Syed Zafarul Hasan (14 February 1885 – 19 June 1949) was a prominent twentieth-century Pakistani Muslim

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Biography

He was the eldest son of Khan Sahib Syed Diwan Mohammad. Hasan was educated at Aligarh (M.A., LL. B.) and obtained doctorates from the universities of

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. Dr Zafarul Hasan was the first Muslim Scholar of the Indian sub-continent to secure a PhD from Oxford in Philosophy. His doctoral thesis ''Realism'' is a classic on the subject. Prominent philosophers and educationists lauded his work, among them, his teacher Prof. John Alaxander Smith (1863–1930), and Allama Mohammad Iqbal. He started teaching at the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India in 1911. In 1913, he became professor of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at Islamia College, Peshawar. From 1924 to 1945 he was professor of philosophy at the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh – where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts. There, in 1939, he put forward the 'Aligarh Scheme' along with Dr Afzaal Hussain Qadri. They published a scheme ("The Problem of Indian Muslims") proposing three independent States. From 1945 until the partition of the sub-continent, Dr Hasan was

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Professor at

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capital, New Delhi. ...

. In August 1947, he migrated to Lahore, Pakistan. He started work on a book that he could not complete due to his death in 1949. Only one volume ("PHILOSOPHY – A Critique") was ready, which was published from Lahore by Institute of Islamic Culture in 1988. He received honours and served on a number of bodies: Member of Court, Member of Executive Council, Finance Co., Com. of Advanced Studies, Aligarh Muslim Univ.; Dir., Jamiat-ut-Tamaddunil-Islami, Bombay; Member, International Academy of Philosophy, Erlangen. Pres., Islami Jamaat, Aligarh. Member: Education Committee, All-India Muslim League; Kant Gesellscaft (Germany); Mind Assn. (England); Philosophical Congress (India); Academic Council of Muslim Univ. at Aligarh.

Works

* ''Realism – An Attempt To Trace Its Origin And Development in Its Chief Representatives'' (Cambridge University Press, London, 1928) * ''Realism'' (translated into Urdu), 1927 * ''Monismus Spinozas'', 1922 * ''Descartes' Dualism'', 1912 * ''Philosophy and Education'', 1927 * ''Philosophy and Its Advantages'', 1931 * ''Realism is not Metaphysics'', 1931 * ''Islamics'', 1936 * ''The Problem'', 1933 * ''Revelation and Apostle'', 1937 * ''Message of Iqbal'', 1938 * ''Philosophy of Religion'' * '' Philosophy of Islam'' * ''Philosophy of Kant'' * ''PHILOSOPHY – A Critique'' ( Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, 1988) File:SZH_%26_Friends.jpg#filelinks

Sources

* ''World Biography'', Fourth Edition of the ''Biographical Encyclopedia of the World'', Institute for Research in Biography, New York, page 2183. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasan, Syed Zafarul Islamic philosophers 1885 births 1949 deaths Academic staff of Aligarh Muslim University Academic staff of Islamia College University Metaphysicians Philosophers of religion Members of the Pakistan Philosophical Congress 20th-century Pakistani philosophers Aligarh Muslim University alumni