Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi

Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi ( _ar. سعيد أخطر رزفي) was an Indian-born Islamic scholar of the Shi'a twelver school, active in promoting Islam in East Africa.

Also transliterated as Sayyid Sa'eed Akhtar Rizvi.

Biography

Sayyid Akhtar Rizvi was born in a place called Ushri, District Saran Bihar, India, in 1927. He has four sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Hujjat-ul-Islam wal Muslimeen Maulana Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, lives in Toronto, Canada. He has followed his father's footsteps and has written many books as well. He is the Imam of the ISIJ of Toronto, Jaffari Islamic Center. Sayyid Akhtar was a very friendly & humorous person. He spent a lot of time with his family and visited a lot. His father was Sayyid Abul Hassan Rizvi and he was a Maulana as well. He was, is, and always will be much loved by not only family, but many others around the world.

Tanzania

In 1959 he came to Lindi, Tanzania, where he was appointed the local Islamic scholar istr|Alim. He there learned Swahili and improved his English in order to better perform his work as a scholar.

In 1962 proposed a plan of propagating the faith among the African people to Haji Ebrahim H. Sheriff in Arusha. An amended and improved plan was put into action in 1963. This plan was circulated in the triennial Conference of the Africa Federation in Tanga in 1964, where it received the approval of Hussein Nasser Walji (approved in the general meeting of Dar es Salaam Jamaat).

Marhum Mulla Asgharali M.M. Jaffer writes:

Bilal Muslim Mission

In the end, the plan was adopted by the majority as a policy, marking the birth of the Bilal Muslim Mission.

Marhum Mulla Asgharali M.M. Jaffer writes:

Sayyid Akhtar Rizvi was transferred from Arusha in the north of Tanzania to the group in Dar es Salaam in mid-eastern Tanzania. This expansions of activities created the need of an autonomous body, so Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi went to Mombasa in southern Kenya in 1976 in order to meet the office-bearers of the Supreme Council. They decided to create two organizations, so Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania was registered on 16th April 1968 and the Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya in 1971 with Rizvi as one of the founding members, the Chief Missionary and the Tableegh Advisor of the Late Chairman of the Africa Federation, Late Mohamedali Meghjee and to Marhum Mulla Asghar M.M. Jaffer, Alhaj Mohamed Dhirani and Alhaj Habibbhai Mulji.

Travels

His name became synonymous with the word Tabligh (Islamic mission) among the indigenous people of East Africa, and he introduced correspondence courses in Islamic studies in English and Swahili besides several other courses for Shia students through the Bilal Muslim Mission, some of the courses being tough even outside Africa.

He traveled widely, holding assemblies and lecturing to university students in Africa, Europe, Canada and USA, making sure that his speeches reached intellectuals, new converts and those wishing to know more about religion.

Funeral

His funeral was attended by a very large crowd in Dar es Salaam. Although normally coffins are taken by a special van to the graveyard, two scouts holding two large black flags led the cortege to the burial site. Traffic police stopped the busy Saturday morning traffic to make way for the cortege, who walked on foot covering the route of the funeral Cortege from the Imambara to the cemetery in more than half an hour. Officials and Scholars from several countries were present. The obligatory Islamic funeral prayer istr|Salat al-Mayyit was held by Mohamed Rizvi, the son of the deceased.

Representatives from Bilal Muslim Mission credited him with raising the number of Shi'as in East Africa from none to 100,000.

He spoke Urdu, English, Arabic, Persian, Swahili and knew Hindi and Gujrati.

He has was given authorisations istr|Ijazah by fourteen Grand Ayatullahs for riwayah, Qazawah, and Umur-e-Hasbiyah.

Legacy

Works

Sayyid Akhtar Rizvi authored over 140 books, some of them having been translated into 22 languages. [http://www.victorynewsmagazine.com/PassingAwaySayyidAkhtarRizvi.htm victorynewsmagazine.com] ] they include:

*Imamate: The Vicegerency of the Prophet
*Slavery From Islamic and Christian Perspectives [on [http://www.al-islam.org/ Al-islam.org] [http://al-islam.org/slavery] ]
*The Fast of 'Ashuraon [http://www.al-islam.org/ Al-islam.org] [http://al-islam.org/al-serat/fastofashura.htm] ]
* [on [http://www.al-islam.org/ Al-islam.org] [http://al-islam.org/al-serat/imamhasan.htm] ]
*The Fast of 'Ashura
*The Illustrious Period of the Imamate of Imam Zayn al-'Abidin [on [http://www.al-islam.org/ Al-islam.org] [http://al-islam.org/al-serat/Illustrious.htm] ]
* [on [http://www.al-islam.org/ Al-islam.org] [http://al-islam.org/al-serat/imams-jihad.htm] ]
*Martyrdom of Imam Husayn and the Muslim and Jewish Calendars [on [http://www.al-islam.org/ Al-islam.org] [http://al-islam.org/al-serat/husayncal.htm] ]
* [ [http://www.al-shia.com/html/eng/books/protection/index.html] , [http://www.quranicstudies.com/downcat7.html] ]
* [ [http://www.al-shia.com/html/eng/books/slavery/index.htm TOC: Slavery - Islamic and Christian Perspectives ] ]
*P O R K [ [http://www.almujtaba.com/books/contemporary/pork.html Pork - www.almujtaba.com ] ]
* [http://al-shia.com/html/eng/books/beliefs/attributesofgod/attributesofgod.htm]
*The Justice of God [http://al-shia.com/html/eng/books/beliefs/compulsion-or-freedom/compulsion-or-freedom.htm]
*The Life of Muhammad The Prophet [ [http://al-islam.org/lifeprophet/ The Life of Muhammad The Prophet ] ]

ee also

*List of Islamic scholars
*Sayyid
*Sa'id (name)
*Syed
*Rizvi
*Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania

References

External links

* [http://www.playandlearn.org/reader.asp?Type=Scholars&fn=104 biography] at playandlearn.org.
* [http://www.victorynewsmagazine.com/PassingAwaySayyidAkhtarRizvi.htm biography] at victorynewsmagazine.com