A Noble Soul Passes Away
An Irreparable Loss to the Community
by Maulana Muhammad Ali (Translated from Urdu by Mr. M. B. Ahmad Baqa, B.A.)
The Light (Pakistan), 16th October 1938 Issue (Vol. 17, No. 38, p. 2)
The sad news of the death of Khan Sahib Chowdhry Muhammad Manzur Ilahi reached me at 10 o’clock yesterday. Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun: (Verily from God we are and unto Him do we return).
I had felt very happy some days back with the news that Chowdhry Sahib, having recovered from his illness, had returned from Batote to Lahore. We parted in Lahore from each other at a time when we both were indisposed. The moment I restored my health, I heard the glad tidings of his recovery also. I thought God had granted us both an opportunity to continue our services for some time more. But, alas! I have lost an arm at his death.
It is an irreparable loss to our community. There is none to take his place. But God is All-Powerful.
Most of the members of our Anjuman are perhaps unaware of the noble and magnificent services he rendered to the cause of Islam. It is because he did them so silently that none could be possibly in the know of it. He displayed such an untiring zeal that he surpassed everyone in it.
During his employment he performed his duties with great ability and precision. He did not only do tabligh [propagation of Islam] work day and night during his tours but even when he would return from his tours or office, totally exhausted, he, instead of taking rest, would go straight to the Anjuman office and engage himself in the tremendous task of correspondence till midnight. He was acquainted with the affairs of Muslim countries very closely and whenever he found any useful thing he would at once give attention to it. He would incessantly collect information from newspapers, magazines and books to learn where the work of propagation could be started and to whom the message of Islam could be conveyed in the remotest recesses of the world.
During the last two or three years, he grew very weak; but still he did not give up his hard work. In spite of the repeated advice of his friends to take a prolonged rest and lower the pressure of work, he did not give up his old habit. He was highly rewarded by God Almighty for his hard work and piety. He spread the Holy Quran and other Islamic literature throughout the length and breadth of the world, in a way the Muslims had not even dreamt of before. He furnished the libraries of America and Japan and even of those of many steamers with Muslim literature and enlightened Asia, Africa and Europe with the blissful light of Islam. He discovered Muslim colonies in countries and islands almost unknown to others. So conspicuous and grand was his work concerning the propagation of Islam that he stood matchless in his time. Generally, one would find him sitting in his house but his soul would be visiting all countries and promulgating the message of Islam. Our literature were translated in many languages of the world and spread in all countries by him.
In the spread of Ahmadiyyat, Chowdhry Manzur Ilahi played a very prominent part. He established branches of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman in more than fifty countries of the world. Even if the Anjuman would manage to spend lakhs of rupees and send missionaries to various countries, perhaps all of them together could not have done what that brave man did singlehanded. There is no dearth of such people as can calumniate and find fault with the Anjuman, but there are very few who can undertake practical constructive work like that of our beloved Chowdhry. What pains us most is that we find no person who can ably take up this momentous task after him.
He gave a substantial proof in his own person that if one had zeal and true spirit in his heart he could do that dazzling work at home which others could not do by moving from country to country.
The noble ambition of the Promised Messiah [Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian] that the work of propagation should be carried on through literature and that there was no need of sending missionaries to every place was translated into reality by our noble Khan Sahib. He has left an undying name behind him in all the countries of the world by means of his glorious services to Islam: He will be shining like a bright star.
O Lord, shower Your unbounded bounties and blessings upon his soul and produce from this community youths who may follow his footprints and imbue them with the same spirit to carry on this work silently, zealously and vigorously. Amin!