Khadim Hussain Rizvi

Khadim Hussain Rizvi (22 May 1966 – 19 November 2020) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and the founder and Amir of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a religiopolitical organisation founded in 2015 known for protesting against any change to Pakistan's blasphemy law. ¹ Fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, Arabic and Persian, he was known for speeches in defence of the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad and for heavily quoting the poetry of Ahmad Raza Khan and Muhammad Iqbal, whom he considered his main influences. ¹

He was born in 1966 into a Punjabi Muslim Awan family in Pindi Gheb, Attock District, Punjab. ¹ He began hafiz class in Jhelum and then took admission in Jamia Nizamia Rizvia, Lahore; he was a Hafiz-e-Quran and a Sheikh-ul-Hadith. ¹ He delivered Friday sermons at Lahore's Pir Makki Masjid while serving in the Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department. ¹ He was a wheelchair user from 2007, after an accident near Talagang in which the driver of his vehicle fell asleep on the road from Rawalpindi to Lahore. ¹

During the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, Rizvi was serving as an auqaf official in the Punjab government, and he justified the assassination on the ground that Taseer had termed the blasphemy law a "black law". ¹ He was served warning notices to stop spreading his views in favour of the blasphemy laws, and his refusal led to his removal from public service. ¹

After his removal he travelled across the country building support for Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deals with blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, and spoke out for the release of Mumtaz Qadri; his persistent advocacy earned him the nickname "blasphemy activist" in religious circles. ¹ The article records both that he founded Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan in 2015 and that in 2017 he founded a political party of that name as a political front for Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah. ¹

His published books include Tayaseer Abwab-ul-Sarf (2013), on facilitating the learning of Arabic grammar, Taleemat-e-Khadimiya (2015), on facilitating the learning of Arabic, and Fazail-e-Durood Shareef (2018), on the spiritual benefits of durood. ¹

This section sets out positions and controversies as reported in the source. It is not a verdict by the museum.

The 2017 Faizabad sit-in. On 6 November 2017 Rizvi organised a long march from Lahore to Islamabad to press for the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid over an alleged change favouring Ahmadis in the 2017 election bill. ¹ The protest drew nationwide support and shutdowns, the government forced news channels off air and blocked social media, and the army chief ultimately intervened to ask both sides to show restraint. ¹

The 2018 Asia Bibi protests. After the Supreme Court acquitted Asia Bibi on 31 October 2018, the TLP under Rizvi's leadership initiated demonstrations in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan, and clashes with police were reported. ¹ A TLP leader, Muhammad Afzal Qadri, said all three Supreme Court judges "deserve to be killed", and Rizvi demanded in public speeches that Asia Bibi be subjected to the punishment for blasphemy under Pakistan's penal code. ¹ He was arrested on 23 November 2018 along with other TLP leaders and released on bail in May 2019. ¹

Violence attributed to his influence. The article reports two killings by students — of associate professor Khalid Hameed in Bahawalpur in March 2019 and of college principal Sareer Ahmed in Charsadda in 2018 — and records that both students stated they were inspired by Rizvi. ¹

The 2020 Zindagi Tamasha controversy. In 2020 Rizvi promoted protests against the release of the Pakistani film Zindagi Tamasha and accused its maker, Sarmad Khoosat, of blasphemy; the author Mohammed Hanif, who had seen both versions of the film, denied that it contained criticism of ulama. ¹

On 19 November 2020 Rizvi was taken to Farooq Hospital in Lahore's Allama Iqbal Town after collapsing and was pronounced dead on arrival; he was then taken to Shaikh Zayed Hospital, where he was declared dead at 8:48 pm. ¹ He had been ill for a few days, suffering fever and breathing problems, and no COVID-19 or autopsy tests were conducted. ¹ His funeral prayers were held at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore and led by his son Saad, a local official estimated nearly 200,000 people attended, and he was buried inside Madrassah Abuzar Ghaffari, associated with the Rehmatul Lil Alameen mosque. ¹ Saad Hussain Rizvi was appointed the new ameer of TLP on 21 November 2020. ¹

Rizvi died in 2020; the audience figure here belongs to his official archive channel, not to a living creator. ¹ The channel "Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi Official" (@allamakhadimhussainrizvi9263), created on 29 May 2016, counted 1,200,000 subscribers, 170,224,859 total views and 2,189 videos as of 5 November 2026 — dated platform figures, not museum-verified facts. ² Its most-viewed uploads are archive recordings of his sermons uploaded in 2022, after his death. ²

• English Wikipedia, "Khadim Hussain Rizvi", as read on 5 November 2026. ¹
• vidIQ, "Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi Official YouTube Stats", updated 5 November 2026. ²