Mufti Kifayatullah

MUFTI KIFAYATULLAH

Date of Birth: 1872 and Date of Death: 31^st December, 1952

            Mufti Kifayatullah, who declared that revolting against the British is the duty ordained on every Muslim and who himself revolted and took his kith and kin into Indian National Movement, was born in 1872 in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh.  Kifayatullah, who was a great theologian, joined in a famous educational institution Darul Uloom of Deoband after his studies at local madarsa.  He entered into the freedom movement influenced by Moulana Mohammad Hassan, the principal of the institution, who himself was a great freedom fighter.  He reached Delhi after the completion of his education, where he took up the responsibility of managing the school that belonged to ‘Anjuman-e-Hidayatul-al-Islam’.  He started a publication house named ‘Kitab Khan-e-Rahimiyya’ along with Moulvi Hafiz Abdul Ghani, in order to revive the deteriorating traditional and moral values among the people.  He played a vital role in the National Movement and served as the President of the ‘Jamayat-e-Ulema-e-Hind’ from 1919 to 1942.  He stated that there would not be any opportunity for the people for real religious freedom and complete independence as long as the country was under the foreign rule.  He actively participated in the Khilafat Movement.  He expressed his opinion that armed struggles would not yield any results and as such, the fight against the British rule should continue in a way preached by Gandhi.  He led the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930 in Delhi for which he was imprisoned.  Since then, he was imprisoned several times for his role in the Indian National Movement.  He strongly opposed dividing the Nation into India and Pakistan on communal lines and criticized the two-nation theory of the Muslim League.  He countered the theory of the League on the basis of the spiritual texts of Islam.  He relentlessly worked for the harmony between the Hindus and Muslims and opposed the discrimination between them.  He also led the movement for social reforms, since he felt that Indian society was polluted because of the impact of western education and culture.  He also opined that the discrimination between human beings is the creation of the selfish people and said that there was nothing wrong in the cohabitation of the people of different castes and races.  He dedicated himself to the literary and spiritual works after the independence of the Nation.  He refused to accept the facilities offered by the Government, saying that it would amount to commercialising his patriotism.  Mufti Kifayatullah, who led a very simple life, breathed his last on 31^st December, 1952.