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We all know that, after the prophets, the Auliyae Karaam (saintly personalities) were instrumental in spreading the message of Islam. There are numerous such personalities in Islamic history. The most famous reference work in this respect is Tazkiratul Auliya by Shaikh Fariduddin Attar, written more than 800 years ago and giving insight into the lives and extraordinary powers/character of about 95 auliya. Whoever finds time to read this wonderful book will notice that most of those auliya came from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc. In the Subcontinent we had giants such as Baba Tajuddin, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aoulia, Khwaja Moeenuddin Chisti and Data Sahib in Lahore, while there were others in Multan, Pakpattan, Jalalpur Shareef, Uch Shareef, etc. The Muslims of the Subcontinent are quite fond of visiting the graves and tombs of these holy figures. They go in thousands, even in hundreds of thousands, to participate in annual celebrations and/or commemorations at tombs. There is def...

Recent events reminded me of Murphy’s Law (coined in 1949 by Edward A. Murphy, an officer in the US Air Force) which states that, if anything can go wrong, it will (definitely) go wrong at some point in time. We now have what could be called Nawaz’s Law, i.e. if anything is running smoothly, it can definitely be turned into a mess. Let me elaborate. In May 1998 we surprised the whole world by making possible what had previously seemed impossible – conducting nuclear tests. Within a week, Mian Nawaz Sharif managed to make it controversial and we lost the golden, once-in-a-lifetime chance of unifying the nation and making Pakistan the leader of the Islamic World. He bypassed one of Pakistan’s finest officers, Gen Ali Kuli Khan, and instead appointed an unknown, unprofessional Musharraf as army chief. The result of that misstep is known to us all. For this folly, he himself went through hell for eight to nine years. It cost the country its sovereignty, hundreds of thousands of lives,...

In response to my previous column on Ghause Azam Shaikh Abdul Qadir Gilani (ra), I received requests to write more about other well-known auliyas. One of the greatest of all times was Hazrat Awais Qarni(RA). In his book ‘Tazkaratal Auliya’, written more than 800 years ago, Shaikh Fariduddin Attar devoted a whole chapter to this great saint. It has been translated into Urdu by Maulana Akhtar Hijazi and published by Al-Faisal Printers, Lahore. According to this book, Hazrat Awais Qarni (ra) was one of the most distinguished disciples of our Holy Prophet (pbuh) and one of the 40 most distinguished auliyas. Our Prophet (pbuh) used to say that Awais Qarni (ra) was one of the most upright followers of Islam. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) once said: “There is a man among my followers whose prayers the Almighty would accept for the salvation of Muslims for as many times as the number of hairs on the bodies of the sheep belonging to the tribes of Rabia and Mazar”. These two tribes were famous f...

Today I would like to introduce you to two excellent books by two well-known personalities and personal friends. The first is authored by Sirajuddin Aziz, a fine person and a highly competent and successful banker. He is a tall, slim and handsome man. As his family comes from Lukhnow, UP – the cradle of our civilisation and culture – he is every inch a refined and polished gentleman. As a banker par excellence, he has worked in China, Hong Kong, England, Nigeria, the UAE and Pakistan and is currently president and CEO of the well-known Metropolitan Bank, Karachi (a subsidiary of the famous Habib Bank A G Zurich). The book he wrote is called ‘Essence of Islam’ (published by Mavra Publishers, 60 Shahra-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Lahore) and it is a treasury of knowledge on Islam. It has explained the most essential and common principles and obligations of Islam in very simple and understandable terms. It is an extremely useful book and I believe an Urdu translation would be of great benefit to U...

A popular saying tells us that a nation that does not honour its intellectuals will suffer disgrace. Honouring does not mean placing them on a pedestal or loading them with money. It means that, as a nation, we remember them with love and respect and/or name some institution after them. School books should contain their life sketches and describe the contributions they made to the nation. We should not restrict ourselves to Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal, Sir Abdullah Haroon, Qazi Muhammad Isa, Raja Sahib of Mahmoodabad, Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar, Nawab Ismael Khan, Z A Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Agha Hassan Abidi, Mir Khalilur Rahman, Majeed Nizami, etc. There are many others – Sadiqain, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmad Faraz, Sardar Yasin Malik, Sirajuddin Aziz, Jehangir Khan, Abdul Sattar Edhi, Maulana Muhammad Bashir Faruqui, Mir Shakilur Rahman, Mujibur Rahman Shami, Hafiz Kardar, Hanif Muhammad, Fazal Mahmud, Muhammad Hussain, Khan Muhammad, Imtiaz Ahmed, Abdul Qadir, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram...

In a column last year I had written about Jalaluddin Rumi. Now I would like to write about his approach towards death. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi’s work is well known to those who speak Urdu and Persian. His ‘Masnavi’ is world famous and has been dubbed as “the Quran in the Persian Language”. Maulana Rumi and Omar Khayyam are the two Persian poets/writers who are extremely popular in the West and whose works have been translated into a number of European languages. Omar Khayyam’s work (‘Rubaiyat’) consists of romantic poetry while Jalaluddin Rumi’s work is spiritual and highly instructive. First some information on the life of Rumi. He was born Muhammad Jalaluddin, but was commonly known as Maulana Rumi. He was born in 1207 in Balkh and belonged to the family of the first caliph, Abu Bakr. He was the grandson of King Khwarism Shah and his father was Shaikh Bahauddin. In 1213 the family migrated to Neshapur and there Rumi met the most famous, illustrious religious scholar of his time...

Seeing how our rulers squander public money, it is interesting to note how some other personalities were very conscious of using funds; but first an instance where public money should have been spent. In one of my columns long ago I had expressed serious reservations on the way the late president, Iskander Mirza, had been deported to London. He was the president and was illegally bundled out of the country. He should have been given a flat in a reasonable area in London with a pension of a few hundred Pounds. That would have saved him from the ignominy of having to serve in an Indian restaurant to earn a living. Late Qudrutullah Shahab mentioned his pitiable situation. On the positive side, the narrative by Ayub Khan’s Naval ADC, Vice Admiral (r) Ahmed Tasnim, reflects the former’s honesty and integrity. It was Capt Ahmed Tasnim who, using our submarine PNS Hangor, torpedoed the Indian naval ship INS Khukri. He had a brilliant career, retiring as vice admiral, and received many ci...