Al-Mashriqi: The Disowned Genius

Al-Mashriqi: The Disowned Genius tells the story of Inayatullah Khan Al-Mashriqi (1888-1963) whose book Tazkirah, when first published in 1924, was described as a "monumental work" by the Royal Society of Arts and who started the revolutionary Khaksar Tehreek "to revive Islamic virtues of discipline, service, sacrifice, simple living and unity".

Syed Shabbir Hussain tells us of the close relations Inayatullah Khan's father had with Muslim thinkers of the time, including Syed Jamaluddin Al-Afghani and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. We meet young Inayatullah who was home schooled till the age of nine, who did his M.A. in mathematics from Punjab University in first class in a mere nine months and who, at Cambridge University, became the first student ever to do four Triposes in five years.

We find out how the study of mathematics at Christ's College, Cambridge, helped Mashriqi to arrive at "the Great Truth of the Quran", as he himself put it. The author brilliantly elucidates Mashriqi's thought, including his theorem about the divine law of the rise and fall of nations and the relationship between what Mashriqi called the "Word of God" and the "Work of God".

We learn why Allama Mashriqi, as he came to be known, halted the publication of the remaining volumes of Tazkirah and why he launched the Khaksar Tehreek which quickly swelled with numbers and had presence all over India and the Persian Gulf. Considering the Khaksar Tehreek a threat to the status quo in India, the British suppressed the Khaksar Tehreek after committing the infamous massacre of Khaksars in Lahore on March 19, 1940, and imprisoned Mashriqi. The harsh treatment of Mashriqi did not stop even after the creation of Pakistan.

Drawing on Mashriqi's published writings and unpublished letters and papers, this study of the life and thought of Mashriqi clears numerous misconceptions about him and confirms him as a defender of Muslim and Indian interests, an anti-colonialist and a profound thinker who merits the attention of students of history and contemporary international scene.