Hundred Great Muslims

MAULVI ABDUL HAQ
The mighty Indian National Congress and its undisputed leader, Mahatama
Gandhi, had championed the cause of Hindi as the National Language of India.
He had brushed aside Urdu, as the language of Muslims, written in the Quranic
script. But a frail-bodied, resourceless man took up this challenge to prove that
Urdu, born and bred in India, having been developed by Muslims and Hindus
alike, cannot be treated as a language of one community only. This man was
Maulvi Abdul Haq whose devotion to his cause at last compelled the great
Mahatma to change his view and admit in the Bhartiya Sahitya Parishad meeting
held at Nagpur that Hindustani, written both in Arabic and Devanagri scripts,
was the national language of the subcontinent.
Dr. Maulvi Abdul Haq, who was later popularly known as Baba-e-Urdu,
lived, laboured and died for Urdu. There could be few parallels to his devotion
to a mission, which will continue to inspire all those who struggle and make
sacrifices for a noble cause.
He was the last in the galaxy of Urdu luminaries that glittered during the
19-20 century. These included Sir Syed, Azad, Hall, Shibll and Dr. Nazir Ahmad.
Abdul Hag was born in March 1870 in a middle class family of village Sarawan,
Tehsil Hapur, District Meerut (U.P.). His father's name was Sheikh Ali Hasan.
He received his early education in his home village and later moved to
Aligarh for higher studies. Here he came under the influence of Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan who inspired him with his perseverance, unlimited energy and lucid Urdu
prose-qualities which were creditably acquired by Abdul Haq himself.
Abdul Hag graduated from Aligarh in 1894 with High Proficiency in
Mathematics. He competed for Honours in Mathematics with no less a person
than the late Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad. In Aligarh he came under the influence of
Sir Syed Ahmad who kindled in him the flame of Urdu which burnt in his heart
till his last breath.
He moved to Hyderabad in 1895 as a teacher in the Madrassa-e-Asafiah.
Here he' started his magazine A[sar. He was appointed Honorary General
Secretary of the Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu in 1912 and it was then that people
could discover his devotion, drive and energy. The Anjuman created in 1903 by
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