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Title: My Life A Fragment by Mushirul Hasan ISBN: 8-1730428-6-1 Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Ltd. Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $28.95

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Summary: My life a fragment
Comment: BOOK REVIEW MY LIFE A FRAGMENT BY Tausif sadiq

Title and subject

1. My life a fragment is an autobiographical sketch of Maulana Muhammad Ali and fully reveals the religious aspect of his personality. It is mainly a detailed explanation of the author's religious background and his attitude towards Islamic theology.

Author

2.Maulana Muhammad Ali was a renowned Indian Muslim leader and prince among the patriots. He was born in 1878 and after playing a glorious role in the Indian politics died in 1931. He was an impressive writer but never wrote a book due to his busy life. During a trial at Karachi in 1920, he was convicted and during his prison life he decided to compile a book on the life of the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) but was unable to do that due to the non-availability of research material in jail. Later he wanted to write another book on, "Islam: Kingdom of God". It was to be an explanation of Islam in four volumes and was to be meant for, "every man in the street". He hardly began to write the book when he was released. He lived nearly seven years after that but never had time to complete his book. The initial editor of this book Zafar Iqbal visited Jamia Millia Delhi in 1939 to collect some of the Muhammad Ali's writings and speeches. He found the manuscript of, "Islam: The Kingdom of God". Since only a quarter of the whole book was complete and its present contents presented autobiographical nature of work and did not justify the name which author once intended to give it , therefore the editor changed the name to," My life: A fragment". This was initially published in 1942, reprinted in 1944 and 1946. Recently, this book was re-edited by Mashirul Hassan and published in 1999. It is Maulana Muhammad Ali's first and the last book unfortunately incomplete - published.

Contents

3.The book has 261 pages and primarily divided in to seven sections: Studies at home and at school, the awakening, my troubles and the remedy, the discovery, the secular outlook in Europe, the new zeal and Islam: Whence and Whither? (a) In chapter one, the writer explains about his early education with special emphasis to the Islamic education. He was born in an aristocratic family of Rampur State India in 1878. His father Abdul Ali Khan died when he was two years old. His mother being an enlighten lady sent his sons to braielly India and afterwards to Aligarh university to receive best education available. According to writer, the Muslims of India were not taught Quran in Urdu because of which they are unable to understand it. According to the writer, his mother tried to give him high practical education and left him very ignorant about the details of Islamic faith and its history. (b) Chapter two and three deals with the start of his practical life. He has discussed the behavior of Westerly educated Muslims of Subcontinent with the Islamic values. He discussed in detail about the problem he faced during his profession of journalism especially once he wrote in favour of Turks and against the British Government during 1st World War. His memorable editorial," the choice of the Turks" in a befitting reply to the insulting article of the London Times became very popular. The British Government could not tolerate his bold and inspiring criticism of the imperial powers during the war and he was confined for a period of four and a half years. (c) Chapter four deals with his study of Quran in detail during his confinement period. He discovered many facts of life from the Quran. In chapter five, the writer has made large extracts from the views of two historian writers, "Well and Renan" about Christianity. (d) Chapter six deals with the new political life of the writer. He was greatly impressed by the Allama Iqbal. He transformed the Indian National congress from a constitutional body in to a revolutionary mass organization. A resolution was passed in Khilafat conference held in Karachi in 1921, according to which it was considered an irreligious act for the Muslims to enroll in the British Army. He wrote about his extensive tours of the subcontinent during the period extending from October 1920 up to his arrest for Karachi trial on September 1, 1921 in which he was awarded two years rigorous imprisonment. The statement given by Muhammad Ali before the court brings out his truly Islamic spirit. He acknowledged the supremacy of the divine law over the man made legislation. He roused the Indian masses from their idleness and infused in them a new political consciousness. (e) In the last chapter the writer has talked about the Islam. He discussed that what is spirit, science, and religion and what are the different era's of Islamic history. He has discussed that how Islam was spread to the different parts of the world after the initial stages. At the end he said that it was his duty that he must share the truths of Islam, which he has learned, with his fellow being. He closed this book with the citation of a short chapter from Quran in which the prophet life has been briefly reviewed and the duty he (Peace be upon him) owes to Allah for his mercies.

Evaluation

4.In this book, Muhammad Ali has given very lengthy facts of his individual experiences and a statement of his position and attitude towards Islam. He never meant to write the present book. He started with the life of the Prophet and ended with his own. Later out of the four parts of the original book only the first was complete that too in a scattered form, however the editor has tried to adhere to the original text. There were no chapter and no sub-headings. References to Quranic and various other quotations was either provided or verified. Footnotes were added and occasional gaps were filled up by the editor to make a sequence. The editor has done a great job and if some one wants to learn about the Islamic aspect of Muhammad Ali, then he must read this book.(1020 words)