Mumtaz Husain, better known as Mumtaz Mufti (; September 11, 1905 – October 27, 1995), was a writer from Pakistan.Recalling Mumtaz Mufti: LAHORE LITERARY SCENE
Dawn (newspaper), Published 10 November 2001, Retrieved 4 September 2017 Initially a religious skeptic influenced by authors like Freud,

Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, Progressivism, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on h ...

, Alfred Adler and Fyodor Dostoevsky, he would eventually come back to Islam through

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

. Critic Nasir Abbas Nayyar described his writing style as psychological realist.

Early life and education

Mumtaz Mufti was born Mumtaz Husain in Batala, Punjab (now in India). He was the son of Mufti Muhammad Hussain and his first wife Sughra Khanum. He belonged to a Punjabi family that provided religious clerics and jurists ( mufti) during the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

, but lost their title under the Sikh Empire.Aroge, S., & Anjum, T. (2022). "A Journey Within: The Sufi Transformation in Mumtaz Mufti’s Writings." ''Journal Of The Punjab University Historical Society,'' 35 (01). After getting his early education in different cities of Punjab such as Mianwali,

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

and Dera Ghazi Khan, he graduated in Philosophy and Economics from the Islamia College, Lahore in 1929, during his college days participating in activities such as singing and acting and also being politicized, having been active in the Khilafat Movement.

Professional career

Before partition, he was employed as a civil servant under British rule, having earlier started his career as a school teacher. He then joined the

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

as staff artist but resigned when he got an offer from the Bombay film industry. Soon after the partition in 1947, he migrated to Pakistan with his family.Biography of Mumtaz Mufti on urduadab4u.com website
Retrieved 4 September 2017 In Pakistan, he'd work as sub-editor for the ''Istaqlal'' magazine before becoming a psychanalyst for the Pakistan Air Force in 1949 and joining Radio Azad Kashmir in 1950, which would influence him to become more religious.

Writing career

Mumtaz Mufti started writing

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

short stories while working as a schoolteacher before 1947. His first writing was an essay on psychology titled ''Uljhao'' while his first published fiction was titled ''Jhuki Jhuki Ankhen'', released in 1932 in ''Adbi Duniya'', a famous literary magazine at the time. At the beginning of his literary career, he was considered, by other literary critics, a non-conformist writer having liberal views, who appeared influenced by the psychologist Freud. Pakistan's famous writer Ashfaq Ahmed was one of his close friends. According to Ashfaq Ahmed, Mufti used to read unpopular literature by a Swedish writer before 1947. Mufti initially did not like the 1947 partition plan of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, but changed his views later to become a patriotic Pakistani. In his later life, he used to defend Islam and its principles. His transformation from

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

was due to his inspiration from a fellow writer Qudrat Ullah Shahab. Despite all the changes in his viewpoints, he did manage to retain his individual point of view and wrote on subjects which were frowned upon by the conservative elements in the society. The two phases of his life are witnessed by his autobiographies, '' Ali Pur Ka Aeeli'' (1961) and ''Alakh Nagri''. According to forewords mentioned in his later autobiography, '' Ali Pur Ka Aeeli'': علی پور کا ایلی is an account of a lover who challenged the social taboos of his times, and ''Alakh Nagri'' is an account of a devotee who is greatly influenced by the mysticism of Qudrat Ullah Shahab.Biography of Mumtaz Mufti on goodreads.com website
Retrieved 4 September 2017 The book ''Talaash'' ("Quest") was the last book written by Mumtaz Mufti. It reportedly highlights the true spirit of Quranic teachings.Mumtaz Mufti interviewing folk singer Tufail Niazi at Lok Virsa, Islamabad event on YouTube
Published 5 April 2013, Retrieved 4 September 2017

Awards and recognition

* 1986: Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) Award by the President of PakistanProfile of Mumtaz Mufti on samaa.tv website
Published 27 October 2011, Retrieved 4 September 2017 * 1989: Munshi Premchand Award (a literary award from India)

Legacy

His son, Uxi Mufti, a literary critic himself, created a ''Mumtaz Mufti Trust'' after his death in October 1995. This trust has been observing Mumtaz Mufti's death anniversary events in different cities of Pakistan. His friends and admirers, including Ashfaq Ahmed, Bano Qudsia and Ahmad Bashir have appeared as speakers at these events. Another famous writer Kishwar Naheed comments in one of her book review that Mumtaz Mufti had plenty of human weaknesses but also appreciated him as a learned critic. There is a road named after him in the city of

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

, Pakistan.

Books

Short stories

* ''Gehma Gehmi'', 1949, 256 p. * ''Asmarain'', 1952, 327 p. * ''Ghubare'', 1954, 220 p. * ''Ghurya Ghar'', 1965, 312 p. * ''Raughani Putle'', 1984, 244 p. * ''Muftiyane'', 1989, 1526 p. (collected short stories) * ''Kahi Na Jae'', 1992, 178 p. * ''Chup'', 1993, 269 p. * ''Samai Ka Bandhan'', 1993, 192 p. * ''Talash'', 1996, 278 p. (last book, the theme being Islam)

Play

* ''Nizam Saqqah'', 1953, 169 p.

Autobiographical novels

* ''Alipur Ka Eli'', 1961, 1188 p. (first part of the autobiography) * ''Alakh Nagri'', 1992, 996 p. (second part of the autobiography)

Travelogues

* ''Hind Yatra'', 1982, 359 p. (travel to India) * ''Labbaik'', 1993, 320 p. (account of a

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

pilgrimage undertaken in 1968)

Essays

* ''Piyaz Ke Chilke'', 1968, 184 p. (literary criticism and views on Pakistani nationalism) * ''Aukhe Log'', 1986, 311 p. (impressions of famous Pakistani writers) * ''Aukhe Avalre'', 1995, 258 p. (biographical sketches of famed Pakistani authors)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mufti, Mumtaz 1905 births 1995 deaths Pakistani autobiographers Pakistani male novelists Pakistani male short story writers Urdu-language short story writers Pakistani male dramatists and playwrights Scholars of Sufism Urdu-language novelists Pakistani literary critics Writers from Lahore 20th-century Pakistani novelists Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz 20th-century Pakistani short story writers 20th-century Pakistani male writers Converts to Islam from atheism or agnosticism Pakistani Sufis People from Gurdaspur district Islamia College University alumni