A National Loss
The Passing Away of Khan Sahib Manzur Ilahi
by Maulana Yaqub Khan
The Light (Pakistan), 16th October 1938 Issue (Vol. 17, No. 38, p. 1)
It is with a profound sorrow that we record the passing away on the 8th instant [8th October 1938] of Khan Sahib Chaudhri Manzur Ilahi, Joint Secretary of this Anjuman — an event so sudden and unsuspected that it took his closest relations and friends by surprise.
The news will be received with a sad heart not only in India, but also in many a foreign land; for there is hardly a country where the name of K. S. Chaudhri Manzur Ilahi has not reached. It was a lifelong hobby with the deceased to explore new fields for the message of Islam by correspondence all the world over, and exploring those fields, keep the torch of Islam burning there by an untiring and constant supply of literature on Islam. The pages after pages of letters that he wrote with his own hand from day to day explaining the beauties of Islam to someone he had never met, thousands of miles away, would have exhausted the patience of any man with a more robust physique. But for Manzur Ilahi it was a joy, the very food for soul, and surrounded by the heaps of papers, files, tracts, pamphlets and books that formed the scene of his labours, he might be seen buried in these at all odd hours of the day and night. Now it was a letter of a seeker after truth from Switzerland that he was busy replying to at considerable length, again it was one from the Philippines, China, Japan or Rio de la Plata. So wide — worldwide — and so varied was the range of his labours in the cause of Islam. But, as said before, they were labours of love and for long years, almost a lifetime, he kept at them with a zest and zeal that knew no flagging till the very fag-end of his life. What a much younger man would have done with the help of a number of assistants, Manzur Ilahi did singlehanded. He was his own private secretary, his own clerk — nay, even his own peon, often wrapping and packing the heap of literature that was to be sent out with his own hand.
With all this, Manzur Ilahi was a quiet worker. Though perhaps the greatest publicity worker in the cause of Islam, he never made any fuss about the great service that he wasdoing. Nor was there any element of what might he called “airs” about his personality. Just a plain man, perhaps the plainest in the locality, he might be seen, during the moments of leisure that he could snatch from his duties as a Railway Officer and his self-imposed duties in the cause of Islam, doing odd little jobs for his family or his neighbours.
One more thing which must not be omitted. Manzur Ilahi was a regular service-securing agency for any educated Musalman [Muslim] who happened to be out of work, and an ever-ready advocate for one whose rights were ignored or superseded for any reason. He would keep in touch with the headquarters of various Government departments and be on the lookout for any possible opening for young Muslims. And if ever there was a case of injustice done to Muslims, Manzur Ilahi was the man to whom the aggrieved hastened to arrange a memorial, representation or deputation to get the wrong redressed.
Service, quiet selfless service, both in the cause of Islam and Muslims — this may be said to sum up the whole life-story of this devoted son of Islam. And considering the appalling indifference of the average Musalman to the cause of Islam, especially to the dissemination of the light of Islam, the removal all of a sudden of Khan Sahib Chaudhri Manzur Ilahi from the midst of his labours by the hand of death is a national loss of no mean magnitude. The loss, as we all, the workers of this Anjuman, feel and publicly acknowledge, is irreparable. The gap created is not easy to fill up.
These feelings of sorrow and loss, however, are not unmingled. A devout and devoted son of Islam as he was, Manzur Ilahi could not meet a better, a more glorious death. It fell to his lot to keep up his work for Islam till the very end of his earthly sojourn. It was but a few brief hours that he took in keeping to his bed and then quietly making his exit from the world — as quietly as was the wont of his life. Who would not envy a life so rich in solid substantial service in the cause of proclaiming the glory of God the world over and a death while yet in harness in that great cause?