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Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall
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Contents:
- Conversion to Islam as reported by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
- Pickthall’s work with the Woking Muslim
Mission
- His tribute to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
- His tribute to Maulana Muhammad Ali
Conversion to Islam as reported by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (1875–1936) is well-known as one of
the translators of the Holy Quran into English and a British convert
to Islam. He is regarded as an orthodox, mainstream, Sunni Muslim.
When Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din established the Woking Muslim Mission in
England in 1913, Marmaduke Pickthall was not yet a Muslim but had
become attracted to Islam. He was already well-known as a scholar
and novelist. He began to take part in the activities organized
by the Woking Muslim Mission. His subsequent acceptance of Islam
is described in a brief report written by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din for
Paigham Sulh, the Urdu periodical of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman
Isha‘at Islam Lahore.
Below we give an English translation of this report which was published
in Paigham Sulh dated 16 January 1918 on page 4:
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A Great, Good News
Acceptance of Islam
by a famous English scholar and orientalist
Recent letter by Khwaja
Kamal-ud-Din
Brothers, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh!
Readers of The Islamic Review will this year have
been reading those invaluable articles in its pages which
are a result of the high intellect of Mr Marmaduke Pickthall.
Our friends will also remember his brilliantly
unique speech which he made at the last function marking the
birthday of the Holy Prophet Muhammad held at the Cecil Hotel,
London.{footnote
1} Its translation [in Urdu] was also published
in book form from the office of the magazine Ishaat Islam,
Aziz Manzil, Lahore. Reading that speech, and seeing the love
that its author is seen to have in his heart for the Holy
Prophet Muhammad, I received many letters asking whether there
remained any obstacle to this learned orientalist accepting
Islam? I knew well that no preaching or effort on my part
could further increase this venerable man’s faith in Islam.
However, for certain reasons, we did not reach the occasion
for full rejoicing.
Eventually, many kinds of veils began to be lifted from the
path of the light of Islam. Frequent meetings, socialising,
correspondence and conversation did their work. It began
to be said that this gentleman appears to be a Muslim. There
can hardly be any week when he does not have occasion to make
a speech somewhere or preside over a meeting. He is president
of many associations. His speeches are full of the light of
Islam and of great eloquence. What a blessed day was yesterday
when I had to deliver a lecture in a fashionable part of London,
Old Bond Street, on the Spirit of Worship. Mr Pickthall was
chosen by the meeting to preside. My rejoicing knew no bounds
when, while introducing me, he said the following words:
“Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din will speak on the
Islamic spirit of worship. Although he and I belong to the
same religion, and we are believers in the same scripture,
but if I were to be asked to speak on this topic I would
turn to him …”
What he said after this, only God knows. I cannot remember
because I was so overcome by happiness. It is a favour of
Allah that He has granted me the same ability and power of
delivering speeches in this country with which my friends
are familiar from my lectures in India. This lecture was itself
on a spiritual topic and then this great news had worked magic
on me. I rose, charged with enthusiasm and intoxicated with
the love of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and thanked God a million
times. The effect on my audience was so deep that I have not
seen it in my lectures in India. Today I have received a letter
from Kishab Chandar Sen, the son of the founder of the Brahmo
Samaj [a sect of Hinduism] as follows:
“I am thankful to you for the very great
spiritual and intellectual hospitality that you offered
us. Permit me to say that it is the first time I have heard
such spiritual talk from a Muslim. Never before have I felt
such enjoyment. I congratulate you on how simply and yet
effectively you shed light on this topic.”
By summarising this letter here I do not intend to prove
how well I made the speech. The diction that God has granted
me out of His grace, whether it is good or bad, is known to
all. I want only to show that we Muslims have up to now not
fulfilled our duty of the propagation of Islam. It is after
coming to England that I today come to know of the great glory
of Islam, and that too of its spiritual aspect of tasawwuf,
about which I cannot claim to have comprehensive knowledge.
Alas, we Muslims did not value Islam nor did we fulfil our
obligation of propagating it.
I also quote here a letter from Mr Pickthall which I received
today:
“A friend who has become a Muslim by his
own study, and who has been in correspondence with me for
some time, asks me if there is available a Quran that has
the English translation in between the lines of Arabic text,
the English rendering opposite the Arabic words …”
Mr Pickthall writes to me in this letter: ‘This man is a
scholar’.
I ask Muslims, What reply can I give to this letter? That
we have not done this service for you? So God bless Maulvi
Muhammad Ali, M.A., who, after nine years of hard work, has
made us able to say that we can give you a translation which,
while being idiomatic, adheres most strictly to the original
words. The worthy Maulana has shown immense wisdom in making
his translation, as far as was possible, correspond closely
to the original words. This is the commendable example which
was first followed in India by the family of Shah Waliullah.
