Hyderabad: Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani was elected on Sunday as the President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
He is the fifth President of Board since its formation in 1972.
Maulana Rahmani, who was serving as the board’s General Secretary, succeeds long-time president Maulana Syed Rabey Nadwi, who passed away in April at the age of 94.
Maulana Rahmani is a close relative of Maulana Mujahid ul Islam Qasmi who was the third President of the AIMPLB.
Maulana Rahmani who is originally from Bihar has been living in Hyderabad for the last about four decades. He is founder head of the Islamic seminary Al Mahad ul Aali al Islami located on the outskirts of Hyderabad near Pahadi Shareef. The Mahad has students from across India and its graduates are spread across European countries, North America and Australia.
He is also the Secretary General of the All India Fiqh Academy. He is considered as one of the foremost scholars of Islamic jurisprudence. He played a key role in the recent instant triple talaaq case. Sources said that he was deeply involved in research which found its way into the counter affidavit that the AIMPLB filed in the Supreme Court. However, the board lost the case.
Maulana Khalid, who was born in Darbhanga in Bihar, is a well-known and highly respected scholar of Islam, both in civilian and political circles, belonging to the Deobandi school. Known to be a soft-spoken man both in public and private life, he is the author of dozens of books on fiqh (jurisprudence), exegesis of the Quran, Hadith (sayings of the Prophet), book of fatwas (edicts) in 10 volumes, and the sirat (biography) of Prophet Muhammad. He has authored over 100 books, which are written in Urdu and have been translated into English as well.
While he is from the Deobandi School, he is respected by those from other schools as well, given his vast knowledge of various disciplines of Islamic education.
He is a member of the Institute of Collective Ijtihad in the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He was invited by the government of South Africa to draft Islamic laws after the nation became independent of the apartheid rule in 1994.
He is the father of young and upcoming scholar of Islam Maulana Omar Abedeen Qasmi Madani.
