Urdu Studies, Vol 2 Issue 1, October 2022

Dr. Abidullah Ghazi: Mujāhid or/awr Mujtahid

Marcia Hermansen

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7623655

Abstract:

These brief reflections are based on a presentation originally delivered at a function convened in 2019 by to honor the scholarly, literary, and community service contributions of Dr. Abidullah Ghazi (d. 2021), born at Anbehta, Saharanpur, India, a graduate of AMU (1959), holder of a Ph.D. from the Divinity School of Harvard University (1973), who after a distinguished academic career in 1983 founded IQRA International Foundation based in Chicago with his wife, Dr. Tasneema Ghazi, to develop a curriculum for Muslim children being educated in fulltime or weekend Islamic schools. Abidullah Ghazi, in addition to being a scholar, was a well-known literary figure who made significant contributions to both Urdu prose and poetry.

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Works Cited Notes:

[1] The reader may further be referred to a collection of his poetry: ‘Ābidullāh Ghāzī, Zikr-e-saman-e-‘adhārān: majmū’a-e-kalām 1947-2002 (‘Alīgarh: Idāra-e tahdhīb-e-jadīd, 2002) and a volume of tributes entitled Ahl-e-fikr-o-fann kī naẓar mein ḍākṭar ‘Ābidullāh Ghāzī  ‘ālamī shakhṣiyat awr kārhāee’ numāyān ed. Shahbāz Kanwāl Ghāzī (Chicago/Mumbai: Iqra International, 2017) as well as his prose work Ṣarīr-e-khāma (‘Alīgarh: Idāra-e tahdhīb-e-jadīd , 2004) which consists of a compilation of prose essays on topics related to the state of Muslim societies, Muslims in India, education, and social activism.

[1] Marcia Hermansen, “The Muslim Community of San Diego” in Muslim Communities in America, edited by Yvonne Haddad, (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994), 169-194, 177, 193.

[1]https://www.iqra.org/We-Are-Muslims-Elementary-Grade-1-Textbook_p _309.html

[1] ‘Ābidullāh Ghāzī, Insāniyyat. (New Delhi: Anjumān-e taraqqī Urdu, 2010).

[1] Khāliq Anjum, preface (peish lafẓ) to Insāniyyat. (New Delhi: Anjumān-e taraqqī Urdu, 2010), 7.

[1] ‘Ābidullāh Ghāzī. Juhd-e musalsal ‘Alīgarh see ‘Alīgarh tak (1951-1959). (Chicago: Iqra International, 2017), 11.  This book was reviewed by Afzal Usmani http://www.aligarhmovement.com/aligarians/abidullah_ghazi/juhd-e-musalsal

[1] Abidullah Ghazi, Raja Rammohun Roy: encounter with Islam and Christianity and the articulation of Hindu self-consciousness. (Bloomington, Indiana: Exlibris, 2010).

[1] Ghauri also being the name given to a missile developed in Pakistan in the 1990s with reference to the historical figure, Sulṭān Muḥammad Ghaurī (d. 1206).

[1] Jaroslav Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition: 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 65.

Dr. Abidullah Ghazi: Mujāhid or/awr Mujtahid © 2022 by Marcia Hermansen is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0