Prof. Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, former president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and an Islamic scholar of international repute, breathed his last at his residence in Aligarh yesterday, following a brief cardiac failure. He was 81. The funeral prayer will be offered at Aligarh at 9 a.m. today.
Born on September 1, 1931, Prof. Ansari did Alimiyat from Darsgah Islami, Rampur in 1953, B.A. Arabic in 1957, M.A. in Philosophy in 1959 and Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1962 from Aligarh Muslim University, and M.T.S in Comparative Religion and Theology from Harvard University in 1972.
Prof. Ansari rendered his services as Professor and Head of the Department of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Studies, Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan, West Bengal from 1965 to 1978, then at Department of Islamic Studies, Sudan University from 1978 to 1981, at Dhahran University from 1982 to 1985 and at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 1985 to 1995.
Prof. Ansari joined the Jamaat at the very early stage of his academic career. He was elected to Jamaat’s Central Council of Representatives and Central Advisory Council for many terms. He was the organization’s president from 2003 to 2007 and director of Islami Academy since 2005.
Prof. Ansari has more than a dozen books in Urdu and English to his credit. His books include Tasawwuf and Shariah and Learning the Language of the Qur’an.
Former Jamaat president Ansari dies
