LAHORE: Veteran spiritual leader and ameer of Tableeghi Jamaat (movement of Islamic preaching), Haji Rao Muhammad Abdul Wahab, who died on Sunday, was known as a sweet, humble, soft spoken and non controversial Muslim scholar, who devoted all his life for preaching Islam across the world. Despite that he adhered to Deobandi school of thought, is held in highest regard as one of the top spiritual leaders by all schools of thought, and is considered as a symbol of love and peace, who called entire mankind towards the basic practices and ideology of Islam.
He was born in 1922 to a devout Islamist Rajput family in Delhi. His ancestors hailed from Karnal, in Haryana, India. He joined preaching Islam activities during his teenage, and was among the disciples of Maulana Mohammad Ilyas Kandhalvi, the founder of Tableeghi Jamaat, and had the honour of receiving direct preaching training from him. He was among the five people in Pakistan who had promised Maulana Muhammad Ilyas to devote entire life for preaching Islam, and remained true to his promise until his last breath.
During his student life, Maulana Abdul Wahab first became a spiritual devotee of the noted spiritual leader of the Indian sub-continent Maulana Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri, and remained a spiritual assistant all his life. He also became a member of Majlis-Ahrar-e-Islam, the then largest Islamist party which rose all over the sub-continent to purge the religion of impurities. He also remained a regional leader of Majlis-e-Ahrar after coming to Pakistan for some time.
When he was a student, he migrated to a village in Burewala, District Vehari, along with his family, and also lived in Jhang District for a briefperiod. He graduated from Islamia College Lahore, and joined the revenue department as Tehsildar. He quit the job after few years to devote entire time for preaching Islam.
He joined the group of preachers trained by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalvi during the early years of Tableeghi Jamaat in then united India and went on a series of preaching journeys far across the sub-continent. He remained associated with noted scholars like Maulana Yusuf Kandhalvi and Inamul Hasan Kandhalvi. After coming to Pakistan, he joined those Islamist workers who were entrusted the tough task of organising and spreading Tableeghi Jamaat and its activities in the new country established for practicing Islam. He served under the first ameer of Tableeghi Jamaat, Maulana Haji Shafi Qureshi (1903–1971), and also the second ameer Haji Babu Bashir Ahmad (1919–1992), who was the father of renowned scholar Maulana Ehsanul Haq. Maulana Abdul Wahab became the third ameer of Tableeghi Jamaat in 1992 after the death of Haji Babu Bashir Ahmad.
During the last five decades of his life, he remained based at Jamaat’s headquarters in Pakistan, Raiwind Markaz, and headed movement’s shoora (executive committee), which undertakes and regulates the preaching activities in the country and all over the world. He was also a member of global shoora of Islamic movement, whose headquarters are at Markaz Nizamuddin, Delhi, India.
In view of the fact that Haji Abdul Wahab was held in the highest regard by all Muslims, his name was suggested for supervising the proposed peace negotiations among the different factions of Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who also adhered to Deobandi school of thought. His name also came in the reports as being suggested for the peace talks with Afghan Taliban. But he declined to participate since he had refrained from indulging into politics all his life. It is still not known who has succeeded him as fourth ameer of Tableeghi Jamaat in Pakistan.
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