Darul Uloom Pretoria

Darul Uloom Pretoria (Urdu: دارالعلوم پریٹوریا) is an Islamic university and seminary located in Pretoria, South Africa following the ideologies of Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi.^[1] It is regarded as the first fully-fledged Barelvi Madrassah in South Africa.^[1] It was opened and founded in 1988 by Mufti Muhammed Akbar Hazarvi ^[2][3] in the context of the Barelvi-Deobandi/Tablighi controversy and emergence of religious revivalist movements/organisations in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.^[1][4][5] Hence, Darul Uloom Pretoria was set up as a means of defending and preserving Sufi-Barelvi beliefs and practices among South Africa's Muslim community, and counter the influence of the Deobandi Movement, which attacks certain Sufi practices including Mawlid.^[1]

Darul Uloom Pretoria
دارالعلوم پریٹوریا

Type	Islamic university
Established	1988
Founder	Mufti Muhammed Akbar Hazarvi
Religious affiliation	Sunni Islam (Hanafi Barelvi)
Principal	Mufti Muhammed Akbar Hazarvi
Address	Taj St, Laudium, Centurion, 0037, , Pretoria , South Africa
Language	English, Arabic, Urdu
Affiliations	Al-Azhar University Jamia Rizwia Zia Ul Uloom
Website	http://darululoompretoria.com/

The Darul Uloom, like many Barelvi orientated Madrassahs in South Africa, received funding from local Indian Muslim businessmen and donors of the Barelvi persuasion, and many of the teachers in the Darul Uloom are educated in Madrassas in India and Pakistan.^[6] The institute have published a variety of Islamic literature, including an English translation of Ahmad Raza Khan's Urdu translation of the Qur'an, Kanzul Iman.^[7][8] The institute has links with Al-Azhar University in Egypt and Jamia Rizwia Zia Ul Uloom located in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and has connections with Ulama from across the world.^[1][9][10] The Darul Uloom has full time courses, part time courses, and female courses and runs a seven year Alim programme, a three-year Imamat course as well as a Ḥifẓ, elementary education, and secular education that is incorporated with the full time course in particular.^[11][12]

Muhammed Akbar Hazarvi, founder and principle of the Darul Uloom

Further reading

• Rafudeen, Auwais (3 April 2022). "Perceptions of Race Among "Sunni" Black Muslims in Laudium, Pretoria: Applying Insights of Talal Asad in South Africa". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 42 (2): 211–226. doi:10.1080/13602004.2022.2113288. ISSN 1360-2004.
• Sayed, Muhammad Khalid (2010). The shifting world of South African madrasahs, 1973-2008. University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Religious Studies.
• Tayob, Abdulkader; Niehaus, Inga; Weisse, Wolfram. Muslim Schools and Education in Europe and South Africa. Waxmann Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8309-7554-0.