Dildar Ali Naseerabadi

Who is Dildar Ali Naseerabadi?

Ayatollah Syed Dildar Ali Naseerabadi - also known as Ghufran-Ma'ab Naseerabadi was a Shia scholar of India who originated from a family of scholars from the village of Nasirabad, Raibareli, 32 km from their District Raebareli, in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The title "Ghufran Ma'ab Nasirabadi" was bestowed on him by scholars in Najaf, Iraq and means "the one who lives in heaven" due to his scholarly attributes. Among them, his most well known work is "Imad-ul-Islâm", in Arabic, which is a refutation of the anti-Shia arguments used by the famous Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.

He is popularly known as Ghufran Ma'ab, and was the son of Seyyid Muhammad Muin bin Seyyid Abdul Hadi. It would seem that his family, like many other Seyyid families, left Nishapur because of the Mongol invasion and settled in India. He was born in 1166 AH. He completed his early studies in India, and in 1193 AH travelled to Iraq for further studies. Among his tutors in Iraq were great Fuqaha like Shaikh Ja'far Kashiful Ghita, and Wahid Behbehani. Later, he went to Mashhad for further studies.

Seyyid Dildar Ali Nasirabadi, while in India, was of Akhbari persuasion, but he changed to Usuli school after his intensive studies in Iraq. Upon his return to Lucknow, he became a Marja' in India, his fatwas being regarded as final by the Shia populace.