KARACHI, April 7: The Pakistan Post Office on Wednesday issued Rs2 commemorative stamps on Justice Pir Mohammad Karam Shah Al-Azhari, says a press release.

The press release adds that Pir Mohammad Karam Shah was a famous saint of the Chishtia order, learned theologian, commentator of the Quran, biographer of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), jurist, educationist and justice of the Supreme Court.

The press release says: "Mohammad Karam Shah was born on July 1, 1918 in the famous town Bhera, Sargodha district. After a study of the Quran, he was admitted to Mohammadia Ghausia Primary School in 1925 established by his father. Later on, he got admission to Government High School Bhera and did his Matric in 1936. In 1941, he got admission to Oriental College, Lahore, and passed the examination of Fazal-i-Arabi."

It says that Mohammad Karam Shah passed his BA exams from Punjab University in 1945 and then proceeded to Egypt for higher education in 1951 where got admission to al-Azhar University.

"He got MA honours in Islamic Law, securing second position in the university. He started MPhil in the same university. He undertook research for the thesis, al-Hadud fi'l Islam, for the degree of MPhil but he could not submit this thesis due to the illness of his father."

"He wrote on the Quran, Hadith, and Sirah. He completed his first book, Sunnat Khayr-ul-Anam, while he was the student of al-Azhar University. In this book, he refuted Ghulam Ahmad Pervaiz's views regarding Prophetic traditions.

Being a pupil of Sadr-ul-Afazal, he pondered over the Quranic verses and completed his first exegesis of the Quran, titled Zia-ul-Quran, in the Urdu language in five volumes in 19 years.

His Urdu translation, Jamal-ul-Quran, has also been separately published. He wrote a detailed biography of the Prophet, titled Zia-un-Nabi in seven volumes."