Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani is the new president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. He was elected on Sunday and is the fifth person to hold this position since the board was formed in 1972. Rahmani used to be the board’s General Secretary and he takes over from the late Maulana Syed Rabey Nadwi, who passed away in April.
Originally from Bihar, Rahmani has lived in Hyderabad for over four decades. He is the founder head of Al Mahad ul Aali al Islami, an Islamic seminary located on the outskirts of Hyderabad near Pahadi Shareef. The seminary has students from all over India and its graduates can be found in various countries around the world, including Europe, North America and Australia.
Rahmani is also the Secretary General of the All India Fiqh Academy and is considered one of the foremost scholars of Islamic jurisprudence. He played a key role in the recent instant triple talaq case. Additionally, he is a member of the Institute of Collective Ijtihad in the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In 1994, he was invited by the government of South Africa to draft Islamic laws after the country became independent of apartheid rule.
