Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf (Bengali: আবুল কালাম মোহাম্মদ ইয়ুসুফ) (19 March 1926 – 9 February 2014) was a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, writer, activist and politician.

[4] Abul Kalam Muhammad Yusuf was born on 19 March 1926 to a Bengali family of Muslim Hawladars in the village of Rajair in Sarankhola, Bagerhat subdivision, then part of the Khulna district of the Bengal Presidency.

The family originated from the prestigious village of Chakhar in Barisal, later migrating to Machua and eventually settling in Rajair in the 19th century.

His began his study of the Dars-i Nizami at Imdadul Uloom Ashrafia in Galua for three years, and then continuing at the Darussunnat Alia Madrasa in Sarsina.

For health reasons, he transferred from Sarsina to the Amtali Islamia Madrasa near Morrelganj, where he studied nahw, sarf (Arabic grammar and morphology), hadith and Qur'anic tafsir for four years.

Following this, he completed his graduate (Kamil) examinations in 1952, attaining recognition as Mumtaz al-Muhaddethin, the highest distinction available to scholars of Islam in South Asia.

[8] From 1962, until the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, he was also a member of Jamaat's Majlis-e-Shura (Central Executive Council) for three consecutive full terms, under the leadership of Abul A'la Maududi.

[11] Police alleged that he was the founder of the infamous Razakar Bahini, who were notorious for their operations that targeted Hindus as well as civilians suspected of being sympathetic towards Bengali nationalists.

Yusuf was also reported as a regional chief of East Pakistan Central Peace Committee, facing 15 war crimes charges, which included genocide, killing, looting, arson and forcing members of minority faiths to convert to Islam.

He was taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) hospital at around 11 a.m. that day, after falling ill in his prison cell at Kashimpur central jail, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Dhaka, where doctors subsequently pronounced him dead.

[2][4][6] Yusuf is a well-known scholar in his own right and published several widely read books, including titles on Qur'anic studies and hadith.