Sayyid Sa‘eed Akhtar Rizvi
(
Urdu
:
??? ???? ???? ????
) (1927?2002) was an Indian born,
Twelver Sh?‘ah
scholar
, who promoted
Islam
in East
Africa
. He was given authorizations (
Arabic
:
?????
) by fourteen
Grand Ayatullahs
for
riwayah
, Qazawah, and Umur-e-Hasbiyah.
Biography
[
edit
]
Rizvi was born in Ushri,
Saran district
,
Bihar state
, India, in 1927.
[
citation needed
]
His father was Sayyid Abul Hassan Rizvi and who was also a
Hakim
[1]
[
circular reference
]
(Yunani medicine doctor) and a religious scholar. He had five sons and two daughters. His second eldest son, Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, lives in
Toronto, Ontario
, Canada. He is the
Imam
of the Islamic Shia Ithna‘asheri Jamaat (ISIJ)
[2]
of Toronto. He spoke and wrote in
Urdu
, English,
Arabic
,
Persian
,
Swahili
and was also familiar with
Hindi
and
Gujarati
.
[
citation needed
]
In 1959 he was appointed the
Islamic scholar
(
Arabic
:
'alim
) for
Lindi
,
Tanzania
.
[3]
In 1962, he conceived a plan for propagating Islam.
[3]
His plan was proposed and approved at the triennial Conference of the Supreme Council of Africa Federation of K.S.I Jamaats of Africa in Tanga in 1964.
[3]
and became the
Bilal Muslim Mission
.
[3]
Rizvi was transferred from
Arusha
to
Dar es Salaam
in mid-eastern
Tanzania
and Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania was officially registered in 1968. The
Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya
was founded in 1971.
[3]
Through his mission he introduced
correspondence courses
in
Islamic studies
in English and Swahili.
[3]
He traveled and lectured to
university
students in Africa,
Europe
, Canada and United States.
[3]
His funeral was held in
Dar es Salaam
with two scouts holding black flags in the cortege to the burial site. Officials and Scholars from several countries were present. The
Islamic funeral
prayer (Salat al-Mayyit) was given by his son, Muhammad Rizvi.
[3]
Rizvi authored over 140 books, some of them having been translated into many languages.
[3]
The Bilal Muslim Mission had been able to accomplished at lot in its objective of spreading the true teaching of Islam, through the hard work of its dedicated founders. This was achieved with very limited means and resources. Main source of spreading the Islamic faith was person to person or through correspondence and publication of books and its dissemination. People from Guyana in South America to Poland in Europe and from Malaysia to West Africa benefitted and embraced the true Islam.
[4]
At the time of his death according to PEW research there where approximately 2 million Shias in Tanzania.
[5]
This Biography is about the Challenges, Achievements and Life of Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi. "The Shining Star"
Bibliography
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As author
[
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As translator
[
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]
As editor
[
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]
Journal articles
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]
See also
[
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]
Suggested reading
[
edit
]
- Outline of Shi'a Ithna-ashari History in East Africa
by Marhum Mulla Asgharali M.M. Jaffer
References
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]
External links
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]