Zafeeruddin Miftahi

Zafeeruddin Miftāhi was born on 7 March 1926 (22 Sha'ban 1344 AH) in Darbhanga.[2] He received his primary education at home and was schooled at Madrasa Mahmudiya, in Terai, Nepal. He studied intermediate classes of Arabic and Persian at Madrasa Wāris al-Ulūm in Chhapra from 1933 to 1940. He graduated from the Jamia Miftahul Uloom where he studied from 1940 to 1944 with Habib al-Rahman al-'Azmi and Abdul Lateef Nomani.[3] His other teachers include Hussain Ahmad Madani, Sulaiman Nadwi, Minatullah Rahmani, Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi and Muhammad Tayyib Qasmi.[4]

After his graduation in 1944, Miftāhi taught at the Jamia Miftahul Uloom for one year and then moved to Ma'dan al-Ulūm in Lucknow where he taught for three years between September 1945 and January 1948.[3] From January 1948 to 1956, he taught at Darul Uloom Muīnia in Begusarai, with a gap of one year in between; during which he taught at Jamia Islamia Talimuddin.[3] In Shawwal 1364 AH, Miftāhi went to study at the Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow at Sulaiman Nadwi's suggestion and studied there for few months.[3]

Miftāhi was first appointed in the Darul Uloom Deoband to compile fatawa.[5]Between 1962 and 1972, he compiled the fatawa of Azizur Rahman Usmani in twelve volumes.[3] In Safar 1385 AH, the executive council of Deoband seminary appointed him to write the editorial for Monthly Darul Uloom, which he continuously wrote for seventeen years.[6][7] In 1993, he was appointed as the Grand Mufti in the Darul Ifta of Darul Uloom Deoband; a post he served till 21 August 2008.[6]He served in the Deoband seminary for fifty years and wrote one lakh fatawa.[8] He retired from Deoband on 22 August 2008 at a monthly pension of 2000 INR which he received throughout his life.[6]

Miftāhi was a founding figure of the Islamic Fiqh Academy and became its president after Mujahidul Islam Qasmi.[9]He was a member of Board of Studies at the Sunni Theology department of Aligarh Muslim University.[10]

Miftāhi died on 31 March 2011. His funeral prayer was led by Saud Alam Qasmi, the former dean of the Faculty of Theology at Aligarh Muslim University on 1 April 2011.[11]

Miftāhi compiled the religious verdicts of Azizur Rahman Usmani, commonly known as Fatāwa Darul Uloom Deoband in twelve volumes between 1962 and 1972.[3][12] His books include:[7]

• Islām Ka Nizām-e-Masājid (Its English translation Mosque in Islam by Zaheerun Nabi was published in 1996 by Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi).
• Islām Ka Nizām Iffat-o-Asmat (Its English translation Modesty and chastity in Islam was first published in Kuwait and second time by Qazi Publishers during 1993 in New Delhi. Persian translation was published as Hijāb-o-Iffat az Dīdgah-e-Islām in Tehran).
• Tārīkh-e-Masājid
• Uswa-e-Hasanah
• Ta'āruf Makhtūtāt
• Jamāt-e-Islāmi ke Dīni Rujhānāt
• Mashāhīr Ulama-e-Deoband
• Darul Uloom: Qayām awr Iska Pas-e-Manzar
• Darul Uloom: Ek Azeem Maktab Fikr
• Nizām-e-Tarbiyyat (Darul Uloom Deoband has published its Arabic translation Ināyat al-Islām bi al-Tarbiyyat al-Atfāl).
• Nizām Tāmīr-e-Seerat
• Masāil-e-Hajj-o-Umrah
• Islām Ka Nizām-e-Hayāt
• Dars-e-Qur'ān (Ten volumes)
• Hakīm-ul-Islām awr Unki Majālis [lower-alpha 1].
• Jurm-o-Saza Kitāb-o-Sunnat Ki Roshni Mai
• Islāmi Hukūmat ke Naqsh-o-Nigār
• Islām ka Nizām-e-Amn
• Hayāt-e-Gilāni (transl. The life of Gilāni).
• Hadhrat Nanautawi Ek Misāli Shakhsiyat
• Tārīkhi Haqā'iq
• Islāmi Zindagi Ke Āsār-o-Nuqūsh
• Islām Ka Nizām-e-Ma'īshat

• Nayab Hasan Qasmi. "Mufti Zafeeruddin Miftāhi". Darul Uloom Deoband ka Sahāfati Manzarnāma (in Urdu) (2013 ed.). Deoband: Idara Tahqeeq-e-Islami. pp. 214–216.
• Qāsmi, Muhammad Saud Alam (ed.). Hayāt-e-Zafeer [The Life of Zafeer] (in Urdu) (September 2011 ed.). Islamic Fiqh Academy, India: IFA Publications.
• Amīni, Nūr Alam Khalīl. "Hadhrat Mawlāna Mufti Muḥammad Zafeeruddin Miftāhi Sāheb". Pas-e-Marg-e-Zindah (in Urdu). Deoband: Idāra Ilm-o-Adab. pp. 913–932.