Ubaidul Haq


Ubaidul Haq, also spelt Obaidul Haq, is a Bangladeshi teacher, muhaddith, mufassir and writer. He was the former khatib of the national mosque of Bangladesh.

Early life and education

Obaidul Haq was born on 2 May 1928 into a traditional Bengali Muslim family in Barothakuri, Zakiganj, Sylhet District. His father, Maulana Zahurul Haq was a notable Sylheti student of Ashraf Ali Thanwi and graduated in Hadith studies from the Darul Uloom Deoband in 1335. His mother was Musammat Aisha Begum. Haq was the second son out of three sons. His elder brother, Ahmadul Haq, collected old books and was the owner of a store known as the Ashrafiyyah Kutubkhana, which opened in Zindabazar, Sylhet not long after the Independence of Bangladesh in 1971. His younger brother, Mawlana Abdul Haq, was a graduate of the Government Madrasah-e-Alia in Dhaka and is a teacher of Hadith at a Qaumi Madrasa.
Haq first studied at the Ghungadi Madrasah where he was taught Persian books such as Mizan Munshaib by Maulana Shamsul Haq. Two years later, he studied at a madrasa in Habiganj under Mawlana Muddathir Ahmad and Mawlana Musir Ali - both graduates of the Darul Uloom Deoband. Haq then studied at Munshibazar Ayargaon Madrasa, founded by his father. In 1942, he enrolled in Darul Uloom Deoband and received his vocation in Tafsir and Hadith from Husain Ahmad Madani and Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi.

Career

Education

Obaidul Haq later joined Dhaka's Bara Katara Hossainya Ashraful Ulum Madrasa in 1950, teaching hadith studies. In 1952 he joined Dhaka Alia Madrasa as a teacher, where he taught on hadith studies between 1964 and 1971 and served as the additional vice principal from 1973 through 1979.
He was the Shaikhul Hadith at Chittagong's Patia Madrasa between 1986 and 1987, and held the same position at Sylhet's Jamia Kasimul Dargah Madrasa from 1987 until his death.
He was also a professor at Faizul Uloom Madrasa at Azimpur in the Dhaka.

Khatib of Baitul Mukarram

He was the longest serving khatib of the Baitul Mukarram Mosque.
In 2001, he was forced into retirement by the then Awami League government. He then sought a writ petition which overturned the government's decision.

Anti- terror agitation

At a conference in 1 April 2005, organised in Paltan Maidan, Dhaka by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam he along with the leading ulema of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh declared a fatwa denouncing terrorism.
Later that year, after a series of bombings in Bangladesh he led thousands of worshipers and political activists in a prayer and massive demonstration denouncing terrorism. He remarked that those who were killing people with bombs, were the enemies of Islam and people as well.

Views

In 1994, he expressed concern over the growing support for the unfair practices of Christian proselytizers by non-governmental organisations and the sympathy for them by Bangladeshi left-wing political parties.
On March 21, 2003, he led a large anti-war rally in protest of the invasion of Iraq with Fazlul Haque Amini, where he remarked that:
The US will occupy all the oil-rich Middle East and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, gradually.
In 2005, following the series of bombings by the banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh while leading the protest denouncing terrorism he remarked:
Islam prohibits suicide bombings. These bombers are enemies of Islam. It is a duty for all Muslims to stand up against those who are killing people in the name of Islam.