In loving memory
Maulana
Scholar of Lucknow, teacher of Persian and one of the great Urdu orators of the twentieth century, whose voice filled the majlis halls of Mumbai for fifty-seven Muharrams.
مولانا مرزا محمد اطہر
Mughal Masjid, Mumbai · 8th Muharram
The voice of the minbar
Every year when the crescent of Muharram rose, a city of millions waited for one voice from Lucknow.
He was born in 1936 into a family famed for the sweetness of its speech. Mirza Mohammed Athar carried the refinement of Lucknow's Urdu to minbars in Mumbai and Dubai, and on to Britain, America and Australia. He drew listeners of every sect and faith, and gave his community a voice of its own.
Begin with Chapter I
57
consecutive Muharram seasons at Masjid-e-Iranian, Mumbai
1958
the year he first addressed the Mumbai Muharram majalis
2005
elected first president of the All India Shia Personal Law Board
79
years of a life given to the minbar, the classroom and the community
Hear his voice
Recordings of his majalis survive, from Ashura at the Mughal Masjid to the nineteen-part Sirat-e-Mustaqeem series delivered in Dubai.
The journey
Mumbai · 1958 – 2015
In 1958 he first addressed the Muharram majalis at Masjid-e-Iranian, the tiled Mughal Masjid of South Mumbai. He came back every year without a break for fifty-seven years, a record in the city. Shia and Bohra listeners alike counted him as their own.
The oratorWho he was
We have given a solution to an age-old problem. It is up to the people to accept it or not.
Maulana Mirza Mohammed Athar · On the model nikahnama
Books
Three printed collections from Mumbai, Lahore and Lucknow. Read online or download the full book.
Isal-e-Sawab
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Or leave a written tribute in the Book of Remembrance.
Legacy
The institution he founded and led continues to speak for Shia Muslims in India on personal law, from Lucknow.
In November 2024 Shia and Sunni scholars together laid the foundation stone of a memorial gate in his name near the Nakhas police chowki. Councillor Laeeq Agha of Kashmiri Mohalla ward had the proposal passed by the municipal executive.
A library bearing his title at Shia PG College, Sitapur Road, Lucknow, where the All India Khaibar Shikan Academy has held literary seminars on his life.
