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Sayyidi wa sanadi Shaikh Mufti Mohammad Taqi Usmani (Allah preserve him) said,

‘My late father (Shaikh Mufti Mohammad Shafi, Allah have mercy on him) use to deliver the morning lecture during the month of Ramadan and had a islahi majlis on Sunday mornings throughout the year. After his death people requested that these lectures should continue. My Shaikh Dr Abdul Hayy ‘Arifi (Allah have mercy on him) instructed us not to do so.

Further more, a few days after the demise of our father Hadhrat ‘Arifi instructed us (Mufti Rafi & sayyidi Mufti Taqi Usmani) to submit our resignations from our post as deputy administrator (naib muhtamim) of Darul Uloom, Karachi. He added that there is no familial succession in holding religious posts and offices. These positions requires a specific acumen, whenever you develop that then only it will be permissible for you to hold them. For now wait and make effort to develop this.

We submitted our resignations.

The rector of Darul Uloom Mawlana Sehban Mehmood (Allah have mercy on him) was baffled by this information. Contemplating the difficulties in running the day to day activities of the Darul Uloom without us he made a special visit to Hadhrat ‘Arfi at his home. Hadhrat refused to discuss this issue at all and instructed him to bring this up in the official administrative meeting of Darul Uloom.

After resigning we could not even attend the administrative meeting.

However, in the administrative meeting the new designations of president and deputy president were created and Hadhrat ‘Arifi nominated us for these posts.’

Shaikh Mufti Mehmood Usmani (Allah preserve him) listened to this with amazement and commented on the tarbiyyah aspect of Hadhrat Arifi’s approach (to eliminate the love of fame and position from an aspirant’s heart).

Eidul fitr, Hadhrat’s drawing room, Darul Uloom, Karachi, pre-duhur, 31 August 2011