By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The seventh Shah Waliullah Award was conferred on eminent legalist and an authority on Muslim Law Dr Tahir Mahmood today in New Delhi by Institute of Objective Studies (IOS).
The award carrying a shawl and a check of Rs one lakh was presented to Dr Mahmood, who is currently Member, Law Commission of India and former Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, by Attorney General of India Goolam E Vahanvati in the presence of Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, K Rahman Khan, Law Commission of India Chairman, Justice A R Lakshmanan, IOS chairman Dr Manzoor Alam and Lok Sabha Member Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi.
Vahanvati presenting the cheque to Tahir Mahmood with A R Laxamanan, and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, K Rahman Khan
In his award accepting speech Dr Tahir Mahmood, author of several books and Muslim and general law, offered his gratitude to the IOS for selecting him for the prestigious award as it is named after renowned Islamic scholar and reformer Shah Waliullah Muhaddis Dehlvi and deciding to present it to him by the eminent jurist and present Solicitor General Goolam E Vavanvati in the presence of K Rahman Khan and other dignitaries.
Islamic law was distorted by the British judiciary, and what is today found in text books in the name of Islamic law, is in fact far from the true Islamic law, said Dr Mahmood who has spent about 50 years on working on Muslim Law – first 20 years since 1959 on studying it through original sources and next 30 years teaching and writing on Muslim Law.
Prof Faizan Mustafa, V-C, National Law University, Bhubaneshwar, IOS chairman Dr Manzoor Alam, Attorney General of India Goolam E Vahanvati, Justice A R Laxamanan, chairman, Law Commission of India, Dr Tahir Mahmood, Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi, MP, Lok Sabha
He announced to donate the award money to the Indian Association of Scholars of Religion and Law (ASRAL-India), a group he set up to create a platform for engagement between religion and law.
IOS instituted the award in 1999 to commemorate the outstanding services of Shah Waliullah to promote the Islamic values and to honour eminent scholars who have done outstanding work in Social Sciences, Humanities, Law and Islamics.
This was the 7th award for the year 2005. The first award for the year 1999 was conferred posthumously on Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi on November 3, 2000. The second award went to Qazi Mujahidul Islam Qasmi, the renowned Islamic scholar and an authority on Islamic fiqh and the third to Prof Nejatullah Siddiqui, eminent Islamic economist.