Ghulam Ahmed Pervez

This article is about Ghulam Ahmad Pervez. For the religious founder, see Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.
For the artist, see Ahmed Pervez.
Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
غلام احمد پرویز
Born Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
9 January 1903
Batala, Punjab, British India
Died 24 February 1985 (aged 82)[1]
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Nationality Pakistani
Occupation Senior Civil Servant, Department of Interior Ministry, Government of India and later, Department of Home and Interior Affairs, Karachi, Pakistan

Ghulam Ahmad Pervez (Punjabi, Urdu: غلام احمد پرویز‎; 1903–1985) was a prominent Islamic scholar from Pakistan, famous in the area around Lahore. He urged the Muslims to ponder deeply over the Message of the Quran. For Pervez, Islam revealed a system of government, opposed to all man-made systems like democracy, autocracy, or socialism. He argued that Islam was not revealed as a typical "religion" of rituals and superstitious beliefs but was actually challenge to religion (or "madhab") in its traditional form.

His writings describe how Islam was treacherously transformed into a religion by kings who had perverted Islam for their vested interests. "The kings sponsored the creation and fabrication of hadith," he declared. Pervez denounced the Hadith as inaccurate and cited various examples such as those that described Ayesha, the prophet's wife, as a nine-year-old girl. "These are fabricated stories written by the enemies of Islam", he said. Some contemporary Hadith Scholars declared Pervez a heretic for denying the authority and authenticity of the Hadiths. Pervez himself condemned the Mullahs for "always serving as agents of the rich people" and being "promoters of uncontrolled Capitalism." In 1951, Parvez criticized Jamaat-e-Islami through several articles in Tolu-e-Islam. "The mullahs have hijacked Islam," he said. Pervez was close to Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, having been one of the few allowed to visit him without a prior appointment. He also knew Muhammad Iqbal in his youth. Iqbal inspired Pervez to turn away from orthodox sectarian dogmas and towards an analytical understanding of the Quran. Pervez was one of the leading activists of the Pakistan movement.

Biography and Efforts

Ghulam Ahmed Pervez was born in Batala, Dist. Gurdaspur, on 9 January 1903. Batala, a town now in the Indian part of Punjab, was at that time a very prominent seat of Islamic learning, philosophy and culture where his grandfather Hakim Maulvi Raheem Bakhsh enjoyed the status of a celebrated scholar and eminent Sufi of the Chishtia Nizamia discipline of mysticism.

As he grew, he often wondered why, if mainstream Islamic beliefs and practices were true and correct, they seemed not to produce the results the Qur'an promised. In one of his lectures on the Quran, Pervez recalled how it was Muhammad Iqbal himself who turned the course of his life around, sowing the seed in his mind that would turn him away from dogma and towards a real analysis of the Quran, which would bring him eventually to reject the sectarian "corruptions".

This line of thinking would eventually lead him to the conclusion that many Hadith widely accepted as authentic were in fact false, having been introduced by elites in Islamic societies in order to pervert and dilute the original revolutionary spirit of true Islam, which they feared as a threat to their traditional authority and privileges. As he studied and became adept at Classical Arabic, he further showed that mainstream translations and expositions of the Quran were riddled with inaccuracies that introduced contradictory meanings within the Quran, many of which he claimed, were purposefully designed to keep the readers in the dark as to the Quran's message e.g. its emphasis on Scientific inquiry, rational meanings of supposedly "miraculous" events, a model for a Quranic Constitution for government, zero authority for "religious" leaders etc. To date, the majority of mainstream Islamic scholars have found Pervez's criticisms unconvincing, and continue to accept as canonical the Hadiths and mainstream translations/expositions of the Quran that he rejected, despite the deductive proofs Pervez presented using the Quran itself.

Career as Bureaucrat

Pervez joined the Central Secretariat of the Government of India in 1927 and worked in the Home Department, Establishment Division.

He had come in close contact with Western orientalists, who inspired him. In 1938 Parwez started publishing the monthly Tolu-e-Islam where he propagated interpretation of the Qur'an, by amalgamating a Western orientalist perspective about Islam.

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he worked in the Central Government and was also a counselor to Muhammed Ali Jinnah. Parwez took early retirement as assistant secretary in 1955 to focus more on the religious work.

