Taqi Usmani

Early life and education

Muhammad Taqi Usmani was born on 5 Shawwal 1362 AH (3 October 1943) in the city of Deoband in Saharanpur district, United Provinces, British India. He was the fifth and youngest son of Mufti Muhammad Shafi (1897–1976). With his full nasab (patronymic), he is Muhammad Taqi ibn Muhammad Shafi ibn Muhammad Yasin ibn Khalifah Tahsin Ali ibn Imam Ali ibn Karim Allah ibn Khair Allah ibn Shukr Allah. The forefathers of Miyanji Shukr Allah are unknown, but the family claims descent from Uthman, the third caliph and a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, hence the nisbat "Usmani".

Usmani was born to several generations of educators. The title "Miyanji" applied to several of his ancestors indicates that they were teachers. His grandfather Muhammad Yasin (1865/661936) taught Persian at Darul Uloom Deoband. Born the year before the madrasah's founding, he had been one of its first students and studied with some of its early teachers including Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, Sayyid Ahmad Dihlawi, Mulla Mahmud Deobandi, and Mahmud al-Hasan Deobandi. Usmani's father Muhammad Shafi was also a product of the Deoband seminary. He taught there for several decades and held the post of chief mufti.

In 1948, when Usmani was four years old, his father immigrated the family from Deoband to Karachi, Pakistan. Since there was not a madrasah nearby, Usmani's primary education began at home under his parents. He was later enrolled in Darul Uloom Karachi after Mufti Shafi founded the school in 1950. After completing his primary education, he began his formal religious training in the Dars-i Nizami curriculum in 1953. He passed the Fazil-i Arabi (Punjab Board) with distinction in 1958, and received his Alimiyyah degree with distinction from Darul Uloom Karachi in 1959. He then obtained his Takhassus (specialization) degree in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and ifta (fatwa issuance) from Darul Uloom Karachi in 1961, earning the title of "Mufti". Usmani continued his education at the University of Karachi, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in economics and politics in 1964, then a Bachelor of Laws standing second in his entire batch in 1967. In 1970 he obtained a Master of Arts with first-class honours in Arabic language and literature from the University of Punjab.

Teachers

Usmani received teaching licenses to teach hadith from Islamic scholars including Muhammad Shafi, Muhammad Idris Kandhlawi, Qari Muhammad Tayyib, Saleemullah Khan, Rashid Ahmed Ludhianvi, Sahban Mahmud, Zafar Ahmad Usmani, Muhammad Zakariya Kandhalvi, Hasan al-Mahshat Al-Makki Al-Maliki, 'Abdu-l-'Azeez Ibn Baz Al-Maliki, Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah, Abi Al-Faid Muhammad Yasin Al-Fadani Ash-Shafi'i, and others.

Islamic Economics

Usmani pioneered the concept of Islamic banking in Pakistan when he established the Meezan Bank. Usmani has authored books in Arabic, Urdu, and English on Islamic topics in addition to articles on Islamic banking and finance published in journals and magazines.

According to The Muslim 500: "Usmani's chief influence comes from his position as a global authority on the issue of Islamic finance."

Awards and honours

• 2022: The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre ranks Usmani 6th in the 2023 edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims.
• 2022: Honorary doctorate degree awarded in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence by American International Theism University
• 2019: Sitara-i Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) in the field of public service, conferred by the President of Pakistan
• 2019: The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre ranks Usmani 1st in the 2020 edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims. He has been included in the top 50 in every edition of the publication since its inception in 2009.
• 2017: The Global Islamic Finance Report ranks Usmani 2nd most influential person in the global Islamic financial services industry
• 2017: Lifetime Achievement Award, Islamic Finance Excellence Awards (IFEA), Center of Islamic Finance at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore
• 2016: Lifetime Achievement Award, Islamic Finance Forum of South Asia (IFFSA)
• 2014: Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Prize in Islamic Banking and Finance
• 2011: King Abdullah II Award
• 2011: Lifetime Achievement Award, Islamic Business & Finance Magazine
• 2010: Wisam al-Istiqlal (Order of Independence), 1st class, conferred by the King of Jordan
• 2004: Emir Muhammad bin Rashid Al Maktum Award

Academia

He is currently the Shakih-ul-Hadees in Dar-ul-Uloom Karachi and teaches Sahih al-Bukhari, fiqh, and Islamic economics at Darul Uloom Karachi and is known for his Islahi Khutbat. He was a key member of a team of scholars which helped declare Ahmadis non-Muslims by Pakistan's National Assembly during the era of former Pakistani president, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in the 1970s. During the presidency of General Zia ul Haq, he was instrumental in drafting laws pertaining to Hudood, Qisas meaning retaliation in kind or an eye for an eye and Diyya (blood money).

