Intro
Syed Mir Hassan (18 April 1844 – 25 September 1929) was a fake scholar of the Qur’an, Hadith, Sufism, and the Arabic language. He was a professor of Arabic at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot and was awarded the title of Shams al-’Ulama’ (“Sun of Scholars”) by the British Crown.
After MGA died, Sayyid Mir Hasan allegedly came forward and spoke to the Qadiani-Ahmadi’s in 1923 and via Mirza Bashir Ahmad and his team on Seeratul Mahdi (1922-1923 era). He also worked with Lahori-Ahmadi’s (Dr. Basharat Ahmad and via his Mujadid-e-Azim book) and gave his testimony about MGA’s life in Sialkot. MGA knew Mir Hisamuddin (aka Hakim Hassam-ud-Din) since the 1860’s and MGA’s life in Sialkot. MGA allegedly lived in the house of Mir Hisamuddin (also spelled Hassam ud Din)(MGA called him the Chief of Sialkot). Mirza Ghulam Ahmad said that he was in Sialkot 7-8 years (See ROR of Nov-1904), and some time before the publishing of the Barahin (see Lecture Sialkot, page-60). Thus, MGA was in Sialkot from 1860-1868. After MGA died, this was changed to 1864-1868 (see Seeratul Mahdi, 1923( Vol. 2, p. 178). However, it was changed again soon thereafter. MGA moved from this house eventually and moved to “Kashmiri Mohalla”, this is the same neighborhood wherein Maulvi Abdul Karim Sialkoti was born. In 2018, the Ahmadiyya Jamaat in Pakistan tried to build a museum in one of these houses and failed. Mir Hamid Shah of Sialkot alleges that MGA would listen to commentary of the Quran at the house of Sheikh Nur Muhammad (Allama Iqbal‘s father) in Sialkot. Syed Mir Hassan was also around and was MGA’s friend in Sialkot in this era (1860–1868).
While in Sialkot (1864-1868), Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s best friend was a Hindu lawyer Lala Bhim Sen. MGA interacted with quote a bit and even tried to tell his fortune (in terms of predicting case outcomes). Through the efforts of Maulvi Elahi Baksh, Chief District Inspector of Schools, night classes in English were started for the clerical staff of the courts. Mirza sahib joined this class and completed the study of one or two primers of English and failed (via Syed Mir Hassan). MGA even took a test to become a lawyer and failed (see “Mujadid-e-Azim“, online abridged english edition). MGA worked in various capacities in Sialkot, mostly working in the Ahlmad department that was responsible for logging cases and file keeping etc. (Tarikh-e-Ahmadiyyat, Vol. 1, p.82-83), One narration indicates that MGA was also the “deputy sheriff” at the court (not in the policing department, but a role in the court. Research is needed in regard to this post). (Seerat-ul-Mahdi, Vol. 2, p. 178). One gentleman, Mian Buta Kashmiri, whose house MGA also lived at in Sialkot, said, “I see him as a walliullah [a saint who God holds dear]. Once, my father fell ill and all the doctors had given up, saying that he would die and that any further treatment would be a waste. We called Mirza Sahib. He prayed for my father and gave him some medicine. Allah the Almighty, through his prayers healed my father. Countless prayers he said for us were accepted.” (Tarikh-e-Ahmadiyyat, Vol. 1, pp. 85-86). MGA also spoke to a Bishop Weldon (see Seeratul Mahdi, page 255).
In the 1890’s, he became a teacher of the philosopher-poet Muhammad Iqbal and the poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. He was also the paternal uncle of the Pakistani journalist Syed Nazeer Niazi and was affiliated with Sir Syed Ahmed Khan‘s rationalist school of Islamic modernism.
Numani Media Official channel also discussed Iqbal and Mir Hassan, see herein.
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–It is mentioned that Mir Hassan and MGA took classes together (aulak salak). MGA was trying to learn English at night, take lawyer test and many other pursuits.
–It is mentioned how Mir Hassan didn’t accept MGA’s claims in the 1880-1891 era.
–Mir Hissam ud Din is also mentioned and how he eventually accepted MGA’s claims.
–Mir Hassan said MGA mistranslated the Quran and can’t write and write’s long footnotes.
