Biography

 

Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri  (born February 19, 1951, Jhang, Pakistan) is a Pakistani Sufi scholar and former professor of international constitutional law at the University of the Punjab.Qadri is the founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran International, a broad-based global Sufi organization working in the fields of welfare, human rights and education. Its objectives are the promotion of a moderate and non-extremist vision of Islam, the establishment of good relations and understanding between communities and religions and the education of youth "employing the methods of Sufism". He also founded The Minhaj University of which he is the head of the Board of Governors, as well as an international relief charity, Minhaj Welfare Foundation.Qadri is also the founding chairman of the political party Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), although he is no longer involved in politics. Qadri spoke at the World Economic Forum in January 2011.Qadri is the son of Farid-ud-Din Qadri. His ancestors belong to the Sial family of Jhang. Qadri started his education at the Christian 'Sacred Heart School' in Jhang, a Catholic mission school, where Qadri learned English and was exposed to Christianity at an early age. He began his specifically Islamic education at the age of 12 in Madinah, Saudi Arabia at the Madrasa al-‘Ulūm ash-Shar‘iyya, which was situated in the house of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the first residence of the Islamic prophet Muhammad after his migration to Madinah. He learned under Hazrat Maulana Zia-ud-Din Madani and studied Hadith from al-Sayyid Alawi al-Malik. He then received Ijaza^{[citation needed]} and continued his religious education with his father and other scholars, and completed Dars-e-Nizami and Dars-e-Hadith.He studied law at the University of the Punjab, Lahore where he graduated with an LLB in 1974, gaining a Gold Medal for his academic performances.^{[citation needed]} Following a period of legal practice as an advocate, he taught law at the University of the Punjab from 1978 to 1983 and then gained his PhD in islamic Law (Punishments in Islam, their Classification and Philosophy) from the same university in 1986. He was appointed as a professor of Law at the University of Punjab, where he taught British, US and Islamic constitutional law.Qadri was appointed as a Jurist Consultant (legal adviser) on Islamic law for the Supreme Court and the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan and also worked as a specialist adviser on Islamic curricula for the Federal Ministry of Education (Pakistan). At various times between 1983 and 1987, he received and declined offers for various high-level posts.^{[citation needed]}He has delivered more than 6,000 lectures on economy and political studies, religious philosophy, law, Sufism, medical sciences, material sciences and astronomy. Numerous lectures are available in Urdu, English and Arabic at Islamic bookshops around the world.Qadri has himself given ijazah to a number of leading Muslim scholars, making them his students, linking them through himself back to Muhammad.