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“Call to the path of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with people in the best manner.” (The Holy Quran 16:125) • • The Light Exponent Presents of Islam Islam as: and the PEACEFUL Lahore & Islamic Review TOLERANT Ahmadiyya RATIONAL Movement INSPIRING for over • seventy- September – October 2001 five years • Published on the World-Wide Web at: http://www.muslim.org 50th anniversary of the death of Maulana Muhammad Ali Space left for photo of Maulana Muhammad Ali (cid:1) Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore Inc., U.S.A. (cid:1) 1315 Kingsgate Road, Columbus, Ohio, 43221–1504, U.S.A. (cid:132) 2 THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 Volume 78, Number 5. About ourselves Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore Contents: has branches in the following countries: U.S.A. Australia (cid:132)(cid:132) Maulana Muhammad Ali passes away U.K. Canada From The Light, October 24, 1951. .................................. 3 Holland Fiji Indonesia Germany (cid:132)(cid:132) Obituaries in Pakistani English language press Suriname India The Dawn, Karachi. The Star, Lahore. ............................. 4 Trinidad South Africa Guyana (cid:132)(cid:132) Public figures in Pakistan condole Maulana’s death The Movement has members and support- Feroz Khan Noon, Khwaja Hasan Nizami, ers in many other countries as well. and Abdul Majeed Salik. .................................................. 5 Achievements: (cid:132)(cid:132) A heavy loss for the Muslim world The Anjuman has produced extensive by Omer Riza Dogrul, Turkish writer, parliamentarian. .. 7 literature on Islam, originally in English and Urdu, including translations of the (cid:132)(cid:132) Passing away of Maulvi Muhammad Ali Holy Quran with commentaries. These by Shaikh Yaqub Ali, Qadiani journalist. ........................ 9 books are being translated into other languages, such as French, German, (cid:132)(cid:132) Maulana Muhammad Ali in the view of Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Dutch and Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Polish. Compiled by the Editor. ................................................. 11 The Anjuman has run several Muslim missions around the world, including the (cid:132)(cid:132) The Maulana’s last word ............................................. 14 first ever in Western Europe. The Movement’s contribution to Islamic thought is summed up on the left. History: 1889: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Movement. The Light was founded in 1921 as the organ of the AHMADIYYA 1901: Movement given name Ahmadiyya ANJUMAN ISHA‘AT ISLAM (Ahmadiyya Association for the propaga- after Holy Prophet Muhammad’s tion of Islam) of Lahore, Pakistan. The Islamic Review was published other famous name Ahmad. in England from 1913 for over 50 years, and in the U.S.A. from 1980 to 1991. The present periodical represents the beliefs of the world- 1905: Hazrat Mirza appoints central body wide branches of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam, Lahore. (Anjuman) to manage the Movement. 1908: Death of Hazrat Mirza. Succeeded ISSN: 1060–4596 by Maulana Nur-ud-Din as Head. Editor: Dr. Zahid Aziz. Format and Design: The Editor. 1914: Death of Maulana Nur-ud-Din. Circulation: Mrs. Samina Malik. Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam founded at Lahore as continuation of the original Anjuman. Maulana Articles, letters and all enquiries should be sent to: Muhammad Ali elected as Head. ‘The Light’, 1315 Kingsgate Road, Columbus, Ohio 43221–1504 1951: Death of Maulana Muhammad Ali U.S.A. after fifty years of glorious service to Phone: 614–457 8504 Fax: 614–457 4455 the cause of Islam. Maulana Sadr-ud- Din (d. 1981) becomes Head. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] WWW: http://www.muslim.org 1981–1996: Dr. Saeed Ahmad Khan, an eminent medical doctor and religious scholar, led the Movement, at a time The main object of the A.A.I.I.L. is to present the true, original of intense persecution. message of Islam to the whole world — Islam as it is found in the 1996: Prof. Dr. Asghar Hameed, a Holy Quran and the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, obscured distinguished retired University today by grave misconceptions and wrong popular notions. Professor of Mathematics, and learned Islamic scholar, elected Head. (cid:132) THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 3 Maulana Muhammad Ali It is indeed very rarely that a man can devote himself so thoroughly and for so long to the service passes away of religion as has fallen to the lot of Maulana Muhammad Ali. Since the first beginning of the present century till the moment of his death the pen From The Light, Lahore of Maulana Muhammad Ali wielded in defence and October 24, 1951 exposition of Islam never knew any rest. The scholarly pages he has thus written will surpass in [We reproduce