Uttar Pradesh: Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq dies at 83

LUCKNOW: Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, senior vice president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) breathed his last in Lucknow on Tuesday night.
The 83-year-old Shia cleric who had a following across religions and nations was admitted to Era's Lucknow Medical College and hospital (ELMCH) on November 17 with severe pneumonia. He was also a patient of cancer.
Sadiq is survived by his wife Taj Sultana, three sons and a daughter.His health condition had been very critical and he had also contracted UTI, septic shock, acute kidney shutdown and paralytic ileus.
An educationist, Islamic scholar and ambassador of communal amity, Sadiq was born in Lucknow's famous Khandaan-e-Ijtehaad. His father was Maulana Kalbe Husain and his brother was Maulana Kalbe Abid, both of whom held a strong standing in the community.
His initial education was from Sultan-ul-Madaris in Lucknow, followed by further education at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). He was a PhD holder in Arabic.
Sadiq was perhaps the first cleric from India in his times who took on giving sermons in the memory of the martyrs of Karbala across the world especially in the English language.
He was the founder of Tauheed-ul-Muslimeen Trust (TMT), a charitable organisation that helps in education and medical treatment of the poor, of the school Unity College in Lucknow, of MU College in Aligarh and several such educational and charitable organisations.
A patron of arts, culture and liberal thought, Sadiq was diagnosed with colonorectal cancer three years ago and was operated for the same in Delhi. Since then, he had been out of public engagements because of his health.