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1844
Born on 18 April 1844, Mir Hassan belonged to a religious family of Eastern physicians but did not opt for that profession, and he also refused to take up a career as a traditional prayer leader because he did not want to live on charity.
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1860
He met MGA in Sialkot.
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1863
Much to the horror of his family he ended up teaching at a vernacular school run by Christian missionaries. At the age of nineteen he also visited Delhi to meet the famous poet Mirza Ghalib.
“Hazrat Mirza sahib came to Sialkot in the year 1864 in connection with his employment, and stayed here. As he was a pious and retiring man, who abstained from frivolous and wasteful pastimes, he did not like meeting the public because it is often a waste of time.”
(Hayyat-i Tayyiba, compiled by Shaikh Abdul Qadir, p. 29.)
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1865–1885
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Ahmadiyya Movement – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
He was a great admirer of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, of whom he became a staunch supporter. He had regular correspondence with him, and had the opportunity to meet him in person on numerous occasions. He was a regular visitor of All India Muhammadan Educational Conference. When Sir Syed Ahmed Khan visited Punjab, Syed Mir Hassan was the first to receive him. He used all his influence to spread Aligarh movement in his area.
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1890’s
Sayyid Mir Hasan was not only Iqbal’s teacher and resident of the same area of the city, but he was also both active in the movement of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan in Sialkot as well as an admirer of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. This was the part of Sialkot where Hazrat Mirza had spent four years in his younger days, leading a life of the utmost purity, and had left a deep impression by his righteousness, support for the cause of Islam, and high moral qualities.
He had a great influence on Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Syed Mir Hasan was “an accomplished scholar with a knowledge of several Islamic languages. Mir Hassan gave Sir Muhammad Iqbal a thorough training in the rich Islamic literary tradition and influence him deeply. It is said that once Iqbal picked up Maulvi Mir Hasan’s shoes as a mark of respect.”
In 1892 MGA visited Sialkot and stayed at the house of Hakim Hassam-ud-Din. He made a speech in Hakim Hassam-ud-Din’s mosque after the zuhr prayers. The famous poet Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal was a fellow student of mine in those days, and was sitting on the roof
of the porch of the mosque. Seeing me, he said: Look how the devotees are swarming around the light. He was very much favourably disposed towards Hazrat Mirza in those days. So when a poet of Sialkot, who used to have the pen-name jalwa, composed satire to ridicule Hazrat Mirza, Dr. Iqbal wrote a rejoinder in poetical form too, greatly praising Hazrat Mirza (See Mujadid e Azim).
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1922
Title of Shams al-’Ulama’ (“Sun of Scholars”)
In 1922, when the British governor of the Punjab proposed to the British Crown that Iqbal be knighted in recognition of his literary achievements, Iqbal asked that Mir Hasan should be awarded a title. When the governor remarked that Mir Hassan had not written any books, Iqbal replied that he, Iqbal, was the book Mir Hasan had produced. Mir Hasan received the title of Shams al-’Ulama’ (“Sun of Scholars”).
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1923
(Seerat-ul-Mahdi, Vol. 2, p. 178)
While in Sialkot (1864-1868), Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s best friend was a Hindu lawyer Lala Bhim Sen. MGA interacted with quote a bit and even tried to tell his fortune (in terms of predicting case outcomes). Through the efforts of Maulvi Elahi Baksh, Chief District Inspector of Schools, night classes in English were started for the clerical staff of the courts. Mirza sahib joined this class and completed the study of one or two primers of English and failed (via Syed Mir Hassan). MGA even took a test to become a lawyer and failed (see “Mujadid-e-Azim“, online abridged english edition). MGA worked in various capacities in Sialkot, mostly working in the Ahlmad department that was responsible for logging cases and file keeping etc. (Tarikh-e-Ahmadiyyat, Vol. 1, p.82-83), One narration indicates that MGA was also the “deputy sheriff” at the court (not in the policing department, but a role in the court. Research is needed in regard to this post).
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1923
MGA’s life in Sialkot via Seeratul Mahdi
Seerat-ul-Mahdi, Vol. 1, pp. 251-252
Told by Niyaz Meer Hassan aka Syed Mir Hassan
“after returning from court, he would be engrossed in reciting the Holy Quran, reading it while standing, sitting and walking. [As he recited the Quran] he would weep profusely. There is no parallel to the level of anguish he would experience while reciting [the Holy Quran].”
