By TCN News,
New Delhi: Prof. Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, former Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and an Islamic scholar of international repute, breathed his last at his residence in Aligarh this afternoon, following a brief cardiac failure. He was 81.
Born on September 1, 1931 at Tamkohi in district Deoaria of Uttar Pradesh, 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, U.S.A in 1972.
Prof. Ansari rendered his services as Professor and Head of the Department of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Studies, Visva-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 member of Jamaat’s Central Council of Representatives and Central Advisory Council for many terms and served the organisation at its Ameer from 2003 to 2007. He had been 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 Shari’ah and Learning the Language of the Qur’ān. He also participated in and presided over many national and international conferences, and had been on board of many international journals.
The funeral prayer of Prof. Ansari will be offered at Aligarh at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Ameer Jamaat Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari and Sec. General Nusrat Ali along with other central functionaries of the Jamaat will rush to Aligarh early next morning to participate in the funeral.