Prof DrManzoorulHaq, a renowned educationist, academic and
author passed away the other day in a Faisalabad hospital after brief illness.
He was teacher, a fatherly figure and a source of strength. He will be
remembered for hisrestless services in the education field, deep research on
Iqbal and comparative study of religions, and for his major contribution towards
spreading the Quranic thought, almost his entire life. He was man of words, man
of letters and man of principle. He was so disciplined in his own routine timing
that, rain or shine, he never missed doing the important things, daily. This
isn’t easy, overpowering one’s self isn’t easy. Each morning, he used to send on
WhatsApp his words of wisdom, and this routine never stopped.
I came in contact with DrManzoorulHaq because of my Nana, Mian Muhammad Din, who
died though years ago, yet had beenin correspondence withDr Sahib, which
werecalled in a Facebook chat. My grandfather was a keen reader of a few
magazines and digests including Mahe Taybabeing published from KotliLoharan,
Salsabeel from Mohni Road Lahore, Tarjumanul Quran from Mansura, Tulue Islam
from Gulberg,Takbeer by Salahuddin from Karachi and Hakayat by Inayatullah from
Lahore. It was a time when the debate on Khatm-e-Nabuwatissue was at its peak,
and a book “Khatm-e-NabuwataurTehrik-e-Ahmadiyat”had become famous among other
publications which successfully defended the Lasthood of the Prophet (PBUH). I
read this book twice, and thanked God for having my mind cleared because of the
importance and sensitivity ofthe Khatm-e-Nabuwat concept. This incident became
the reason that I started takinginterest in the stockpile of grandfather’s
library which comprised of a number of precious books on heterogeneous subjects
like theology, fiqh, jurisprudence, Hadith, Tafseer andTareekh, and also on
Urdu, Persian, English, Arabic literature, philosophy, science, geography,
astronomy and cosmology, mathematics, music, classical poetryand many more. I
got the opportunity of going through most of the books, so I was able to have an
excess into his personal hand written letters. His correspondence with AbulAala,
DrAsrar, G A Parwez and other scholars opened new vistas to me. More powerful
and highly motivating message I got was the love of motherland, for which my
Nana haddevoted whole life and rendered unprecedented services in this course.
He helped in settling and rehabilitating the migrating Mohajirs from Indian side
to Pakistan, shared his own properties and premises with them and then installed
a permanent centre for reaching out to the needy. He voluntarily launched a
school for which he dedicated one part of his own haveli where the villagers got
educated, and joined the armed forces and other jobs available which resulted in
making the village ‘Muhammad Nagar’ as an example for others.
To cut short, I narrated all this to DrManzoorulHaq, which pleased him so much,
and this is how we started. I sent him my books published so far and started a
monthly dispatch of magazines being published under my supervision. He also
started daily sending me his words of wisdom on WhatsApp and it was surprising
to see his work on the root words of Quran. His interpretation of the root words
was a marvelous and unprecedented contribution, which certainly has a no match.I
must advise readers no to not miss reading his words of wisdom,which his
daughter now regularly posts and disseminates. We must also use the social media
portals for a purpose, not for wasting time. People like DrManzoor are not
ordinary. He devoted all his life on research in the Quran and sending the
Quran’s message across. Above all, he implemented it on himself first. He
practically demonstrated first before he preached to others. For example, he
used to recite Quran bilTafseer daily, without a pause and nonstop. He used to
recite Darood-e-Pak daily, usually after Asr prayers. Surah e Noor was his
favorite from the Holy Quran, and from Surah e Noor, the most favorite Verse to
him was the Verse of Noor, which means:“God is the Light of the heavens and the
earth. The parable of His light is, as it were, that of a niche containing a
lamp; the lamp is [enclosed] in glass, the glass (shining) like a radiant star:
(a lamp) lit from a blessed tree – an olive-tree that is neither of the east nor
of the west the oil whereof (is so bright that it) would well-nigh give light
(of itself) even though fire had not touched it: light upon light! God guides
unto His light him that wills (to be guided); and (to this end) God propounds
parables unto men, since God (alone) has full knowledge of all things.”
One amazes as when goes deep into the meanings of this Verse. I asked the
students many a time to draw out an animated concept of the understanding on
this Verse, but nobody has truly caught the idea. It is so simple, yet so
complex but it is the crux of the being of whole of the universe, the world
known and the worlds unknown. DrManzoorulHaq being the researcher must have been
more aware of the depth of this Verse. According to his daughter, he asked her
to recite for himSurah-e-Noorsitting beside his hospital bed, and this was
because of his deep understanding about the Surah. It wasn’t rather because of
the superstitious reasons, but the well thought out reasoning. One can enjoy his
choice if we know the meanings of what we are reciting. Such a man can be having
the “Qalb-e-Mutma’inna” or the heart contented and purified. Only such people
can laugh at death when it comes. The Light of Allah had surely welcomed him,
illumined his heart and embraced him to eternity.
We all have to die one day, but the best thing we can do while we live is to at
least do in footsteps of those who worked in service of humanity, spent their
time in educating the ignorant and played well their part of role on earth. He
was a great man, great husband, great father, great teacher and great thinker
who has left a great legacy for not only his sons and daughters but for his
students and friends to follow the same way, rather push forward his mission for
spreading the light to all corners of darkness.May Allah grant him the best
place in Jannah and give his family strength and fortitude. People like
DrManzoorulHaq don’t die, they only pass away, to live another day.
(The author is a freelance columnist)