Syed Nazeer Niazi (1900 - 1982) was an eminent Muslim scholar, professor and journalist. He was one of the leading activists of the

Pakistan movement The Pakistan Movement was a religiopolitical and social movement that emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. It was rooted in the two-nation the ...

. He was

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...

Allama Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 187721 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

. His biography of Iqbal, Iqbal kay Hazoor, and Maktoobat-e-Iqbal Banaam Nazir Niazi are basic sources for the study of Iqbal. During the last two years of Iqbal's life, he regularly visited him and recorded his conversation in his book "Iqbal Kai Hazoor". He completed this conversation in three volumes, but unfortunately the last two volumes were destroyed. Only first volume was published.

Early life

He got his early education from his uncle Shams-ul-Ulma (Grand Scholar) Syed Mir Hassan, Professor of

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

. Then he got his education from Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri. He got married in a very honorable family and he had three sons and two daughters, currently living in Pakistan.

Career

He Joined

Jamia Millia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia is a Public university, public and research university located in Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British R ...

in 1922 and served here till 1935. In 1927, he was appointed as Head of department of history of Islam. In 1946, he took the responsibilities of Information and Communications of Punjab

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties British India *All-India Muslim League, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan ** Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organization above **Unionist Muslim L ...

, and worked very hard for the

. He was awarded Pakistan Movement Gold Medal from government of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Translations and works

He had the honour of being the first translator of Sir

Muhammad Iqbal Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 187721 April 1938) was a South Asian Islamic philosopher, poet and politician. Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...

's 1930 Presidential Address to the 25th Session of the All-India Muslim League Allahabad, 29 December 1930 into Urdu Language. He was famous for his Urdu translation of

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam ''The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam'' is a compilation of lectures delivered by Muhammad Iqbal on Islamic philosophy which got published in 1930. These lectures were delivered by Iqbal in Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh. The last ...

, by Sir

, and

Politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

Introduction to the History of Science

He also translated

George Sarton George Alfred Leon Sarton (; 31 August 1884 – 22 March 1956) was a Belgian-American chemist and historian. He is considered the founder of the discipline of the history of science as an independent field of study. His most influential works were ...

“Introduction to the History of Science in three-volume, 4,236-page, a work which reviews and catalogs the scientific and cultural contributions of every civilization from antiquity through the fourteenth century. According to

Will Durant William James Durant (; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American historian and philosopher, best known for his eleven-volume work, '' The Story of Civilization'', which contains and details the history of Eastern and Western civil ...

, "Every writer on Islamic science must record his debt to

for his Introduction to the History of Science That monumental work is not only one of the noblest achievements in the history of scholarship; it also performs an inestimable service in revealing the wealth and scope of Moslem culture. Scholars everywhere must hope that every facility will be provided for the completion of this work.". This translation into Urdu language was published by Majlis Tariqi Adab in three volumes. The introduction written by him for this translation is itself a complete book on this subject. His articles on Islamic concept of state in Muslim League journal "manshoor" published in Delhi in 1945 constitute an important historical material on this subject.

Tolu-e-Islam

In 1935, according to the instructions of Sir

, He initiated and edited, a journal Tolu-e-Islam named after the famous poem of Sir

Tulu'i Islam "Tulu'i Islam" ("Dawn of Islam") is an Urdu poem written by Muhammad Iqbal, expounding on the birth and glory of Islam. The name of this poem is the namesake of various organizations and magazines like Tolu-e-Islam (magazine), tolu-i-Islam(magazi ...

. He also dedicated the first edition of this journal to Sir

. His first article in this journal was "Millat Islamia Hind" The Muslim nation of India. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement. Afterward, this journal was continued by

Ghulam Ahmed Pervez Ghulam Ahmad Parwez (; 1903–1985) was a well-known teacher of the Quran in India and Pakistan. He posed a challenge to the established Sunni doctrine by interpreting Quranic themes with a logical approach. The work 'Islam: A Challenge to Re ...

, who had already contributed many articles in the early editions of this journal. He also named his movement as Tolu-e-Islam (Resurgence of Islam). This journal is still published by Idara Tolu-e-Islam. Initially, "Its primary object was to tell the people (of British India" that according to the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, ideology and not geographical boundary, was the basis for the formation of nation, and that a politically independent

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

was pre-requisite to live in

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. For this it has to face not only the British and Hindu opposition but also the fanatic nationalism of Muslim individuals and groups such as represented by the Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Ahrar-e-Islam, etc. After the emergence of

, the chief objective before (the journal) Tolu-e-Islam was to propagate the implementation of the principle which had inspired the demand for a separate Muslim state; that is, to help transform the live force of Islamic Ideology into the Constitution of

Awards and recognition

* Presidential Iqbal Award

Tributes

"In an article, entitled ‘Conversations with Iqbal’, by Syed Nazir Niazi, a close friend of Iqbal, who has had extensive conversations with him, which he recorded from time to time, we have another treasure trove of information on Iqbal’s preoccupations with German culture and German thought. Again it is Goethe who figures most prominently in their conversations. Writes Niazi: ‘Perhaps what life needs most are men who can understand its ultimate purpose. Goethe was such a man and so was Iqbal. And it was Iqbal who turned our attention to Goethe. It is a remarkable episode in our history that Iqbal alone should have resisted the force of a whole literature and culture, namely English, which was dominating our life through political control. It is a fact that we accepted Goethe rather than Shakespeare. Shakespeare is no doubt admired, but Goethe is the favourite. Shakespeare is a unique artist whom we all recognize, but Goethe is one of us who has secured a place in our heart. If we bear this point in mind a glimpse of the perfect man or Vicegerent of God or Mu’min or Man of Faith and his character, disposition as conceived by Iqbal, is seen to some extent in Faust a creature of Goethe’s thoughts, and not for instance in the ‘Superman of Nietzsche." "some very useful and interesting books giving relatively more in-depth biographical details on Iqbal were written by Iqbal scholars such as Faqir Syed Waheeduddin, Syed Nazeer Niazi,...in 1977 will be remembered as a watershed year as Iqbal centennial was commemorated at the government level that year, when the literary world witnessed an unprecedented flow of books and articles on Iqbal."

Sources

# Iqbal kay Hazoor, by Syed Nazeer Niazi # Maktoobat -e- Iqbal Benam Nazeer Niazi. https://web.archive.org/web/20091201093645/http://www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/Urdu-Books/969-416-207-021/ # Zinda Rud, 3 Volumes, by Justice Javed Iqbal. https://web.archive.org/web/20091201095110/http://www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net/Urdu-Books/969-416-207-008/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niazi, Syed Nazeer Muhammad Iqbal Leaders of the Pakistan Movement 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Islamic philosophers People from Jalandhar Pashtun people