A man of manifold and staggering achievements, Shaykh-ul-Islam Professor Dr Muḥammad Ṭahir-ul-Qadri is the founding leader of Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International (MQI), an organization with branches and centres in more than 90 countries around the globe, working for the promotion of peace and harmony between communities and the revival of spiritual endeavour based on the true teachings of Islam.

Shaykh-ul-Islam was born on February 19, 1951 in the historical city of Jhang, Pakistan, and the son of the great spiritualist and intellectual of his time ash-Shaykh Dr Farida’d-Din al-Qadri. Since his birth had been foretold through a spiritual dream to his father, he was educated from the young age in both the Islamic and secular sciences simultaneously, imbued with the belief that his entire life would be devoted to the renaissance of Islam. Although he had already started his religious education under his father two years earlier, his formal classical education was initiated in Madina at the age of 12, in Madrasa al-‘Ulūm ash-Shar‘iyya which was situated in the blessed house of Sayyiduna Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣari, the first residence of the Holy Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) after his migration. By the time he had received a First Class Honours Degree from the University of the Punjab in 1970, he had also completed his Classical Islamic Studies, having spent over ten years under the tutelage of his father and other eminent Shuyūkh of his time and achieving an unparalleled understanding of the classical shari‘a sciences and Arabic language. He earned his MA in Islamic Studies in 1972 with the University of the Punjab Gold Medal, achieved his LLB in 1974 and began to practise as a lawyer in the district courts of Jhang. He moved to Lahore in 1978 and joined the University of the Punjab as a lecturer in law and completed his doctorate in Islamic Law. He was also a member of the Syndicate, Senate and Academic Council of the University of the Punjab, which are the highest executive, administrative and academic bodies of the University.

However within a short span of time he emerged as the country’s leading Islamic jurist and scholar and revivalist of the Islamic ideology. He was appointed as a Jurist Consult (legal adviser) on Islamic law for the Supreme Court and the Federal Shari’a Court of Pakistan and also worked as a specialist adviser on Islamic curricula for the Federal Ministry of Education of Pakistan. At various times between 1983-1987, he was offered the positions of Senator for the Upper House of Parliament, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Federal Minister for Education and the Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs. He was also nominated as ambassador for Pakistan as well as being offered the post of Justice of the Appellate Shari’a Bench, Supreme Court of Pakistan and the position of being a member of the Islamic Ideology Council of Pakistan (highest constitutional body for Islamic legislation).
All of these positions were offered by the then president of Pakistan. However, Shaykh-ul-Islam refused to accept any of these offers due to his lifelong commitment to serving Islam, the Muslim Ummah, education, welfare, women development and humanity at large, both regional and global. Very early in life his vision encompassed attaining the goal of peace through religious mederation and integration, an international process of ecumenism and interfaith dialogue. He envisaged the empowerment of women as a dynamic force for peace alongside the promotion of humanitarian behavior through welfare and altruistic programmes, conflit resolution and the creation of mass education facilities. This deep commitment only be fully realized through the creation of a vast all-encompassing network which could not be achieved within the limitations that necessarily occur within the confines of a government job. Since he had already established Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International (MQI) in 1981 as a platform to realize these aims, Shaykh-ul-Islam refused all offers made by the President at that time.