Minhaj-ul-Quran

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Minhaj-ul-Quran International (منہاج القرآن)

Founder(s)	Dr. Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri
Founded	17th October 1980
Headquarters	Lahore, Pakistan
Key people	Tanvir Qureshi, Dr Raheeq Abbasi, Dr Nizam ud din, Zahid Fayyaz
Focus	To promote interfaith dialogue and to present a realistic, rational and scientific picture of Islam
Website	Minhaj.org

Minhaj-ul-Quran (منہاج القرآن) International is a non-political, non-sectarian, non-governmental organization (NGO) founded by Shaykh ul-Islam Dr. Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri on 17th October 1980 in Lahore, Pakistan. It has emerged as one of the fastest growing organisations since it was founded and is now working in over 100 countries around the globe.^[1] Its aim is to revive the message of the Quran and sunnah in light of the modern and moderate interpretation. Its emphasis is towards the betterment of masses on social, cultural, and religious aspects and to enlighten them with the knowledge of their rights and duties and to present a realistic, rational and scientific picture of Islam.

The headquarter of Minhaj-ul-Quran International was inaugurated by Shaykh Sayyidna Tahir Allauddin Al Qadri Al Gillani in 1987 who is regarded as the spiritual founder and leader of this organisation. The objective of Minhaj-ul-Quran is to create harmony between different societies through social interaction, social cultural interfaith dialogue and through spreading the message of peace. Its objective is also to promote human and women rights around the globe.

Minhaj-ul-Quran has worked closely with the Christian community as well as other ethnic minority communities in Pakistan for the purpose of highlighting and promoting their citizen rights. It is the first organisation of its kind that has initiated interfaith dialogues with religious minorities. The founder, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is the Chairman of the 'Muslim Christian Dialogue Forum' where Christian Bishops, Muslim clerics and scholars work side by side. ^[2]

1 Ideology
2 Achievements
3 Branches
4 Departments and Services
5 International Links
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Ideology

The ideology of Minahj-ul-Quran International is multidimensional and relates to the spiritual, moral, educational and social progress of human beings in light of the modern and moderate interpretation of the Quran and the sunnah of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Some organisations put all their efforts into research, others into spirituality, others into education, some into political aspects and vast majority of these organisations are usually limited to local areas. The founding leader Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri says he felt the need to establish Minhaj-ul-Quran because after analysing the work and efforts of all the contemporary Muslim organisations, it was concluded that they all were working on very limited level and no of them had vast, comprehensive and global vision and programme and they lack co-ordination and co-operation.

However, the actual message of the Holy Prophet Muhammad was in fact comprehensive and global. Therefore, there are various outstanding characteristics of Minhaj-ul-Quran International, believed to lead to a revival of message of the Prophet Muhammad, making it a unique organisation compared with others.^[3]. Some of them are as follows:

1. Comprehensiveness of the message
2. Purity of the message
3. Chain of transmission of the message from the Holy Prophet Muhammad to its founder
4. Modern and scientific interpretation of message
5. Emphasis on the revival of spiritual, moral, educational and social values
6. Emphasis on revival of the message

[edit] Achievements

In order to measure an organisations success it is important to look into the achievements of an organisation. Any organisation needs a successful leader who drives the organisation towards success and under the dynamic leadership of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Minhaj-ul-Quran has become one of the fast growing NGOs in the world due to its complex structure.

Minhaj-ul-Quran International has expanded to over 90 countries in a time span of only 25 years. It has its educational and community centres in all the continents Asia, Middle East, Europe, North America, Australia and Africa. Its main offices are in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Barcelona, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo. It established the Directorate of Foreign Affairs at its HQ to co-ordinate and to expand its network abroad. ^[4]

Educational network of Minhaj-ul-Quran is very well-known and highly appreciated in Pakistan. It successfully runs around 1000 educational institutes including libraries in Pakistan and a university based in Lahore which was chartered in 2005. ^[5]

It also runs a successful welfare charity Minhaj Welfare Foundation (MWF) that has a global network and aims to provide emergency aid, healthcare, welfare support and education to the poor and affected from natural disasters. ^[6] It is a UK registered charity under the Charity Commission.

Minhaj-ul-Quran has continuously aimed to promote the peaceful and balanced message of Islam through the modern and scientific interpretation of Islam, hence has published over 300,000 books in the last 25 years of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. It has established its own printing and production facilities which enable the organisation to produce and distribute the books, Videos, Cds and DVDs of its founder. It also has produced and distributed worldwide millions of Video cassettes, CDs and DVDs with various lectures of its founder on almost every concept of Islam. ^[7]

Minhaj-ul-Quran has been organising highly successful and historic events in Pakistan and abroad. It has the honour to hold one of the largest annual Itikaf gatherings during the month of Ramadan, after the Holy cities Makkah and Madina with a record of 37,000 people sitting congregational Itikaf in 2007. It holds the largest Laylat ul Qadr night event on the 27th Ramadan with millions of attendees. ^[8]

As Minhaj-ul-Quran International also aims to promote the Love for the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them), it has revived the concept of celebrating the birth day of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them) in the Ummah. The largest annual International Mawlid an-Nabi (Milad un Nabi) event takes place in the grounds of Minar-e-Pakistan, Lahore, on the 12th of Rabi' al-awwal and attracts millions of people from all over Pakistan and aboard. The highlight of the event is the special speech by Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri followed by recitation of salutations upon the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them). ^[9]In 2008 due to the limitation of the space at Minar-e-Pakistan (which is regarded as the largest venue in Lahore), it plans to decentralise its event and will hold the same event in 5 different cities and will broadcast the speech live to all the cities. “Mawlid al-Nabi”, Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri has written the largest work on the subject of legality of Mawlid an-Nabi consisting of approximately a 1,000 pages. It also holds largest Mawlid-un-Nabi celebration feast (Ziafat-e-Milad) in which hundreds of thousands people attend throughout the month of Rabi-ul-Awal in which Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri himself serves the dinner. ^[10]

On 3rd December 2005, for the first time in the history Minhaj-ul-Quran established a full time institution called Gosha-e-Durood where any individual can apply to sit for reciting Salutations on the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them). This is a unique way to promote the love for the Holy Prophet Muhammad and to increase spiritually introduced by Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. In the last 2 years trillions of Salutations have been recited for the Holy Prophet Muhammad. A purpose built building with Mawlana Rumi style minaretis under construction. ^[11]

Another achievement is that it managed to air the main lectures of its founder Live on the private international TV channel, QTV (ARY) which enable millions of people abroad to listen to the illuminating speech by its founder. ^[12]

In the past decade Minhaj-ul-Quran International successfully established various Islamic resources to promote the peaceful and balanced message of Islam using the internet. It also runs successful 3 Islamic magazines which are distributed to its members.

Minhaj-ul-Quran International is the first organisation of its kind that has initiated interfaith dialogues with religious minorities in Pakistan. Its founder is the Chairman of the 'Muslim Christian Dialogue Forum' to highlight and promote their citizen rights.