Hussain Bakhsh Jarra

Early Life

Born on 5 January 1918 in the village of Jara (Jarra), Dera Ismail Khan District, in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He pursued religious studies in the subcontinent before traveling to the seminary of Najaf, Iraq.

Ayatollah, Allama (Shia scholar and Quranic exegete) Ayatollah Allama Hussain Bakhsh Jarra (1918-1990) was a prominent Pakistani Shia scholar, jurist and Quranic exegete from the village of Jara in Dera Ismail Khan District. He studied at the Hawza Ilmiyya of Najaf in Iraq, where he attended advanced classes (dars-e kharij) in jurisprudence and hadith under senior maraji and obtained ijazas, including certification of ijtihad. Returning to Pakistan around 1956, he founded the seminary Jamia Ilmiya Bab-un-Najaf in his native Jara. Over his career he also taught at several institutions, including Dar-ul-Uloom Jafaria Khushab, Jamia al-Muntazar Lahore, Dar-ul-Uloom Muhammadia Sargodha, and other madaris in the region, training a number of later scholars. His most celebrated work is the Urdu Quranic commentary Anwar-un-Najaf fi Asrar al-Mushaf, a large multi-volume tafsir that remains widely referenced in South Asian Shia scholarship. He is remembered chiefly for his contribution to Quranic exegesis and religious education rather than as a platform orator.