below the notice of the death of Maulana volume and magnificence any other work on these Muhammad Ali which appeared in ‘The Light’ upon his lines by any contemporary writer. If the late Khwaja death in October 1951, on the front page of its issue of the Kamal-ud-Din could be called the organ voice of above date.] Islam for the west and the westernised sections of the Muslim world, Maulana Muhammad Ali can We deeply regret to have to announce the death, by certainly be called with equal fitness the mighty pen heart failure, at Karachi at 11.30 a.m., on Saturday of Islam for the same world. the 10th of Muharram [13 October 1951], of Among the numerous books written by him both Maulana Muhammad Ali, the world famous divine English and Urdu his translation and commentary of and scholar of Islam and President of the Ahmadiyya the Holy Quran in both these languages and ‘The Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam, Lahore, ever since its Religion of Islam’, an encyclopaedic work on inception in 1914. He dies at the age of 76. His body Islamic jurisprudence, will stand out for many was brought by train to Lahore and buried after a centuries as a beacon light for the new age of Islam. solemn Janaza prayer at the Ahmadiyya Cemetery Of no less importance but very much less known on Sunday night. is his translation and commentary in Urdu of Al- Born in a village in the state of Kapurthala in Bukhari, ‘the most correct of books of Islam after East Punjab about the year 1874 and passing through the Book of God’, as it has been rightly called. This a brilliant academic career Maulana Muhammad Ali, storehouse of knowledge, so laboriously collected then an ordinary English educated youth, saw a new for and bequeathed to the new world of Islam, is a light of Islam rising from the village of Qadian in precious heritage, of which any family and any the Gurdaspur district of East Punjab in the year community can be rightly proud. 1897. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Saint and Messiah The difficulties of the field in which he chose to of Islam, had proclaimed his claims for world reform work are known only to those who have any actual some time before this time. Accompanied by his experience of them. Born in a community that had life-long friend and comrade-in-arms Khwaja fallen to the lowest depths of national decay, but Kamal-ud-Din he visited Qadian in that year. And which yet contained potentialities of forming a reading the signs of the times, took his pledge at the nucleus for a new order for the world, his work was hands of this Messiah. From that time onward the as arduous as it can ever be. He cherished a hope for one thought that engrossed the attention of the regeneration of the Muslim community but their Muhammad Ali was the dissemination of the ideas present condition kept him, as was but natural, of this Messiah in the English language because that always depressed and sad. Rejected by the main was the passionate desire of the Messiah himself. body of the Ahmadiyya community, it was his faith We need not tell the world what this devoted in the mission of this movement and in the destiny disciple had been doing all these years in the of Islam in the world that alone sustained him in his promotion of the cause that he had in heart. The lonely efforts in the cause of reviving Islam. enlightened Muslim world knows it but too well that We mourn his loss today, because he was a lover but for the efforts of Maulana Muhammad Ali and of Islam, not the superficial type of lover whose love Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din (may their memories be ends in mere talk, but a lover whose love consumes blessed) the position of Islam in relation to Chris- his whole being, even his very soul, and such lovers tianity would not have been what it is today. Their of Islam alas are very rare in these days. We mourn names alone are a terror to Christian missionary his death because he wielded the pen of Islam with a efforts in the world. mighty hand, and we who presume to succeed him (cid:132) 4 THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 in office, so sadly lack in that vigour and strength in inevitable goal of education in those days — and our shaky hands. We mourn his loss because his choosing a missionary career. The object to which faith in the destiny of Islam was unshakable, a faith he dedicated his life was the translation of the Holy alas very much wanting in the present generation of Quran into English; and he lived long enough after Muslims, theologians or laymen. We mourn his loss the first edition of his translation and commentary because he was a man of profound scholarship, one appeared in 1917, to follow it up with many other that can be regarded as an asset of contemporary works. The best among these subsequent works are humanity and was a sign of the intellectual poten- believed to be his Muhammad, The Prophet and The tialities of Islam and we shall