Ahmad's ''Ilm al-Sīgha'' is taught in the traditional dars-e-nizami curriculum in many

madrasas Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, South Africa and United States of America. His other books include: * ''Ahkām-e-Zakāt'' () * ''Alāmāt-i qiyāmat aur nuzūl-i Masīḥ'' () * ''Al-Tālīqāt al-nāfi'ah alā fath al-mulhim'' * ''Bai al-wafā'' * ''Europe ke tīn mu'āshi nizām, jāgīrdāri, sarmāyadāri, ishtirākiyat awr unka tārikhi pas-e-manzar''. Its English translation is published separately as ''The three systems of economics in Europe: feudalism, capitalism, socialism and their historical background''. *''Islām mai aurat ki hukmrāni'' () * ''Ḥayāt-i Muftī-yi Aʻẓam'' (), a biography of Muhammad Shafi Deobandi. * ''Kitābat-e-Hadees ahd-e-risālat o ahd-e-sahāba mai'' ) * ''Mere murshid Ḥaẓrat-i ʻĀrifī'' (), on the life and works of Abdul Hai Aarifi. * ''Nawādir al-Fiqh''

Recognition

Usmani was given the title of '' Mufti-e-Azam'' (Grand Mufti) through a consensus opinion for his scholarly contributions. According to

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

, he was appointed Grand Mufti by scholars representing the

Deobandi movement The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the name ...

in 1995. He was seen as a learned scholar, jurist,

muhaddith A muhaddith () is a scholar specialized in the study, collection, and interpretation of hadiths, which are the recorded sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The role of a muhaddith is central to the science of hadith (ʻilm a ...

, researcher and author, an excellent administrator, and a successful teacher and lecturer.

Death

Usmani was suffering several health issues after surviving

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and was being treated for these complications. He died after a prolonged illness in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

on 18 November 2022, aged 86.

Arif Alvi Arif-ur-Rehman Alvi () is a Pakistani politician who served as the 13th President of Pakistan, in office from 2018 to 2024. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from June 2013 to May 2018 and again from August to September 2018. ...

and

Shehbaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between Ap ...

expressed sorrow on his death. Marriyum Aurangzeb termed the scholar's death as an irreparable loss and the

Governor of Sindh The governor of Sindh is the appointed head of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. The office of the governor as the head of the province is largely a ceremonial position; the executive powers lie with the Chief Secretary of Sindh, Chief Secretary ...

Kamran Tessori Muhammad Kamran Khan Tessori () is a Pakistani politician and businessman, and the Governor of Sindh since October 2022. Tessori is a member of the MQM-P party. Personal life Tessori is an ethnic Muhajir, and belongs to the Tessori family, wh ...

, called it a loss to the whole of the Islamic world.

Murad Ali Shah Sayyid, Syed Murad Ali Shah (; born 8 November 1962) is a Pakistani politician and structural engineer who is currently serving as the Chief Minister of Sindh province of Pakistan and a member of the Sindh Assembly. It is his third term as Chi ...

, while expressing sorrow, stated that, "Mufti Sahib's death is a great tragedy for the Islamic world. His religious services are eternal".

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

expressed that, "My heart is deeply saddened by the death of Mufti Rafi Usmani." His student Muhammad ibn Adam Al-Kawthari expressed that he had no words to express the sadness. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan,

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

, also offered condolences and stated that he will be remembered for his invaluable scholarship. Usmani's funeral prayers were led by his brother Muhammad Taqi Usmani on 20 November 2022, and attended by Anis Kaimkhani, Anwar-ul-Haq Haqqani, Fazal-ur-Rahman, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, Kamran Tessori,

Muhammad Hanif Jalandhari Muhammad Hanif Jalandhari (born; 8 November 1963) محمد حنیف جالندھری) is a Pakistani Islamic scholar, incumbent General Secretary of Wifaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia, Pakistan the rector of Jamia Khairul Madaris since 1981. and Chairm ...

and Syed Mustafa Kamal. He was buried near his father's grave in the cemetery of Darul Uloom Karachi.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

Blackwater involved in Karachi catastrophe, says Mufti Usmani (Muharram 2009 blasts in Karachi)
Geo TV News, Published 30 December 2009, Retrieved 13 March 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Usmani, Muhammad Rafi 1936 births 2022 deaths Hanafis Maturidis Deobandis Pakistani Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Religious leaders from Karachi Muhajir people Grand Muftis of Pakistan Pakistani religious leaders Vice presidents of Wifaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia Presidents of Jamia Darul Uloom, Karachi Darul Uloom Karachi people Mujahideen members of the Soviet–Afghan War People from Deoband Usmani family Indian emigrants to Pakistan