All India Shia Personal Law Board
The institution he founded and led continues to speak for Shia Muslims in India on personal law, from Lucknow.
Legacy
What he leaves behind
An institution that speaks for his community. A gate, a library and an annual gathering that keep his name in Lucknow. And a family that still ascends the minbar.
Khateeb-e-Akbar Gate, Lucknow
In November 2024 Shia and Sunni scholars together laid the foundation stone of a memorial gate in his name near the Nakhas police chowki. Councillor Laeeq Agha of Kashmiri Mohalla ward had the proposal passed by the municipal executive.
Khateeb Akbar Library
A library bearing his title at Shia PG College, Sitapur Road, Lucknow, where the All India Khaibar Shikan Academy has held literary seminars on his life.
Annual remembrance
His barsi (death anniversary) is observed in Lucknow each year, often together with that of his brother Khateeb-ul-Irfan.
27 February 2016
The day Lucknow said farewell
Thousands of mourners from many communities followed his bier from Karbala Dayanat-ud-Daula. Ayatullah Hameed-ul-Hasan led the funeral prayer, and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh came to pay his respects. He was laid to rest beside his father at Karbala Imdad Hussain Khan in Rajajipuram.
26 February 2017
The first anniversary
A year later the Bada Imambara, the great monument of Lucknow, hosted his first death anniversary. Speakers included the Governor of Uttar Pradesh Ram Naik, the Pakistani poet Rehan Azmi and Maulana Shahenshah Hussain Naqvi of Pakistan, a sign of how far across borders his voice had travelled.
The family continues
Three generations of the Lucknow minbar
The father
Fakhr-ul-Waizeen Maulana Mirza Mohammad Tahir
A preacher renowned in his own era for the sweetness of his speech. Athar was laid to rest beside him.
The brother
Khateeb-ul-Irfan Maulana Mirza Mohammad Ashfaq Shauq Lakhnavi
Himself a distinguished Urdu orator; the two brothers are remembered together as masters of the Lucknow minbar.
The son
Maulana Mirza Mohammad Yasoob Abbas
Born 1970 in Lucknow. Cleric, speaker and spokesperson of the All India Shia Personal Law Board; General Secretary of Shia College, Lucknow.
The son
Dr. Aijaz Athar
Scholar who has written and spoken on the legacy of his father and uncle.
مولانا مرزا محمد اطہر
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