search in vain to find Religion of Islam. The former is a biography which anyone who can fill his position in this regard. We pre-eminently serves its purpose; and the latter is mourn his loss because side by side with his high almost cyclopaedic in its range of information. intellectual powers he had cultivated his spiritual As a missionary Maulvi Muhammad Ali had parts which made him exceptionally meek and profitably studied the publicity techniques of humble, a quality of mind which is the best gift of European missionaries and his prolific writings religion to human culture, and we have yet to find a reflect his ability to devise a suitable approach to Muslim who can present this rare combination. almost every individual section of his readers. But although we are overwhelmed with grief at Stupendous was the energy that he could put into the moment of writing, our one great consolation is this task; and as the years grew on him the will- that the God of Islam is a Living God, as testified by power made up for what was lacking in physical one at whose hands Maulana Muhammad Ali had strength. He died working almost till the last. Silent sold his career. And it has been announced by this and unassuming as he was, both the man and his God, through this chosen servant of His, that Islam works were appropriately reflected in the fact — is sure to shine once more in the world as it did at its paradoxical as it might seem — that his writings (cid:132) first appearance in the world. were better known than the man himself. His death is a real loss. He will be mourned by a wide circle of friends and admirers. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family.” Obituaries in Pakistani The Star, Lahore, 20 October 1951: English language press “On October 13, at 11.30 a.m. in Karachi, there passed away from this world a well-known scholar [We quote below from what English newspapers in and religious leader — Maulana Muhammad Ali, Pakistan wrote about Maulana Muhammad Ali when he died.] head of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam, Lahore. Soon after finishing his education, and while The Dawn, Karachi, 16 October 1951: still very young, Maulana Muhammad Ali joined the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, and “Maulvi Muhammad Ali, whose death occurred in came to the fore as a writer in English on Islam Karachi, probably did more writing on Islamic while he edited the Review of Religions, a monthly subjects for almost half a century than any organ of the Ahmadiyya Movement of which the contemporary individual. Immersed in scholarly first issue came out in January 1902. The monthly pursuits and gifted with a researcher’s frame of journal, devoted to the comparative study of Reli- mind, his aims were not academic. He was a gion, did yeoman’s service under Maulana missionary who awoke to his calling in life in the Muhammad Ali’s editorship by defending Islam environment of the last century when Islam in this against the onslaught of Christian Missionaries and sub-continent was a target of concentrated scurrilous European Orientalists of the old school whose attacks from Western missionaries and votaries of a writings were more marked by a virulent prejudice venomous revivalist Hinduism. against Islam than by a spirit of honest enquiry and A man of his academic distinction, in the late scholarly research. nineties, must have overcome a strong temptation in After the death of the founder of the Ahmadiyya declining to enter Government service — the Movement, Mr. Muhammad Ali was assigned the (cid:132) THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 5 task of preparing a translation in English of the Holy world will share with you fully. His works Quran; but the work could not be finished in the life- will remain forever and I do not know of time of Maulvi Noor-ud-Din. Moreover, after the any man who has done so much for the death of Maulvi Noor-ud-Din, a split occurred in the revival of Islam as your brother-in-law, not Ahmadiyya Movement over some points of belief even during the last 500 years.” and doctrine, as well as general policy to be (Published in The Light, 8 November 1951) followed in carrying on the mission of the Move- ment. Maulana Muhammad Ali was the Head of the Khwaja Hasan Nizami section that broke away from Qadian and established He was a spiritual leader and successor of a saint of itself in Lahore, finally coming to be known as Dehli, India. (His son, Dr. F. Nizami, became in Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam, Lahore. 