Mujib-ur-Rahman Ansari (Dari: مجیب‌الرحمن انصاری, romanized: Mujīb-ur-Rahmān Ansārī; 1982 – 2 September 2022) was an Afghan Islamic scholar who preached in the city of Herat.

In the late 2010s, Ansari seized control of a district of Herat, where he established extrajudicial sharia courts and checkpoints operated by his armed enforcers.

[3] After moving to Saudi Arabia, Ansari continued his religious education, where he was taught about Wahhabism, an ultraconservative movement of Sunni Islam.

[4] After his return to Afghanistan, Ansari first became well-known in the mid-2000s, following his criticism of Sayyid Muhammad Khairkhwah [fa], the governor of Herat Province.

However, his influence increased drastically after an incident in the early 2010s in which Ansari and his followers prevented a music concert from occurring in Herat by occupying the stadium venue.

[4] Ansari continued to build a following using his position as the imam of the Gozargah Mosque in northern Herat, and he also became one of the trustees of the Shrine of Khwaja Abd Allah.

[3] The several thousand parishioners who attended Ansari's mosque services had to undergo extensive body searches, and the compound was heavily guarded by security personnel armed with assault rifles and wearing white robes emblazoned with two crossed swords.

[1] In December 2019, Ansari and his followers seized control of the Gozargah district of Herat, preventing the police from entering and imposing sharia law, which was rigorously enforced.

[1] Although he was not officially affiliated with the Taliban during the republic, Ansari was considered to be a close ally of the organization, and shared many religious beliefs with the group.

[1] However, after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in September 2021, Ansari officially aligned with the organization and attended several of the new government's meetings, becoming "one of the important figures of this group in Herat".

[2][14] Others who offered condemnation include the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Pakistan, and Qatar.

[17] Tariq Nabi, an Islamic scholar, stated that Ansari had "created a worrisome parallel government" in northern Herat based on Wahhabism, and that he was fueling ethnic and religious tensions.

[7] Ansari was a prominent hardline critic of the Afghan republican government, stating that it was corrupt and merely a puppet regime of the Americans forces, and he was a staunch opponent of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan.

In addition to these, the high-ranking officials who are appointed in Herat's civil and military institutions, go to Mr. Ansari, who is also the head of the Ulema Council of Western Afghanistan, to ask for permission to pray or to recite a narration before taking up their duties.

[2] While at a religious gathering in Kabul in July 2022, Ansari stated that people who commit "the smallest act against our Islamic government" should be beheaded.

[1][3] Following a Friday service in which thousands of parishioners attended, Ferozuddin Feroz, the Afghan Minister of Health, stated that Ansari was "not a scholar but a murderer".