Shabbir Ahmad Usmani

Shabbir Ahmad Usmani (11 October 1887 – 13 December 1949) was a Pakistani independence activist and Islamic scholar who served as the Shaykh al-Islām of Pakistan in 1949.

He was the first to demand that Pakistan become an Islamic state. He was a religious scholar, writer, orator, politician, and an expert in tafsir and Hadith.

Born in 1887 in Bijnor, Usmani was an alumnus of Darul Uloom Deoband. He was the son of Fazlur Rahman Usmani. His brother Azizur Rahman Usmani was the first Grand Mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband. Usmani was the first to hoist the Flag of Pakistan at Karachi on 14 August 1947, and led the funeral prayers of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. His major work is the Tafseer-e-Usmani, which he co-authored with his teacher Mahmud Hasan Deobandi.