This is integrity. The Maulvi sahib’s English translation
follows the same principle as the Urdu translation of Shah
Abdul Aziz and Shah Abdul Qadir.
It would be untrue for us to say that Mr Pickthall’s acceptance
of Islam is due to our efforts. What we did was to establish
a centre [at Woking, England] and presented Islam in its pristine
purity, with the strength that God gave us. When we presented
the philosophy, wisdom and rationality of Islam to this thinking
world, it did not result in embarrassment for us. In this
short time, at least wherever our writings and spoken words
reached, it was conceded that Islam excels all other religions
in terms of its simplicity, spirituality, depth of wisdom,
thought, morality, civilization and theology. God granted
us a community here which, although small in number, consists
of persons of respectability, members of the nobility and
those belonging to high lineage, scholars and people of excellent
rank. Because of the existence of this centre, its acquiring
this fame, and the creation of such a group of converts, many
admirers of the beauty of Islam have come out from behind
closed doors. Just now one Pickthall has emerged, but there
are plenty of other shining stars like him hidden behind the
clouds in the West. Arise, awaken, give up this negligence,
and make the bright rays of the light of Islam to shine on
the walls of the West. Then you will see that the time is
near when you will hear other similar voices saying: This
is our religion. But let us look at ourselves and see how
inadequate our efforts are.
For the information of my friends, I quote here from the
entry about Mr Pickthall given in the British book{footnote 2} which lists famous people:
“Marmaduke William{footnote
3} Pickthall, son of the late Rev. Charles Pickthall,
rector of Chillesford [Suffolk], Educated at Harrow and
various European countries. Travels: Spent several years
in journey and study of places in the Ottoman empire and
other countries of the East. Writings: Said The Fisherman,
With the Turk in Wartime during the Balkan wars,
Knights of Araby, …”
This shows the pedigree of this bright jewel. He is author
of scores of books. If his early writings are compared with
his present writings, one’s hearts becomes filled with the
praise of Allah at the fact that the man who took up his pen
on Islam in order to ridicule Islam became, in the end, captivated
by its beauty. May Allah be praised for it.
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Footnotes on Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din’s article by Webmaster
muslim.org
Footnote 1. The function mentioned here by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
was held on 6 January 1917 and Pickthall’s speech was published
in The Islamic Review, February–March 1917, pages 53–59.
To see a scanned image of its opening lines, click
here.
Footnote 2. The name of the book is left blank in Paigham
Sulh but presumably Who’s Who is meant.
Footnote 3. In the Urdu text in Paigham Sulh
this name seems to read Visech or Wisech which presumably is a misprint
for William.
Pickthall’s work with Woking Muslim Mission
A background of Pickthall and his association with the Woking Muslim
Mission is given in The Islamic Review, February 1922, pages
42–43, in the section Notes. This is quoted below.
Mr Muhammad Pickthall, whose name is not unfamiliar to
our readers, was born in 1875; educated at Harrow; and,
at the impressionable age when most young men are contemplating
a University career, was already in Palestine, laying, as
it were, the foundation of that intimate understanding of
the Near East and its conditions — religious, political,
social and economic — which has made him, perhaps, the foremost
English authority on the subject.
As a novelist he sprang to fame with the publication, in
1903, of Said the Fisherman, a Syrian romance which
stamped its author as a literary individuality and a seeing
observer. Other works from his pen include Enid (1904),
Brendle (1905), The House of Islam (1906),
The Myopes (1907), Children of the Nile (1908),
The Valley of the Kings (1909), Pot an Feu
(1911), Larkmeadow (1912), The House at War
(1913), With the Turk in Wartime (1914), Tales
from Five Chimneys (1915), Veiled Women (1916),
Knights of Araby (1917), Oriental Encounters
(1918), Sir Limpidus (1919), and The Early Hours
(1921). He has been a frequent contributor to, among other
journals, the Athenoeum, the Saturday Review,
the New Age and the Near East, and is, at
present, editor of the Bombay Chronicle.
Mr. Pickthall declared his faith in Islam in 1918, and
has since taken a prominent part in Muslim activity in this
country. During the period between the departure for India
(owing to urgent reasons of health) of the Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
in the early spring of 1919, and the arrival of the Khwaja’s
assistant in the autumn of that year, Mr. Pickthall conducted
the Friday Prayers and delivered the sermons at the London
Muslim Prayer House; led the Eid prayer and delivered the
Sermon, and during the month of Ramadan in 1919 conducted
the traveeh prayers at the London Prayer House, while
throughout the whole period he was largely responsible for
the editing of the [Islamic] Review. It is
noteworthy that on his conversion to Islam, Mr. Pickthall,
in the spirit of a true Muslim, refrained scrupulously from
any thought of influencing his wife, and the fact that Mrs.
