AN INTERVIEW WITH MAULANA IQBAL UMRI

AN INTERVIEW WITH MAULANA IQBAL UMRI Maulana Iqbal Umri is a member of CPS Chennai team. He is an Islamic scholar. He is associated with the CPS mission since 2008. Please tell us about your educational journey. I completed the memorization of the Quran in 1989 at Jamia Darussalam Oomerabad in Tamil Nadu. In 1996, I completed Alimiyat (graduation) and Fazilat (post-graduation). I completed BA in Arabic from Madras University, which is referred to as Afzal-ul-Ulama. Then, for economic reasons, I travelled to Doha, Qatar, where I served as an Imam in a mosque for three years. In 2000, I returned to India. After that, I went to Bahrain for a period of three months to study Sahih al-Bukhari. What was the subject of your studies? As part of the syllabus, I studied the Quran, the corpus of Hadith, Fiqh, Aqeedah, Arabic language and history of Islam. My extracurricular reading started with the so-called Islamic novels such as those by Inayatullah Altamash and Nasim Hijazi. After that, I started reading more about Islamic topics. In the last few years, my focus has been on the problems of the Muslim community and their solutions. I felt then that I should serve Islam. How did you first get involved in introducing the peaceful message of Islam? After the demolition of the Babri Masjid, discussion on intercommunity relationship became very common among the Muslim community in India. In our institute, Jamia Darussalam, a dawah-oriented environment was developed. In the final year of our education, there was a lecture by Abdur Rahim. Then, after that, Janab Riyaz Musa Malbari conducted dawah awareness programmes. What difficulties did you face while introducing the message of the Quran? In the task of introducing the message of the Quran to the seekers, I have not faced any kind of difficulty till date from people of other faiths. I did face some hardships from the Muslims. They do not understand this noble task, and it is not on their priority list.