Obituary: Dr Nazir-ul-Islam
The Islamic Guardian (UK), January to March 1984 Issue (Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 23)
It is with the deepest regret and sorrow that we announce the death, in Lahore, Pakistan, on 1st January 1984, of Dr Nazir-ul-Islam, M.A., Ph.D., former Imam of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-e-Islam Lahore, UK branch, at the age of 74.
“We belong to God and to Him do We return.”
He served as our Imam [Leader] from 1977 to 1981 during the formative years of this Jamaat when we were facing considerable problems which threatened the very existence of the Jamaat. Certain circumstances imposed great personal hardship and intolerable conditions upon Dr Islam in the course of his duties as the Imam in London during those years, but he endured them all for the sake of establishing and strengthening the Jamaat in the UK. He was a scholar of Islam and the Arabic language, with extensive knowledge of the Holy Quran, Hadith, and Arabic literature. In his younger days he had been a student in Berlin in the 1930’s and while there he had also served as Imam of the Berlin mosque and mission of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Anjuman till the outbreak of the war.
Knowing the German language, he had for the past few years been revising the Anjuman’s German translation of the Holy Quran. Recently, at the Lahore Centre of the Jamaat, Dr Islam had been acting as a teacher in the religious courses organised by the Anjuman, with Arabic as his speciality.
Due to his special role in the establishment of our Jamaat, Dr Nazir-ul-Islam will always be remembered by UK Lahore Ahmadis with respect, admiration and affection. We send our condolences and sympathies to his bereaved wife and family in Lahore. May God admit him to His eternal and infinite mercy — Ameen.