Mufti Mehmood

Born in January 1919, he was an ethnic Marwat Pashtun from Abdul Khel, Dera Ismail Khan District, colonial India (now Pakistan). His father was a pir or Sufi spiritual leader.[3] He received his religious education at Madrasa Shahi, Moradabad, UP and graduated from the Darul Uloom Deoband.[4] In 1941, he worked as a teacher in Isakhel, Mianwali.[2]

At the time of the Indian independence movement Mufti Mahmud opposed the partition of colonial India and opposed the creation of Pakistan. In 1971, he facetiously said “Thank God, we were not part of the sin of making Pakistan.”[5][6][7]

He served as a Muhtamim at Jamia Qasim-ul-Uloom in Multan and later in his career, he also held the positions of Chief Mudarras in charge of education, Chief Mufti, and Sheikh al-Hadith. He issued at least 25,000 Fatwas in his lifetime and his students included Maulana Abdullah Ghazi, Abdul Majeed Ludhianvi and Noor Muhammad.[2]

Mufti Mahmud was a critic of family planning programme of Ayub Khan's government. He participated in the elections for the National Assembly for the first time under Ayub Khan's 'Basic Democracy Program' and defeated all his opponents in 1962.[2] He also opposed the 'One Unit Scheme'.On January 8, 1968, in Dacca, then in East Pakistan, Mufti Mahmud was one of the key leaders of Jamhoori Majlis-e-Amal that opposed Ayub Khan's regime. In the 1970 general election, Mufti Mahmud had a landslide victory against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the Dera Ismail Khan constituency.[2]

After the 1970 general election in Pakistan, he became the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam founded by Maulana Shabir Ahmed Usmani. His party went into a coalition with the National Awami Party for the 1970 Pakistani general election. In the 1970s, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam received significant funding from Saudi Arabia.[8]

On March 1, 1972, he was elected as the chief minister of the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto government in Pakistan. He, along with his cabinet, resigned in protest at the dismissal of the NAP–JUI coalition government in Balochistan on February 14, 1973.[2]

During his tenure as chief minister, he instituted many reforms, such as prohibition against alcohol, making Urdu as the official language in government offices, ban on interest in financial transactions and declared Friday as the official holiday in his province.[2]

Mufti Mahmud played a vital role in Tehreek-e-Khatme Nabuwwat, a religious movement which has highlighted the beliefs of the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Pakistan, in 1953 and again in 1974. He led a team of Islamic scholars which worked for the declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims in 1974.

He supported the Afghan jihad against the USSR in 1979 (see also Soviet–Afghan War).

He died on October 14, 1980, in Karachi, Sindh at the age of 61. He was buried in his hometown Abdul Khel, Paniala, Dera Ismail Khan District. His son Fazal-ur-Rehman is a politician who leads the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party in Pakistan.[9]

• Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F)
• Persecution of Ahmadis
• Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
• Syed Muhammad Miyan Deobandi

• Haq, Abdul; Qadoos, Hafiz Abdul (2022). "Style and characteristics of Mufti Mehmood's tafseer "Tafseer e Mehmood". Rahat-ul-Quloob (in Urdu). 6 (2): 157–168. doi:10.51411/rahat.6.2.2022/426 (inactive 27 August 2023). ISSN 2521-2869.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)
• Manan, Qazi Abdul; Achakzai, Abdul Ali (2022). "The thinker of islam, Mulana Mufti Mahmood,s role in the movement for khatam-e Nabuwat". Rahat-ul-Quloob (in Urdu). 6 (1): 188–198. doi:10.51411/rahat.6.1.2022/403 (inactive 27 August 2023). ISSN 2521-2869.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)