1985 the founding Director of the Oxford Centre for The translation of the Holy Quran into English, Islamic Studies, an associated institution of the prepared by Maulana Muhammad Ali, was publi- University of Oxford, England.) His tribute, taken shed in 1917, and was at once accepted as a most from his own journal Munadi of September-October valuable addition to Islamic literature in English 1951, was reproduced in the Lahore Ahmadiyya prepared by Muslim scholars and divines them- paper Paigham Sulh, of 26 December 1951. It is selves, as distinct from what European and translated from Urdu below: American scholars write on the subject, practically “Maulana Muhammad Ali was the head of always under a deep anti-Islamic bias characteristic the Lahore Jama‘at of the Ahmadis. His of Christian missionaries. death was recently reported by Lahore radio. Apart from his translation of the Holy Quran, He did not agree with the khilafat of Qadian, Maulana Muhammad Ali brought out a translation of and so he had formed a separate Jama‘at. Sahih Bukhari, and many other books on subjects Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din belonged to his connected with the superiority of Islam as a religious group. Maulana Muhammad Ali also trans- and social system. By removing him from our midst, lated the Holy Quran into English. In death has thus created a vacuum that will long be felt connection with the work of the propagation by all interested in the revival of Islam as the most of Islam, I had cause to meet the Maulana dominant spiritual force in the lives of the Muslim from the very beginning of my life till today. peoples.” I consider him to be a very great and very successful worker. May Allah grant him protection, and patience to the bereaved. I inform my disciples and their leaders Public figures in Pakistan in India and Pakistan to hold meetings of condole Maulana’s death reading the Fatiha for him. He has rendered so much service to the Quran and Islam that I believe it essential to hold the reading of the Fatiha for him.” Feroz Khan Noon He was a Pakistani statesman who was governor of Abdul Majeed Salik the Pakistani province of East Bengal at the time He was a journalist and writer, being editor of a when Maulana Muhammad Ali died. Later he was Muslim daily, the Inqilab, and author of the book Prime Minister of Pakistan. On the Maulana’s death Zikr-i Iqbal about the life of Dr. Sir Muhammad he sent the following letter to Mr. N.A. Faruqui: Iqbal. He lived close to Maulana Muhammad Ali’s “Dacca house in Lahore in the Muslim Town suburb. The 16th October 1951. street in which he lived is now known as Salik Street in his honour. His tribute to the Maulana was I was very sorry to read in the papers of the published in the Lahore Ahmadiyya paper Paigham demise of Maulana Muhammad Ali. Please Sulh of 26 December 1951, which is translated accept my deepest sympathy. It is a loss below from Urdu: which not only I but the whole Muslim (cid:132) 6 THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 “I t was 1912. I had gone from Batala to Qadian meet him sometimes. He was very kind to me and to meet some friends. I went to see Maulana highly praised the religious and political services of Hakim Nur-ud-Din, marhum and maghfur, in Inqilab. connection with the illness of a relation. It was the Maulana Muhammad Ali became a true and morning time, and the Hakim sahib was sitting in the staunch Muslim by living in the company of Hazrat front yard of his house attending to the needs of a Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Not only that, the greatness crowd of people, consisting of both his followers of the religion of Islam was so impressed upon his and other needy persons. If one was having his pulse mind and heart that he devoted the whole of his life taken, another had come to seek medical knowledge, for its propagation. Every moment in his life was and yet another was waiting his turn to ask a spent in the service of the faith. Besides the English question about religion. I too went and sat among translation of the Holy Quran, he wrote countless the waiting people. books on religious subjects. In my opinion, the best When my turn came I showed him the document of these is the book The Religion of Islam, by detailing my relation’s illness, which the Hakim studying which an English-knowing person can sahib read very carefully. While doing so, he asked acquire such detailed knowledge about the religion me where I had come from … which even the fully-qualified maulvis do not possess. [Mr. Salik narrates here his conversation with Maulana Nur-ud-Din, which we omit, and then he continues] … Maulana Muhammad Ali My talk with him was going on when a man became a true and staunch came to see him. The Hakim sahib left all his work Muslim by living in the and turned his attention to him. After saying one or two things to him, he introduced me to him, saying: company of This young man is Abdul Majeed Salik, grandson of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Maulvi Mir Muhammad of Batala. Then he said to me: Meet Maulvi Muhammad Ali sahib. I met the Maulvi sahib with much admiration. I had been For the last fifteen years, Maulana Muhammad hearing for long that Maulvi Muhammad Ali, M.A., Ali had been living in Muslim Town [a suburb of Ll.B., was a very skilled writer of the English lan- Lahore], where