The End of Mufti Munir Shakir

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

يا نبي سلام عليك

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Peace be upon you, O Prophet

Hadrat Pir Akhundzada Saif ur-Rahman Mubarak (1925-2010), rahmatullah alaih, was one of the pious friends of Allah and one of the eminent muslihin (reformers) of our time.

The Naqshbandi-Saifi silsilah is attributed to him. This blessed branch of the Naqshbandi order has the honor of having revived the strict adherence to the Shari’ah and emulation of the Sunnah wherever it gained traction. I have personally spent time in the company of the Saifis and observed them to be brothers who are zealous for Islam and for the Sunnah. They are true lovers of Allah and of His Apostle, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam.

The reverend Pir, may Allah sanctify his secret, was born in a village near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Later in his life he moved to Bara, a town in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, where he spread his blessed Tariqah, bringing the people closer to Allah. The Naqshbandi-Saifi silsilah is now quite popular in Pakistan, especially in Punjab.

This is part of a larger historical pattern of Sufis originating from Afghanistan coming to the Subcontinent to spread the light of Islam and bring the people closer to Allah.

Hadrat Data Ganj Bakhsh, Ali bin Uthman al-Hujwiri (1009-1072 CE), rahmatullah alaih, was from a place called Hujwir near Ghazni, Afghanistan, but settled in India and is buried in present-day Lahore, Pakistan.

Hadrat Khwajah Baqi Billah (1564-1603), rahmatullah alaih, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and settled in India. He is buried in Delhi, India.

However, during his stay at Bara, the blessed Pir Saif ur-Rahman Mubarak and his disciples of the Naqshbandi-Saifi silsilah were persecuted and suffered violence at the hands of the extremist Mufti Munir Shakir (1969-2025). Indeed, it is not irregular for an eminent and pious saint of this Ummah to face severe and even violent opposition—opposition that is riled up by Satan and his cohorts.

Mufti Munir Shakir was initially a violent Wahhabi closely associated with the Panjpiri or Mamati strain. This is a sect or a broader tendency that exited the fold of Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah and took on deviations associated with Wahhabism, Mutazilism, Kharijism and Hadith-skepticism. It is a tendency that is concentrated in the northwest region of Pakistan, and may be said to be an outgrowth of the movement initially started by the private “Jihad” of Sayyid Ahmad of Raebareli (1786-1831) and thereafter Hussain Ali Alwani (1867-1944), an extremist Deobandi cleric. As the activity of these two figures was in that general region of what is today northwest Pakistan, it explains why that remains the sphere of influence of this particular fitnah.

In 2004, Mufti Munir Shakir founded the Lashkar Islam, a militant, part of an array of similar militant and terrorist factions that emerged in the region. These factions often engaged in activities ranging from vigilantism to waging a full scale anti-state insurgency. But they also fought each other. This explains how and why Mufti Munir Shakir himself was killed in a bombing or grenade attack on March 15, 2025. The attack was likely carried out by rival militants.

They may even have been motivated by Munir Shakir’s increasingly heterodox views in which he was challenging many beliefs and practices of mainstream Islam. He was dubbed a Hadith-rejector due to his unrestrained Hadith-skepticism, in which he challenged matters such as punishment of the grave and the special Tarawih prayers during Ramadan. It became clear that Mufti Munir Shakir had gone rogue and his views were offending even those Panjpiris and Deobandis who previously were partial or favorable toward him.

It is also noteworthy that during this radical phase toward the end of his life, Mufti Munir Shakir had openly become a Pashtun ethno-nationalist and spoke in favor of one Manzoor Pashteen and his Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM). The latter is a secular, ethno-nationalist and leftist party that pushes a narrative that may be described as skeptical of the State of Pakistan and its institutions, especially the military.

All of this radical deviation or going from bad to worse is an object lesson with regard to the hostile opponents of the friends of Allah. Mufti Munir Shakir began his infamy by opposing and persecuting Pir Saif ur-Rahman and the Saifis and ended up becoming a Pashtun ethno-nationalist with anti-clerical tendencies and a rejecter of the Hadith, challenging many fundamental beliefs and practices of normative Sunni Islam. In such a way, it is as though Allah exonerated the blessed Pir and the orthodox path of Sufism from the criticism and allegations of the Wahhabi extremists.

Indeed, it is not a stretch to say that Wahhabism laid these rotten eggs of which one egg is that of Mufti Munir Shakir and his deluded followers. Terrorism, anti-State politics, ethnic nationalism and separatism and Hadith-skepticism were all manifested and compounded in the evil person of Mufti Munir Shakir.

While I do not celebrate his bloody killing, it is certainly a sort of divine retribution for his earlier persecution of Pir Saif ur-Rahman and the Saifi silsilah, but Allah and His Apostle know best.

