The historical, political, religious, cultural magazine of Muslims of British India and Pakistan. In 1935, according to the instructions of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Nazeer Niazi initiated and edited, a journal Tolu-e-Islam [1] 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. For a long time Iqbal wanted a journal to propagate his ideas and the aims and objective of Muslim league. It was Syed Nazeer Niazi, a close friend of him and a regular visitor to him during his last two years, who started this journal.
Contents |
The real founder and patron of this journal was Sir Muhammad Iqbal. He was interested in the renaissance of Islam in the world and specially in British India. He was a strong proponent of the political revival of Muslim in British India. He delivered his famous lectures published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. "He was also one of the most prominent leaders of the All India Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern India for Muslims" in his 1930 presidential address.[2] Iqbal encouraged and worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Thinker of Pakistan"), Shair-e-Mashriq ("The Poet of the East"), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of Ummah")."[3]
He wanted to initiate a journal but however due to his busy political and literary life, he could not initiate this journal for a long time. In 1935, three years before his death, he asked his friends and followers to initiate a journal and also suggested the name of the journal himself. It was Syed Nazeer Niazi, his James Boswell, who could not refuse the request of his Godfather, initiated the journal.
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[4] 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.
He was so much interested in the culture of Muslims that he translated George Sarton[5] “Introduction to the History of Science[6] 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."[7]. 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.
In the first monthly journal of Oct. 1935, he published his article "Millat Islamia Hind" The Muslim nation of India. In this article he described the political conditions of British India and the aims and objective of Muslim community. He also discussed the basic principles of Islam which were aims and objective of Sir Muhammad Iqbal' concept of an Islamic State. He also dedicated this first journal of Tolu-e-Islam,to Sir Muhammad Iqbal.
The eminent Muslim scholars like Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri, Ghulam Ahmed Pervez, Dr. Zakir Hussain Khan, Syed Naseer Ahmed, Raja Hassan Akhtar, Maulvi Ghulam Yezdani, Ragheb Ahsan, Sheikh Suraj ul Haq, Rafee ud din Peer, Prof. fazal ud din Qureshi, Agha Muhammad Safdar, Asad Multani, Dr. Tasadaq Hussain, Prof. Yusuf Saleem Chisti contributed articles in this journal.
In the edition of September 1936, Syed Nazeer Niazi announced the creation of “Kitab Khana Tolu-e-Islam” (Publishing house of books of Tolu-e-Islam). For this publishing house Sir Muhammad Iqbal, gave his book “zerb kaleem”[8]. This publication house published many books on Islam and Pakistan movement. This publisher along with the journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement.
Afterward, this journal was continued [9] by Ghulam Ahmed Parwez,who had already contributed many articles in the early editions of this journal. He was so devoted fan of Sir Iqbal that he used to print the picture of him on the cover page of this journal every month. 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 of Muslim individuals and groups such as represented by the Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Ahrar-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami, 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 separate Muslim State that is, to help transform the live force of Islamic Ideology into the Constitution of Pakistan".[10]. This journal is still published by idara tolu-e-Islam, Lahore.