Islamabad, Jan 3 (NationPress) A court in Pakistan has handed a life sentence to a member of the Ahmadi community for using the title “Hafiz”, which signifies “one who knows the Quran by heart,” and for disseminating the “Tafsir-e-Saghir,” a revered collection of Quranic translations and commentary within his community, according to a report published on Saturday.

On December 24, 2025, an Additional Sessions Court in Lalian, Punjab, delivered a verdict that is a disgrace to any legal system that claims to uphold justice. Mubarak Ahmad Saani, an Ahmadi Muslim, was convicted under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. His alleged crime was not disrespecting the Quran or inciting violence but rather referring to himself as a 'Hafiz' and distributing a book of Quranic translation and commentary that is cherished by his community, as detailed by the online magazine ‘Bitter Winter’.

The court’s ruling criminalizes devotion, punishes piety, and weaponizes theological differences to persecute an individual whose only fault was practicing his faith sincerely — a belief system that Pakistan’s legal framework has systematically deemed illegal.

The report indicated that the verdict, which defies both legal logic and theological humility, involved a doctrinal examination of Ahmadi “heresies,” labeling the book as a “defiled, desecrated translation of the Holy Quran,” while invoking a clause of Pakistan’s blasphemy law that prescribes life imprisonment for anyone who burns, tears, or otherwise defiles the Quran.

However, Saani did not commit these acts. He shared the Quran, respected it, and provided a translation and commentary that his community has valued for generations. This is the insidious nature of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws; they punish interpretations and govern theology. When applied to Ahmadis, they become instruments of religious apartheid, where the Sunni majority dictates who can identify as Muslim and who can read, translate, and honor the Quran.

The report emphasizes that the case of Mubarak Ahmad Saani underscores a broader campaign against Ahmadis in Pakistan — a campaign that has criminalized religious identity, equated theological nuances with blasphemy, and treated peaceful devotion as a crime.

Ahmadis are prohibited from identifying as Muslims, forbidden from using Islamic terminology, their mosques are not acknowledged as places of worship, their literature is banned, their graves are desecrated, their lives are at risk, and now, their memorization of the Quran is criminalized.