Syed Nazeer Niazi
Encyclopedia
Syed Nazeer Niazi was an eminent Muslim scholar, professor and journalist. He was one of the leading activists of the Pakistan movement
. He was James Boswell
of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
. His biography of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
, Iqbal kay Hazoor, and Maktoobat -e- Iqbal Benam Nazir Niazi are basic sources for the study of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
. During the last two years of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
life, he regularly visited him and recorded his conversation in his book "Iqbal Kai Hazoor". He completed this conversation in three volumes, but unfortunately the last two volumes were destroyed. Only first volume was published.
, Professor of Arabic and Persian language
. Then he got his education from Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri
.
in 1922 and served here till 1935.
In 1927, he was appointed as Head of department of history of Islam. In 1946, he took the responsibilities of Information and Communications of Punjab Muslim League, and worked very hard for the Pakistan movement
. He was awarded Pakistan Movement Gold Medal from government of Pakistan
.
’s 1930 Presidential Address to the 25th Session of the All-India Muslim League Allahabad, 29 December 1930 into Urdu Language.
He was famous for his urdu translation of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
, by Sir Muhammad Iqbal
, and Politics (Aristotle)
.
“Introduction to the History of Science in three-volume, 4,236-page, a work which reviews and catalogs the scientific and cultural contributions of every civilization from antiquity through the fourteenth century. According to Will Durant
, "Every writer on Islamic science must record his debt to George Sarton
for his Introduction to the History of Science That monumental work is not only one of the noblest achievements in the history of scholarship; it also performs an inestimable service in revealing the wealth and scope of Moslem culture. Scholars everywhere must hope that every facility will be provided for the completion of this work.".
This translation into Urdu language was published by Majlis Tariqi Adab in three volumes. The introduction written by him for this translation is itself a complete book on this subject.
His articles on Islamic concept of state in Muslim League journal “manshoor” published in Delhi in 1945 constitute an important historical material on this subject.
, He initiated and edited, a journal Tolu-e-Islam named after the famous poem of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
, Tulu'i Islam
. He also dedicated the first edition of this journal to Sir Muhammad Iqbal
. His first article in this journal was "Millat Islamia Hind" The Muslim nation of India. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement.
Afterward, this journal was continued by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
,who had already contributed many articles in the early editions of this journal. He also named his movement as Tolu-e-Islam
(Resurgence of Islam). This journal is still published by idara tolu-e-Islam, Lahore. Initially, "Its primary object was to tell the people (of British India" that according to the Quran, ideology and not geographical boundary, was the basis for the formation of nation
, and that a politically independent state
was pre-requisite to live in Islam
. For this it has to face not only the British and Hindu opposition but also the fanatic nationalism
of Muslim individuals and groups such as represented by the Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Ahrar-e-Islam, etc.
After the emergence of Pakistan
, the chief objective before (the journal) Tolu-e-Islam
was to propagate the implementation of the principle which had inspired the demand for a separate Muslim state; that is, to help transform the live force of Islamic Ideology into the Constitution
of Pakistan
.
"some very useful and interesting books giving relatively more in-depth biographical details on Iqbal were written by Iqbal scholars such as Faqir Syed Waheeduddin, Syed Nazeer Niazi,...in 1977 will be remembered as a watershed year as Iqbal centennial was commemorated at the government level that year, when the literary world witnessed an unprecedented flow of books and articles on Iqbal."
Pakistan Movement
The Pakistan Movement or Tehrik-e-Pakistan refers to the historical movement to have an independent Muslim state named Pakistan created from the separation of the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, partitioned within or outside the British Indian Empire. It had its origins in the...
. He was James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
. His biography of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
, Iqbal kay Hazoor, and Maktoobat -e- Iqbal Benam Nazir Niazi are basic sources for the study of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
. During the last two years of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
life, he regularly visited him and recorded his conversation in his book "Iqbal Kai Hazoor". He completed this conversation in three volumes, but unfortunately the last two volumes were destroyed. Only first volume was published.
Early life
He got his early education from his uncle Shams-ul-Ulma (Grand Scholar) Syed Mir HassanSyed Mir Hassan
Shams al-’Ulama’ Syed Mir Hassan was scholar of Qur'an, Hadith, Sufism, and Arabic language. He was a professor of Arabic at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot. He was awarded the title of Shams al-’Ulama’ by the British Crown...
, Professor of Arabic and Persian language
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. Then he got his education from Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri
Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri
Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri ' was a great scholar of Qur'an, Hadith, Muslim History. He was famous for his books Talimat-e-Qur'an and "History of Qur'an. He was distinuished professor of Arabic and Persian at Aligarh University and Jamia Millia Islamia...
.
Career
He Joined Jamia Millia IslamiaJamia Millia Islamia
Jamia Millia Islamia is an Indian Central University located in Delhi. It was established at Aligarh in United Provinces, India in 1920. It became a Central University by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1988...
in 1922 and served here till 1935.
In 1927, he was appointed as Head of department of history of Islam. In 1946, he took the responsibilities of Information and Communications of Punjab Muslim League, and worked very hard for the Pakistan movement
Pakistan Movement
The Pakistan Movement or Tehrik-e-Pakistan refers to the historical movement to have an independent Muslim state named Pakistan created from the separation of the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, partitioned within or outside the British Indian Empire. It had its origins in the...
. He was awarded Pakistan Movement Gold Medal from government of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Translations and Works
He had the honour of being the first translator of Sir Muhammad IqbalMuhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
’s 1930 Presidential Address to the 25th Session of the All-India Muslim League Allahabad, 29 December 1930 into Urdu Language.
He was famous for his urdu translation of The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is a compilation of lectures delivered by Muhammad Iqbal on Islamic philosophy; it was published in 1930. These lectures were delivered by Iqbal in Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh...
, by Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
, and Politics (Aristotle)
Politics (Aristotle)
Aristotle's Politics is a work of political philosophy. The end of the Nicomachean Ethics declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise, or perhaps connected lectures, dealing with the...
.
Introduction to the History of Science
He also translated George SartonGeorge Sarton
George Sarton was a Belgian chemist and historian who is considered the founder of the discipline of history of science. He left Belgium because of the First World War and settled in the United States where he spent the rest of his life researching and writing about the history of science...
“Introduction to the History of Science in three-volume, 4,236-page, a work which reviews and catalogs the scientific and cultural contributions of every civilization from antiquity through the fourteenth century. According to Will Durant
Will Durant
William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975...
, "Every writer on Islamic science must record his debt to George Sarton
George Sarton
George Sarton was a Belgian chemist and historian who is considered the founder of the discipline of history of science. He left Belgium because of the First World War and settled in the United States where he spent the rest of his life researching and writing about the history of science...
for his Introduction to the History of Science That monumental work is not only one of the noblest achievements in the history of scholarship; it also performs an inestimable service in revealing the wealth and scope of Moslem culture. Scholars everywhere must hope that every facility will be provided for the completion of this work.".
This translation into Urdu language was published by Majlis Tariqi Adab in three volumes. The introduction written by him for this translation is itself a complete book on this subject.
His articles on Islamic concept of state in Muslim League journal “manshoor” published in Delhi in 1945 constitute an important historical material on this subject.
Tolu-e-Islam
In 1935, according to the instructions of Sir Muhammad IqbalMuhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
, He initiated and edited, a journal Tolu-e-Islam named after the famous poem of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
, Tulu'i Islam
Tulu'i Islam
The Tulu'i Islam is an Urdu poem written by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, expounding on the birth and glory of Islam....
. He also dedicated the first edition of this journal to Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
. His first article in this journal was "Millat Islamia Hind" The Muslim nation of India. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement.
Afterward, this journal was continued by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez was a prominent Islamic scholar, famous in the area around Lahore. He urged the Muslims to ponder deeply over the Message of the Quran. He considered Islam a din , a form of government, a system of government like democracy, autocracy, or socialism...
,who had already contributed many articles in the early editions of this journal. He also named his movement as Tolu-e-Islam
Tolu-e-Islam
Tolu-e-Islam , also known as Bazm-e-Tolu-e-Islam, is a group of Muslims that interpret Qur'an as the main source of guidance and deny the authority of the hadiths....
(Resurgence of Islam). This journal is still published by idara tolu-e-Islam, Lahore. Initially, "Its primary object was to tell the people (of British India" that according to the Quran, ideology and not geographical boundary, was the basis for the formation of nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
, and that a politically independent state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
was pre-requisite to live in Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. For this it has to face not only the British and Hindu opposition but also the fanatic nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
of Muslim individuals and groups such as represented by the Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Ahrar-e-Islam, etc.
After the emergence of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, the chief objective before (the journal) Tolu-e-Islam
Tolu-e-Islam
Tolu-e-Islam , also known as Bazm-e-Tolu-e-Islam, is a group of Muslims that interpret Qur'an as the main source of guidance and deny the authority of the hadiths....
was to propagate the implementation of the principle which had inspired the demand for a separate Muslim state; that is, to help transform the live force of Islamic Ideology into the Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Tributes
"In an article, entitled ‘Conversations with Iqbal’, by Syed Nazir Niazi, a close friend of Iqbal, who has had extensive conversations with him, which he recorded from time to time, we have another treasure trove of information on Iqbal’s preoccupations with German culture and German thought. Again it is Goethe who figures most prominently in their conversations. Writes Niazi: ‘Perhaps what life needs most are men who can understand its ultimate purpose. Goethe was such a man and so was Iqbal. And it was Iqbal who turned our attention to Goethe. It is a remarkable episode in our history that Iqbal alone should have resisted the force of a whole literature and culture, namely English, which was dominating our life through political control. It is a fact that we accepted Goethe rather than Shakespeare. Shakespeare is no doubt admired, but Goethe is the favourite. Shakespeare is a unique artist whom we all recognize, but Goethe is one of us who has secured a place in our heart. If we bear this point in mind a glimpse of the perfect man or Vicegerent of God or Mu’min or Man of Faith and his character, disposition as conceived by Iqbal, is seen to some extent in Faust a creature of Goethe’s thoughts, and not for instance in the ‘Superman of Nietzsche.""some very useful and interesting books giving relatively more in-depth biographical details on Iqbal were written by Iqbal scholars such as Faqir Syed Waheeduddin, Syed Nazeer Niazi,...in 1977 will be remembered as a watershed year as Iqbal centennial was commemorated at the government level that year, when the literary world witnessed an unprecedented flow of books and articles on Iqbal."
See also
- Sir Muhammad IqbalMuhammad IqbalSir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
. - Ghulam Ahmed PervezGhulam Ahmed PervezAllama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez was a prominent Islamic scholar, famous in the area around Lahore. He urged the Muslims to ponder deeply over the Message of the Quran. He considered Islam a din , a form of government, a system of government like democracy, autocracy, or socialism...
. - Maulana Aslam JairajpuriMaulana Aslam JairajpuriMaulana Aslam Jairajpuri ' was a great scholar of Qur'an, Hadith, Muslim History. He was famous for his books Talimat-e-Qur'an and "History of Qur'an. He was distinuished professor of Arabic and Persian at Aligarh University and Jamia Millia Islamia...
. - Tulu'i IslamTulu'i IslamThe Tulu'i Islam is an Urdu poem written by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, expounding on the birth and glory of Islam....
- Tolu-e-IslamTolu-e-IslamTolu-e-Islam , also known as Bazm-e-Tolu-e-Islam, is a group of Muslims that interpret Qur'an as the main source of guidance and deny the authority of the hadiths....
- Jamia Millia IslamiaJamia Millia IslamiaJamia Millia Islamia is an Indian Central University located in Delhi. It was established at Aligarh in United Provinces, India in 1920. It became a Central University by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1988...
- George SartonGeorge SartonGeorge Sarton was a Belgian chemist and historian who is considered the founder of the discipline of history of science. He left Belgium because of the First World War and settled in the United States where he spent the rest of his life researching and writing about the history of science...
- All-India Muslim League
- Pakistan movementPakistan MovementThe Pakistan Movement or Tehrik-e-Pakistan refers to the historical movement to have an independent Muslim state named Pakistan created from the separation of the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, partitioned within or outside the British Indian Empire. It had its origins in the...
Sources
- Iqbal kay Hazoor, by Syed Nazeer Niazi
- Maktoobat -e- Iqbal Benam Nazeer Niazi. http://www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/Urdu-Books/969-416-207-021/
- Zinda Rud, 3 Volumes, by Justice Javed Iqbal. http://www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/Urdu-Books/969-416-207-008/