Ilyas Qadri

Muhammad Ilyas Qadri
Born	(1950-07-12) July 12, 1950
Region	Islamic Scholar
School	Sunni, Hanafi
Main interests	Islamic Philosophy, Hadith, Tassawwuf
Notable ideas	Propagation of the Qur'an and Sunnah through social networking and modern media.

Muhammad Ilyas Qadri (Arabic: محمد الياس قادرى) – sometimes known by his poetic signature of Attar (Arabic: عطار - the Perfumer) – is a Pakistani born scholar of traditional Islam. As well as having authored hundreds of books, he is the founder of Dawat e Islami – which is an international movement aiming for the propagation of the key Islamic sources – the Qur’an and the sunnah. Honorary titles bestowed upon him include Ameer e Ahle Sunnat (Urdu: امیر اہلسنت – the Leader of the People of sunnah.) Amongst the Muslim masses and notable scholars from around the world, he is recognized as a significant figure in the Muslim revival movement, and considered by many to be a saint of this time.

Early life

He was born at the time of early evening on Wednesday the 12th July 1950 – which corresponded with the Hijri date of 26th Ramadan 1369, in the Bombay Bazar area of Karachi, Pakistan. He was born into a middle class family of Memon background, but the family suffered immense poverty after his father passed away in 1951 - whilst performing the Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj.

Alongside various menial occupations to support his brother in keeping the remaining members of his household, he also studied the traditional sciences of Islam including the Dars e Nizami syllabus and beyond, under the tutelage of Mufti Waqar ud Deen - a prominent Islamic scholar of that time.

He was married on a Friday morning in 1977 shortly before the Ju'mma prayer, at the age of 28. His nikah was performed by his teacher and mentor, Mufti Waqar ud Deen. Shortly after this, his elder brother passed away, and the responsibility of keeping the entire household fell solely on his shoulders. Whilst by his own admission already of a religious inclination, this incident made him yet more serious in his endeavours and lead ultimately to the founding of Dawat e Islami.

Founding of Dawat e Islami

Main article: Dawat e Islami

Muhammad Ilyas Qadri describes himself how the death of his older brother, and the burden of keeping his family intensified the fear of the Divine in his heart, and that his friendship circles were even more closely limited to those of a religious mindset. His close companions used to accompany him to recite Islamic litanies and naat at the graveside of his brother, which lead to a series of speeches delivered on various aspects of Islam. This grassroots movement took hold, through congregations consisting of speeches and du'a's, which eventually became the foundation of Dawat e Islami. An increase in the size of the crowd led for these congregations to be moved to bigger Masjid's twice, before the purchase of a large, derilict piece of land in Karachi's old industrial district, where an international headquarters has been built by the name of "Faizan e Madinah" (Urdu: فیضان مدینہ - the Blessings of Madinah). Now, 30 years later, Dawat e Islami is present in many countries throughout the world, and has established itself in many fields - including MadaniChannel, a non commercial Islamic satellite network.