Was Muhammad Ali Jinnah Shia?

[alideman]

Was Muhammad Ali Jinnah Shia?

if yes, is this an alam at his funeral?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ah_funeral.jpeg

[ALI-HAQ]

i've heard in a majalis that he is shia

just searched google and found more about it

Some historians link the name of Pakistan’s founder to Zuljanah. They say that Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s grandfather, a Parsi, did not have a son. His three sons had died in infancy. When he prayed looking at Zuljanah in a Muharram procession (a tradition called mannat) he got a son and named him Poonja Jinnah, the word Jinnah coming from Zuljanah. Historians say this inspired the Parsi family to convert to Islam and Poonja named his son Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...9-2-2006_pg7_14

The firstborn Jinnah was soon joined by six siblings, brothers Ahmad Ali, Bunde Ali, and Rahmat Ali, and sisters Maryam, Fatima and Shireen. Jinnah's family belonged to the Ismaili Khoja branch of Shia Islam, though Jinnah later converted to Twelver Shia Islam.[6] Their mother tongue was Gujarati, however, in time they also came to speak Kutchi, Sindhi and English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah

[strawberry]

Yeah he was B)

[The Green Knight]

His father's name was Poonjah Jinnah. His grandfather had no children and newborns would die soon. So he took a spiritual vow and when Poonjah was born he fulfilled his vow by cleaning the skin of a Zul-jinnah (the horse used as shabeeh during azadari) with the child by rubbing him against it. He named him "Poonjah Jinnah" which translated to (Wiped/cleaned by rubbing the Jinnah, or Zuljinnah). Weird, to some, I know, but this was also quite long ago.

Now, Jinnah probably wasn't an examplary, practising Shia muslim if you look at it by a religious person's view. But he surely was a Shia at heart and a descendant of a Shia.

[Yiligiz]

Was Ataturk Shia?

Was Raza Shah Pehlavi Shia?

[SpIzo]

He was an Ismaili Shi'i. That's what I read somewhere.

[*Love AhleBayt*]

He was a Ismaili Khoja who later converted to Twelver Shia.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Jinnah_funeral2.jpg

The funeral of Jinnah in 1948 Shia flag (Alem) with coffin is clearly visible

Our great Pakistani leader was a Shia himself

[Excalibur]

Yiligiz said:

Was Ataturk Shia?

Was Raza Shah Pehlavi Shia?

Quaide Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah can not be compared with them.

[discotek]

Quaide Azam can not be compared with them.

Jinnah admired Ataturk you know.

Besides, at least Ataturk didn't sell himself out to foreign powers like Pahlavi did.

If it weren't for Ataturk, all of Anatolia would've been Greek. Ever thought about that?

[Yiligiz]

Quote

Quaide Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah can not be compared with them.

I dunno.

I just to know

[enq2007]

He was a Ismaili and then converted to Twelver.

[Abuzar]

(salam)

As per his biography Jinnah of Pakistan by Stanley Wolpert, he belonged to an Ismaili family, and converted to ithna ashari Shi'aism on his own. His nikaah was solmnised in the Shi'a way and wakeels of both the bride and the groom were Shi'a, one of them an eminent Shi'a scholar, and the other the Maharaja of Mehmoodabad.

His father Jeena Bhai Poonja was an Ismaili, and the story about the name Jinnah somehow being a reflection or abbreviation of Dhuljinah does not have any reliable narrators. The only 'source' from which I have heard it is Zameer Akhter Naqvi, who has the tendency of recounting ridiculously untrue legends related to Islam, especially Karbala.

[alideman]

wow thats really amazing, thanks alot for the help guys

[Agha Mahdi]

Was Muhammad Ali Jinnah Shia?

if yes, is this an alam at his funeral?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ah_funeral.jpeg

A relative of mine named Hassan Jaffer in Mombasa is soon going to publish a book on the history of the Khojas. In this he has photographic proof of the membership fees (lawaajum) that Muhammad Ali Jinnah used to pay to a Khoja Shia Ithna Ashari jamaat.

However before people start praising secularists like Jinna, Ataturk or God-forbid the Shah, I would encourage you to read the following story of the great mystic Shaykh Rajabali Khayyat (taken from The Elixir of Love - www.al-islam.org/elixiroflove/) :

Praising the Tyrannical Monarch

The reverend Shaykh would restrain his friends and disciples from collaborating with the ruling government (i.e., Pahlavi) particularly from praising and admiring them (the officials).