I also have my residence. So we guage and was translating the Holy Quran into used to meet often in various gatherings and English, but it was only today that I met him. Then functions. Despite his religious and pious nature, he the Maulvi sahib asked the Hakim sahib the mean- was quite informal. He was, no doubt, an Ahmadi, ings of some places in the Holy Quran and discussed but his relations with other Muslims were extremely with him the meanings of certain words. Having sincere and fraternal. One reason was that he was the finished, he bade me farewell with great affection head of that group of Ahmadis whose beliefs are not and left. intolerant. Secondly, he was by nature peace-loving. After this, I next met Maulvi Muhammad Ali He used to give sympathetic support to the sahib when I was appointed editor of Zamindar in campaigns and movements of the Muslims, and did Lahore. At that time Maulvi Zafar Ali Khan and Dr. not tolerate takfir of them, because he believed that Iqbal had friendly relations with Maulvi Muhammad calling Muslims as kafir was inconsistent with the Ali, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, Dr. Yaqub Baig, Dr. work of propagation. He presented the message of Syed Muhammad Husain Shah and Shaikh Islam not only to India but to the Western world as Rahmatullah,1 but I met these revered elders only well. And it is a fact that he possessed the capability infrequently. After the publication of the Inqilab of doing so in every way. He was not only a learned started, I met Maulana Muhammad Ali quite often. man of the religion, but also a high-ranking The Maulana used to live in a house adjacent to the commentator of the Quran and mujtahid. He was an mosque in Ahmadiyya Buildings and I used to go to English writer of the highest standard, who well understood the Western mind. He presented Islam to Western-educated people as well as to Westerners 1 themselves in such a style that they could not help These were the leaders of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. (cid:132) THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 7 becoming convinced of the greatness of this faith. I A heavy loss for the believe that hundreds of seekers-after-truth in the Western countries became Muslims by reading the Muslim world: writings and books of Maulana Muhammad Ali, and it is as a result of his efforts that today the name of Muhammad Ali and his work Islam is mentioned with respect in the West, hostility towards Islam having become infrequent. The selfless service of Islam, over a long period, will by Omer Riza Dogrul surely be a source of Allah’s mercy for Maulana [Omer Riza Dogrul (died March 1952) was a Turkish Muhammad Ali, because Allah never wastes the Islamic scholar, writer and a deputy to the Grand National efforts and exertions of the true servants of his faith. Assembly of Turkey. He wrote the following article about Maulana Muhammad Ali after the Maulana’s death in 1951, in which he pays tribute to his services to Islam and …it is as a result of his efforts also gives an account of meeting him in Lahore in February 1951. The article originally appeared in The that today the name of Islam is Islamic Review, published in England by the Woking Muslim Mission, May 1952 (pages 17–18) and is mentioned with respect in the reproduced here with its heading and subheadings.] West… The debt I owe to Muhammad Ali With the death of Muhammad Ali we have lost a There is no doubt that there was a little man who devoted his whole life to the service of difference of belief between him and the general Islam; a savant and a thinker, he was a hard worker Muslims, but that difference was by no means so and a prolific writer. I was profoundly moved on serious that the Muslims should ignore his services learning this sad news through reading The Islamic and fail to appreciate him. I am extremely dismayed Review for November, 1951. He was certainly the to see that, when quite ordinary poets and writers greatest Muslim thinker and writer of our time, and die, the press and the radio devote hundreds of pages was possessed of a sound and fertile brain, a pure in their honour and relay endless speeches boring the heart full of enthusiasm, a faith which was profound listeners, but at the death of Maulana Muhammad and unshakable and a knowledge that was limitless. Ali they did nothing. Muslim newspapers and During his lifetime he devoted all his capabilities magazines should have published detailed articles and talents to one object, the revival of Islam, the about his life and his work of the propagation of brushing aside of useless superstition among Islam, and talks should have been broadcast on the Muslims, and re-establishing the original doctrine of radio about his work. However, most newspapers Islam in its pristine beauty. And he rejuvenated its did no more than publish just the news of his death. lost force. This good worker in a saintly cause, Two or three newspapers wrote