Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 4, No. 2 (2012) 87 Dr. Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi (1950-2010): Life & Contributions By Dr. Muhammad Junaid Nadvi “Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day there are indeed signs for men of understanding; Men who remember Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the creation of the heavens and the earth.” (al-Qur’ân 3:190-191) Introduction Islam has been a subject of great significance for Muslim scholarship and common man as a normative source of guidance. It has been a subject of endless series of writings and studies done by historians, traditionalists, jurists and scholars interested in the disciplines of social sciences 1 . In the 1 st century, Qur’ân and Sunnah became a vital source of developing the Islamic civilization. The first three centuries of Islam is a period of compilation and classification of the available information about the life, conduct, personality and statements of the Prophet of Islam. In the later period, the scholars focused on the interpretation of the collected data and the transformation of Islamic sciences as a systematic discipline. 2 The arrival of Western colonial powers to the Muslim World in the late 19 th century opened a new era of studying Islamic sciences. Because of the intense intellectual encounter between the Muslim orient and colonial occident, new aspects of studying Islamic sciences were discovered and a new genre of literature emerged in response to the large quantity of work produced by the Western writers on Islamic sciences. 3