Ubaidul Haq

Ubaidul Haq (; 2 May 1928 – 6 October 2007), also spelt Obaidul Haq , was a Bangladeshi teacher, muhaddith, mufassir and writer. He was the former khatib of the national mosque of Bangladesh.

Early life and education Obaidul Haq was born on 2 May 1928 into a traditional Bengali Muslim family in Barothakuri, Zakiganj, Sylhet District. His father, Maulana Zahurul Haq was a notable student of Ashraf Ali Thanwi and graduated in Hadith studies from the Darul Uloom Deoband in 1335. His mother was Musammat Aisha Begum. Haq was the second son out of three sons. His elder brother, Ahmadul Haq, collected old books and was the owner of a store known as the Ashrafiyyah Kutubkhana, which opened in Zindabazar, Sylhet not long after the Independence of Bangladesh in 1971. His younger brother, Mawlana Abdul Haq (1930-2022), was a graduate of the Government Madrasah-e-Alia in Dhaka and a teacher of Hadith at a Qaumi Madrasa.

Khatib of Baitul Mukarram He was the longest serving khatib of Baitul Mukarram, the national mosque of Bangladesh. In 2001, he was forced into retirement by the then Awami League government. He then sought a writ petition which overturned the government's decision.

Anti-terror agitation At a conference on 1 April 2005, organised in Paltan Maidan, Dhaka by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam he along with the leading ulema of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh declared a fatwa denouncing terrorism.

Views In 1994, he expressed concern over the growing support for the unfair practices of Christian proselytizers by non-governmental organisations and the sympathy for them by Bangladeshi left-wing political parties.

On 21 March 2003, he led a large anti-war rally in protest of the invasion of Iraq with Fazlul Haque Amini, where he remarked that: The US will occupy all the oil-rich Middle East and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, gradually. In 2005, following the series of bombings by the banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) while leading the protest denouncing terrorism he remarked: Islam prohibits suicide bombings. These bombers are enemies of Islam. It is a duty for all Muslims to stand up against those who are killing people in the name of Islam. President Iajuddin Ahmed, Finance Minister Saifur Rahman, Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Taqi Usmani, Abdur Rauf, Qazi Din Muhammad, Shah Ahmad Shafi, and others mourned his death. His funeral prayers were held at the Jatiya Idgah under the imamate of his son, Ataul Haque. President, Chief Adviser to Caretaker Government Fakhruddin Ahmed, along with Adviser on Information and Religion, Army Chief Moin Uddin Ahmed, Former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Azizul Haque, Fazlul Haque Amini, Syed Rezaul Karim, and others participated in his funeral. He was buried at Azimpur Cemetery.

In 2014, an MPhil dissertation by Syed Rezwan Ahmed on his life work was published. In 2007, a commemorative issue of the weekly Muslim Jahan was published in his memory. In 2008, the Khatibe Millat Memorial was published by the Allama Khatib Commemoration Implementation Committee from Zakiganj, Sylhet.

Books Seerat-e-Mustafa (Biography of the Chosen One, Urdu) Nasrul Fawaid Sharh e Shekhwah wa Jawaab e Shekwah Azharul Azhab Sharh-e-Noorul Anwar Usul-e-Fiqah (Urdu) Tarikh-e-Islam (Urdu) Quran-e-Hakim aur Hamari Zindagi (Urdu) Shia Sunni Ikhtilaf (Urdu) Quran Bujhibar Poth (Path to Understanding the Quran, Bengali)