PROFILE OF MUSHEER-UL-HAQ

He has left an indelible impact on Indian Muslims as well as the Muslim world through his very significant contribution to the religious sciences and sincere services to the society at large. In Jamia, he would teach Arabic, Islamic History, and Islam in India. He was the professor of Islamic Studies. He was born in 1933 in hazipur, UP. He took his primary education in his hometown. He received religious education from Darul ʿUloom Deoband, and Nadwatul ʿUlamāʾ, Lucknow. After that, he did graduation from the Jamia and post[1]graduation in Arabic from Aligarh Muslim University. Afterwards, he went to Canada and did his MA and PhD from McGill University, Montreal, in Islamic Studies in 1967. After returning from Canada, he taught at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Kashmir University. He joined the Jamia in 1976 as ahead of the department of Islamic and Arab Iranian Studies. He was kidnapped and killed by militants in Kashmir on 9 April 1990.

He was a prolific cum gifted author and characteristically distinguished and noble. His life devoted to religious and academic endeavours inspired many who stood to serve Islam in the best possible way. He has almost covered the whole range of Islamic studies in his writings, wherein he has tried to explore the real picture of Islam and its fundamental sciences. Although the dimensions of his works are broadly and extensively spread over the various spheres which are Qurʾān, Ḥadīth, Fiqh, Islamic history and culture, theology, ethics, Indian politics, Ṣirah, Taṣawwuf, etc. were the subjects he favoured the most. His contributions to these subjects had not only been remarkable but also were universally recognized in academic circles as far as the richness of material and high standard of research is concerned. Some of his works are America ke Kale Musalman, Mazhab aur Jadid Zahan, Musalman aur Secular Hindustan, Muslim Politics in Modern India: 1857-1947, Islam in Secular India, Chand Tasveer Nika, Religions of India, Mazhab aur Hindustani Muslim Siyasat: Kal aur Aāj so on and so forth.

His translated works include: Maulana Abūʾl Ḥasan ʿAlī Nadwī’s travelogue ‘Shirq-e Awesta mein Kya Dekha? Rewin Lewi’s book ‘Islami Samāj’ etc. His edited works include: ‘Fikre Islam ki Tashkil-i Jadīd’, and Islam Daure Hazir mein. He was truly a beacon of light as a scholar of modern and secular understanding of the Muslim future in India.