Maulana Muhammad Abdullah

Mawlānā Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi ( ur, – 17 October 1998) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar who served as Chairman of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and as the first Imam of Lal Masjid, and founded Faridia University and Jamia Hafsa.

He Graduated from Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia and served as the first Imam and Khatib of Lal Masjid, the first mosque to be established in the new capital.

In 1971, he founded Jamia Faridia in Islamabad, the first Islamic seminary to be established in Islamabad. He taught hadith at the madrasah, and was well-known by the title "Shaykh al-Hadith".

He also served as the Chairman of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, and led the organization till assassination in 1998.

Early life

Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi was born on 1 June 1935 in a village of Basti-Abdullah, district Rajanpur into the family of Ghazi Muhammad descending from the Sadwani (Sodvani) clan of the Mazari tribe of Baluchistan. His father was socially active, which got him in trouble many times and he was arrested by the British and sentenced to 8 years in Jail. In Jail, he became religious and motivated Abdullah to join a local madrassa.

At the age of seven, Ghazi enrolled into Madrasa Khudam-ul-Qur'an of Rahim Yar Khan, to complete the Hifz (memorization of the Quran).

After his primary education, Ghazi went to study at Jamia Qasim Ul Uloom in Multan for further education, where he studied for 5 years and was a student of Mufti Mahmud.

He then went to Karachi, and joined Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Karachi, from where he completed his Dars-i Nizami in 1957, and was among the top students of Muhammad Yousuf Banuri.

After completing his Dars-i Nizami, he served as Imam of Jamia Masjid Rashidiya, Malir for few years.

When the capital moved to Islamabad, and Lal Masjid, Islamabad was established, Ghazi became its first sermon preacher in 1965 upon the recommendation of his teacher Muhammad Yousuf Banuri.

Lal Masjid

His Friday sermons attracted thousands to the mosque. Before Faisal Mosque's completion Lal Masjid was the first and only Central Mosque of Islamabad and President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was a regular visitor of the mosque. upon completion of the Faisal Mosque, Zia ul Huq wanted Ghazi to take a position at the newly built mosque as its first Imam but Ghazi did not take the offer.

Establishing Jamia Faridia

In 1966, He established a small seminary at Lal Masjid, in which there were about 20 to 25 students for the Hifz class. After some time a need was felt to have a bigger place for running this seminary so that a large number of students who were increasing with the passage of time could be accommodated.

Hence In 1971, a place in the meadows of the Margalla Hills in the city's Prime Sector E-7, was acquired with the help and cooperation of several of his close friends most notably Seth Haroon Jaffer (Jaffer Group of Companies), Haji Akhtar Hassan (OSD Kashmir Affairs & Finance Secretary of Azad Kashmir), and Admiral Mohammad. Shariff, NI(M), HJ (Rtd).

The seminary was shifted to the present building and it was named "Jamia Faridia" and later became known as " Al Faridia University".

In 1992, he laid the foundation for Jamia Hafsa, which later on became the largest female seminary of Asia, Maulana remained the Chancellor for Both Seminaries till his Assassination in 1998

Soviet–Afghan War

During the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), the Red Mosque played a major role in recruiting and training Mujahideen to fight alongside the Afghan Mujahideen against Soviet troops.

Meeting Bin Laden

A few months before his assassination in 1998, Ghazi and his friend Zahoor Ahmad Alwi (Founder Jamia Muhammadia) and some other scholars went to Afghanistan. He took his rebellious son especially with him. This delegation met Mullah Omar, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri

Assassination

His biographer, Riaz Mansoor, states that Maulana had a routine every day whereby he would walk to a seminary for giving lectures (7 km away from the Red-Mosque). On the day of his assassination, he walked to Jamia Faridia and returned by car at noon. As he got out of the car, his elder son Abdul Aziz Ghazi approached him and spoke to him. When Ghazi approached his house, a man standing in front of the door walked towards him and pulled out a gun and opened fire until the magazine was empty, badly injuring Ghazi. Afterwards, he fired at Abdul Aziz, who barely escaped death. The assassin escaped with the help of an accomplice waiting outside in a car. Maulana died of his injuries on the way to the hospital.

The President of Pakistan

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