Shah Ahmad Noorani


Shah Ahmad Noorani, descendant of the first caliph of Islam Sayedena Abu Bakar Siddique, was a Pakistani Islamic scholar, mystic, philosopher, revivalist, and an ultra–conservative politician.
He graduated with BA in Arabic language from the Allahabad University and later certified from the Darul Uloom in Meerut, he established himself as renowned Islamic scholar and worked in the developing the Islamic philosophy as well as helping found the World Islamic Mission in 1972.
He has been described as a polyglot who "was conversant with 17 languages and eloquent in six, Urdu, Arabic, English, Persian, French and Swahili."

Early life

Ahmad Noorani was born in Meerut, British India, into an Urdu-speaking family on 31 March 1926. His father, Abdul Aleem Siddiqi was also an Islamic scholar and had accompanied him on Islamic missionary tours to various parts of the world in his early youth. He received his BA degree in Arabic language from the Allahabad University, and certified from the Darul-Uloom in Meerut in Islamic jurisprudence. He became a hafiz-ul-Quran at the age of eight. His family moved to Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan after the partition of India. He established World Islamic Mission in 1972 which is based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Career

He was elected as member of the National Assembly from Constituency NW-134 after participating in general elections held in 1970 on Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan's platform. The JUP is main Sunni Barelvi political party of Pakistan. After a long struggle Shah Ahmad Noorani and his team succeeded in 1974 to pass the bill in the parliament that Muhammad is the final prophet and hence the Ahmadi were declared non-Muslim. The second time he was elected as MNA from Constituency NA-167 in 1977 Pakistani general election. Since then, his influence on national politics further grew and he became a Senator in 1980s.
After disassociating from politics in 1990s, he made his notable come back after rigorously opposing and further forming an ultra–conservative alliance to oppose the regime of President Pervez Musharraf. Assuming the presidency of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, he was known to use tough rhetoric against Musharraf and formed a public support against Musharraf's policies in the country.

Death

On 11 December 2003, Shah Ahmad Noorani died from a massive heart attack when he was preparing to leave his residence for the Parliament House to address a press conference along with other opposition leaders at noon. The funeral prayer was done in Nishtar Park on Friday and he was buried at the foot of his mother in the graveyard situated in the premises of the Saint Ghazi Abdullah Shah Mausolem in Karachi.