Kifayatullah Dihlawi

"Mufti Kifayatullah was the mufti of Delhi, he was in fact often addressed as the Mufti-i-Azam, the Grand Mufti. His mastery of the Hadis literature was said to be unequalled. Born in 1875, he lived till 1952. He was devoted to Tabligh work. He founded the Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Hind, and remained its president from 1919 to 1942. He participated vigorously in the Khilafat and Civil Disobedience movements, and was twice imprisoned during the latter. He became a member of the Congress Working Committee in 1930. As the demand for Pakistan gathered momentum, he was one of its principal opponents among the Muslim ulema. In a word, a nationalist among the ulema. Quite apart from that, he was an astute, one is tempted to say a judicious man. Often his formulations are a pleasure to read—he doesn’t give a black or white answer; often he clears a path in between the contending positions. Often his advice is sagacious."