Shaykh-ul-Islam

Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is a man of manifold and staggering achievements. Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is the founding leader of Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI), an organisation with branches and centres in more than 80 countries worldwide, working for the promotion of peace and harmony between communities and the revival of spiritual endeavour based on the true teachings of Islam.

Shaykh-ul-Islam was born on February 19, 1951 in the historical city of Jhang, Pakistan. The son of a great spiritualist and intellectual of his time Al-Shaykh Dr Farid-ud-Din al-Qadri, Shaykh ul Islam was educated from a young age in both the Islamic and secular sciences simultaneously, imbued with the belief that his entire life would be devoted to the renaissance of Islam. Although he had already started his religious education under his father two years earlier, his formal classical education was initiated in Madina al-Munawwara at the age of twelve under the tutelage of the Great Medinan Scholar, Al-Shaykh Zia al-Dīn al-Madani (RA), who lived for over a hundred years.

Another of the most notable and eminent teachers of Shaykh ul Islam belonging to the Hijāz with whom he spent his early years learning knowledge of the science of Hadith, was the Great Meccan Hadith Scholar, Muhadith al-A’zam fil Hijāz, Al-Shaykh A’lawi bin Abbas al-Māliki al-Makki (RA), the father of the renowned Hijāzi Hadith Scholar, Al-Shaykh al-Muhaddith al-Sayyid Muhammad bin A’lawi al-Māliki al-Makki (RA). Having spent over ten years under the tutelage of his father and other eminent scholars of his time, Shaykh ul Islam has amassed an unparallel understanding of the Shariah Sciences as well as the Arabic language. He had completed his studies of the Classical Islamic Sciences by the time he received a First Class Honors Degree from Punjab University in 1970.

In 1972 he earned his MA in Islamic Studies achieving a Gold Medal at Punjab University, and subsequently completed his LLB in 1974 whereupon, he began to practice as a lawyer in the district courts of Jhang. He was also a member of the Syndicate, Senate and Academic Council of the University, which are the highest executive, administrative and academic bodies of the University. He is a former Professor of Islamic Law at Punjab University and the youngest person ever to have been awarded a professorship in the history of the University.

Shaykh-ul-Islam is a prolific author and researcher. He has authored around 1000 books of which 400 are published works in Urdu, Arabic and English. He has given authority to transmit Hadith to some of the world’s greatest scholars and has lectured extensively throughout the world to audiences of millions. While thoroughly grounded in the classical tradition of Islam, his learned instruction and creative interpretation of the religion provide refreshing perspectives on the role of Islam in the contemporary world.

There is no doubt that Shaykh-ul-Islam is a man of extraordinary capabilities. He is a theologian and a theosophist, a scientist and a spiritualist, a revivalist and a reformer, a philosopher and a political thinker. He is arguably the foremost jurist and expert on Islamic legal affairs in the Muslim world, the world’s most accomplished Islamic scholar and a globally acknowledged authority. He has been bestowed the honoured title of “Shaykh-ul-Islam” by the most eminent scholars around the world in recognition of his incredible service to Islam as well as his scholarly and academic supremacy.