Works

His work and research produced many books on Qur'anic teachings, the most well known of them being Lughat-ul-Qur'an in four volumes, Mafhoom-ul-Qur'an in three volumes, Tabweeb-ul-Qur'an in three volumes, Nizam-e-Rabubiyyat, Islam A Challenge to Religion, Insaan Ne Kiya Socha (History of Human Thought), Tasawwaf Ki Haqiqat, Saleem Ke Naam in three volumes, Tahira Ke Naam, Qur'ani Faislay in five volumes and Shahkar-e-Risalat (the biography of the second Caliph Hazrat Omar).

He delivered many lectures on Iqbal’s viewpoint of implementing the Qur'anic injunctions, which were later compiled and published as a presentation on Iqbal’s philosophy under the title Iqbal aur Qur'an.

He also gave weekly lectures on exposition of the Qur'an at Karachi which he continued (even after shifting to Lahore in 1958) till October 1984 when he was taken ill and expired subsequently on 24 February 1985. This was in addition to his lectures on the Qur'anic teachings to college and university students, scholars and general public at various occasions.

He organized a country-wide network of spreading his ideas of the Qur'anic teachings called Bazm-e-Tolu-e-Islam. Such organizations have now been formed in a number of foreign countries as well.

He left behind a widow and a brother (both now deceased) and a sister. He had no children. His works are being continued through Idara-Tolu-e-Islam, The Tolu-e-Islam Trust, The Qur'anic Research Centre, the Qur'anic Education Society, the Parwez Memorial Library and his audio and video recordings.

The journal Tolu-e-Islam

For a long time Sir Muhammad Iqbal wanted a journal to propagate his ideas and the aims and objective of the Muslim League. Syed Nazeer Niazi, a close friend and a regular visitor during his last two years, started such a journal at his instructions in 1935, naming it Tolu-e-Islam[2] after Iqbal's famous poem "Tulu'i Islam" (Resurgence of Islam). He also dedicated the first edition of this journal to Sir Muhammad Iqbal.

Afterward, this journal was continued[3] by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez, who had already contributed many articles. He was such a devoted admirer of Sir Iqbal that he printed the picture of him on the cover page of this journal every month. He also named his movement Tolu-e-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."

Major publications

Notes

  1. ↑ The Man Behind The Tolu-e-Islam Movement
  2. ↑ http://www.tolueislam.com/Urdu/mag/1935/1935_Oct.djvu
  3. ↑ "Urdu Articles and Books". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  4. ↑ "Mutalib-ul-Furqaan: Volume I". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  5. ↑ "Lugat'ul Quran". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  6. ↑ "Mafhoom'ul Quran". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  7. ↑ "Tabweeb'ul Quran". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  8. ↑ "Nizam-e-Rabobi'at". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  9. ↑ "ISLAM A Challenge To Religion". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  10. ↑ "Insaan Nay Kya Socha". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  11. ↑ "Tasawaaf ki Haqeeqat: Sufism and Islam". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  12. ↑ "Saleem Kay Naam Khatoot: Part 1". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  13. ↑ "Tahira Kay Naam Khatoot". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  14. ↑ "Qurani Faislay: Part 1". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  15. ↑ "Miraj-e-Insaniyaat: Life of Muhammad". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  16. ↑ "Parwez on Moses, Torah, Suliman, Solomon, David, Daoud, Yunus, Jonah, Ayub, Psalms and other Prophets". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  17. ↑ "Parwez on Noah, Ad, Luqman, Salih, Ibraheem, Abraham, Ismael, Lut, Yusuf, Joseoph, and Shoaib". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  18. ↑ "Shola-e-Mastoor: Life of Zakriya, Yahya, Isa (Jesus), People of Kahf". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  19. ↑ "Mon-o-Yazdaun: Concept of God in Quran". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  20. ↑ "Shahkar-e-Risalat". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  21. ↑ "Iblis wa Adam: Parwez on Adam, Insaan, Malika, Iblis, Satan". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  22. ↑ "Parwez on Heaven, Hell, Life after death, Judgement Day, Punishment". Tolueislam.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
  23. ↑ http://www.tolueislam.com/Urdu/makak/makak.htm
  24. ↑ http://www.tolueislam.com/Urdu/azu/azu.djvu

See also

External links