A series looking at the high standard of morals of the Promised Messiahas and his Khulafa when receiving visitors in Qadian
Awwab Saad Hayat, Al Hakam
On 9 June 1929, a grand assembly was held on the grounds of Talim-ul-Islam High School, Qadian, India. Al Fazl reported it on the front page of its 14 June 1929 publication and wrote that in this gathering several people recited poems and Abul Asar Muhammad Hafeez Jalandhari recited some parts of his latest work, Shahnama-e-Islam, which was unpublished at the time. Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra also graced the occasion.
It is said that when Abul Asar Muhammad Hafeez Jalandhari came to Qadian, he was still a young man and was eager to publish his latest work, Shahnama-e-Islam.
Abul Asar Muhammad Hafeez Jalandhari’s name was Muhammad Hafeez and his patronymic name was Abul Asar. He would use the pseudonym Hafeez in his poetry. He was born on 14 January 1900 in Jalandhar. After attaining religious education, he started his formal secular schooling. Hafeez Jalandhari Sahib was interested in poetry since childhood.
To make a living, he did everything from selling perfumes to tailoring and managing a sewing machine company. He issued a monthly magazine in the Urdu language, which was closed after five months. Then, he went to Lahore in 1922 to work in the preparation of various monthly magazines.
Today, he is well known for writing Pakistan’s national anthem. He died on 21 December 1982 in Lahore.
Hafiz Jalandhari, when visiting Qadian before the publication of Shahnama-e-Islam, showed some parts of it to Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra. On the advice of Huzoorra, the Jamaat publication department, Book Depot Talif wa Isha‘at Qadian, pre-ordered and paid in advance 100 copies of Shahnama-e-Islam in advance, before its publication, so that the poet would gain some financial benefit.
Similarly, the history of Ahmadiyya records shows that when the Jamaat organised the blessed gatherings of Sirat-ul-Nabi across India in 1928 – which was without a doubt a glorious achievement of Hazrat Musleh-e-Maudra and a unique, international, and inter-faith gathering, through which the foundation of Sirat-ul-Nabi Jalsas was laid – in the reporting of these organised meetings, it is recorded that apart from Ahmadi speakers, among other Muslims who spoke, recited poems, presided over these meetings, Abul Asar Hafeez Jalandhari was also mentioned in the list.
Hazrat Musleh-e-Maudra considered Abul Asar Hafeez Jalandhari as one of the able poets of the Urdu language. Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIra, while addressing members of Majlis Khuddam-ul-Ahmadiyya in Quetta, on 29 July 1949, said:
“In India, through the amalgamation of various nations and languages, a language was born which is called Urdu. This language has received little attention in India, rather efforts are being made to wipe it out altogether. The urban class of Punjab has been very fond of it and it has produced great poets like Allama Iqbal and Hafeez Jalandhari who have served the Urdu language greatly and due to them the Urdu language has become very popular in India and abroad.” (Anwar-ul-Ulum, Vol. 21, p. 221)