Renowned Islamic scholar and cleric Mufti Rafi Usmani, who passed away earlier this week after a prolonged illness, was laid to rest in Karachi on Sunday morning.

The cleric, 86, was the eldest son of Mufti Shafi Usmani, a renowned cleric and founder of Darul Uloom Karachi — one of the largest seminaries of the Deoband school of thought in the country. He was also the elder brother of Wifaqul Madaris Al Arabia Pakistan President Mufti Taqi Usmani.

Mufti Rafi’s funeral prayers were offered at the Darul Uloom Karachi after which the scholar was buried adjacent to his father’s grave in the graveyard next to the mosque.

Several religious and political leaders including Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, Wafaqi Madaris Al Arabiya Pakistan General Secretary Qari Mohammad Hanif Jalandhri, Maulana Anwarul Haq Haqqani, Maulana Syed Suleiman Banori and Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tesori attended the funeral prayers.

Survived by a wife, a son and three daughters, Mufti Usmani was suffering serious health complications after surviving Covid-19 some two years ago, his close aides said.

Condolence messages over his demise poured in from all segments of society with many religious scholars terming the demise a great tragedy for the Islamic world.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Arif Alvi, and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also expressed their condolences on the death of the cleric.

Achievements in the Islamic world

Born in July 1936 in the town of Deoband in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Mufti Usmani migrated to Pakistan with his family in 1947.

In 1986, he became the chief of Darul Uloom Karachi and in 1995, the clerics and scholars representing the Deoband school of thought appointed Mufti Usmani as the Mufti-i-Azam.

Author of almost 27 Urdu and Arabic books — he had served as the vice president of Wifaqul Madaris Al Arabia Pakistan and as a syndicate member of public and private varsities including Karachi University and Dow University of Health Sciences.

Furthermore, he had been a senior member of Ruet-i-Hilal Com­mittee, Council of Islamic Ideology, Zakat Council of the Government of Sindh and All Pakistan Ulema Council.

He had also served as an adviser to the Shariat appellate bench of Supreme Court.