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“Alhamdulillah I was born in Deoband at Saharanpur, a district
in UP, the same Deoband which is renowned all over the world
for its religious educational institute. Deoband is the habitat of our
forefathers since centuries. My grandfather Maulana Yaseen was
born in the same period when madrasa of Deoband was found so he
acquired his education there and graduated from the madrasa. My
father was also a graduate of madrasa Deoband and afterwards, he
served as a teacher there in different disciplines including Hadith and
its sciences. Finally, my father was appointed as head of Dar al Ifta
and I started my early education at Dar al Ifta. I can recollect from my
childhood memories that in 50’s when the Second World War ended
and the allied forces were tramped, we had a celebration at madrasa
Deoband. There was a procession on that occasion and we children
too participated in that. There are many other memories associated
with that age. In the days, when I was memorizing Quran, my father
used to run a publishing institute in order to print and distribute the
religious literature to the whole country. My elder brother Zaki Kaifi (a
known poet of Pakistan whose poetic collection was published later)
used to assist him in these activities. Any ways when I returned home,
I saw a tablet on the writing table of my father; the tablet was covered
with a white paper with a sentence inscribed on it with blue ink. It said,
“Pakistan is ours!” It was the first time when I read and heard the word
‘Pakistan’. It was the beginning of Pakistan movement and a decisive
Translated by: Umm-e-Afaf, Xing-China