Pickthall has now of her own free volition embraced the
faith is but one of many indications of the modern trend
of intelligent religious thought.
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On the next page in the same issue of The Islamic Review,
a notice is given of the programme of Sunday Lectures for
February 1922 as follows:
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The following
lectures will be delivered during the month of February at
the London Muslim Prayer House, 111, Campden Hill Road, Notting
Hill Gate, W. 8, at 5.30 p.m.:
February 5. — “Soul in
Woman, and Islam,” by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din.
February 12. — “Islam and
Socialism,” by Khwaja Nazir Ahmad.
February 19. — “A Fallen
Idol,” by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall.
February 26. — “Three Stages
of Human Mind,” by Muhammad Yakub Khan.
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The three other lecturers mentioned, apart from Mr. Pickthall,
were prominent members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement who also
worked for the Woking Muslim Mission. This again shows the close
association of Pickthall with the Woking Mission.
Pickthall contributed regularly to The Islamic Review, a
few examples being the following articles: A Sermon, February
1920; Women’s Rights in Islam, November 1920; Fasting
in Islam, December 1920.
His tribute to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Following the death of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din in December 1932, Pickthall
wrote a letter to Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, son of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din,
which was published in the special issue of The Islamic Review
devoted to his life, dated April–May 1933, on pages 140–141.
Pickthall’s letter is reproduced below:
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My dear Nazir Ahmad,
I heard of your sad loss some days ago and meant to write
to you; but in the Ramadan mental seclusion I lost count of
time and perhaps thought also that my remembrance of your
father and thought of you at such a time might be understood,
so that the formal letter seemed less urgent.
I have had a very clear remembrance of your father in these
days as I saw him first in England in his prime, and of the
impression which he made upon all who had the pleasure of
meeting him. It is less as a missionary that I like to think
of him — the word ‘missionary’ has mean associations — than
as an ambassador of Islam. His return to India owing to ill-health
was a blow to the cause in England from which it has hardly
yet recovered.
I differed from him on some matters, as you know — relatively
unimportant matters, they seem now — but my personal regard
for him remained the same. And now, looking back upon his
life-work, I think that there is no one living who has done
such splendid and enduring service to Islam. The work in England
is the least part of it. Not until I came to India did I realise
the immense good that his writings have done in spreading
knowledge of religion and reviving the Islamic spirit in lethargic
Muslims; not only here, but wherever there are Muslims in
the world his writings penetrated, and have aroused new zeal
and energy and hope. It is a wonderful record of work, which
could have been planned and carried out only by a man of high
intelligence inspired by faith and great sincerity of purpose.
Allah will reward him! To you I will only say, as the Arabs
say to the survivor of a great worker, “The remainder is in
your life.”
Accept the assurance of my deep and sincere sympathy.
Yours ever,
M. Pickthall.
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A scanned image of this letter as printed in The Islamic Review
can be viewed here.
His tribute to Maulana Muhammad Ali
The tribute paid by Pickthall to Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din quoted above
brings to mind his review of Maulana Muhammad Ali’s book The
Religion of Islam some three years later in 1936. It opens as
follows:
“Probably no man living has done longer or more
valuable service for the cause of Islamic revival than Maulana
Muhammad Ali of Lahore. His literary works, with those of the
late Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, have given fame and distinction to the
Ahmadiyya Movement.”
Further on, he writes about the book The Religion of Islam:
“It is a description of Al-Islam by one well-versed
in the Sunna who has on his mind the shame of the Muslim decadence
of the past five centuries and in his heart the hope of the revival,
of which signs can now be seen on every side. Such a book is greatly
needed at the present day when in many Muslim countries we see
persons eager for the reformation and revival of Islam making
mistakes through lack of just this knowledge. …
“We do not always agree with Maulana Muhammad Ali’s conclusions
upon minor points — sometimes they appear to us eccentric — but
his premises are always sound, we are always conscious of his
deep sincerity; and his reverence for the holy Quran is sufficient
in itself to guarantee his work in all essentials. There are some,
no doubt, who will disagree with his general findings, but they
will not be those from whom Al-Islam has anything to hope in the
future.”
— Islamic Culture, quarterly review published from
Hyderabad Deccan, India, October 1936, pp. 659–660.
Such is the high regard in which Marmaduke Pickthall held these two
foremost figures of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. He viewed their
services to Islam as unequalled by any other man living at
that time, and he considered their work as reviving the true spirit
of Islam at a time when Muslims were overcome by lethargy and
decadence. |
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