notes which were whose days of work are over, was called about twenty lines in length. This is a reflection of Muhammad Ali of Lahore, famous translator and the ingratitude and lack of appreciation of these commentator of the Quran into English. He was an times. However, in the religious circles in Western eminent personality who left his mark on the world countries, regret was expressed at the death of the by this supreme work and a host of other books on Maulana, and articles were written about his Islam. services. But the most important thing is that the Maulana will find his reward with Almighty Allah. It so happened that after taking part in the World The man whose work is accepted by Allah cannot Muslim Conference at Karachi in February, 1951, have any concern about its acceptance by the world. we spent several days in Lahore. Here our first duty was to pay a visit to Maulana Muhammad Ali. We May Allah grant the Maulana shelter under the had read his writings in Turkey for 30 years with shadow of His mercy, make his services to the great benefit to ourselves. He enlightened us on religion a cause for his forgiveness and for his many matters, for he had penetrated deeply into the elevation in rank, and grant that educated Muslims (cid:132) spirit of Islam and understood its aims and follow his example, Amin.” objectives, and had set out to explain them to others. He wrote with equal facility in English and his (cid:132) 8 THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 native tongue. Through his writings in English we about these ideas, he received my remarks with a were able to understand what he had to say. It has sympathetic smile. been calculated that he wrote altogether 7,000 pages Somebody brought him some sheets of paper on in English and 10,000 in Urdu. I can truthfully say a roller. “These must be your proofs,” I said. “Please that I have read in full the 7,000 pages written in let me look them over with you.” He appeared to English. These are quite sufficient for me to judge appreciate my efforts not to tire him. I was able to the full extent of my great debt of knowledge to him. observe that his work was well on the way to its On our arrival at Lahore we were confronted final completion. As far as I can remember, 20 parts with a very full programme of activities, but when I of the Quran had already been corrected and only ten was told that he wished to see me, I solved my remained to be completed. As the proofs had been difficulty by scrapping the official scheduled prepared with the greatest of care, and the text and arrangements, and taking his emissary by the arm, corrections had been treated with equal attention, the said to him, “Let’s go to see Maulana”. checking was quickly carried out. I asked him: “What are your other occupations?” He replied On the way I asked him, “How is he getting on slowly in a deep voice: and what is he working on?” He replied: “I have sworn an oath to send a complete set “At one time all hope of saving his life was of my works to all the libraries of the world. given up, as he was greatly incapacitated by I have 5,000 complete sets of my works, for severe heart attacks. But thanks to the care which my friends have collected money in of his entourage he has pulled through. He order to send them to all the important ought not to work, but none the less he does. libraries of the world. Would you kindly Whenever we request him to rest he replies: give me a few addresses of libraries that ‘Let me work; rest is death, it is only by would be interested in receiving them?” working that I feel that I am alive’. I immediately wrote down several addresses, and he He is at present revising the new edition of gave them to his secretary. I made as though to his translation of the Holy Quran into retire, but he stopped me. He said: English, and will not rest until he has “I have read your translation of the Holy checked all the proofs himself. His only Quran entitled Tanri Buyrugu (The Order of wish is that he will live long enough to God). I have the first and second editions in complete this work. Insha Allah he will live my library, and I hope that you will publish long enough.” a third. I beseech you to do all that lies in your power to express the enlightenment of Face to face with Muhammad Ali Islam. I am sure that you will never in any On our arrival at the Maulana’s house I asked that way give satisfaction to the fanaticism of the we should cause him no inconvenience. “I will go to narrow-minded people or even consider his room and kiss his hand,” I said. I was promised supporting the views of the intolerant.” that my wishes would be fulfilled, and so I waited in I kissed his hand and asked permission to leave. the drawing room. After one or two minutes I saw a light shining through the open door; I was This was my first and, alas, my last, interview irresistibly drawn towards it, and a moment later was with him. embracing Muhammad Ali. His form had really