 After Jinnah died , his sister Fatima asked the court to execute Jinnah 's will under Shia Islamic law . This subsequently became the part of the argument in Pakistan about Jinnah 's religious affiliation . Vali Nasr says Jinnah " was an Ismaili by birth and a Twelver Shia by confession , though not a religiously observant man . " In a 1970 legal challenge , Hussain Ali <unk> <unk> claimed Jinnah had converted to Sunni Islam , but the High Court rejected this claim in 1976 , effectively accepting the Jinnah family as Shia . According to the journalist Khaled Ahmed , Jinnah publicly had a non @-@ sectarian stance and " was at pains to gather the Muslims of India under the banner of a general Muslim faith and not under a divisive sectarian identity . " Ahmed reports a 1970 Pakistani court decision stating that Jinnah 's " secular Muslim faith made him neither Shia nor Sunni " , and one from 1984 maintaining that " the Quaid was definitely not a Shia " . Liaquat H. Merchant , Jinnah 's grandnephew , elaborates that " he was also not a Sunni , he was simply a Muslim " . 
