Meet the ”Maulana” who cracked this year’s IAS examination

Successful IAS candidates (standing on the dias) who were felicitated by Zakat Foundation of India. at a function in New Delhi on Saturday.

By Naz Asghar

April 22, 2019

New Delhi: Meet Maulana  Shahid Raza Khan, one of the 28 Muslim candidates who made it to the prestigious civil services cracking one of the toughest examinations of the country this year. He says his madrasa background ( He had his education at Al Jamiatul Ashrafia, an Islamic seminary of Sunni Muslims in eastern Uttar Pradesh district of Azamgarh), and his assertion of identity as ‘maulana’ did not come in anyway in achieving his goal.

”The UPSC is a fair, professional institution where only merit is assessed and evaluated. One’s caste, religion, region does not matter. If you work hard with determination, you will meet success,” he says.

And that is the message for the country’s youth, especially of their own community, given by several other successful Muslim candidates India News Stream spoke to. They were all bubbling with enthusiasm to serve their country and do their bit to bring about a change for the better.

These youth, almost all of them belonging to small cities of the country, were felicitated here on Saturday by the NGO, Zakat Foundation of India(ZFI), which conducts civil services coaching. Its head Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood said their aim was to increase participation of Muslim youth in civil services and inclucate in them a sense of commitment to serve the nation.

Bushra Bano, a mother of a four-year-old child from Kannuaj in central UP, gave up her lucrative job in Saudi Arabia and came back to ” use her education and training to serve my country.” Bushra, who wears hijab, says she got full support from her family in her endeavour to take up the challenging job.

All these candidates had their education in the small cities and towns they lived in. While Shahid Raza Khan, the ” Maulana” ( As he likes himself to be called with the title) belongs to Gaya, Shafqat Amina comes from Motihari district in Bihar, and Faisal Khan comes from small Haryana town of Mewat.Similarly Javed Husain comes from Jharkhand, Zaip Shaikh from Ahmad Nagar in Maharashtra. One of the candidates Mustafa Aizaz is from Mehboobnagar, Telangana and another of them Zaid Ansari is from Ahmedabad, Guajarat.Similar is the case of Bilal Ahmad, who qualified for Indian Forest Service. He belongs to Darbhanga, Bihar. Sarfaraz Alam

Shafqat Amina, whose father is a teacher, says she had been inspired from the very childhood for a career in social service and her parents motivated to opt for civil services to serve the society.

All these candidates felt participation of Muslims in higher education and should increase and they should go for civil services without any feeling that they would be discriminated against.

Maulana Shahid  Raza  Khan said his madrasa background in a way helped him to memorise facts easily as by training there is lot of emphasis on this ability because they have to memorise Qur’an. He opted Urdu as optional subject because being a madrasa student  he had command over the language and moreover he was very much interested in Urdu poetry. He  himself is  a ‘gazalgo’ (One who expresses himself in ‘gazal’), the most beautiful and popular genre of Urdu poetry). Later he studied at JNU school of International studies.

He, however, also regretted the fact that madrasa students did not have opportunity to study modern subjects.

Khan  is strongly for ‘Ijtehad”‘ which means reinterpretation of Islamic sharia in keeping with changing times.
He is of the view that a lot of work has to be done in the Muslim society to give women their due place as ordained under Islam.

The function, jointly organised by ZFI and Interfaith Coalition for Peace , was attended by a host of dignitaries including Vice Chancellor of  Jamia Millia University Najma Akhtar, AMU VC, Traiq Masood, former AMU vice chancellor Lt Gen (Retd) Samiruddin Shah, and First Secretary of New Zealand High Commission Robyn Glogosky.

A total number of 759 candidates have been selected or appointment in Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and Central Services. Among those selected are 361 from General category, 209 from OBC, 128 SCs and 61 STs.

Junaid Ahmed who was preparing for the examination with the help of the Zakat Foundation got all India third rank.

Out of the total candidates who cleared the examination, 28 are Muslims.

India News Stream