Yasir Nadeem Al Wajidi

Yasir Nadeem al Wajidi (born 4 March 1982) is a Chicago based Indian Muslim scholar, author and a YouTuber. He is an activist of minority rights and a public speaker. He is a mufti and teaches Islamic sciences at the Islamic Institute of Education in Chicago. He is the founder of Darul Uloom Online and the author of books including ''Historical Study on Islamic Renewal'' and ''Islam and Globalization''.

Early life and education

Yasir Nadeem al Wajidi was born on 4 March 1982 in Deoband, India. His grandfather Wajid Hussain Deobandi was a hadith professor at the Jamia Islamia Talimuddin. Yasir is maternally related to the Usmani family of Deoband. His maternal grandfather had established Mahd Taleemul Islām, the first madrasa in Chicago.

Yasir memorized the ''Quran'' with his parents and entered the Darul Uloom Deoband for further education. He graduated in 2001 and then specialized in Arabic literature and Islamic jurisprudence. His teachers include Saeed Ahmad Palanpuri. In 2004, Yasir moved to the United States of America and earned an M.A. in Arabic literature from the American Open University. He did his doctoral studies in hadith at the International Islamic University Malaysia in 2012 under the supervision of Abul Lais Khairabadi.

Career

Yasir began teaching at the Mahd Taleemul Islām in 2004 and established Darul Uloom Online in 2009. Darul Uloom Online is thought to be first initiative towards the teaching of dars-e-nizami curriculum online. He is the deputy chairman of ''Islamic Literature Review'', an international journal on Islamic revival. In February 2017, Nadeem challenged the Pakistani-Canadian author Tarek Fateh, who hosts '' Fatah Ka Fatwa'', that, "If Fateh really liked to debate Islam then he should debate with Yasir anywhere in the world, owing to conditions including the presence of independent judges and at a public place not in a TV studio." Yasir had also expressed that, "questions and allegations will be of Fateh whilst the responses would be of Yasir." Fateh, however did not accept Yasir's offer of an academic debate. Following the inception of Fateh's '' Fatah Ka Fatwa'', Yasir started ''Surgical Strike'', a talk show to counter allegations made against Islam. The talk show released 72 episodes including the major ones with Arif Mohammad Khan, Mahmood Madani, Orya Maqbool Jan, Ram Puniyani and Ravi Shankar, and discontinued after two successful years.

In May 2017, Yasir said about Muslim girls who elope with Hindu boys and leave Islam, that, "No one is responsible for such cases of apostasies more than the religious scholars who establish institutions for those who come to them to learn Islam but they ignore rest of the 97% young boys and girls who do not go to any madrasas." In January 2019, Yasir hit a controversy saying that the ''Jana Gana Mana'' had no concepts of polytheism associated, as is generally believed by many Muslims. He expressed that Rabindranath Tagore had written the poem in the praise of God. He said that if Tagore was a polytheist, it was understandable that the poem is influenced by polytheism, but there is no such proof which brands Tagore as a polytheist. He cited John B. Watson stating that Tagore's religion was God and love with the nature. In March 2021, Yasir denounced presence of casteism in Indian Muslims and said that it is a social evil.

In February 2023, Yasir hit another controversy after he called the marriage of Swara Bhasker and Fahad Ahmad "legal but not accepted in Islam". This created a Twitter war between him and RJ Sayema, and made critics call his take misogynistic.

Literary works

Yasir compiled ''Qāmus al-Asri'', a trilingual dictionary which contains seventy-five thousand words of Arabic, English and Urdu language. His other works include:
* ''Islam and Globalization''
* ''Tajdīd-i dīn: sharī'at aur tārīk̲h̲ kī raushnī men̲'' (Historical study on Islamic renewal)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadeem al Wajidi, Yasir
Living people
1982 births
Usmani family
Darul Uloom Deoband alumni
International Islamic University Malaysia alumni
Indian muftis
Deobandis
People from Deoband
Indian YouTubers
Indian activists
Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
American Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Indian Muslim activists
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims