HOPE April 2013 issue

April 2013

Acting Editor: Nasir Ahmad B.A. LL.B.

Vol. No. 7, Issue No. 9

Contents

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Announcements & Programme – Three-day Centenary Convention

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Editorial Note

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Speakers at the Centenary of the Woking Muslim Mission Hazrat Ameer Prof. Dr Abdul Karim Saeed (Pakistan) Councillor Anne Roberts, Deputy Mayor Dr Gerdien Jonker (Germany) The Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Rt. Hon. Jonathan Lord, MP Dr Taj Hargey (Oxford) Mr Ray Morgan, Chief Executive, Woking Borough Council Dr Zahid Aziz (Nottingham) Mr Amir Aziz al-Azhari (Pakistan)

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What others have said Brig. (R) Muslim Pervez Salamat (A Miracle at Woking) Khizar Humayun Ansari (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) Rais Ahmad Jafari (Deed-o-Shuneed) Dr Ashiq Hussain Batalvi (Chand Yadain, Chand Ta’assurat) Who is Who (Oxford University Press)

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CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF PROPAGATION OF ISLAM IN THE UK

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Announcements & Programme

Three-day Centenary Convention Friday, 3rd May 2013 12:50 Azaan – Mr Hamaad Ahmad 1:00 Prayers and Khutba – Hazrat Ameer Dr A. K. Saeed 3:00 First Session: Chairman – Sh. Umer Farooq, Pakistan 3:10 – 3:20 Sh. Umer Farooq (English, 10 mins. Urdu) 3:30 – 3:50 Shaijkh Kasiem, Holland (English, 10 mins. Dutch) 4:00 – 4:20 Mr Reza Ghafoerkhan, Holland (English, 10 mins. Dutch) 4:30–4:50 Break 4:50 Second Session: Chairman – Mr Amir Aziz, Pakistan 4:55 – 5:15 Mr Abdul Santoe, Holland (English, 10 mins. Dutch) 5:25 – 5:45 Dr I. Jahangiri, USA (English, 10 mins. Urdu) 5:55 – 6:10 Mrs Galida Badoella, Suriname (English, 5 mins. Dutch) 6:15 Asr Prayers 6:45 Dinner 8:15 Maghrib & ‘Isha Prayers 8:30 ALL guests leave for hotel in Woking -*-

Saturday 4th May 2013 10:30 Opening Prayer – Hazrat Ameer Dr A. K. Saeed Extract from the poems of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam 10:50 Chairperson: The Deputy Mayor of Woking, Councillor Anne Roberts 11:05 Hazrat Ameer – Speech, with summary in Urdu 11:40 Mr Jonathan Lord, MP, Woking 11:50 Dr Zahid Aziz – The Woking Muslim Mission in Newsreel Film Archives, with summary in Urdu 12:30 The Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon 12:45 Mr Ray Morgan, Chief Executive, Woking Borough Council

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1:00 Zuhr Prayer and Lunch 2:15 Opening Prayer – Mr Amir Aziz 2:20 Chairperson: The Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon 2:22 Dr Gerdien Jonker – Research Scholar, Berlin 2:52 Mr Amir Aziz – Speech, with summary in Urdu 3:15 Closing Prayer

Optional Visits 3:45 ‘The Light Box’, Chobham Road, Woking, GU21 4AA 4:15 Shah Jahan Mosque, Oriental Road, Woking, Surrey, GU22 7BA 5:00 Brookwood Cemetery, Cemetery Pales, Brookwood, Woking, GU24 0BL -*-

Sunday 5th May 2013 Early breakfast hosted at home by Azhar-ud-Din Ahmad Guests have two options: Southall or Alperton There will be two vehicles: one to Southall, one to Alperton 1:00 Zuhr Prayers at Alperton – Hazrat Ameer Thanks by representatives from various Jama‘ats Closing Du‘a – Hazrat Ameer 2:00 Lunch 3:00 ICC and AALMI Meetings for those concerned 3:00 Visitors can either go shopping in Alperton or go sightseeing in London After the sightseeing, guests from Holland will stop at an eating place for supper before boarding the coach at 6:45 p.m.

The remaining guests at Alperton will have supper before leaving

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Editorial Note...

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din – The Man Who Could Do It! This issue is devoted to the centenary of the arrival of Hazrat Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din in the United Kingdom in 1913. It gives a glimpse of the pioneering work started and accomplished for the propagation of Islam through the Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust and the monthly Islamic Review. We intend to publish at least two issues of The HOPE Bulletin dealing with different aspects of the Khwaja’s personality, spirituality, and his unique line of thought and action in presenting Islam in the West.

The present issue only comprises the details of the three-day programme outlined for the celebration and what some of the leading historians and national biography compilers have said about the impact of the propagation work based at the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, organised by the Khwaja. This work has been rightly regarded as “a miracle”.

The Khwaja’s brilliant intellectual and penetrating speeches and impressive writings have much to do in working the “miracle”. His inspiring personality infused his colleagues with an amazing sense of commitment and dedication to take forward the mission started by him all alone, as he wrote in a letter to his spiritual mentor and well-known scholar of the Qur’an, Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din. The English translation of the Urdu letter published in Badr, 19 June 1913, runs as follows: “My isolation is not only distressing but it also hampers the work. I wish someone else would take care of the magazine, leaving me free to travel and visit various places for propagation work. I have opened a way.

Letters have started coming from America. There are Muslims in the Philippines, about whom correspondence is continuing. But this is becoming an entire department. God have mercy! I am by myself the editor, manager, article writer, clerk, deliverer of the Friday sermon, lecturer, missionary, porter. May Allah have mercy on my helplessness, destitution, inability. ‘My Lord, leave me not alone, and You are the Best of inheritors!’ – [The Quran, 21:89].

A faraway seeker of prayer — Kamal-ud-Din” Let us quote an incident about the Khwaja which shows what the real “secret behind his success” was and what an “indomitable willpower he had to conquer”: “Shortly after he came to Woking, word spread that an Indian had come to convert the English to Islam – a ridiculous idea. A retired military officer who had spent some years in India came to know of this strange man and decided to pay him a visit. He arrived at the Mosque and found the Khwaja seated in a poorly furnished office. ‘What have you come for?’ enquired the Colonel. ‘To make you a Muslim,’ was the prompt reply. ‘Well then, come and let us fight it out if you make a Muslim out of me.’ ... he promptly took off his coat and faced his opponent saying, ‘Come along, here you are, if this is the only way to convince you.’ The Colonel thereupon came forward and shook the Khwaja by the hand and proclaimed, ‘You are the man to do it. I just wanted to test the stuff you are made of.’

The subsequent success of the Woking Mosque shows that he was indeed ‘the man to do it.’ The Colonel soon afterwards embraced Islam.” (A Miracle at Woking, p. 26) This issue and the following one are to reminisce and pay humble tribute to “Saint Kamal of Woking” who fulfilled the dream of a highly qualified and devoted Jew to establish a centre to bring around the followers of the three great religions of the world – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – to their Universal concept of the “Unity of God”. *****

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A brief introduction‌

Speakers at the Centenary of the Woking Muslim Mission Hazrat Ameer Prof. Dr Abdul Karim Saeed MRCP(UK), FRCP(London), FCPS (Pakistan) Hazrat Ameer Prof. Dr Abdul Karim Saeed, the Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, graduated as a doctor from King Edward Medical College Lahore in 1968. Hazrat Ameer started his medical career in Mayo Hospital, Lahore, and later moved to New Zealand, followed by the UK, where he obtained Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1979. He moved back to Pakistan in April 1981 and took up a teaching assignment at Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad. He was promoted as Professor of Medicine in 1987 and appointed Head of the Department of Medicine in 1991. In 2001, he was selected to become Principal of the College, but his appointment was cancelled by the Government under pressure from the religious lobby for obvious reasons. Hazrat Ameer also has the distinction of being conferred the Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (FRCP), London (1994) and Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (FCPS), Pakistan in 2001.

He is also serving as a member/chairman of a large number of professional committees and programmes. He has been a regular contributor to international and local professional publications and has travelled widely to attend conferences and conventions.

Hazrat Ameer was elected a member of the Mujlis-e-Mutamideen [General Council of Trustees of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement] in 1992.

He is fond of poetry and has expressed, in his English poems, deep sentiments relating to spiritual elevation of the self and the message of the Ahmadiyya Movement and the hard times it has been through.

On 3rd November 2002, Hazrat Ameer was unanimously elected as the fifth Ameer and President of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (Lahore Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at-i Islam, Pakistan).

So far, he has undertaken several tours of the branches of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, UK, Holland, Canada, the USA, and Germany.

He is an active participant of international conferences of the Universal Peace Federation and is a keen promoter of peace and interfaith integration and has so far attended four international conferences of this international association held in Seoul (South Korea), Madrid (Spain), Paris (France), and Stockholm (Sweden). *** 6|Page

Councillor Anne Roberts Deputy Mayor, Byfleet Born in the West Country, Councillor Anne Roberts worked for three years in London for the BBC before embarking on a six-year round world trip to Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. During this time she found employment with air and shipping lines and followed it with four years as a holiday representative on the Continent. Ms Roberts returned to the UK and became manager of a travel agency in Woking for 20 years, and more recently assists part-time as a travel consultant in Egham.

She was elected to the Woking Borough Council in 2004 and is now in her 10th year as a Councillor for Byfleet. She looks forward to meeting people of all walks of life and serving residents of the Borough in her capacity as Deputy Mayor.

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Dr Gerdien Jonker Ph.D. (Berlin) Dr Gerdien Jonker is a scholar in the History and Ethnography of Religion. She studied in Amsterdam and Paris (École pratique des hautes études) History of Religion, Cuneiform and Hebrew. With The Topography of Remembrance, The Dead, Tradition and Collective Memory in Mesopotamia, she obtained her Ph.D. at Groningen University. She is currently affiliated to the Erlanger Centre for Islam and Law in Europe (EZIRE) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

In 2011 Dr Jonker started research on the history of the Ahmadiyya Mission in Berlin, Germany, generally known as the Berlin Muslim Mission. She spent a lot of time and hard work and was able to reconstruct the library of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Mosque in Wilmersdorf, Berlin. She was particularly impressed by the way the late Dr S. M. Abdullah, who was the Imam of the Mosque before the start of World War II, categorised the books and journals received by the Mosque from all over Europe.

We are grateful to Dr Jonker for helping us in obtaining scanned images of all the missing issues of the monthly Moslemisch Revue, which was published by the Berlin Muslim Mission. All such issues have been uploaded onto our website www.Lahore.Ahmadiyya.org under the section “Berlin Muslim Mission”.

Dr Jonker is author of several research works published in English and German and is presently writing a book entitled Propagation of Islam in Europe. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Quest to Modernise Islam, which she hopes to complete in 2014.

Research projects o o o o

1994-1996: “The Hour of the Women: Mourning and Memory in Migration” (Research Council of the Berlin Senat) 1996: “Religion from the Outside” (Fellow am Rutgers University, New Jersey) 1996-2000: “Institutionalizing Islam in Germany” (Thyssen Foundation) 2001-2003: “Communication Structures of Muslim Communities in Europe” (German Research Council)

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o o o o

2001-2003: “Institutionalizing Islam in Europe” (EU Fifth Framework) 2004-2005: “Living together post 9/11” (Thyssen Foundation/European Social Scientists) 2005 -2011: “The Production of Knowledge on Muslim History and Culture for German Schools” (Aga Khan Foundation) Since 2012: History of the Ahmadiyya Mission in Europe (EZIRE)

Fields of Publication and Expertise o o o o o o

Ethnographic Studies on Turkish Muslim Minorities (Süleymanci, Nurcu, Milli Görüsh) Communication Structures in Muslim Communities Historical Representations of Muslims in European Textbooks Collective Memory Death and Mourning Jews and Muslims

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The Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Tariq Mahmood Ahmad is a British Pakistani businessman and a Conservative Member of the House of Lords.

In 1991, he entered Natwest’s Graduate Management programme, eventually working as Head of Marketing, Sponsorship and Branding. In 2000 he went to work for Alliance Bernstein. In 2004 he joined Sucden Financial, where he serves on the Executive Committee and as Director of Marketing, Strategy and Research. He is an Associate of the Institute of Financial Services and a member of the Institute of Directors.

From 2001 to 2006, he served as School Governor of the Wimbledon Park Primary School.

He joined the Conservative Party in 1994. In 2002 he was elected as Councillor in Wimbledon. He contested Croydon North for the party in 2005. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party.

On January 13, 2011 he was made a peer by Queen Elizabeth II and he formally joined the House of Lords on January 17.

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The Right Honourable Jonathan Lord Conservative MP for Woking Jonathan Lord was educated at Shrewsbury School, attended Kent School, Connecticut, USA (scholarship), and read History at Merton College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association.

He is a former Director of Saatchi & Saatchi.

He was selected as the Parliamentary Candidate for Woking at an Open Primary in September 2009, and has an outstanding record of political and campaigning success in this part of Surrey.

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He was Chairman of the neighbouring Guildford Conservative Association for the past four years, and was Anne Milton’s Campaign Manager in Guildford in 2005 when the seat was wrested back from the LibDems in one of the headline results of election night.

He led the fight to save the Woking Courthouse and has been active in pushing for a better postal service in Woking.

He supports the Conservative administration on the Woking Borough Council and believes its policies of keeping council tax low while maintaining all frontline services and grants to voluntary groups are the right ones for Woking. Being MP for the Woking Borough, Jonathan Lord also represents the Guildford wards of Normandy and Pirbright, which are parts of the Woking Constituency.

A successful campaigner over several years to Save the Royal Surrey, Jonathan Lord helped to organise the hugely successful rally in Guildford High Street attended by several thousand people. He is a strong supporter of a more independent future for the main local hospitals. He is delighted that the Royal Surrey has achieved Foundation status and wishes the same outcome for St Peter’s.

Elected a Surrey County Councillor in June 2009, he keeps a close eye on local health and hospital issues as an active member of Surrey’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

He also led the recent campaign that thwarted an energy company’s plans to drill for gas on a beautiful part of the Surrey countryside.

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Dr Taj Hargey Chairman, Muslim Education Centre, Oxford Dr Taj Hargey was born in South Africa. He is currently the chairman of the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford (MECO) and a liberal Imam who has researched the IsraeliPalestinian conflict at length and taught at several American Universities.

A diverse group of forward-looking Muslim academics, entrepreneurs, professionals, retirees, students, and other Oxford residents have joined hands to set up a voluntary philanthropic association, the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (MECO), with the objective of addressing the present and future needs of the community. In view of Oxford’s prominence as a centre of learning and its growing Muslim population, practical steps need to be undertaken now to ensure sustained progress and direction in the decades ahead.

For these reasons, MECO is dedicated to the establishment of a distinctive, progressive and pluralistic Muslim centre in Oxford. This British institution, while conforming to the original Islamic teachings of the Holy Qur’an, will be multi-cultural, non-sexist and inter-denominational in concept and character. It is a home for everyone who shares its inclusive, modern and enlightened vision and values. MECO’s multi-purpose centre will foster open-mindedness, tolerance and social cohesion for British Muslims by encouraging their effective integration into the UK mainstream. Apart from its role as a haven for thinking Muslims, this institution will generate a spirit of debate and inquiry and pioneer a vibrant and inspirational Islam that is rooted in and relevant to 21st century Britain.

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Mr Ray Morgan, OBE, CPFA Chief Executive, Woking Borough Council Ray Morgan has had a career in the public sector for over 30 years. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and was awarded an OBE in 2007 for his services to Local Government.

He joined Woking Borough Council as Director in 1989 and since that time has championed may key initiatives and been instrumental in the development of many of the authority’s key strategies namely: Asset Management; Equalities and Diversity; Implementation of Electronic Government; Partnership Development; Waste Management and Council’s Climate Change Strategy.

Ray Morgan is Principal Advisor to, and a Director of the Thameswey Group of companies producing both energy and housing projects. For his work on Climate Change Strategy the Woking Borough Council gained in 2001 the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. Ray was appointed Chief Executive in April 2006.

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Dr Zahid Aziz Editor, The Light, UK Edition Dr Zahid Aziz graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from Imperial College, London, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester. He has worked at the University of Nottingham for 34 years in software support for scientific computation.

Dr Aziz has translated and produced several books for the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.

Among these are books of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, including Shahadat-ul-Quran (Testimony of the Holy Quran), Al-Wasiyya (The Will), Ayk Ghalati Ka Izala (Correction of an Error), and Kitab-ul-Bariyya jointly with Hazrat Ameer Dr Asghar Hameed. He also revised older translations of Fath-i Islam (Victory of Islam) and Paigham Sulah (Message of Peace).

He was the main interpreter and translator in the South Africa civil court case for the Ahmadi expert witness Maulana Hafiz Sher Muhammad during 1984/85 in the Supreme Court (Cape Division) of South Africa. Subsequently, he compiled the book The Ahmadiyya Case, consisting of the details of this case. Other books by Maulana Hafiz Sher Muhammad Dr Aziz has translated include The Death of Jesus, and Sir Muhammad Iqbal and the Ahmadiyya Movement.

Jointly with his mother Mrs Akhtar Aziz, he translated into English the Urdu biography of Maulana Muhammad Ali (Mujahid-i Kabir) under the title A Mighty Striving. Recently, he produced the second, revised and enlarged edition of this translation.

In 2007 he wrote the book Islam, Peace and Tolerance, which has proved very useful and popular in showing that Islam does not preach violence and hatred against non-Muslims, but rather peaceful co-existence with them. It has been translated into Urdu, Dutch and Indonesian languages.

His most significant and major publication, which appeared in 2011, was the revised edition of the English Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali. In this revision, he has carefully and cautiously updated certain aspects of the language of the translation to make it more easily readable by a modern readership. The footnotes have been abridged to reduce the volume of the book. Around 1991-92, he expanded the index in the English Translation

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and Commentary of the Holy Quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali. It was increased by a vast amount, perhaps by 50%, over the original index.

Dr Zahid Aziz, working jointly with Mr Selim Ahmed, thoroughly revised Volume 2 of the second edition of Muhammad in World Scriptures by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, dealing with prophecies about the Holy Prophet Muhammad contained in the Bible. They also re-typeset this volume, including re-typesetting the Hebrew and Greek quotations given in it. This was published as Volume 1 of the new edition. Again, he and Mr Selim Ahmed published a book, Allah, The Unique Name of God, consisting of material taken from Volume 1 of the second edition of Muhammad in World Scriptures by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi, relating to names of God in various languages and religions, showing the uniqueness of the name Allah.

From 1992 to 2009 he was editor, first, of The Light & Islamic Review, published from Ohio, and then The Light, UK edition.

He created and maintains the website www.wokingmuslim.org, which aims to publish online all the historical source material relating to the Woking Muslim Mission, in a properly organised, annotated and cross-referenced form. He has carried out considerable research into this material and translated a large amount of original Urdu source matter into English which had not seen the light of day since it was first published, some of it dating back more than a century.

Another website managed by him is www.ahmadiyya.org (or www.Lahore.ahmadiyya.org) containing a huge amount of information and discussion about the work of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, and providing many of its printed publications online.

A feature of this website is the facility, programmed by Dr Zahid Aziz himself, to find where any word or expression occurs in the English translation of the Holy Quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali. The output gives a list of all such verses in English with the option to display the Arabic text as well. You can, for example, search for all verses which contain both the words Abraham and Noah. Forgotten which verses contain both the word “Moses” and the word “mother”? Just carry out a search, using the instructions provided.

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Amir Aziz Al-Azhari, M.A. General Secretary, Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Amir Aziz obtained a Master’s degree from Islamia University of Bahawalpur.

He joined Beacon House School System, a prestigious educational network in Pakistan and a well-known institution in Asia, and was a distinguished teacher and a Students’ Advisor for foreign students going for further studies abroad. He served the institution from 1992-2004, then left this lucrative profession and dedicated his life for the cause of Islam.

He attended Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt and qualified from Madrassah al-Khassah (Specialised School of Al-Azhar) in 2004-2005.

In 1997 he obtained a certificate in Professional Studies (Bradford University) UK. Mr Aziz was appointed head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya School of Education in Religions (LASER) by the Central Anjuman in 2005.

He was made General Secretary of the worldwide Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at-i Islam, Lahore, Pakistan) in 2007.

Has been on extensive tours of Holland, Germany, United Kingdom, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, India, Australia, Fiji and Indonesia, during which he was interviewed by the local radio and TV stations in Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad.

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He has written several books about the claims and message of the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam and has translated five of the Founder’s Arabic works into Urdu, viz., Aina-i Kamalat-i Islam (Al-Tabligh), Tuhfah-i Baghdad, Mawahib al-Rahman, Sirr al-Khilafah and Lujjat al-Nur. He is proficient in Urdu, English and Arabic and has recently completed several courses in German.

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Hazrat Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din What others have said…

Brigadier (Retired) Muslim Pervez Salamat “O Creator of Nations and All Powerful God, Thou madest Mecca the holiest place in the East and didst bring nations in multitudes to that city, Make this Mosque, I pray Thee, in like manner the Mecca in the West.” – Kamal-ud-Din The following extracts are from a recent publication, A Miracle at Woking – a factual assessment of the history and work of Hazrat Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, Founder of the Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust, and the monthly The Islamic Review. On the eve of celebrating the centenary of the arrival of Khwaja Kamalud-Din in England in the year 1913, we considered it most appropriate that instead of writing a review on this beautiful treatise, we will reproduce the author’s own impressive writing and compilation about the pioneering work the Khwaja started for the cause of Islam in England 100 years ago. We owe apologies to the author and the publishers for taking this liberty.

Our object is to introduce this concise and inspiring account of the Woking Muslim Mission and the Shah Jehan Mosque to a wider circle of readers. These extensive extracts will show why the author has entitled his book A Miracle at Woking and why a highly intellectual Jew, Dr G. W. Leitner, a linguist, worked tirelessly for the promotion of education in India and later on thought of setting up an Oriental Institute in a fascinating suburban area called Woking, in Surrey, England. Then in order to cater for the religious aspirations of students belonging to various religions, Dr Leitner also planned to build a mosque, a temple, a synagogue and a church. Mr Muslim Pervez Salamat, a retired Brigadier of the Pakistan Army, has beautifully summed up this amazing story. Italics and bolds are ours. – Ed.) * “Call to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation and argue with them in the best manner. Surely thy Lord knows best him who strays from His path, and He knows best those who go aright” (16:125).

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was born in the Punjab, India, in 1870. He came from an honoured Kashmiri family who had already distinguished themselves in the service of Islam. His grandfather, Khwaja Abdul Rashid, was a famous poet; he was also a one-time Chief Muslim Judge of Lahore in the Sikh Kingdom.

As a student the Khwaja studied at the Forman Christian College in Lahore, where he came in contact with their Christian Professors. He attended classes in which religious education was imparted, which explains his deep knowledge of the Bible – an asset which he used fully while carrying out his missionary work in Europe. As sometimes happens when young

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students study in a missionary institution, the Khwaja even considered accepting Christianity. However, he was destined to play a counter role, that of propagating Islam to the Christian West.

In early 1912, the Khwaja lost his wife. To overcome his grief he embarked upon a tour of India, giving lectures on Islam.

While at Bombay he was approached by a certain gentleman who persuaded him to go to England to pursue a legal case before the Privy Counsel in London. Khwaja Sahib saw this as an opportunity not only to follow the legal matter but also to plead the cause of Islam in the West — he was a missionary at heart. People tried to dissuade him, some even ridiculed him. The outward circumstances did not appear favourable; still, he was full of hope and zeal. At that time Europe was not only politically dominant, but Muslim countries all over the world had come under the sway of its intellectual control. If Islam was to be saved, its banner must be raised in the heart of Christendom.

Arrival in England On his arrival in London the Khwaja settled in Kingston. Speakers Corner in Hyde Park provided him with the platform for his first lecture on Islam. He also started taking part in meetings of British theological societies. The work continued to progress slowly until a providential opportunity came along: Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din discovered the existence of the Mosque in Woking. He and his friend Sheikh Nur Ahmad paid a visit.

The Mosque was almost deserted and seemed in a state of decay when they arrived. They found a copy of the Qur’an lying in a corner and fell down in prostration, in tears and deeply moved. After spending a few hours the Khwaja suggested to his friend that they should return home. His friend refused, saying that he could not leave a House of God in such a desolate state. He was so persistent that both decided to stay on. When the heirs of Dr Leitner found the trespassers living in the house adjacent (Sir Salar Jang Memorial Hall) they tried to have them evicted as they had plans to build an industrial unit on the premises. The Khwaja maintained that the mosque was a consecrated building and could not be used for any other purpose.

At this stage Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din approached Sir Mirza Abbas Ali Beg, who was at that time the Muslim advisory member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India. Together they found the means to satisfy the demand of Dr Leitner’s heirs. Sir Abbas founded A Miracle at Woking the Woking Mosque Trust and acquired funds for its maintenance. He invited the Khwaja to take charge of the Mosque and later helped him in starting the Woking Muslim Mission & Literary Trust. …

Khwaja’s first visit to Woking After Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s first visit to the Woking Mosque, he sent a report in Urdu to the Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Maulana Nur-ud-Din. The report as translated is reproduced below: Woking is a place thirty miles away from London. Dr Leitner, who had been Registrar of the Punjab University and the Founder and first Principal of the Oriental College (Lahore), collected funds from some of the Muslims, promising to build a Mosque in England.

Woking would probably be his [Leitner’s] birth place. He selected this place and bought a large amount of land, upon which he constructed a vast residential house, a room for keeping mementos from the East, and a small mosque to one side, which is in fact a room, five yards square. There is a very beautiful dome over it, on top of which is affixed a crescent.

It has a high pulpit and a rihal [low stand] on which is placed a three-volumed copy of the Qur’an in large print, having the Hussaini commentary in the margin.

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In the Mihrab [niche for the Imam] the Surah Fatihah is inscribed in Arabic. Some small plaques with the Divine names on them are on the walls. There are three or four prayer mats in the Mosque. In one corner of the Mosque there is some equipment for performing the Wudu and the other is a small enclosure for the Imam. In front of the Mosque there is a large, open courtyard, within which is a fountain occupying an area one, or one and a half, yards square. All around the courtyard is a wire fence and trees have been planted.

Aerial view of the Shahjehan Mosque In this non-Muslim land, this is truly a scene having all the attributes of an Islamic mosque, and if its builder has not done justice to the amount of money he collected in the name of the mosque, then seeing this mosque a lover of Islam can forget all the injustice.

A few yards from this Mosque is a small rest house known as the Sir Salar Jang Memorial Hall, where a traveller is permitted to stay for a day or so. Apart from the courtyard of the Mosque, there are a few more acres of land attached to the Mosque.

After the death of Dr Leitner all this property attached to the Mosque came into personal use. But his heirs after much effort ensured that the Mosque, courtyard, the memorial hall and some acres of land were separated and became a trust along with the mosque. The remainder of the property and residential houses, which had been built as private property in the first place, remained in private hands.

You, Sir [Maulana Nur-ud-Din], had referred to this Mosque in a letter, and here too there is movement.

After last Friday prayers, I and Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan went to Woking, reaching there at 5 p.m. Here the sun sets at 4.10 p.m. and even the ‘Ishaa prayer is at 6 p.m.

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From the station we hired a carriage and reached our destination.

There a polite young man agreed to show us the Mosque. The courtyard and the Mosque were locked. Upon my enquiry it was discovered that for years no Muslim had come here or prayed. O Allah! only 30 miles from Woking is London where there are hundreds of Muslims full of national spirit, day and night. But no one came to see the Mosque. Please don’t judge 30 miles according to India. Here we travel 15, 20, 30 miles in the course of ordinary, daily business in half an hour to three quarters of an hour.

Anyhow, all the sadness I felt towards Dr Leitner for many years vanished upon seeing the Mosque. We entered the Mosque and upon opening the Qur’an anywhere the passage that appeared was by a fortunate coincidence. Reading it, we prayed for Dr Leitner because the verse that appeared on the right hand page — and here I copy the whole of that passage because the text was in large letters and it occupied the entire page — was as follows. The page also begins at this point: Certainly the first house appointed for men is one at Bakkah [an alternative name for Mecca], blessed and a guidance for the nations. In it are clear signs: the place of Abraham; and whoever enters it is safe; and pilgrimage is a duty which men owe to Allah, whoever can find a way to it. And whoever disbelieves, surely Allah is above need of the worlds. [Ch. 3, vv. 96-97] Glory be to Allah! Today after full four months, in a nonMuslim land, I saw a Mosque of God, and then a Quran in it.

Moreover, this verse appearing from the Qur’an as a coincidence! I was out of control with joy. I said to the English gentleman that I wish to say prayers if he could wait. He went Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din outside and we prayed as a Jama‘at. My voice is loud in any case, but now I recited the Quran even more loudly, the dome echoing with the recitation of the Quran after many years.

In the first rak‘ah I recited the prayer of Abraham: ‘and when Abraham said: My Lord, make this town secure ...’ [14: 35], to the end. I felt so much pleasure that my own voice and its echo was enough to make me exuberant. I made a lengthy prostration, crying and pleading to be given the opportunity for the preaching and the propagation of Islam, and praying that the mosque may become a place for the dawn of the light of Islam. This Mosque, in a non-Muslim land, is truly ‘the first house appointed for men’. ‘What a wonder if God were to make it an Islamic centre.’

In the second rak‘ah I recited Surah Ikhlas (ch. 112) several times. Thus our prayer came to an end.

Although the journey cost us 9 rupees, the solace and joy we felt outweighed this cost very greatly.

May Allah be gracious and let the wisdom of the Promised Messiah … be fulfilled soon through a lowly servant of his.

Amen.

KAMAL-UD-DIN

Before leaving the Mosque the Khwaja made a final prostration and made a prayer, which ran as follows: ‘O Creator of Nations and All Powerful God, Thou madest Mecca the holiest place in the East and didst bring nations in multitudes to that city, Make this Mosque, I pray thee, in like manner the Mecca in the West.’

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The secret of Khwaja’s success The secret of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s success in his venture to propagate Islam in the West could be put down to his indomitable willpower to conquer. Optimism was the keynote of his success; he never at any time doubted the progress of his venture. All this is probably best illustrated by a small incident in the early days of his mission. Shortly after he came to Woking, word spread that an Indian had come to convert the English to Islam — a ridiculous idea. A retired military officer who had spent some years in India came to know of this strange man and decided to pay him a visit. He arrived at the Mosque and found the Khwaja seated in a poorly furnished office. ‘What have you come for?’ enquired the Colonel. ‘To make you a Muslim,’ was the prompt reply. ‘Well then, come and let us fight it out; if you make a Muslim out of me.’ The Khwaja was no pugilist but he promptly took off his coat and faced his opponent saying, ‘Come along, here you are, if this is the only way to convince you.’ The Colonel thereupon came forward and shook the Khwaja by the hand and proclaimed, ‘You are the man to do it. I just wanted to test the stuff you are made of.’ The subsequent success of the Woking Mosque shows indeed that he was ‘the man to do it’. The Colonel soon afterwards embraced Islam.

It is not by the number of converts that the achievement of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din can be measured. To show the light of Islam to thousands of English men and women from the highest to the lowest rungs in society is no mean achievement. It heralded the way of Islamisation of the West. The Khwaja had a wonderful knack of presenting Islam in an appealing way, in keeping with the modern mentality and thought, and it made him very acceptable. The Christian clergy were naturally alarmed and the ‘Woking danger’ became a subject drawing the attention of the press. It was the ‘unorthodox Islam which was what the Woking Imam preached. A new Mohammad whom Woking painted out of a Christian paint box.’

Perhaps they were right; they had a different conception of Islam and the Holy Prophet in their mind which they had been led to believe in. The Khwaja put before them Islam in its beauty and true colours and gave them a fresh portrait of the Prophet of Islam. This greatly shocked them.

No sects in Islam ‘No sects in Islam’ was another feature of the preachings of the Khwaja — he maintained that sects were the very negation of Islam. He discerned that the West would not care for a sect-ridden Islam in view of the many sects and sub-sects in the Christian religion. He emphasized that the Muslims had magnified mere schools of thought into so-called sects. In fact, there were no sects — Islam was one. The gathering of all so-called divisions of Islam to meet and pray together at Woking could not help but catch the fancy of the English people.

Lord Headley perhaps summed up all the qualities of his friend the Khwaja at the time of the Khwaja’s death. His remarks were: “We today mourn the loss of one of the most distinguished Muslims of our time. Our brother has left behind a beautiful example of saintly life spent for the benefit of others, the Muslim spirit prevailed in his great personality and was amply evidenced by the daily life of his humble devotion to his Maker ... There is a grandeur of the heart and the grandeur of mind and these must ever arrest all the earnest attention of all with pretensions of scientific attainments ... I have never heard [him] utter a word that could be called harsh or unforgiving. His individuality was eminently attractive ... All the people to whom I had the privilege of introducing the Khwaja were impressed by the absence of any trace of dogmatism or fanatical rancour. I had

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din & Lord Headley

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many opportunities of seeing how carefully he compared notes and how he invariably put the spirit ahead of the letter in all his teachings and throughout his whole life.�

The first convert The first person to accept Islam at the hands of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was a Mrs Violet Ebrahim. The Khwaja reported this conversation to the Ahmadiyya newspaper Badr: Brethren, Assalaamu ‘alaikum.

Time is very short. I have not yet even filled the accompanying article which is about Woking. It is to be published in the paper. It must be read out to Hazrat [Maulana-Nur-ud-Din] either in summary or in its entirety.

Today God made it a very blessed Friday. Among the Englishwomen in my circle of meeting here is a Mrs Ebrahim, a native of Scotland and daughter of a colonel. I continued preaching to her in a slow process in my own way. Today she was present at the Friday khutba (sermon). God had put into my mind a fine topic on the special characteristics of the Quran, which made a deep impression on her. In my letter to Hazrat [Maulana- Nur-ud-Din] yesterday, which will be received with this letter, I mentioned a European woman who was getting close to Islam.

Maulana Sadr-ud-Din, Imam, the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking with Maulvi Dost Muhammad standing with Muslim soldiers during World War I at the Mosque After the khutba she joined the prayer of her own will and pleasure. Praying in the manner in which we do, she showed herself as a Muslim. Millions of thanks to God for this. All brethren and the Hazrat Sahib should pray that she remains steadfast. This should not be considered as a complete fulfilment of the Prophecy. God the Most High will, shortly, fulfil that dream of the late Hazrat [Mirza Ghulam Ahmad]. However, by the way of a good omen I mentioned the following strange thing.

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This is the first European woman who said Friday prayers behind me. Her dress today, by a happy coincidence, was khaki satin. Could this not be the first of those white birds whose wings, that is to say dress, the Hazrat [Mirza Ghulam Ahmad] saw as khaki in his vision? The wings of a bird are its dress as they cover its body.

Congratulations, Congratulations, Congratulations!

Kamal-ud-Din Badr, 6 March 1913

** A lady that has already announced her conversion to Islam writes to Mrs Khadev Jung: My dear sister Mrs Khadev Jung, I was greatly pleased at your sending your regards to me in your letter to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din and I thank you for the same. He told me how interested you were in his monthly paper called The Islamic Review and in the work he was doing: really, he deserves all the encouragement we could give him.

Last year when Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din had recently arrived in London, my husband met him at some meeting and invited him in company with Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, editor of Zamindar, to our house.

Since that day he was our frequent visitor and used to talk about Islam: he used to invite us to his house on every Friday when, after praying, he used to preach.

His logical argument in favour of Islam and his comparisons of Islam and Christianity were most interesting and convincing. When I was with my parents I used to go to church with them every Sunday and we used to hear the preacher who failed to rouse in me any interest for religion, and I used to take everything for granted – without giving any serious thought. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din has studied Christianity and therefore he is better able to know comparisons as to what is said in the Bible on different subjects and how Al-Quran treats the same subject, thereby proving that how superior Islam is to Christianity. My eyes were beginning to open in favour of Islam and gradually I found that I was Moslem at heart. My heart went to Islam all the more by my reading every day in the newspapers about the butchery and atrocities committed by the Christians of Balkan on the noble Turks whom I now consider my brothers in faith.

I openly declare to be Moslem. The Islamic Review has done wonders. It has been my textbook; Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din has a great talent for writing, which must be a gift from God. I can never thank him enough for the change he has brought in my soul; we consider him as a member of our family; whenever he comes to London from Woking he stays with us.

He has made another conquest, which will have far-reaching consequences in favour of Islam. Lord Headley, an Irish peer and member of the House of Lords, he accepted Islam, so much so that he has commenced to contribute articles in favour of Islam in The Islamic Review.

We have intimate knowledge of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s doing from the time he came to London. He started The Islamic Review at his own expense. He had about 9,000 Rupees when he came to London and he spent it all in his work publishing The Islamic Review and distributing it. Living in London is also expensive but now he has no money and he is worried as to how to continue. At present he is circulating only a thousand copies in the Western world whereas at least a hundred thousand copies

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should be given out. It would be a thousand pities and a great shame for us Moslems if his Islamic Review were to stop for lack of financial help.

I have been to the Woking Mosque with my husband and have prayed there on Friday. Khwaja Sahib lives in the adjoining house belonging to the Mosque, and he is living there very poorly, almost like a hermit. Moslems of India should rise to this occasion, and will you please convey my message to my sisters in India for helping him in this great work? This work should grow to gigantic proportions and should spread through the whole world.

I shall be pleased to hear from you and I shall also keep on writing to you with true sisterly love.

I remain, Yours sincerely, VIOLET EBRAHIM * Mrs Khadev Jung sent this letter to the Comrade (Delhi) for publication together with a sum of Rs. 250 as her first installment towards helping Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. She has made her first appeal to the Mussalmans of India to assist the Khwaja in his noble work and we are glad to learn that her appeal has been answered by others.

The Islamic Review “But there is no blame on you if ye make a mistake. (What counts is) the intention of your heart” (33: 5).

Soon after Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din began his association with the Mosque, he felt the need to spread the religion of Islam in the West. He considered that it would greatly help him in this mission if he could publish suitable articles on religious subjects and send these to various newspapers. The Khwaja submitted several, but they were returned with thanks because publishers did not consider them to be of enough public interest.

Khwaja Sahib was not disheartened by the response he got. He saw that the only other course would be to start a magazine or newspaper of his own and requested that the Ahmadiyya authorities consider the feasibility of Maulana Muhammad Ali coming to England to start an English edition of The Review of Religions. This was found not to be possible as the Maulana was fully occupied with the translation of the Holy Quran into English, and to move the author to England would be too expensive for the organisation.

Khwaja Sahib came to a special arrangement with a monthly magazine in England: they would give some space in their journal if, in turn, the Khwaja would help them in expanding their readership and increasing the sale of certain special issues. The cost of this arrangement was about Rs. 1,500. He hoped that this outlay could be met if each member of the community (Ahmadiyya) bought one issue. This arrangement, however, was not followed through.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din planned to start a magazine of his own. He introduced this idea to the Ahmadiyya leader by saying: My brief stay has shown me that the world here [in Europe] is so alienated from religion that people are not interested in any matter pertaining to religion. A magazine devoted purely to theological subjects will probably not be read by anyone even if it’s free, let alone people would buy it. It was decided that a small part or section of it should be devoted to topics including ethics, morality, economics, education and politics.

It was agreed that although the real object of the publication would be religious, other subjects should be accepted and studied from an Islamic perspective in order to draw outside interest.

Khwaja Sahib requested that the organisation in India make him a grant of Rs. 2,000 to cover the cost of printing, postage and other expenses. He planned to initially distribute 1,000 free copies in Europe. Although he thought that many thousands of copies should be distributed free in order to have any effect, a continuing and sustained effort would be necessary to produce any lasting results….

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In February 1913 Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din came out with the first edition of his magazine. It was called Muslim India and Islamic Review. This first edition contained some of the discussions the founder had had with Bishops and Christian scholars of divinity, where they admitted the weakness of their point. This issue also featured an article entitled ‘Islam and the World’, where a Mr Parkinson spoke of a crying need of the Muslim world to have a periodical in the English language published from London and also translated into other languages of the Islamic world.

The original name of the Islamic Review as first published in February 1913 was Muslim India and Islamic Review. In 1921 it was shortened to Islamic Review.

In 1967 the name of the magazine was once again changed from just Islamic Review to Islamic Review and Arab Affairs. It was felt that the Arab world was passing through an extremely critical period and the journal should reflect these matters.

Publication of the journal from the Mosque was stopped due to its takeover.

Between the First and Second World Wars “The same religion has He established for you on that which He enjoined on Noah — that which We have sent by inspiration to thee (Mohammad) — and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses and Jesus — Namely that we should remain steadfast in Religion and make no divisions therein” (42: 13).

The Shahjahan Mosque continued to perform the ritual prayers in the period between the First and Second World Wars. A considerable effort was made by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din and his successors in spreading the cause of Islam. Over two thousand conversions to the faith took place. A lot of these were from the gentry, some even having connections with royalty.

The two Eids were occasions when the Mosque was very well attended. A special marquee would be erected on the lawn in front of the Memorial Hall and a congregation of about three hundred would gather and offer prayers behind the Imam.

Usually this man was not the regular Imam but a specially invited dignitary like Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Sheikh Hafiz Wahba, William Bashir Pickard, and Sir Abdul Qadir. The prayer was followed by a khutba (sermon) in English concluded with the usual Arabic.

The gathering consisted of Muslims from all corners of the globe. Nationals included Indians, Iranians, Arabs, Egyptians, Nigerians, Americans, and others. Many were in their national attire, providing a very colourful assembly. On the conclusion of the prayer the devotees would shake hands and embrace one and all — there being no distinction of colour, caste, creed or social status. The congregation was then provided with lunch before returning home.

Due to the low numbers attending the Friday prayers, a special lecture was to be arranged for the Sunday afternoon (Zuhr) prayer at the Mosque when the assistant Imam, or other invited speaker, would address the congregation on some aspect of Islam or other subject of topical interest. A question and answer session would follow. The Imam himself would be doing a similar session at the Prayer House in London.

The Muslim Society of Great Britain, London, was inaugurated under the presidency of Lord Headley. The Society would arrange a number of lectures on Islam so as to make the religion more widely known. Special functions would be held to celebrate the Holy Prophet’s birthday, usually at a leading hotel. The occasion would normally conclude with the distribution of religious literature followed by some entertainment and light refreshments.

Arabic classes for the teaching of the Prayer and the Qur’an were held for the children of new converts and other Muslim children.

Being the premiere Mosque of the country, a host of dignitaries from Britain and abroad visited ...

A nation is born “I believe in whatever Book has been sent down. Allah is our Lord and your Lord. For us is the responsibility for our deeds and for you for your deeds” (42:15).

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In the 1930s one of the regular features at the Shahjahan Mosque was a meeting on Sunday afternoons which followed the usual afternoon prayers. These meetings would mostly be attended by young Muslim students living in England and would feature a talk given by a Muslim scholar with follow-up discussions.

It was at an All India Muslim League Conference held at Allahabad (India) in 1930 that Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the renowned Muslim poet and philosopher, put before the Indian Muslims the idea of the creation of an independent Muslim state in Northern India. At this stage it was just a vision and a dream and food for thought. There was no immediate follow-up.

It was in the summer of 1936, at one of these Sunday meetings, that Chauhdri Rahmat Ali, himself a great thinker and an ardent follower of Dr Muhammad Iqbal, recalled his idea. Chauhdri Sahib stressed that the only possible salvation for the Muslims was to demand the creation of a Muslim State comprising areas predominantly populated by Muslims. He lamented the fact that no Muslim luminaries had given much thought to the practical implementation of this dream, therefore, it had only remained as such. It appeared to the gathering that one of the world’s greatest thinkers had given expression to these thoughts, but that it had not got any further than a drawing-room topic of discussion — it was a pity when the destiny of a hundred million Muslims in the subcontinent was at stake.

Chaudhary Rahmat Ali

At this stage someone in the audience pointed to a photograph of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din which was hanging on the wall, and said that he, too, had an idea in which he believed. The Khwaja saw the Muslims of the world submerged under a defeated outlook, losing sight of their heritage. It was in his abounding faith in the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Prophet Muhammad that he decided to unfurl the standard of Islam in the heart of Christendom. Why could not the same be applied to the creation of a Muslim homeland?

Chauhdri Rahmat Ali was visibly impressed and silently reflected in his own mind. His emotions were stirred. After a while he said that something must be done; he added, however, that for him to take the initiative he would need the help of workers. It was decided that a meeting should be held at the Shahjahan Mosque the following Sunday with a slightly larger participation.

The theme of the meeting was to give the project an immediate and practical shape. All embraced the idea, but as most of those present were students they had neither the time nor means to achieve it. Chauhdri Sahib was asked to shoulder the responsibility for carrying this movement through. It was decided at this meeting that: 1. The movement should be started by Ch. Rahmat Ali from Cambridge (where he resided).

2. He should start a monthly pamphlet to give publicity and projection to the movement. It was agreed that the pamphlet should have a map of India in white and the areas which were to be separated for Muslims in green. This illustration would speak for itself and convey the message pointedly.

3. A distribution list for the pamphlet could be based on that of the Islamic Review and sent to subscribers in India.

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4. Copies of the pamphlet to be distributed at Woking (in the forthcoming Eid and the Holy Prophet’s birthday celebrations).

This meeting continued until late in the evening and, as people had to catch the last train back, it was suggested that a third meeting should be held. The matter to be discussed was how to find a way to evolve a name for the Muslim areas and give them a formal shape. Since the idea had now taken a political complexion it was considered that the Mosque was not a suitable place to promote the project. The next meeting would therefore be held at a private residence in Surbiton (4 Hook Road).

At the third meeting Chauhdri Rahmat Ali was formally entrusted with the work of the Movement. After much discussion the name ‘Pakistan’ was suggested by Khwaja Abdul Rehman and was spontaneously accepted by all instead of alternatives such as Muslimabad and Islamabad. The name was chosen as ‘Pak’ which stood for purity — a first necessity before our approach to God. In Islam ‘pak’ is cleanliness in its purest form. Pakistan would be a place where Muslims could humble themselves before Allah in humility and, should He bless us with such a place, where the faithful could try their best to contribute a better practice in the fulfilment of their faith.

There is some misconception that the name Pakistan was chosen because it was an acronym signifying the areas being included - Punjab, Afghan (Frontier areas), Kashmir, and Sindh, while the ‘tan’ stood for the ‘land of’.

After the conclusion of these meetings, the burden, the work and its success were all the achievements of Chauhdri Rahmat Ali. He would post the pamphlets or pass them onto his friends for distribution. He took up the standard and planted it into the soil which he, with his clarion call, claimed as Pakistan. This call was then taken up in 1940 at another meeting of the All India Muslim League when the Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, adopted a resolution demanding the formation of a Muslim State.

Pakistan achieved independence in 1947. *****

On Being a Qadiani?

“Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets. And Allah is ever Knowing of all things” (33: 40).

In the 1860s a reformist movement was started in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, which he called Ahmadiyyat.

At that time the Muslims in India were passing through a difficult period because of their part in the Indian War of Independence (or Mutiny, depending on one’s point of view) of 1856. Christian and Hindu missionaries had started a vigorous campaign of conversion of Muslims, but the Mirza wanted to regenerate the faith....

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad started a movement which he considered not to be just another sect of Islam, but a force for the presentation of true Islamic ideal. However, to other Muslims his preachings were considered heresy.

On the Mirza’s death in 1908, Maulvi Nur-ud-Din, his right-hand man and a highly respected scholar by outsiders from the Movement, was unanimously chosen to lead the adherents. Certain members of the family, however, wanted a hereditary succession from within the family. Those of this view kept a low profile for the time being as the Mirza’s eldest son was still too young to be nominated.

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Around three years later, in order to create a platform for a leadership campaign, the Mirza’s son, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, and his supporters began to promote the view that a person could not remain a Muslim by belief in the Kalimah Shahadat and the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet Muhammad only, but had in addition to acknowledge that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet of God. This is contrary to one of the basic tenets of Islam: that Prophet Muhammad (sas) is the last of the Prophets and none would follow after him. The Qur’an states that the Prophet Muhammad (sas) was the ‘seal’ of Prophets, signifying that Prophethood was being sealed (as a document being finally sealed) on the completion of his mission.

Maulana Muhammad Ali, and other senior and prominent members of the Ahmadiyya Movement, repudiated these views as being totally contrary to the basic Islamic ideology as well as against the expressed beliefs of the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. The Maulana claimed that Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, who had assumed the headship of the Qadian section of the community, had begun to drift away from the basic principles of Islam.

The new leader went so far as to declare openly that the millions of other Muslims living in the world should no longer be treated as Muslims.

A large number of educated members of the Ahmadiyya community had the moral courage to dissent openly from the (erroneous) doctrines being preached by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, who had by then succeeded in taking over the leadership of the movement after the death of Maulvi Nur-ud-Din without any general consultation. The group, headed by Maulana Muhammad Ali, at once rallied around the true teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad but, after trying for a month and a half in vain to maintain the unity of the movement, formed themselves into a separate society known as the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at-i-Islam — more generally known as the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.

This Lahore group believed that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sas) was the last Prophet after whom there would be no other Prophet. They also believed that any person who believed in the Kalimah Shahadat cannot be expelled from Islam or be branded as a kafir (non-believer), and that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad never claimed to be a Prophet but was a Reformer, although they did accept him as the Promised Messiah.

After the split in 1914 the Qadiani movement, under Mirza Mahmud Ahmad’s leadership, moved away from the system established by its founder. Mirza Mahmud Ahmad made it an essential item of faith to accept the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. His followers considered all non-Qadiani Muslims as kafirs. They were forbidden to say their prayers behind other Muslims or to perform or join funeral services of a deceased Muslim. Inter-marriage with other Muslims was not allowed. The wife of their acclaimed prophet was given the title ‘Umm-ul-Momineen’ (Mother of the Faithful) — a title that had hitherto been exclusively reserved for the wives of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sas) alone by the Muslims.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, although a staunch supporter of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, did not accept his successor’s claims to prophethood. This was the proclaimed policy followed by the Shahjahan Mosque which was repeated in several issues of the Islamic Review over many years.

The Imams of the Mosque were subscribers to the ‘Lahore Group’, who also continued to accept Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a Mujaddid (Reformer).

To counter the contention that the Shahjahan Mosque agreed with the stated beliefs of the Ahmadi (Qadiani) leaders and the community, articles appeared in the Islamic Review at various times. *****

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Muslim Burial Ground “Allah cautions you against His retribution. And to Allah is the eventual coming” (3: 27).

About a half mile from the Shahjahan Mosque, across Basingstoke Canal, stands a rather remarkable structure among the pine trees on Horsell Common. This is the Muslim Burial Ground.

During the First World War the Government of India decided to send an Indian Army Contingent of around 70,000 soldiers of different ethnic and religious groups to the Western Front in France.

Naturally, some became casualties of the war and were evacuated to Britain for treatment, some of whom died here.

The propaganda machine in Nazi Germany tried to exploit the death of these soldiers, particularly Muslims, by spreading the news that the bodies were not being given a proper Muslim burial; perhaps being cremated like other dead Hindu and Sikh soldiers — for whom such disposal was the accepted practice.

The War Office in London took serious note of this German assertion and decided, rather hurriedly, to take action against something which would otherwise seriously affect the morale and religious sentiment of the Muslim soldiers fighting in France. It was decided that a proper Muslim burial ground would be Burial ground in Woking established. At that time the only mosque in the South East was the Shahjahan Mosque, so it was here that the new cemetery was to be located. The land was acquired from the Horsell Common Preservation Society so as to be close to the Mosque.

The Muslim Burial Ground was designed by the architect T. H. Winney and built by a local firm, Ashby & Homer Ltd. It was designed to include Islamic architectural features with arches, minaret and domes like those found in the neighbouring Mosque.

The building work on the Muslim Burial Ground was completed in 1916. Nineteen Muslim soldiers were buried during the First World War and a further five during the Second World War. In 1921 the War Graves Commission took over the maintenance of the site. However, due to its isolation the site suffered from vandalism. It was therefore decided that all the bodies be re-interred by moving them to the Military Cemetery at Brookwood in 1956.

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The Muslim Burial Ground is now a Grade II Listed Building. On the transfer of the bodies to Brookwood the site was handed back to the Horsell Common Preservation Society. However, due to lack of funds the area has suffered further deterioration. In need of conservation, negotiations started some years back between the Society, Woking Borough Council and the local Muslim community to draw up a plan of action to restore the grounds. However, the situation is unresolved; the stumbling blocks remain finance and future use of the site.

It is hoped that sometime soon the matter can be resolved, as the demand for a suitable cemetery for Muslims grows.

(A Miracle at Woking: Muslim P. Salamat, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex, England. PO20 2DD. ISBN 978-186077-580-2. Price £9.99. Pp. 23-32; 41-44; 61-62; 75-76.)

*****

Jihad for Islam by Persuasion in Europe Entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Kamal-ud-Din, Khwaja (1870–1932), Islamic scholar and missionary, was born in Lahore, Punjab, British India, the son of Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din. He came from a Kashmiri family with a tradition of distinguished public service: his grandfather, Abdur Rashid, was at one time the qazi (chief Muslim judge) of Lahore during the Sikh period (1762–1849). Educated at Forman Christian College, Lahore, Kamal-ud-Din graduated in 1893 and was awarded the Punjab University medal in economics. He was then appointed to the chair of history and economics at Islamia College, Lahore, later becoming its principal. On qualifying as a barrister in 1898, he established a lucrative law practice first in Peshawar and then in Lahore.

Following his wife’s death in 1912, aware of mounting pressures on Islam and Muslims globally, and inspired by his spiritual mentors Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Maulana Nur-ud-Din, he answered ‘a strong insistent call from within’ (Islamic Review, Jan. 1932, 1) and sailed for Britain to inaugurate his ‘jihad by persuasion’ in Europe (Islamic Review, Dec. 1949, 5).

On his arrival in London Kamal-ud-Din first settled in Richmond. Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park provided him with the platform for his first public lecture on Islam. His speeches, sermons, and published articles made a powerful impression on his predominantly non-Muslim audiences. He made effective use of his considerable knowledge of the Bible, acquired during his student days, in theological discussion with Christian scholars.

In 1913 he decided to take over the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking, built in 1889 by the retired registrar and principal of the University of Punjab, G. W. Leitner, but which had fallen into disuse following its founder’s death in 1899. When Leitner’s heirs, who planned to sell the property, tried to evict him, Kamalud-Din refused to go, had its disposal stopped, and laid the foundations of the Woking Muslim Mission as Britain’s main centre for the propagation of Islam.

For the first time since its construction, the mosque was now open to public worship, with Kamal-ud-Din one of its trustees and its first imam. Indeed, his commitment to it was reflected in his later decision to create a trust and leave his entire property, valued at 150,000 rupees, as a wakf for the Woking Muslim Mission.

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In February 1913 Kamal-ud-Din started publishing at his own expense an authoritative monthly journal, the Islamic Review. (Its Urdu version was published from Lahore under the title Risalah Isha‘at-i Islam, ‘Journal for the Propagation of Islam’.) He remained its editor for the rest of his life (his son Khwaja Nazir Ahmad succeeding him in this role), and on its pages elaborated his views on Islamic doctrines as well as the many controversies and criticisms then being levelled against Islam.

A prolific writer, he wrote over 100 books devoted mostly to Islam (including The Secret of Existence, or, The Gospel of Action 1923, and The Ideal Prophet, 1925) and other religious issues. In particular, his treatise, The Sources of Christianity (1924), was noteworthy. His publications, imbued with rigorous scholarship, made a substantial impact on the British religious scene. Rarely, and only when he perceived there to be a direct attack on Islam and Muslims, did he feel moved to intervene politically. (For instance, his book India in the Balance: British Rule and the Caliphate, 1922, was a powerfully argued plea to the British Government against the dismemberment of the Turkish caliphate.)

Kamal-ud-Din believed that for Islam to prosper in Britain, and conversion to make headway, it would have to shed its ‘exotic’ and ‘alien’ image. Instead of highlighting differences between Christianity and Islam, he emphasized commonalities within the Abrahamic tradition. His was thus a modernist interpretation of Islam: apostasy was not punishable by execution; likewise, Islam respected individual freedom of religion and conscience. Wearing the veil in the British environment was deemed by him to be impracticable; music and fine art were a blessing for humanity.

His efforts soon bore fruit. A steady trickle of conversions, including that of Lord Headley, publicly announced in 1913, followed.

Together with Headley as its president, Kamal-ud-Din was instrumental in founding the Muslim Society of Great Britain. Under its auspices, weekly lectures were conducted at the Woking Mosque and later at different venues in London. ‘At homes’, garden parties, and gatherings of Muslims and non-Muslims took place in fashionable London tea-rooms, hotels, and restaurants where questions about Islam were encouraged in relaxed informal settings. These public gatherings generally involved both women and men, as did religious festivities and larger congregations.

With growing interest in new ideas of spirituality among London’s influential circles, Kamal-ud-Din played a part in some notable conversions: Marmaduke Pickthall, novelist and ‘translator’ of the Quran; Sir Archibald Hamilton, Deputy Surgeon-General of the Royal Navy; and Lady Evelyn Cobbold, whose account of her pilgrimage to Mecca in 1934 (the first European woman to do so, notably unaccompanied by a mahram) aroused much interest.

Under Kamal-ud-Din’s leadership the mosque at Woking emerged as the leading symbol of Britain’s worldwide Muslim community, and was visited by Muslim dignitaries from many places and denominational backgrounds: the head of the Shi‘a Ismaili sect, the Aga Khan, was welcomed with the same degree of dignity and warmth as the Sunni Amir Faisal of Saudi Arabia or King Faruq of Egypt. This non-sectarian acceptance was all the more remarkable since Kamal-ud-Din was a high-profile member of the Ahmadiyya community, considered by orthodox Sunnis as outside the fold of Islam. (He belonged to the Lahore section of the Ahmadiyya community which, while not claiming its founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Promised Messiah or a Prophet, did recognize him as a Mujaddid, or Renewer of the faith.)

Aware of the dangers inherent in allegations of any kind of doctrinal bias, Kamal-ud-Din consciously rotated those who led the Mosque’s congregational prayers.

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From the time that Kamal-ud-Din took over the Woking Mosque, his reputation as an eloquent Islamic orator grew rapidly. Much sought after internationally by both Muslims and non-Muslims, he travelled widely in pursuit of his missionary duties, first to Europe and then to Africa and the Far East. After the First World War he visited France, Germany, and Belgium to assess their potential for missionary activities.

Accompanied by Lord Headley, he travelled to Egypt and Saudi Arabia (where they performed the Hajj) in 1923, and in 1926 they visited South Africa at the invitation of Cape Town’s Muslims; visits to Singapore and Java followed later.

Kamal-ud-Din gained much acclaim in his native India for his religious erudition. His services were recognized by Aligarh Muslim University when it conferred a fellowship on him, and appointed him to its court of trustees. When he died, in Lahore on 28 December 1932, particular mention of his ‘unique and unsurpassed’ services to Islam was made among the condolences expressed at the All-India Muslim League session at Delhi in November 1933 (S. S. Pirzada, ed., Foundations of Pakistan: All-India Muslim League Documents, 1906–1947, 1970, 2.210).

But it is as the leading light and spiritual leader of British Islam in the early decades of the twentieth century that he will be best remembered, his pre-eminence marked by the British press’s bestowal of the honorific ‘Very Reverend’ upon him during his lifetime.

* (Khizar Humayun Ansari: Kamal-ud-Din, Khwaja (1870-1932); Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press; Sept. 2012 (www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/94519, accessed 8 Oct. 2012.)

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Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din A Hidden Saint and an Apparent Kafir Rais Ahmad Jafari In 1924 the Annual Conference of Nadwatul Ulama was held at Lucknow with much pomp and splendour. Maulana Habibur-Rahman Khan Sherwani, the Nawab Sadr Yar Jang Bahadur of Hyderabad Deccan, came especially to preside over the Conference. Students of the Nadwatul Ulama had played a significant role in the Khilafat Movement and the All-India Congress Party. That was why a considerable number of political leaders also graced the occasion.

Maulana Shaukat Ali, “the lion of Islam”, was conspicuous among them.

I was a student of Grade 1 of the Nadwah. Annual examinations had just ended and the younger students were allowed to avail the vacations and go home. But the lure of the Conference was so overwhelming that I did not go home and remained in Nadwah till the end of the Conference. I was standing in the side verandah of the 27 | P a g e

hall when a friend of mine said to me: “Let us go and listen to the lecture of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din.” I immediately went along with him. On the stage there was a handsome, imposing man delivering a fine speech. His voice was so loud and resounding that even at the back of the hall each and every word of his speech could be heard. His face was quite full and he had a black beard. Instead of the typical Muslim style pajamas (trousers) and achkan (long coat), he was wearing a coat and on his head he had a turban with tassels. The speech on “The Propagation of Islam” was so impressive and convincing that everyone was listening to it attentively with amazement.

The general impression about Qadianis is that they are kafirs (unbelievers). The Khwaja Sahib also belonged to the same Movement. It was a matter of wonder how the heart of a kafir had so much sympathy for Islam, such great fervour for the preaching of Islam and such tremendous enthusiasm for the propagation of Islam. Later I came to know that the Khwaja Sahib had already set up a permanent centre in England for the propagation of Islam, and many people in Europe had entered the fold of Islam through him. He was also publishing a magazine in English and its Urdu version was published monthly under the title Isha‘at-i Islam from Lahore. Later I also learnt that he is a member of the Ahmadiyya Community which does not believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib to be a Prophet but only a Mujaddid.

Anyhow, the more I came to know about his Islamic activities the more his respect and estimation increased in my heart. I never accepted for a moment that, God forbid, he was a kafir, although most people considered him a kafir and firmly refused to accept him as a Muslim. I never saw the Khwaja Sahib again after this. However, I witnessed an incident of his life which I still remember and probably will remember forever.

After the speech of the Khwaja Sahib, the Conference was adjourned to the next day. All the guests went to their respective rooms. One room was reserved for the Khwaja Sahib and he went to his room. At the end of the session I was roaming about and passed by the Khwaja Sahib’s room. There was complete silence; no one was in the gallery except me. I saw the Khwaja Sahib all alone offering his ‘Asr prayer. I have seen all kinds of people offering their prayers, great and small, learned and uneducated. But witnessing the concentration, absorption, humility and submissiveness with which the Khwaja Sahib was offering his prayer made a deep impact on my heart and created an indelible impression which still exists even today.

The definition of prayer [in Hadith — Ed.] is that the person offering it should feel as if he is seeing God, or if not then at least he should have the feeling that God can see him. It was clearly evident from the Khwaja Sahib’s prayer that he was feeling as if he was seeing God. Without this feeling, that state of concentration, absorption, humility and submissiveness cannot be attained, of which the Khwaja Sahib was a visual embodiment.

It is possible that some people still consider him a kafir, but my heart carries a deep impression of his practice of Islam which even vicissitudes of time could not efface. *

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(The extract is translated from the Urdu book Deed-o-Shuneed — A Collection of Personal Impressions about People, published by Rais Ahmad Jafari Academy, 1B, 5 Mi‘maar Terrace, Gulshan-i Iqbal No. 1, Karachi, pp. 120, 121, Second edition 1987.)

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Woking — Renaissance of Islam in Britain Most valuable service rendered to the cause of Islam in Europe Dr Ashiq Hussain Batalvi (Dr Ashiq Husain Batalvi was a well-known author, journalist and biographer. He obtained his doctorate from the famous School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. He was very active in the Muslim League and devoted his early life to the struggle for Muslim independence in pre-Partition India. He worked with the Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the later years of the efforts for the creation of Pakistan. For many years he was the permanent correspondent of the famous Pakistan newspaper Dawn in England.

In a chapter in his Urdu book Chand Yadain, Chand Ta’assurat (‘Some Memories, Some Impressions’), he has given an accurate description of the history and work of the Woking Muslim Mission as well as his opinion and estimation of its work. This was written in 1963, fifty years after the founding of the Mission. The extract below is translated from this book, published in Lahore in 1992 by Sang-i Meel Publications. – Ed.) *

The name of the Woking Muslim Mission has reached more or less every part of the world. It has done so much work of propagation of Islam in Europe as no other organization has probably done.

Woking is a pretty town 25 miles from London. From Woking railway station, the mosque is situated at a walk of about 15 to 20 minutes and is set in a green plot of two acres. Its green dome is visible from afar.

Inside there is a carpet on the floor. Above the mihrab, directly in front, are affixed inscriptions bearing verses of the Quran, and the minbar (podium) is close to it. Adjacent to the mosque is a spacious house where the Imam resides. It is this mosque which, for the past half a century, has been the centre of the propagation activities of a Muslim mission.

It seems pertinent to explain first how this mosque came to be built on British soil and who was its founder. The interesting history of the Woking mosque is that the name of the man who built it was Dr Leitner, who at one time was employed at the University of the Punjab [Lahore, present-day Pakistan].

Upon relinquishing his post and returning to England he came up with a plan to establish an institute for the dissemination of Islamic culture. For this purpose he applied to the ruler of Bhopal, the lady Shah Jehan Begum, for financial assistance, and she gave him a substantial sum of money. With this money, Dr Leitner purchased this two-acre plot of land in Woking and built the mosque in 1889. The ruler of the state of Hyderabad, Salar Jung, also gave him financial help, with which the residential house was built.

Dr Leitner died before he could complete his plan and this property came into the hands of his son, who had little interest in his father’s project. Gradually the mosque became entirely derelict. Now, look at this 29 | P a g e

fortunate coincidence that in 1912 the late Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din came to England. He was a highly successful lawyer in Lahore, but he had a boundless love for Islam. Leaving his practice, he devoted his life for the propagation of Islam and came to England for this purpose.

That was the time when the British nation was at the peak of its world rule. Its empire was spread east and west, and it was said that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Muslims everywhere were subjugated and dominated, and this subservience and servitude had created in them extreme feelings of inferiority. When the Khwaja Sahib decided to propagate Islam in England, many people advised him that he was destroying his legal career for no reason because the British had no inclination for Islam, and if they were interested, why should they accept the religion of a subject people whom they were ruling over? But these disheartening comments did not weaken the Khwaja Sahib’s resolve.

After coming to London, he initially settled in the Richmond area and began to preach the message of Islam by speech and writing. For this purpose he also started his famous magazine, The Islamic Review.

However, he required a place which he could make the permanent centre of his activities. At this stage he learnt about the existence of the Woking Mosque and that this house of God was lying deserted. The Khwaja Sahib went to Woking and took possession of the Mosque. The heirs of Dr Leitner attempted to evict him from there but the Khwaja Sahib told them that according to Islam a place once designated as a mosque remains forever a mosque, and no person can prevent Muslims from praying in it. In this connection he was helped greatly by the late Mirza Sir Abbas Ali Baig who in those days was a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India. The result was that the mosque came into the control of the Khwaja Sahib.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was a lawyer, so he created a Trust for the guardianship of the mosque which initially had three members: (1) the Rt. Hon. Sayyid Ameer Ali, who was a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; (2) Mirza Sir Abbas Ali Baig; and (3) Sir Thomas Arnold, who had been Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s teacher in Government College, Lahore. This Trust appointed the Khwaja Sahib as Imam. Since that time the Woking Mosque has been the biggest centre of the propagation of Islam in England.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din faced great difficulties at first. There were many strange stories and unfounded myths about Islam prevailing in the country. To remove this barrier of prejudice and ignorance was not an easy task. But the Khwaja Sahib possessed an extraordinary mind and heart. He was extremely intelligent and hard working. He had enviable command of both writing and speech. Above all, he had the most perfect conviction in the truth of Islam, and it was this that sustained his courage. Consequently, in his own lifetime he saw this Mission make tremendous progress.

He wrote some twenty books on Islam in English. Through his efforts the English translation of the Quran

by Maulana Muhammad Ali of Lahore was published from Woking in 1917. This was undoubtedly a great achievement because before that no Muslim in the world had translated the Divine Word into English.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din died in Lahore on 28 December 1932. Before his death he made over his property, including his writings and the magazine Islamic Review, to the Woking Mission.

Apart from the Khwaja Sahib, other people who have served as Imams of the Woking Mosque from time to time included Maulana Sadr-ud-Din, Maulana Muhammad Yaqub Khan, Maulana Abdul Majeed, Maulvi Mustafa Khan, Dr Shaikh Muhammad Abdullah, and Maulvi Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, whose good names

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deserve great honour and respect. Except for the late Maulvi Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, I have personally known all these gentlemen. In fact, the first three mentioned above were my teachers during my days as a student.

To realize the importance of the activities of the Woking Mission it is necessary to review the past fifty years, during which the workers of the Mission have rendered the most valuable service to the cause of Islam in Europe. Leaving aside the other countless writings and publications produced by the Mission, just the issues of the Islamic Review are testimony to that service. There cannot be any aspect of Islamic teachings, history, civilization, culture, traditions and social life on which there have not appeared scholarly and learned articles in this journal. This magazine is read all over the world and it has undoubtedly done great work in presenting the true picture of Islam.

Besides propagation work, the Woking Mission has become the centre for the gatherings of those hundreds of thousands of Muslims who live in Britain. They include Muslims of every country from Morocco to China.

On ‘Id occasions, the scene at Woking is worthy of view. There are Muslims gathered from Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Malaya, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Arabia, Nigeria, Algeria; in short, every race, colour and nation.

There are also many British converts to Islam who take part. In this international gathering, despite the differences of language, dress, colour and custom, there runs a tremendous wave of brotherhood that removes the difference between east and west, and black and white, and binds all Muslims together as members of one community. The ‘Id prayers are held in a very large marquee and after the prayers lunch is served there, which is provided as hospitality by the Mission. We are all guests of the Woking Mission on ‘Id day.

What has impressed me most is that the Woking Mission is doing the service of Islam while remaining entirely away from sectarianism, and indeed above it. I have seen in the last ten years that the ‘Id prayers are led by different Imams [of different sects]. They include the Iranian Shia religious leader, the ambassador of Indonesia, the famous British convert to Islam, Dr Cowan, and Dr Abdul Aziz Khulusi of Iraq.

There is a Muslim Society established under the auspices of the Mission. Its head office is in the area of Victoria in central London, where there are very interesting gatherings every week, in which people of all beliefs and views participate. Usually someone gives a talk on a religious, social, academic or literary issue concerning the Muslims, and this is followed by a reasoned discussion.

The Imam of the Woking Mosque is especially busy. Many societies and organisations in Britain hold meetings at which representatives of different faiths are invited to speak. Most often the Imam of Woking has the honour to represent Islam at these functions.

Today, by the efforts of the Muslims, there are mosques in other cities in Britain as well. In England there is not the same unawareness, ignorance and prejudice regarding Islam that existed half a century ago.

Despite that, there is no decline in the pivotal position of Woking, and today too Woking is the chief centre of the renaissance of Islam in Britain.

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Kamal-ud-Din, the Khwaja “Succeeded in securing adherents to Islam” An entry in “Who is Who” Born Lahore, 1870; s of late Khwaja Azizuddin, Lahore; died 28 Dec. 1932. Imam of Mosque, Woking EDUCATION Local Mission College. University Medallist in Economics; graduated in arts 1893, in law 1897 CAREER Professor of History and Economics, Islamia College, Lahore; joined Bar, 1898, but under the inspiration of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, Punjab, gave up law for religion after fifteen years’ practice; came to England, 1912; started a monthly journal, Islamic Review, in 1913, and founded the Muslim Mission at Woking in the same year with the chief aim of disabusing the Western mind of wrong notions about Islam; succeeded in securing adherents to Islam in this country, and is the Imam of the British Muslims PUBLICATIONS Chiefly religious; Glimpses from the Life of the Prophet; Islam and Muslim Prayers; Sayings of the Prophet; Religion of Atoms; Study of Islam; Table Talk; Revelation a Necessity; Secret of Existence; India in the Balance; The House Divided; Sources of Christianity; Towards Islam; Islam and Zoroastrianism; Ideal Prophet, etc.; his chief work in philology is Ummul al-Sinah (The Mother of Languages), meaning Arabic.

ADDRESS The Mosque, Woking, Surrey, Woking 679. Telegraphic Address: Mosque, Woking [www.ukwhoswho.com/Oxford University Press, 2013 Edition]

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