Islamic Scholars
Dr Zakir Naik
Contact Me- About Dr Zakir NaikIn the last 25 years Dr Zakir Naik has delivered over 2,000 public talks in more than 40 countries worldwide. In April 2012, his public talk in Kishanganj, Bihar, in India was Alhamdulillah attended by over one million people being one of the largest gathering in the world for any religious lecture by a single Orator. Alhamdulillah both his talks in Jakarta, Indonesia in April 2017 and in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia in August 2019 attracted more than a 100,000 people.
Early life Zakir Naik was born on 18 October 1965 to Abdul Karim Naik and Roshan Naik in Bombay, India. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College and studied medicine at the Topiwala National Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor […]
Early life
Zakir Naik was born on 18 October 1965 to Abdul Karim Naik and Roshan Naik in Bombay, India. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College and studied medicine at the Topiwala National Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS)
Career
In 1991 he started working in the field of dawah and founded the Islamic International School in Mumbai and the United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarships to poor and destitute Muslim youth. Naik’s wife, Farhat Naik, is the president of the women’s section of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). He established United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarship to poor and destitute Muslim youth.
Naik said in 2006 that he was inspired by Ahmed Deedat, an Islamic preacher whom he met in 1987. (Naik is sometimes referred to as “Deedat plus”, a label given to him by Deedat.)
On 21 January 2006, the Islamic Research Foundation, which Naik heads, founded Peace TV. It is a non-profit Emirati satellite television network that broadcasts free-to-air programming. It is one of the world’s largest religious satellite television networks
In the second half of March 2021, Naik launched Al Hidaayah, which provides educational content about Islam. The platform has thousands of hours of videos of more than 40 renowned Islamic speakers from all over the world including Ahmed Deedat, Yusuf Estes, Hussein Ye, and Bilal Philips. He claimed that this platform is a “halal” version of Netflix.
His views on Quran
Islam is an Arabic word. It comes from the word ‘Salm’ which means peace and from the word ‘Silm’, which means submitting your will to Allah — the Almighty God. Thus, Islam means peace acquired by submitting your will to Allah. A Muslim is a person who submits his/her will to Allah -the Almighty God.
Many people have a misconception that Islam is a new religion that was formulated about 1400 years ago, and that Prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam. However, Islam is not the name of some unique religion presented for the first time by Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad was not the founder of Islam but he was the last and final messenger of Allah sent to earth. Almighty God revived through him the same genuine faith, which had been conveyed by all His previous Prophets.
The Qur’an states that Islam – the complete submission of man before his only Unique Creator – is the only faith and way of life consistently revealed by God to humankind from the very beginning. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, David, Solomon, Moses, and Jesus – prophets who appeared at different times and places all propagated the same faith and conveyed the same message of Tawheed (Oneness of Allah), Risalat (prophet hood) and Aakhirah (the Hereafter). These prophets of God were not founders of different religions to be named after them. They were each repeating the message and faith of their predecessors.
Islam thus makes it an article of faith to believe in all the earlier prophets, starting with Adam, and continuing with Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Jesus amongst many others. However, Muhammad was the last Prophet of God conveying the same message as all earlier prophets. This original message had been corrupted and it split into various religions by people of different ages, who indulged in interpolations and admixture. God eliminated these alien elements, and Islam – in its pure and original form – was transmitted to humankind through Prophet Muhammad. Hence, Islam is the culmination of the same Divine religion of God to humankind since the advent of humanity, purged and purified, from all human adulterations and restored to its original purity.
Since there was to be no messenger after Prophet Muhammad, the Book revealed to him (i.e. the Qur’an) .was preserved word for word so that it should be the same source of guidance for all times. Thus the religion of all the prophets was ‘total submission to Allah’s will’ and one word for that in the Arabic language is ‘Islam’. Abraham and Jesus too were Muslims, as Allah testifies in the Qur’an 3:67 and 3:52 respectively. “Surely, We have sent you with the truth, as a bearer of happy news, and as a Warner: And there were never any people, without a Warner who did not live among them (in the past)” [35.24]. “And the messengers We have already told you before, and others We have not (told you).” [4.164]
It means that some of the Prophets have been mentioned by name in the Qur’an while of the others there is no mention. 25 messengers are specifically mentioned in the Qur’an. One of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad named Abu Dhar asked: ‘O Messenger of Allah, altogether how many messengers were sent?’ The Prophet said, ‘124,000’.” [Mishkat-Ul-Masabih, authenticated by Shaikh Nasiruddun Albani, vol. 3, pg. No. 1599, Hadith no. 5737] [Hadith: recorded traditions, sayings and actions of the Prophet]. However, all the messengers that came before the last and final messenger Prophet Muhammad came with a message that was meant only for a particular period of time. For example, the Qur’an says, “And (We appointed Jesus) a messenger to the Children of Israel:” [3.49]