MUFTI MUHAMMAD SHAFEE

He was born in 1314/1896. Hadhrat Gangohi proposed the name Muhammad Shafee for him. Originally he belonged to Deoband. He prosecuted his studies in Darul Uloom and graduated in A. H. 1336 at the age of 22 years. Thereafter, in AH. 1337, he was appointed teacher in the primary class in Darul Uloom but covering the stages of teaching quickly he soon joined the cadre of the teachers of the higher classes. He had had from the very beginning a natural affinity with Fiqh and Literature. In 1350/1922 he was appointed to the Mufti's post. In 1368/1949 he went away to Pakistan, where, as a member of the Board of Islamic Teachings in the Constituent Assembly, he helped in compiling the Islamic constitution. In 1951 he established a seminary under the name Darul Uloom at Karachi, which is now an important and great center of Islamic learning there.

Mufti Sahib's knowledge was vast and profound and he possessed excellent ability in almost all the current scholastic disciplines. He is an author of many religious books: a stock of very useful books on Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh and polemics has emanated from his pen. All his big and small books total up to nearly two hundred. Hundreds of his pupils and disciples are rendering religious services, besides the subcontinent, in various foreign countries. Initially he vowed allegiance to Hadhrat Shaikhul Hind; after the latter's demise, he resorted to Hadhrat Thanwi and obtained khilafat from him. Simultaneously with the work of teaching religious sciences and writing books on them, throughout his life he remained occupied in spiritual beneficence also. He had also had a taste for poetry; a collection of his Arabic, Persian and Urdu panegyrics, elegies and a number of poems has already been printed and published. In Pakistan he held the position of the Chief Mufti.

Mufti Muhammad Shafee discharged duties of Darul Ifta twice: at first from AH. 1350 to AH. 1354 and then from AH. 1359 to. AH. 1361. During his tenure of office nearly 26,000 fatwas were written