Kalbe Sadiq

Syed Kalbe Sadiq was a Shia scholar and educationist from Lucknow, and vice-president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. He was named for the Padma Bhushan posthumously in 2021 in the field of spiritualism, from Uttar Pradesh ^[1].

Scholar

Kalbe Sadiq was born on 1 January 1936 into a well-known Lucknow family ^[2]. After early schooling at a madrasa in Lucknow he went to Aligarh Muslim University, where he took a PhD in Arabic literature ^[2]. He also knew Urdu, Persian, English and Hindi ^[2]. He was known as a speaker who reached people across communities and did not avoid difficult subjects ^[2].

Schools and colleges

He held that education was the way out of poverty, especially for girls ^[2]. In 1984 he set up the Tauheedul Muslimeen Trust to give scholarships and help to poor students ^[2]. Projects under its care included Unity College in Lucknow, an industrial training centre, Unity Public School in Allahabad, a college in Aligarh, free education programmes in several districts of Uttar Pradesh, a charitable hospital in Lucknow, a pension scheme for widows and scholarships for orphans ^[2]. He was president of Era’s Medical University in Lucknow and general secretary of the All India Shia Conference ^[2].

Bridging communities

He worked to ease the divide between Shia and Sunni Muslims; in 2008 he offered the Eid-ul-Fitr prayer led by a Sunni imam ^[2]. He also spoke for unity between Hindus and Muslims ^[2]. In 1997 he supported women offering Friday prayers alongside men at the Asafi mosque in Lucknow, a first for the city ^[2]. He was among the first religious scholars to fix the date of Eid-ul-Fitr using astronomical calculation ^[2].