Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker | Power beyond the pulpit

Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar, the Grand Mufti of India, has been a number one determine in Keralam’s conventional Sunni Muslim group for greater than 5 many years. Not a stranger to controversies, Kanthapuram, as he’s popularly recognized, not too long ago hogged the headlines for collectively issuing a round to mahallus in his capability as basic secretary of the Samstha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, asking them “to not exhibit ladies in entrance of different males on the streets or phases” throughout Islamic celebrations.

Issued within the context of the Milad festivities, the round courted controversy, following which Kanthapuram mentioned bringing ladies to public boards would trigger severe “chaos” and that Islam prescribed purdah for girls to forestall this. The feedback triggered sharp criticism from completely different sections and leaders, together with from Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, who mentioned the cleric’s feedback have been unsuitable for contemporary, progressive Keralam. The CPI(M), his long-term ally, too, sharply attacked the decree.

Watch | Orthodoxy redux: On Keralam, religion and Muslim women’s rights | The Hindu Editorial

However that controversy is just one a part of the story of a scholar whose affect extends throughout India and to Muslim communities overseas. Kanthapuram, Ustad in Keralam, is called Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad within the wider Muslim world. He’s the founding father of Jamia Markaz at Karanthur close to Kozhikode, round which he has constructed a big spiritual, instructional and social community.

At 89, he continues to show the Hadith assortment regarded by Muslims as essentially the most genuine assortment of studies on Prophet Muhammad’s teachings and practices.

Watch: Why Kanthapuram’s remarks on women have triggered a debate in Kerala

Kanthapuram’s rise started inside the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the standard physique of Islamic students in Keralam. He was certainly one of its distinguished secretaries underneath Shamsul Ulama E.Ok. Aboobacker Musliar. In 1989, variations over the affect of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) led to a cut up. Kanthapuram and his followers walked out and shaped a separate organisation. The division continues, leaving Keralam’s conventional Sunni group broadly divided between the E.Ok. and A.P. factions. He constructed his organisation round Markazu Saquafathi Sunniyya, based at Karanthur in 1978.

His undertaking Markaz Information Metropolis close to Kozhikode turned controversial after a strand of hair claimed to belong to Prophet Muhammad was introduced there. His followers regard it as a sacred relic; critics have questioned its authenticity. CPI(M) chief Pinarayi Vijayan famously referred to as it “physique waste”. Kanthapuram has repeatedly confronted criticism over his conservative views on ladies.

Political affect

His political affect grew after the 1989 cut up, when his group developed shut ties with the CPI(M)-led institution in Keralam. But Kanthapuram has maintained relations throughout celebration strains. Leaders of the Congress, the IUML, the CPI(M) and the BJP have met him. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met him a number of occasions.

His attain extends nicely past politics. He was related to the Amman Message and A Widespread Phrase, worldwide initiatives selling Islamic unity and Muslim-Christian understanding.

He has used these networks for humanitarian causes. In 2025, he intervened within the case of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who was going through execution in Yemen, and saved her from the gallows by way of contacts with influential Yemeni spiritual figures.

The disappearance of Islamic reformist Chekannur Moulavi in 1993 stays a tough chapter. Kanthapuram was questioned by the CBI however was not made an accused. The Kerala Excessive Courtroom later rejected a petition in search of to arraign him for lack of adequate proof.

Few spiritual leaders in Keralam have remained so influential for therefore lengthy. From a younger scholar in Kozhikode to the top of a world community, Kanthapuram’s affect extends far past Karanthur. To his followers, he’s a scholar, trainer and institution-builder; to his critics, a conservative cleric with deep affect over public and political life.