September 29, 2002

Nobel prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul, who is feted in the West for maligning Islam, was beside himself with wonderment at finding tons of books on religion at Khalid Ishaque’s well- stocked library.

In his highly controversial book, Among the believers: an Islamic journey, first published in 1981, Naipaul writes: “Mr Salahuddin had told me that Khalid Ishaque had a prodigious library and spent 20,000 rupees a month, (2,000 dollars) on books. This didn’t prepare me for what I saw in Khalid Ishaque’s house.

“I said, as we drove into his yard, that he had a big house. He said in his precise lawyer’s way that yes, it was a big house, but it wasn’t big enough. And it wasn’t. Books filled room after room; case upon case, case in front of case; yards and yards of shelves, and cupboards in front of the shelves. One big room was devoted to many-volumed commentaries on the Quran — hefty Arabic tomes. ‘And,’ he added, ‘commentaries on the commentaries.’ He bought everything.”

A septuagenarian now, Khalid Ishaque’s passion for new books is still undiminished. Every year he spends about Rs3.5 million on new books. (He admits matter-of-factly that the income tax department offers him a 10 per cent rebate on the purchase of books.) He has been buying books since 1948. It is no wonder, then, that the number of books in his well-maintained library has swelled to 175,000. True, some books are placed in cupboards in washrooms, for his 18-room house on Manekji Road is already bulging at the seams. All the same, the books are all properly kept and methodically catalogued.

“My library is essentially a research-oriented postgraduate library. You will, therefore, find no worthless manuscripts here. There are books on Islam, comparative study of religions, economics and history. I have all the major exegeses of the Quran. In addition, there are some 50,000 Arabic and Persian books.”

Ishaque makes it clear that while he is an avid reader of human history — and well-thumbed volumes by Arnold Toynbee and Will Durant bear ample testimony to this — he is principally interested in Islam. “The history of the Mughals, for instance, does not interest me immensely. Let me elaborate. The Mughals did nothing to promote Islam. If they did not do this, then I would have little interest in their history. To tell you the truth, I have no interest in literature either. I have been reading serious books since the age of sixteen.” He, however, admits that he has not read all the works that adorn his bookshelves.

In spite of his predilection for books on religion, tomes on communism and secularism occupy a lot of space in Khalid Ishaque’s library. In the late seventies, he crossed swords with leading Marxist scholar, Syed Sibte Hasan. The magazine pages of Dawn witnessed fireworks as the two luminaries, holding diametrically opposed views, presented their cases cogently. Sibte Hasan’s article, which is an erudite exposition of the doctrine of secularism, appeared side by side with Ishaque’s trenchant diatribe against the much-reviled theory.

Ishaque recalls that the debate over secularism had generated a lot of heat. “Both of us wrote quite a few articles advancing our points of view. I never met Sibte Hasan. He was a self-confessed secularist who believed that unless we got rid of religion we could not make progress. He maintained that secularism was the best solution to all human problems. I was obviously against this premise.”

However, Ishaque grudgingly concedes that Sibte Hasan was a well-read intellectual. “He was a more informed communist than most communists of that period. It was quite evident from his write-ups that he was also a voracious reader.”

In his article, titled “The problem of secularism in Pakistan”, Sibte Hasan had argued that “secularism is very much on the defensive in Pakistan these days. The state machinery, as well as private institutions, is taking keen interest in the revival of non-secular ideas and institutions....Newspapers and magazines, both official and non-official, are prominently displaying articles and news items in support of obscurantism”. (Dawn, March 28, 1976).

Khalid Ishaque’s piece, captioned “No problem of secularism in Pakistan”, was a counterblast to Sibte Hasan’s. He wrote: “There are some amongst the intellectual elite of Pakistan who feel that for becoming dynamic and progressive, Pakistan must go secular.... the rising interest in it [secularism] as a subject of social debate is a phenomenon which requires and well deserves examination.” (Dawn, March 28, 1976).

Khalid Ishaque says that a narrow-minded maulvi, who has some cut and dried views on Islam, resorts to abusive language when confronted with a polemical religious problem because he has not read anything. He adds that the same applies to the communists “but they have read more than the maulvis”. Khalid Ishaque attaches a great deal of importance to the aesthetic aspect of book collection. “I do not buy second-hand books even if I can obtain them cut-price. What I do is that I ask leading printers and publishers in the country to send me their new arrivals. I then pick and choose and purchase only those books which accord with my reading tastes.”

He, however, regrets that the future of his library is not very certain. For one thing, his children are not particularly fond of books. For another, he is loath to donate his long-cherished collection to a public library where his books will only gather dust. “I have been approached by a large number of people who want me to donate my collection to one library or another. My collection of books is very well maintained and I fear that if I bequeath it to a public library it will eventually go to the dogs.

I think I will have it converted into a trust.”

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