Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani is a theologian, writer, orator, politician, saint and student and Khalifa of Sheikh-ul Hind Maulana Mahmood- ul- Hassan. Maulana was one of the leading religious leaders of Deoband who played vital role in transforming the Muslim sentiments towards the demand of Pakistan. He was born in 1885 in U.P (India). His father Maulana Fazlur Rehman belonged to the famous Usmani family of Deoband. The child with extraordinary abilities got education at Deoband religions seminary and passed all his exams with distinction. He passed his final exam in 1908 and in view of his extra-ordinary abilities, he was given the post in the same madrassah as Ustad (teacher). In the absence of his teacher Mahmood-ul-Hassan during self-exile in 1915 in Hijaz, Maulana Usmani delivered lectures at Deoband. The quality of Maulana Usmani lies in his proficiency in jurisprudence, which he used skillfully while writing the tafseer of the Holy Quran. Owing to his “Tafseer-i-Usmani”, he was acknowledged as a great scholar in the Muslim world. In 1927 Sultan bin Abdul Aziz bin Saud of Saudi Arabia summoned a conference of Muslim theologians under the banner of Motamir Alam-e-Islami. Shabbir Ahmad Usmani was one of the prominent members of the delegation from the subcontinent. Although a lot of teachers and the students of Deoband remained aloof from the Pakistan movement or even opposed it, there were still many of them who took active part in the struggle for an independent Muslim state under the leadership of sagacious Maulana and gave big support to the Quaid-i-Azam. He is considered as one of the pioneers of Pakistan and a reformer of the Muslim nation in the subcontinent. He joined Muslim League in 1944 at a critical juncture of Pakistan movement when most of the feudals of N.W.F.P. and Punjab came under the influence of the Congress. Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani with a team of 500 Ulema eliminated the influence of these corrupt feudals from these regions and converted the sentiments of common people toward Pakistan movement. The importance of Maulana Usmani is also conspicuous from the fact that the Quaid-i-Azam consulted him on all important matters after independence.
The acknowledged leader of the Muslim theologians, Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani was a member of the Sub-committee, which drafted the Objectives Resolution, and co-piloted it along with the ex-Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in the Constituent Assembly. Since he wanted to fulfil the people’s dream of an Islamic state, he demanded through the Objectives Resolution: “Muslims of Pakistan should be enabled individually and collectively to order their lives in accordance with the teachings of Islam as set in the Holy Quran and Sunnah”.
A scholar of repute, a statesman and a theologian recognized all over the Muslim world died in 1949 and was buried in Karachi.
This article was last updated on Friday, Jan 04, 2008
