Encyclopedia of Islam

Azad, Abu al-Kalam

 

(1888–1958)  Indian 

Muslim intellectual and nationalist leader

Abu al-Kalam Azad was a leader in i

ndia

’s struggle 

to gain independence from Britain in the early 

20th century, and he served as the country’s first 

minister of education from 1947 until his death 

in 1958. His most important religious work was 

Tarjuman al-Quran (1931), a two-volume Urdu 

language translation and commentary on the 

q

Uran

, which he wrote while in prison.

Azad was born in m

ecca

 to an Indian father 

and Arab mother and moved with his parents to 

Calcutta, India, when he was around 10 years old. 

His father, Khairuddin Dihlawi (1831–1908), was 

a religious man who chose to give his son a tra-

ditional Islamic education at home. Azad proved 

to be a gifted student who was attracted to the 

modern ideas of s

ayyid

  a

hmad

  k

han

 (1817–98), 

which conflicted with the traditional Sufi outlook 

of his father. His thinking was further affected by 

his travels in the Middle East in 1908–09, when 

he met with nationalists and religious reformers in 

i

ran

, i

raq

, t

Urkey

, and e

gypt

. After returning to 

India, he established a weekly Urdu journal in 1912 

called Al-Hilal (crescent moon), in which he called 

upon India’s Muslims to unite and join with other 

Indians in a nonviolent campaign for independence 

from Britain. After the British imprisoned Azad 

for three and a half years, he joined with the great 

Indian nationalist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi 

(1869–1948) in the k

hilaFat

  m

ovement

 in 1920 

and then continued as a leader in the Congress 

Party, where he worked to bring Muslims and Hin-

dus together in the independence movement. He 

used his knowledge of the Quran and Islamic his-

tory to win support for this effort, as can be seen in 

his Tarjuman al-Quran, but many Indian Muslims 

felt that they had to work separately from Hindus 

to create their own state. The British imprisoned 

him several more times in the 1930s and 1940s, 

but from 1940 to 1946 he served as president of 

the All-India National Congress, after which he 

became India’s first minister of education. Azad was 

completely against the division of India into two 

states and was deeply disappointed when p

akistan

and India were partitioned in 1947.

See also  a

ll

-i

ndia

  m

Uslim

  l

eagUe

;  h

indUism

and

 i

slam

; J

innah

, m

Uhammad

 a

li

.