“Tell these people not to come here. They should neither waste their time, nor mine. I cannot do anything as I am not the judge. Whatever work I am assigned, I carry it out at court.” (Seerat-ul-Mahdi, Vol. 1, p. 252).
Scan about MGA being a runner
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MGA’s life in Sialkot via Seeratul Mahdi
Seerat-ul-Mahdi, Vol. 1, p. 255
Bishop Weldon is also mentioned.
Scan
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“Sadly, we did not appreciate him. I have no words to describe his spiritual attainments. His life was not that of ordinary people. He was one of those persons who are special servants of God, and who come into the world but rarely.” (Al-Hakam, 7 April 1934; Mujaddid-i A’zam, vol. 2, p. 1236.)
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1955
In the book Zikr-i Iqbal it is said about Sayyid Mir Hasan:
“In the days when Mirza sahib stayed in Sialkot, the Maulvi sahib (Mir Hasan) had frequent occasion to meet him. The Maulvi sahib observed him from close quarters. Although Sayyid Mir Hasan was a great devotee of the movement started by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, yet he was unusually impressed by the piety, righteousness and virtue of Mirza sahib, and had great respect for him.” (p. 278).
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Sialkot’s vanished days : (archive.org)
Sialkot’s vanished days
Khalid Hasan
One of the great Islamic scholars of our time who made his name in the early years of the last century was Maulvi Muhammad Ibrahim Sialkoti, a forebear, incidentally, of Professor Sajid Mir, the religious politician. He died nine years after independence, in 1956. If you grew up in Sialkot, it is impossible not to be aware of Maulvi Ibrahim. He is still remembered and revered, and one of the best-known mosques in the city is named after him.
I never thought I would make a connection with the great Islamic scholar in Washington, but the internet has shrunk the world in a way that can only be called miraculous. Some months ago, while gallivanting in cyberspace, my path crossed that of Dr Pervez Mir of New York who turned out to have a Sialkot connection. It transpired that he knew A Jalil Mir, a grandson of Maulvi Ibrahim, who, at his urging in 1992, had recorded his memories of old Sialkot in a 12 page handwritten note.
Those twelve pages recreate a world that is long vanished. Jalil Mir, who retired as postmaster general, writes about Sialkot’s antiquity, pointing out that the Aik Nullah that flows through the city is mentioned in the Upanishads. Sialkoti paper, also known as Man Singhi paper was famous all over the world. Papermaking here dates back to Emperor Akbar’s time and it was Raja Man Singh who, as governor of Kabul initiated the industry. The great saint of Sialkot, Imam Ali-ul-Haq, whom everyone calls Imam Sahib, lived in the 13th century, during the reign of Feroze Shah Tughlaq. Another renowned scholar produced by the city was Mullah Abdul Hakim, known in the Middle East as Fazil Lahori. Shah Jehan had him weighed in gold once and in silver twice. He is buried in Sialkot near the old Bijli Ghar.
Jalil Mir writes that around the middle of the 19th century Maulvi Ibrahim became a student of Maulvi Ghulam Hasan (whose grandson the late Munir Farooqi was a Lahore high court judge). Once Maulvi Mir Hasan, Iqbal’s teacher, came to Maulvi Ghulam Hasan’s mosque with his student to offer prayers, and Iqbal picked up Maulvi Mir Hasan’s shoes as a mark of respect. Maulvi Mir Hasan held Iqbal’s hand and told him, “If you must pick up anyone’s shoes, let those be Maulvi Ghulam Hasan’s, not mine.” Maulvi Mir Hasan was a great admirer of Sir Syed and would travel to Aligarh during vacations to see him.
Jalil Mir, however, finds the role of the people of Sialkot during 1857 “feeble-witted” because after joining the mutineers, they invited the local British commander to become their king. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed used to work at the Sialkot district courts. In Adda Pasrurian there used to be a buggy stand in front of the Lady Anderson Girls High School where he was often to be found counselling those who came to see him. A small mosque close to Allama Iqbal’s house became the first Ahmediyya mosque in the city. It was named after Hakim Mir Hisamuddin, first cousin of Maulvi Mir Hasan, who became a convert. In one of the side streets lived Mirza Ghulam Ahmed himself. The house next to the mosque was that of Maulvi Mir Hasan. The house preserved after Pakistan as Iqbal’s birthplace is not his, but that of his brother Babu Ata Mohammad, who became an Ahmedi. His son Sheikh Ijaz Ahmed retired as a joint secretary in the early years of Pakistan.
Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, who was born a Sikh, was from Sialkot. He set up a “Hindustan Republic Government” in Afghanistan during World War I with Raja Mohinder Pratab as president and himself as prime minister. He knew Lenin and Trotsky personally and had lived in Turkey. Another Sialkoti who gained fame in those years was Dr Mohammad Iqbal Bhutta, a student of Maulvi Ibrahim. He exiled himself to Kabul and from there went to Russia, Turkey, Germany and Italy. It was on his account that Maulvi Ibrahim spent time in jail during World War Two and later remained under house arrest. Dr Bhutta, known as Dr Iqbal Shaidai, broadcast Axis propaganda from Rome. He then moved to Germany, but returned home after the Partition and lived with his nephew near the Lahore railway station. He was fluent in French, Italian and German and wrote in all three. He married abroad and one of his daughters was still living in Lyon in 1990, according to Jalil Mir.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was a student of Maulvi Ibrahim. Sir Fazle Hussain started his legal practice from Sialkot, as did Sir Zafrulla Khan who came from Daska. Sir Fazle was one of the founders of the Anjuman-i-Islamia which is still active and runs several schools and orphanages. One of the most famous sons of Sialkot was Agha Mouhammad Safdar who lived in Adda Shahbaz Khan and was a member of the All Indian Khilafat Committee and a Congress leader.
The biggest name in the sports industry, Jalil Mir recounts, was that of Sardar Ganda Singh of Oberoi Sports. His brilliant deputy, Khawaja Hakim Din, ran the factory, whose entire workforce was Muslim. Sardar Ganda Singh would preside over one of the annual sessions of the Anjuman and also contribute to its funds.
According to Jalil Mir, the essential temperament of Sialkot is opposition to the government of the day. In 1931, Sialkot was the centre of the movement raging in Kashmir against the maharaja. The city was actively involved in the Khilafat agitation and became the base of the Ahrar. When the Pakistan movement gathered steam, Sialkot swung to its side and the Ahrar was routed. The city also rallied behind Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1970, but some years later wiped out the Pakistan People’s Party. Because of this volatility, the city hasn’t flourished, writes Jalil Mir. Because of Kashmir Sialkot has become a border town and although it earns Pakistan much foreign exchange, the city remains dirty and undeveloped.
Another great son was Khawaja Abdul Hamid Irfani, son-in-law of Iqbal’s elder brother Ata Muhammad. He it was who introduced Iqbal to Iran. The Indian politician Gulzari Lal Nanda also came from Sialkot. Another figure was the eminent philosopher Prof William Lilly of Murray College, who spent most of his working life there. His book on ethics remains a classic. Prof Lilly and Iqbal used to act as examiners in philosophy for Punjab University. “Iqbal was very strict when marking papers,” according to Prof Lilly. Jalil Mir also recalls that Indian journalist Kuldip Nayyar is the son of Dr Gurbakhsh Singh, LSMF, a “mona” Sikh from Sialkot, who ran his clinic from the city’s Trunk Bazar.
Sadly, Jalil Mir died in 2000, but had he been alive, in him we would have had a man who could bring back to us the history that we have forgotten. It has been said that those who do not remember their past, should not hope to have a future.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________Links and Related Essay’s
http://ahmadiyya.org/iqbal/ch1.htm
The 1923 edition of Seeratul Mahdi – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Mir_Hassan
- Iqbal, an illustrated biography, by Khurram Ali Shafiq.
- Danai Raz, by Syed Nazeer Niazi
- Iqbal Kay Hazoor, by Syed Nazeer Niazi
- Zinda Rud, by Justice Javid Iqbal
- Tulip in the Desert: a selection of the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Mustansir Mir.
Who is Dr. Basharat Ahmad? The famous Lahori-Ahmadi, (1876-1943) – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Click to access Mujadid-e-Azim-english-abridged-edition.pdf
Who is Mirza Bashir Ahmad? – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
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#ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyat #messiahhascome #trueislam
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