Personal views

Usmani strongly opposes elements of explicit modernity, which he describes as engulfing

"the whole world in the tornado of nudity and obscenity, and has provided an excuse for fornication, and more so it has led under thunder claps to the passage of a bill in the British House of Commons to legalize homosexuality. It is in the shadow of the same modernity that Western women are openly displaying banners on the streets demanding legalization of abortion"

At a religious conference in 1984, he urged a more "dynamic attitude" towards the practice of ijtihad, arguing there is no shortage of fine minds capable of interpreting the sharia, but warning against the contamination of sharia by Western ideas such as the elimination of hudud penalties such as amputation and stoning.

Positions held

Positions held in the past

Bibliography

Main article: Taqi Usmani bibliography

Usmani has authored 143 books including Tauzeeh Al-Qur'an, An Introduction to Islamic Finance, Contemporary Fataawa, The Authority of Sunnah, Uloomu-l-Qur'an. He has also written a supplement to Shabbir Ahmad Usmani's Fath al-Mulhim, entitled Takmila Fath al-Mulhim.

Notes

References

Bibliography

References

1. (25 July 2022). "افغانستان کے دورے پر گئے مفتی تقی عثمانی کو صدر علوی کا فون". Dunya News.
2. (2017). "Mufti Muḥammad Taqī 'Usmānī and his scholarly contribution to the Qur'anic studies". Al-Irsyad: Journal of Islamic and Contemporary Issues.
3. (3 October 2019). "Mufti Taqi Usmani named most influential Muslim personality in the world". [[The News International]].
4. Schleifer, Abdallah. (2020). "The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims, 2020". The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.
5. Younas, Salman. (2022). "ʿUthmānī, Muḥammad Taqī". Oxford University Press.
6. Usmani, Taqi. (2021). "আমার জীবনকথা". Maktabatul Ashraf.
7. (2002). "Muḥammad Taqī al-'Uthmānī: al-qāḍī al-faqīh wa-al-dā'iyah al-raḥḥālah". Dār al-Qalam.
8. "Profile of Justice Maulana Muhammad Taqi Usmani". Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan.
9. (30 June 2014). "Islamic Finance Scholars". IjaraLoans.com.
10. (2011). "Introduction to Islamic Banking and Finance". Wiley.
11. "Mufti Taqi Usmani". Albalagh.
12. "The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims 2023".
13. (14 August 2019). "Conferment of Pakistan Civil Awards". Government of Pakistan, Cabinet Secretariat.
14. "Islamic Finance Excellence Awards 2017". COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus.
15. (15 August 2016). "Meezan Bank receives multiple awards at Islamic Finance Forum of South Asia – SriLanka". Meezan Bank.
16. (9 May 2014). "Taqi Usmani, Rodney Wilson share IDB prize". Arab News.
17. (14 December 2011). "Double first for the top winners at the Islamic Business & Finance Awards 2011".
18. (4 October 2010). "أعلى وسام أردني لعمرو خالد". Alanba.
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20. "Islam and Modernism".
21. (2012). "Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ...". Macmillan.
22. (17 October 2020). "Chairman - Centre for Islamic Economics".
23. "Sharia Standards Board - Sharia Standards Board - About AAOIFI - AAOIFI".
24. Brian Kettell, Introduction to Islamic Banking and Finance, p 28. {{ISBN. 0-470-97804-X.
25. (28 October 2020). "American International Theism University - Board Members".
26. "Profile of Mufti Taqi Usmani (Archived Copy)".
27. (20 September 2021). "Taqi Usmani elected Wafaqul Madaris Arabia president".
28. (27 May 2018). "Justice Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani".
29. (January–June 2019). "Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani ki maroof tasnīfāt-o-tālifāt ka ta'ārufi jāyzah". Rāhatul Qulūb.