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moment of my father’s life as he resigned from his responsibilities at
Deoband and devoted himself for Pakistan. Sheikh ul Islam Maulana
Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, who was a gem of his age being competent
in all the disciplines of religious knowledge and an era ordinary
orator, also resigned from Dar ul Uloom and devoted his energies
for Pakistan Movement. Not only these two Ulema but many others
also joined the movement of Pakistan departing Deoband Madrasa.
The reason to depart the Madrasa was that these people did not like
political activities while remaining affiliated with a religious institute.
Moreover they also feared that their excessive political indulgence
will not let them spare time for teaching and it will affect the academic
activities adversely.
In those days, three parties in Deoband were struggling for Pakistan;
one of them was Jamiat Ulama e Islam founded by Maulana Shabbir
Ahmad Usmani. This party was initially founded at Kolcatta and then
later its network spread throughout the country. Jamiat Ulama e Hind
was striving to hinder the divide of sub-continent whereas Jamiat
Ulama e Islam was struggling for the formation of Pakistan. It was a
big issue. I still have a quotation from Sheikh Usmani before me which
is from his public speech at Deoband. He said, “Although I departed
politics and my health conditions don’t allow me to participate in such
hard and engaging activities but I cannot help keeping myself isolated
from the Pakistan movement. For this movement, I will eagerly give
even my soul. My father was a disciple of Sheikh Usmani and they
together traveeled throughout the country to convince people for
Pakistan. They organized processions and delivered a lot of speeches
even at Dar ul Uloom.
There was another movement too in Dar ul Uloom known as Muslim
Student Federation. Primarily it was a student organization based in
colleges and universities but it existed in Madrasa Deoband too. Many
of our family members were part of it Alhamdulillah. They also used to
conduct processions and public lectures. The third organization was
‘ChildrenMuslimLeague’whichwe children had founded. I told you that
I was a twelve years old kid then and a part of it. So, this organization
consisted of 200 children almost and we used to have processions.
Our procession used to begin from the central mosque of the city after
Friday prayer. We used to raise the slogans like “lay kay rahain gay
Pakistan! Bat kay rahay ga Hindustan! Apna sar katain gay Pakistan