His was an august life built from the scratch. Shafiq Ahmad Ansari’s birth in the prosperity of a Zamindar family in 1926 at Harsowara, Najibabad (Bijnor), U.P was a matter of years only. Born to Landlord, Abdul Wahid and housewife kulsum, he was destined to a life drawn out of his own.

In 1952, the family was left devastated when the Government of U.P abolished the Zamindari system. The Act took away most of the family land and the resulting shock left Abdul Wahid dead. Now the young shoulders of Shafiq Ahmad Ansari were to support the family for which he had to struggle a lot.

He carved out his way firmly to be among the people at the apex of the society. However, not even once he ever tried to stretch out the roots. A prudent social worker, that he was, presidented the U.P State Momin Conference and eidgah Committee, Najibabad and was also a member of Harijan Kalyan Samittee. Ansari Sahab was also one of the founders of Qasmia Inter College, Najibabad. He was the binidng force as a Manager for the all round development of the said college. He may not have been holder of a university degree, but knowledge had acquainted him all through his life. In mid forties, he got married to a widow of his elder brother. Ghafooran Begum had two children from her first marriage, a son Taslim Ahmad and a daughter, Aisha Begum. In her second marriage, she gave birth to two daughters ( Rabia Begum and Abida Begum) and three sons (Javed Ahmad Ansari, Naushad Ahmad Ansari and Shahzad Ahmad Ahmad). Keen on education of his children, Ansari Sahab saw them on to a respectable life in society. Shafiq Ahmad Ansari had a dauntless character with a mettle to fight injustice that later earned him eminenece in the society. He was a philanthropic person who worked all his life for the good of the poor, downtrodden, needy and the underprivileged have nots.

A good knowledge of law was another of his peculiarities. He contested and won many civil as well as criminal cases in the Court of Law. As a true citizen, he even helped Police to nab the anit-social elecements. Such was his instrumental role that it had created fear among the miscreants and they dared not to be around his presence. All this also meant threat from local criminals and to face this, the Government had provided him with the State Police Guard for his personal security in addition to various fire arms licenses to him. His active social life also led him to venture into politics. In 1969, he fought the election from Najibabad Assembly Constituency on the Indian National Congress ticket. He lost the election by the margin of just 13 votes, apparently the anti-socials and miscreants captured 18 polling booths and prevented Muslims and Harijans to cast their votes. This election is believed to be the historical one for the Najibabad constituency because of the presence of Mrs Indiara Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, for, the election campaign in favour of Ansari Sahab. During his 45 years long political career, he was associated with Janab Ziaur Rehman Ansari, Begum Mohsina Quidwai, Syed Sibte Razi, Pandit Kamlapati Tripathi, Mr. S.B. Gupta, Mr. H.N. Bahugun, Mr. N.D. Tiwari, Mr. Vir Bahadur Singh and Mr. Karanti Kumar to name a few. There was another side of Shafiq Ahmad Ansari that of a simple religious man. He has performed Haj in the year 1996. He was lovingly called ‘Bhaijan’ by his family members and ‘Pattu Shah’ by the local people of the town and was famous among them as ‘netaj•1 as well. A generous man at his heart, he i  died on December 18, 2001. His departure left many lives affected, lives that now pray for his noble soul to rest in peace.