His life and work acquired a sort of transparency and translucidity which were not of this world. His hair and beard, Muhammad Ali was born about 1874, in the village which were exceptionally white, surrounded his face of Murar, in the province of Kapurthula. His educa- like a halo. He was of striking stature. His eyes were tion was a sucess; he was an excellent mathemati- pale and dim, and gave the impression that his cian as well as a man of letters. He studied law at the thoughts were already not of this world. I spoke in University of the Punjab and started to embark on a order not to tire him; I treated subjects which I knew legal career, but destiny had ordained that he should would interest him, and as I was very well informed contribute to the revival of Islam. He met Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya (cid:132) THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 9 Movement. He joined forces with him at the same Passing away of time as Khwaja Kamaluddin, and for many years they were engrossed in profound religious studies. Maulvi Muhammad Ali He was editor of The Review of Religions, and was asked by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman in 1909 to “Speak well of your dead” translate the Holy Quran into English. It took him eight years working twelve hours a day to complete the translation and the Commentary. by Shaikh Yaqub Ali, former editor Al-Hakam Meanwhile, there had been a split in the Ahmadiyya Movement. On the death of Mirza [Shaikh Yaqub Ali was a leading Qadiani writer and Ghulam Ahmad in 1908 some of his supporters who journalist, who started the journal Al-Hakam in 1897 which wrongfully interpreted his intentions attributed to chronicled the activities, conversations and talks of the him the claim of a prophet, and treated those who Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. His tribute to Maulana Muhammad Ali was reproduced in the Lahore would not accept this view as unfaithful. Ahmadiyya paper Paigham Sulh, of 26 December 1951, Muhammad Ali broke with them, and in 1914 set up, taken from his own journal.] with the help of his associates, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam, at Lahore. He was elected president of Respected Maulvi Muhammad Ali, President of the the organization. Muhammad Ali believed that the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore, died in Prophet Muhammad was the Last of the Prophets, Karachi on 13 October 1951. Inna li-llahi wa inna and there were none to come after him. Furthermore, ilai-hi raji‘un. I personally felt such a shock at the nobody has the right to dub another an unbeliever news of the death of the Maulana as if a dear brother (kafir) once he has recited the Kalima, which says: of mine had died. This feeling is not something “there is but one God, and that Muhammad is His imaginary, but a real fact. For years we grew up Messenger”. under the care of one spiritual father, and reached Later, Muhammad Ali published a translation adulthood. After the death of the Promised Messiah, and Commentary on the Holy Quran in the Urdu we stayed united around one hand during the first language, and this was followed by other works. As khilafat. At the beginning of the second khilafat, the most of these works were written in English, they respected Maulvi sahib separated from us on the helped to spread the light of Islam across the whole grounds of some differences. This is not the time to world. discuss the nature of those differences. He has now passed away, and we too are travelling on the same Until he breathed his last, Muhammad Ali gave road which leads to death. His affair is now with his life to the spreading of the publications of Allah. Bearing in mind the command of the Holy Islamic literature, and published without interruption Prophet quoted above, I will mention his good many new works; this activity went on without qualities. hardly a break. Sometimes people use a difference of opinion as His chief objective was to reveal the true the basis for hostility and animosity. This is not meanings of Islam, to show it in its full glory so that worthy of a true believer. A true believer never it would give satisfaction to human beings brought deviates from doing justice even to one with whom up under modern education. For this purpose his first there is animosity, because departure from justice is field of activity was to combat all false legends and a sin. I have observed and studied the Maulvi sahib superstitions prevalent among Muslims which were very closely since the year 1897. We worked in contradiction with common sense. He wished to together. He entered the Ahmadiyya Movement with restore the simplicity of Islam, and reject all that was sincerity and true belief. He devoted his life to the opposed to this. But his chief objective was not that service of the Movement, and earned the approval of pleasing this generation, but the search for and praise of the Promised