A disciple of the Shaykh quotes him as saying:

"I saw the soul of one of the pious people being tried in the Purgatory state, and all the indecent actions perpetrated by his contemporary despotic ruler were being ascribed to him. The man being tried protested:

'I have not done any of these crimes. He was replied: 'Did you not say in praise of him that he provided the country with such wonderful security?'

He answered: 'Yes.'

He was told then: 'You were satisfied with his actions; he made all these crimes to secure his kingdom'."

In Nahjul-Balagha, Imam Ali (a) is quoted as saying:

"Whoever is content with conducts of some other people, he is like the one who has collaborated with them in those actions; and whoever perpetrates a falsehood two sins are recorded for him: One for doing it, and the other for being content with it."

[Guest MUSAVIMUTLAQ]

Assalam Alaykum,

Qaid-Azzam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Twelver Shia Muslim.

Wasalam Alaykum

[Hameedeh]

Salam. If you have done any research on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, you would know that he was born into a Khoja  family that practiced the Nizari Ismaili Shia sect. He later converted to Shia, although he was private about it. If a rude person asked about his sect, he famously responded by asking if Prophet Muhammad SA was a Shia or Sunni.

[Abu Hassanain]

Salam

Imam Sadiq as was asked what was better a disbeliever with good manners or a believer with bad manners he said a believer with bad manners for a believers belief can lead him back to good deeds, but it disbeliever disbelief will eventually lead him back to bad deeds

So whatever his flaws were, he believed in the divine authority of the holy 14 that in itself is a good foundation

The other sins and mistakes may his purgatory be light, and when he rises during the time of return, may he rise in the company of the master of the age

Even beyond theological issues who is much better than Zia Haqq and current government

wallahu Alam 

[Panzerwaffe]

On 7/20/2026 at 4:26 PM, Abu Hassanain said:

Salam

Imam Sadiq as was asked what was better a disbeliever with good manners or a believer with bad manners he said a believer with bad manners for a believers belief can lead him back to good deeds, but it disbeliever disbelief will eventually lead him back to bad deeds

So whatever his flaws were, he believed in the divine authority of the holy 14 that in itself is a good foundation

The other sins and mistakes may his purgatory be light, and when he rises during the time of return, may he rise in the company of the master of the age

Even beyond theological issues who is much better than Zia Haqq and current government

wallahu Alam 

Salam

Maybe in some cases but

 By that logic yazid and muawiyah are far better than any non believer ( regardless of their good deeds  ) who ever lived 

most people with bad deeds yet outward semblance of faith are hypocrites who are actually disbelievers 

[Ashvazdanghe]

On 8/4/2026 at 7:36 AM, Panzerwaffe said:

By that logic yazid and muawiyah are far better than any non believer ( regardless of their good deeds  )

Salam both of them have been non believers .

[Panzerwaffe]

On 8/4/2026 at 11:35 PM, Ashvazdanghe said:

Salam both of them have been non believers .

In secret yes but more accurately they were hypocrites 

they were leading Arab Muslim empires

[Abu Hassanain]

On 8/3/2026 at 11:06 PM, Panzerwaffe said:

Salam

Maybe in some cases but

 By that logic yazid and muawiyah are far better than any non believer ( regardless of their good deeds  ) who ever lived 

most people with bad deeds yet outward semblance of faith are hypocrites who are actually disbelievers 

Salam

the narration about believers refers only to Ithna Ashari Shia Muslims, he doesn’t refer to the others

Only one scholar that I’m aware of was the opinion that the others can reach the level of faith and that was Sayyid Kumayl Haydari a few other current professors in Iran, I can think of and some of the professors and scholars from the 60s and 70s might’ve held a similar view either it wasn’t widely published or they didn’t express it

wallahu Alam 

The meaning is a bad person who follows the 14 is better than a good person who doesn’t because the bad person who follows the 14 will eventually wake up and say what the heck is wrong with me and start doing good. Where is a good person who doesn’t follow the 14 will eventually become corrupted.

You can take the example of Einstein and the atomic bomb. Edison and some of his behavior and his later life and many other scientist to initially started all very good and wanting to help people that went bad let alone people with money