Draft:Mizanur Rahman Azhari

Mizanur Rahman Azhari (26 January 1990) is a Bangladeshi Islamic speaker, preacher and writer. He gained popularity in Bangladesh through Waj Mahfil. He claims to be a moderate Islamic negotiator and holds discussions.

Mizanur Rahman's father is a madrasa teacher and his mother is a housewife. He was born on January 26, 1990 in Demra police station of Dhaka district. His ancestral home is Paramatla village of Muradnagar in Comilla district.

Mizanur Rahman got married on 29 January 2014. He has two daughters.

Education
Azhari passed Dakhil in 2004 and Alim in 2006 respectively from Darunnajat Siddiquiya Kamil Madrasa. He topped the merit list in Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board in both the examinations. In 2007, he won first place in the Egyptian government scholarship examination organized by the Islami Foundation. Later, he studied in the Department of Tafsir and Quranic Sciences at Al Azhar University in Egypt. After graduating from there, he obtained MPhil and PhD degrees from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.His MPhil research topic was 'Human Embryology in the Holy Quran'. Then he was nominated as a PhD candidate in the same university. He successfully completed his PhD on 'Human Behavioral Characteristics in the Holy Qur'an and Analytical Study' through Viva at the end of December 2021.

Career
Azhari started his career in 2010 with Islamic Ghazals and Kirats. Later he joined an Islamic program of ATN Bangla TV.At the beginning of 2015, he started his career with waj-mahfil. He did a program titled 'Islam and Sundar Jeevan' on Boisakhi television.

Popularity
In a short period of time, he has gained popularity among the Muslims of Bangladesh, especially the Muslim youth community, due to his contemporary presentation of himself while adhering to the teachings of Islam and his easy-going and researched discussions on Quran-Hadith. In his mahfils, people of different faiths were often converted to Islam through him. His tafseer mahfils are attended by a large crowd of ordinary Muslims and youth.

Books
Azhari's first book "Message: The Touch of Religion in Modern Mind" was published at the 2021 Amar Ekushey Book Fair.

Azhari's second book "Ahban: Adhunik Monone Alor Porosh" was published in 2022.

His third book, Reflections from Surah Yusuf, was published. The latest is his fourth book, Jege Otho Abar.

Criticism
In January 2020, he was criticized in the media when 12 Indian Hindus came to Bangladesh on illegal visas and converted to Islam at his hands. His mahfils have been banned several times in different places on charges of anti-national speech. In January 2020, he was claimed by a member of parliament as having made anti-national comments in the Bangladesh National Parliament. At the same time, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the former minister of state for religion of Bangladesh, called him a "product of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami" and said that action would be taken against him for saying "Let Saeedi be born in every house".

In October 2021, he was scheduled to attend an Islamic conference in London at the invitation of I on TV, but he was barred from entering the UK by the 'Home Office' in the UK, accusing him of religiously offending other religions and spreading hate speech. Although a case was filed against the entry ban, the court ruled in favor of canceling the visa.

On December 6, 2023, a tweet from Azhari's Twitter account about Israel and Palestine drew criticism. He later clarified the tweet on December 8, saying, "Personally I have never run Twitter. I only run my verified facebook page. A few days ago when another person was tasked with verifying my Twitter, that person tweeted these things. Claiming that controversial tweet as Miss Leading Tweet, ask to delete it as soon as you see it."

Honor

 * Islamic Foundation Bangladesh Al-Azhar Scholarship, First Place, 2007
 * Al-Azhar University Scholarship, Full Graduate Scholarship, 2008

See More

 * Junaid Babunagari
 * Mamunul Haque
 * A F M Khalid Hossain