Messiah. No one can historical truth. His work was essentially of historic (cid:132) deny what the Promised Messiah said and wrote value which will live for ages to come. about the Maulvi sahib, and it is because of these sacred words that I have always held feelings of respect for the deceased. Although I frequently (cid:132) 1 0 THE LIGHT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2001 wrote in refutation of some of his views, and wrote in Qadian till 1914 is magnificent, and it is an much, Allah knows that there was no spite or malice, example to young men to employ their talents with and I never forgot his services. Even though we such determination, zeal and sincerity. were, so to speak, at war with him, nonetheless whenever I went to Lahore I would meet all the honoured brethren. We would meet like brothers. We too shall pass away, and Certainly we would debate the differences, but when other generations will come we would take leave, feelings of love and fraternity would rise up in our hearts, and we could detect the and pass away. And in the effects of our old connections. history of the Movement, there Due to his academic excellence, respected shall remain the mention of Maulvi Muhammad Ali held a position of distinction the achievements of the throughout his years of study, always attaining the highest marks. And it is also a fact that, even while a respected student, he was virtuous and righteous. For this Maulvi Muhammad Ali sahib. reason, he was held in high regard by his teachers and fellow-students. I made his acquaintance when he was appointed to the Islamia College, Lahore, but At the beginning of the second khilafat, he had the real connection began when he joined this differences, and went to Lahore, taking a group with Movement. Maulvi Muhammad Ali was born in a him, and started work. Till the end, he remained village called Murar, in the state of Kapurthala, in an active in the work, and continued the writing of honourable and righteous family of land-owners. His books which he had earlier begun. father, Hafiz Fateh Din, was a hafiz of the Holy There is no doubt that his writings acquired Quran. Another man belonging to this family, fame in different countries of the world and in Maulvi Muhammad sahib, was a fellow-student of different languages. He gained all this from the mine in Ludhiana in the school of Maulvi Promised Messiah. Our differences with him are at Muhammad Farooq. Eventually, he joined Maulana an end. In the Promised Messiah, we were sons of Nur-ud-Din in Jammu, and once visited Qadian. the same father, and now at his death we grieve as So the Maulvi sahib was born in a noble family, we do at the death of a relation. and after having attained the highest accomplish- There were differences among the Companions ment in his education, when he stepped into a of the Holy Prophet as well, even leading to war. worldly career, and looked at the hopes and the But the Quran says: “We shall remove whatever of promise based on his period of education, he would rancour is in their breasts” (15:47). At the end they have risen high in the world had he continued along had clean hearts. May Allah produce the same this path, and reached a distinguished official cleanliness and purity in our hearts. The Maulvi position. But Allah had willed otherwise for him. sahib completed the natural span of his life and died. @e entered the Movement, and the Promised It would have been better if he had lived a while Messiah wished him to serve it. This young man longer, but this was the time of death in the agreed, and he agreed with a truthful heart. knowledge of Allah. We too shall pass away, and Discarding all the hopes and aspirations, for the other generations will come and pass away. And in service of the Movement in obedience to his master the history of the Movement, there shall remain the he vowed to serve Islam with the pen. And he mention of the achievements of the respected Maulvi performed this service till the day of his death. His Muhammad Ali sahib. services, by means of scholarship and by means of I express my sympathies to his family with the pen, are vast. If Allah please, I shall write in sincerity. I share in their grief. Although I had detail about his work. differences with him, there was love for him in my To have differences with him is a separate heart. matter. It does not mean that I or anyone else should (Taken from Al-Hakam, Karachi, 14 November find fault with his work, now that he is no longer in (cid:132) 1951.) the world. The service he rendered to the Movement

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Phone: 614 – 457 8504. Fax: 614 . Bukhari, 'the most correct of books of Islam after the Book of God', as it has been rightly called. This . Movement, Mr. Muhammad Ali was assigned the . Syed Muhammad Husain Shah and Shaikh ud-Din too, by sitting at the feet of the Imam of the . by Mr. Nasir A
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