Our people were not responsible for killing Mufti Munir Shakir, nevertheless, I perceive the invisible Hand of Allah at work in the downfall of that radical deviant.

It is disappointing that the Ulama of Deoband excused themselves from issuing a fatwa against him:

دارالافتاءجامعہ علوم اسلامیہ علامہ محمد یوسف بنوری ٹاؤن سے مذکورہ شخص کے بارے میں ایسا کوئی فتویٰ جاری نہیں کیا گیا، اور دار الافتاء کے ضابطے  کے مطابق کسی خاص شخصیت کے بارے میں کفر  یا فسق  کا فتویٰ  جاری نہیں کیا جاتا

“No such fatwa regarding the aforementioned individual has been issued by the Dar ul-Ifta of Jami’ah Ulum Islamiyyah, Allamah Muhammad Yusuf Binori Town; furthermore, according to the protocols of the Dar ul-Ifta, fatwas declaring a specific individual to be a kafir or a fasiq are not issued.”

Let me mention some of the problematic and heretical statements of Mufti Munir Shakir:

1. He said that specifying rajm (stoning to death) as the hadd for adultery is wrong
2. He criticized the Sihhah as-Sita and their compilers (al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and an-Nasa’i), calling them Iranians
3. He denied that Masjid al-Aqsa was the initial Qiblah or was ever the Qiblah
4. He denied the occurrence of the Mi’raj—bodily ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to the Heavens
5. He denied that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, will intercede on behalf of the major sinners among the Muslims and through that intercession they shall be taken out of Hell

According to Mufti Munir Shakir, the Masjid al-Aqsa mentioned in the Holy Quran does not refer to the Mosque in Jerusalem, which he claims did not exist in the time of the Prophet, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, but rather refers to the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, and the Isra refers to the Hijrah of the Prophet, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam. In his narrative, the sacred Ka’bah in Mecca was always the Qiblah, including of all the Prophets, but that praying in the direction of Jerusalem was the deviation of Jews and Christians.

I have previously explained that the denial of Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem among these heretics is totally in the service of Zionism. The Zionist objective is to demonstrate that Islam has no connection or claim to Jerusalem, and that the holy places of the Muslims are restricted to Mecca and Medina only. These heretics professing Islam but denying the sanctity of Jerusalem or that Masjid al-Aqsa refers to that sacred Mosque that is in Jerusalem, wittingly or unwittingly provide ammunition to the Zionists who argue that Jerusalem belongs exclusively to the Jews and the Muslims have nothing to with it as per their own religion. Hence, apart from that fool Munir Shakir, others who have denied Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem are Muhammad Shaikh, Ghulam Ahmad Parwez, Rashad Khalifa, the Qadianis, many Rafidi Shiites, Batini Ismailis, and some others. Hence, all of these listed individuals and sects are in the service of Zionism.

Mufti Munir Shakir, being a Mamati, took his doctrine to its logical conclusion in denying that the dead could ever be raised back to life in this dunya. He therefore had no other choice but to reinterpret the verses in the Holy Quran which speak about the dead returning to life in this world, such as the incident of the Prophet Ezekiel, peace be upon him, being caused to die for a hundred years and then raised back to life as mentioned in Surah 2:259 and the incident of the Patriarch Abraham, peace be upon him, cutting and killing four birds and placing their corpses on four different mountains then calling them resulting in their miraculous resurrection and flying toward him as mentioned in the subsequent verse of Surah 2:260. Such a reinterpretation that denies that Prophet Ezekiel was literally caused to die and resurrected, and likewise that the birds were actually killed and then quickened from the dead had already been made by heretics prior to Munir Shakir, such as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian and his followers, and Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan the naturalist.

Regarding the Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones as mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel, while some interpret it as a vision or merely a parable, the Talmud indicates that the dead truly were resurrected: “Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili, says: Not only was it not a parable, the dead that Ezekiel revived ascended to Eretz Yisrael and married wives and fathered sons and daughters. Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira stood on his feet and said: I am a descendant of their sons, and these are phylacteries that my father’s father left me from them.” (Sanhedrin 92b)

It is not surprising that Mufti Munir Shakir excessively praised the evil Yazid, and when asked whether he would pray to either be raised up with Yazid or Imam Husain, radi Allahu anhu, on Judgment Day, he answered and prayed that he ought to be raised up with Yazid!

The Mamatis and Panjpiris are known to exhibit Nasibi characteristics. Another deviation of Munir Shakir was his denial that 

آل محمد

refers to the progeny of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon them.

But perhaps the worst heresy of this evil Munir Shakir was his teaching that it is not allowed to love the Holy Prophet Muhammad, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, in the religious sense!