Mufti Taha Karaan, who was known as the junior ash-Shafi’i, passed away at his birthplace (hometown) in Cape Town yesterday. He was well known for his extensive defence of the Companions of Rasulullah (PBUH) and established and directed the Mahajjah Research Institute, where numerous works have been researched and translated in the defence of the Sahaba.
Born on 2nd June 1969, Mufti Taha was educated at Darul Uloom Deoband where he studied under Mufti Saeed Ahmad Palanpuri, a notable Hanafi jurist, and graduated as a topper in 1991. He later received a two-year graduate diploma from Cairo University in Cairo. He had memorized the Holy Qur’an at Waterfall Islamic Institute. He recently wrote “Fleeing from Fate to Fate: 40 Ahadith on Contagion and Pandemics.” Since 2015, he has served as the Muslim Judicial Council’s Mufti.He had received the title ash-Shāfi‘ī as–Sagīr from Khalil Ibrahim Mula Khatir, a well known scholar of Madinah. He started Dar al-Uloom al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah, an Islamic in Strand, in 1996.
His death sparked a wave of sadness all over the Muslim world. Mufti Menk, Yasir Qadhi, Faraz Rabbani, Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera, Omer Suleiman and numerous Muslim scholars and intellectuals expressed sadness and posted condolence messages on their social media handles. He is remembered as one of the greatest scholars of this era. A defender of the creed, his passing away has been seen as an irreparable loss. Scholars like him are God-gifted and can not be replaced by others, said various admirers. He had a COVID-19 complication and died of it.
The Chenab Times News Desk