Mohammed Nabi Yusufi

Mohammed Nabi Yusufi (1923–2005) was an Imam of the Afghan community in New York City.

In Afghanistan

Mohammed Nabi Yusufi was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan on 10 March 1923. Mohammed Nabi Yusufi was born to an ethnic Pashtun and Akhounzada Khail family. Yusufi had a burgeoning export business in Afghanistan; he had homes both in the capital Kabul and his home town of Kandahar. Yusufi fled Afghanistan with his family shortly after the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Mohammed Nabi Yusufi held a post in King Zahir Shah's government as an emir and due to his successful business and worldly knowledge he was elected to be the president of the Kandahar chamber of commerce, as well the mayor of Zabol.

He traveled extensively throughout the world due to his business and brought new ideas and teachings back to Afghanistan. He spoke five languages that included Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu, and English. He lectured at hundreds of meetings, gatherings, and sermons. Yusufi was instrumental in the preservation of the Afghan culture and Islam for Afghans that were resettling in New York. This made life easier for the many Afghan immigrants that were adjusting to the new country they now called home, the United States.

Outlook

Mohammed Nabi Yusufi, despite coming from a religious, spiritual family known as the Akhounzada Khail, was a very modern man inside the conservative Islamic circles that existed in Kandahar and the U.S. He carried the same modern outlook and moderate views...
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