NADEEM Paracha’s article ‘The rise and fall of a spiritual rebel’ (Sept 21) amply describes the life and works of Ghulam Ahmed Parvez, an Islamic scholar, who died in Lahore in 1985. Parvez expressed his views on Islam mostly through weekly lectures, his monthly magazine Tulu-i-Islam and the books written by him.
He would always contend that “the Holy Quran is a complete code of life containing the principles of governance encompassing all aspects of humanity, such as economics, law, ethics, sociology and culture”.
Despite the fact that he would not say anything repugnant to the message of the Quran, his thoughts would quite often be criticised by the orthodox mullahs.
Mr Paracha has mentioned: “In 1961 Parvez created uproar of sorts in the ranks of the orthodox Islamic scholars when he attempted to popularise the saying of the Muslim prayers (namaz) in Urdu”.
Since this is a big blame on the teachings and views of Parvez, it would have been better if Mr Paracha had quoted some references from his writings. According to my knowledge, it was Masood Khadarposh (1916-1985), a bureaucrat and human rights activist and contemporary of Parvez, who had once led ‘namaz’ in Urdu in the Bagh-i-Jinnah, Lahore. Besides the other Islamic scholars, Parvez had also strongly opposed and snubbed Masood for generating this idea. It will be worthwhile if Mr Paracha clarifies this allegation attributed to Parvez.
Parvez Rahim
Lahore
Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014
