Two students of the first Muslim school in Bombay, British India, contributed to Muslims in a major way. The first was a brilliant barrister, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan nation, also known as Quaid e Azam. The second was Abdullah Yusuf Ali whose translation of the Quran is the most used English translation of the Quran in the world.

In 1940 Mohammad Ali Jinnah was instrumental in getting the Muslim League formally to adopt Dr. Mohammad Iqbal's vision of a separate state for Muslims. A year later, Jinnah summed up the implications of this vision of a separate state for Muslims with his customary eloquence:

The ideology of the Muslim League is based on the fundamental principle that the Muslims of India are an independent nationality and any attempt to get them to merge their national and political identity and unity will not only be resisted but, in my opinion, it will be futile for anyone to attempt it. We are determined, and let there be no mistake about it, to establish the status of an independent State in this subcontinent.

During the early and difficult months of Pakistan's emergence, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, although in ill-health and over seventy years of age, undertook a countrywide tour aimed at building confidence and raising people's spirits. "Do not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task," he said in a speech at Lahore. "There is many an example in history of young nations building themselves up by sheer determination and force of character. You are made of sterling material and second to none. Keep up your morale. Do not be afraid of death. We should face it bravely to save the honor of Pakistan and of Islam. Do your duty and have faith in Pakistan. It has come to stay."

Jinnah's role in this Pakistan that had indeed come to stay is immeasurable. His people bestowed upon him the title Quaid-e-Azam, 'Great Leader', because without him, Pakistan would not have existed at all. His leadership of Muslims of India through the 1930's and the crucial years immediately preceding Partition gave shape to their dreams and put their aspirations into a realistic and meaningful framework. One of his greatest gifts as a politician was that whenever he defined Pakistan he did so in terms that the man in the street could understand, and he avoided abstract philosophical principles. "We are a nation," he affirmed, three years before the birth of Pakistan, "with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitude and ambitions--- in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life."

Professor Ziauddin Ahmad, the biographer of Quad-e-Azam, commented, "When he defined Muslim nationhood in such tangible terms, every Muslim found himself testifying to the justice of this claim, and subscribing to the logical corollary of the fact and recognition of separate Muslim nationhood, viz., the demand for a Muslim homeland."

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/18/2002 8:05:27 AM

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