Title: Muhammad Asad: Twenty-Six Unpublished Letters
Abstract: About these letters and their recipients No attempt has been made to alter the text of the letters. Asad sent both typed and handwritten letters. The language and phrases used by Asad over the extended period of fifty years (1935-1986) during which these letters were written, provide important clues to his intellectual and personal developments. Until his arrival in the Indian Subcontinent in 1932, Asad had not written much in English. His articles for the German and Swiss newspapers were in German. He had learned conversational Arabic during his second trip to the Muslim lands (1924-1926), and seemed to have quickly learned to read scholarly texts while he was in Arabia. He provides no details of his teachers, but vaguely says he studied Sahih Bukhari in Madinah. (1) These letters reveal that once in India, Asad quickly picked up English usage spoken and written in the Indian Subcontinent at that time. His shorthand notations, the use of words peculiar to the Subcontinent (Begum sahiba), even the format of letters (the way self-address is inserted in the handwritten letters and how the addressees are addressed) are all indicative of a rapid acquisition of local culture. Some of the official letters included in this selection are written and formatted in the style of the colonial administrative structure set up by the British. Letter 1. Addressed to Chaudhri Niaz Ali Khan (1880-1976) to whom Asad remained greatly indebted throughout his life. (2) Niaz Ali Khan, an engineer by profession, was an affluent and wealthy resident of Jamalpur (Pathankot, East Punjab, India). In 1935, he planned to establish an institution of Islamic learning with the aim to impart Qur'an instructions to the graduates of the modern institutions. He contacted eminent 'Ulama' and intellectuals, including Sayyid Sulayman Nadwi, Abu al-Kalam Azad, Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Mawlana Ahmad Ali Lahori, the eminent disciple of Obaidullah Sindhi, and Mawlana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalavi, offering them various positions in the proposed institution. Niaz Ali Khan also corresponded with Sayyid Abu'l-A'la Mawdudi (3) and Muhammad Asad. In response Mawdudi and Asad corresponded with Niaz Ali Khan. Two of Asad's letters to Niaz Ali Khan have survived. (4) In these letters, Asad enthusiastically welcomes the notion of a new Islamic Dar al-'ulum. His letters reveal that he also tried to get Muhammad Iqbal (5) interested in the scheme. (6) Chaudhri Niaz Ali and Muhammad Asad travelled to Lahore and met with Muhammad Iqbal to elucidate the scheme of the proposed Dar al-ulum. To realize the scheme Dar al-Islam trust was constituted in December 1937 and Muhammad Asad was appointed as one of its six trustees. (7) Though Asad visited Jamalpur several times, he could not settle there. On the eve of the Second World War, Asad was interned in Ahmadnagar by the Indian British Government. During most of his internment years (1939-1945), his wife Munira and son Talal stayed at Jamalpur as guests of Niaz Ali Khan. (8) Letter 2: Addressed to Chaudhri Muhammad Aslam Khan, the son of Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan, to offer condolence on the demise of his father in 1976. Asad also wrote a few lines as obituary, this is placed the end of this letter. Letters 3-9: Addressed to the well-known journalist and historian Mawlana Ghulam Rasul Mehr (1895-1971). Asad had developed a close friendship with Mawlana Ghulam Rasul Mehr, who was highly appreciative of Asad's work. Mehr, through his newspaper Inqilab (Lahore), very generously introduced Asad's intellectual endeavors to Muslim intelligentsia. During the early months of his internment, Asad wrote several letters to Mawlana Mehr, asking for his support. Asad did continue to correspond with Mehr in the post-internment years as well. Seven letters of Asad have survived in Mehr's collection. Among these, the first five were written from the Ahmadnagar internment Camp. These letters highlight the agony and suffering Asad underwent during the period. …
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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