Pir Sayyid Naseer-ul-Din Naseer Shah Gilani

Our beloved Hadrat  Pir Sayyid Naseer-ul-Din Naseer Shah Gilani saheb was born in 1949 in Golra Sharif where he received his elementary education. He received his religious education from prominent scholars of his time. Through his love for knowledge, his intelligence, oratory and writings he established himself in the scholarly circles very quickly. He was a powerful speaker, courageous writer and highly acclaimed poet. His whole life has been marked with knowledge, wisdom, Sharia, Tasawwuf  and continuous hard work.

He was a great sufi who practiced Sharia and Tasawwuf hand in hand. Coupled with spiritual beauty, he was also blessed with physical beauty. He was a truly handsome person with great personality and character. Through this combination of physical beauty and spiritual greatness everyone was drawn towards him and they benefited from his illustrious and distinguished life. Apart from his physical beauty, people were attracted to him due to his inner beauty.

Pir saheb did not become famous and recognised just because he was from a well-known and established religious institution (Pir Khana), but rather he became prominent and celebrated because of his high calibre, great qualities  and many talents. Allah Almighty had blessed Pir saheb with immense qualities and attributes through which he served the cause of Islam.

He was a great orator. He used the power of speech to guide the people to the path of Islam and to convey the teachings of Islam to them. He delivered lectures on many difficult and delicate issues throughout the world, including Pakistan, India, Iran, UK and America. People listened to his lectures very attentively and received many pearls of wisdom from his sayings. In his messages, he always urged the listeners to put into practice whatever good they learnt from him. He constantly
urged the Muslims to be practical with Islam.

Coupled with his oratory, he also utilised his pen for the cause of Islam. He turned his pen into his best weapon and shield. He used his pen with full force to combat many different negativities spread by the enemies of Islam. He authored many books on different subjects; and his writings are so effective that they directly affect the souls of the readers.

One of the most illustrious and eminent characteristic of Pir saheb is his poetry. He has been one of the most recognised and admired poet of recent times. His poetry has been very well received and liked by his contemporaries. Pir saheb has composed many Naat in honour of our beloved Holy Prophet. Naat written by Pir saheb instil love of Holy Prophet in our hearts and they inspire us to act upon the path laid down by our beloved Prophet. He was a master of Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Punjabi languages and has composed poetry in these languages. Specially, his knowledge of Persian poetry knew no bounds.

Perhaps one of his shining characteristic is that he spoke out against some of the un-Islamic practices that had crept into Islam; more precisely into Tasawwuf and Sufism . he strived hard to bring back the people into the correct way of Sufism. It was not in his nature to be diplomatic. He spoke out against what he regarded as un-Islamic and outside the fold of Islam and preached the correct way of Islam, irrespective of other people’s wishes. Instead of being diplomatic he always told the truth. He was a man of strong character. He listened to other people’s criticism with patience, and expressed his own opinion backed up by references from the righteous ancestors.

Professor Hafiz Fateh Muhammad saheb (may Allah have mercy on him), the founder of Leeds Makkah Masjid, met Pir saheb many times. Hafiz saheb was a man of knowledge and he liked to be in the company of men of knowledge. Hafiz saheb admired Pir saheb very much because he was also a man of great knowledge and wisdom. In fact, Pir saheb was an ocean of knowledge.

Hafiz saheb also admired Pir saheb for his openness and courage to tackle difficult and delicate issues within the Muslim community.

Pir saheb through his powerful poetry, books, articles and speeches opened up debates on those issues that had not been addressed for many centuries because of the fear that it may disturb the religious institutions. However, Pir saheb brought those essential and significant issues back into life and discussed them with forceful arguments. He convinced others to his point of view with powerful arguments.

One of the things Pir saheb was very critical of, was the fact that the religious institutions that have the responsibility to empower the Muslims, to guide them to right path and to make the people strong Muslims, he felt that they were becoming weak and unable to carry their duties correctly.

He had the love of Islam and the love of the Ummah. He felt that there was a grave need to remind these religious institutions of their forgotten duties so that they could help the Ummah. Through his poetry and writings, he laid down constructive criticism. This was a very courageous act by Pir saheb because no one had made any constructive criticism of such institutions for a long time because of the fear of reprimand.

In time of difficulties, he always upheld the banner of truth, piety and righteousness.

We cannot fully comprehend the abilities and life of Pir saheb. To fully comprehend someone you have to be of that person’s calibre. None of us can claim to have achieved that level. We can only describe what we can comprehend according to our own abilities.

Pir saheb suddenly left this world and it is such a loss that will not be filled for many years. We can only pray that Allah Almighty raises the status of Pir saheb in His presence and send His blessings onto his resting place. And we pray to Allah Almighty that he enables us to follow in the footsteps of Pir saheb.

Members of Deen Foundation would like to offer their sincere condolences to the family of Pir saheb, to his followers and all his murideens.