Early life

Ghulam Ahmed Parwez was born in Batala, Dist. Gurdaspur, on the 9 July 1903. Batala, a town now in the Indian part of Punjab, was at that time a very prominent seat of Islamic learning, philosophy and culture where his grandfather Hakim Maulvi Raheem Bakhsh enjoyed the status of a celebrated scholar and eminent Sufi of the Chishtia Nizamia discipline of mysticism.

According to his own writings, from a very early age he possessed an inquisitive nature and never let any thought pass unquestioned. As he grew, he often questioned that if the Islamic beliefs and practices are true and correct, then why do these not produce the results the Qur'an promises?

Career

Parvaiz joined the Central Secretariat of the Government of India in 1927 and worked in the Home Dept, Establishment Division. He is also supposed to have come in contact with Allama Muhammad Iqbal whom he became inspired of. In 1938 Parwez started publishing monthly Tolu-e-Islam where he propagated his interpretation of the Qur'an. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947 fitna worked the Central Government and was also a counselor to Muhammed Ali Jinnah. Parwez took pre-mature retirement as assistant secretary in 1955 to focus more on the religious work.

Works

His work and research produced many books on Qur'anic teachings, the most well known of them being Lughat-ul-Qur'an in four volumes, Mafhoom-ul-Qur'an in three volumes, Tabweeb-ul-Qur'an in three volumes, Nizam-e-Rabubiyyat, Islam A Challenge to Religion, Insaan Ne Kiya Socha (History of Human Thought), Tasawwaf Ki Haqiqat, Saleem Ke Naam in three volumes, Tahira Ke Naam, Qur'ani Faislay in five volumes and Shahkar-e-Risalat (the biography of the second Caliph Hazrat Omar). He delivered many lectures on Iqbal’s viewpoint of implementing the Qur'anic injunctions, which were later compiled and published as a presentation on Iqbal’s philosophy under the title "Iqbal aur Qur'an".

He also gave weekly lectures on exposition of the Qur'an at Karachi which he continued (even after shifting to Lahore in 1958) till October 1984 when he was taken ill and expired subsequently on 24 February 1985. This was in addition to his lectures on the Qur'anic teachings to college and university students, scholars and general public at various occasions.

He organized a country-wide network of spreading his ideas of the Qur'anic teachings called Bazm-e-Tolu-e-Islam. Such organizations have now been formed in a number of foreign countries as well.

He left behind a widow and a brother (both now deceased) and a sister. He had no children. His works are being continued through Idara-Tolu-e-Islam, The Tolu-e-Islam Trust, The Qur'anic Research Centre, the Qur'anic Education Society, the Parwez Memorial Library and his audio and video recordings.

The Journal Tolu-e-Islam

He was also the patron after Sir Muhammad Iqbal and chief editor of the historical, political, religious, cultural journal of Muslims of British India and Pakistan. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement. The name of this journal is The Journal Tolu-e-Islam. In 1935, according to the Sir Muhammad Iqbal instructions, Syed Nazeer Niazi initiated and edited, a journal Tolu-e-Islamnamed after the famous poem of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Tulu'i Islam. He also dedicated the first edition of this journal to Sir Muhammad Iqbal. For a long time Sir Muhammad Iqbal wanted a journal to propagate his ideas and the aims and objective of Muslim league. It was

The Journal of Tolu-e-Islam, Nov. 1948

Syed Nazeer Niazi, a close friend of him and a regular visitor to him during his last two years, who started this journal.

Afterward, this journal was continuedby Ghulam Ahmed Pervez,who had already contributed many articles in the early editions of this journal. He was so devoted fan of Sir Iqbal that he used to print the picture of him on the cover page of this journal every month. He also named his movement as Tolu-e-Islam (Resurgence of Islam). This journal is still published by Idara Tolu-e-Islam, Lahore. Initially, "Its primary object was to tell the people (of British India" that according to the Quran, ideology and not geographical boundary, was the basis for the formation of nation, and that a politically independent state was pre-requisite to live in Islam.

Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez (also transliterated in different ways- Parvez, Perwaiz, Parvaiz, etc.) (1903–1985) is considered as a prominent Islamic Scholar of the 20th century. He urged the Muslims to ponder deeply over the Message of the Quran. He considered Islam a Din (Way of Life), a form of government, a system of government like demo-cracy, autocracy, or socialism. He proclaimed that according to Islam, all authority rests with 'the law of God' as given in the Quran where-by food and wealth are to be distributed equally to everybody. He preached that Islam was not a typical religion of rituals and sup-erstitious beliefs but was a challenge to the very institution of organized religion. His writings illuminatingly describe, how Islam was treacherously transformed into a religion by kings who had perverted Islam for their vested interests. "The kings sponsored the creation and fabrication of hadith,' he declared. Parvez denounced the Hadith which ascribed Ayesha, the prophet's wife as 'a nine year old girl'. 'These are fabricated stories written by the enemies of Islam', he said. In an article written by him, he proved from historical record that Ayesha was a much older lady. The perverted Mull-ah's, who for centuries had used this' tradition of the prophet' to justify their own sexual perversions with minor girls, declared Pervez a heretic 'for denying the authority and authenticity of the Hadiths. Pervez condemned the Mullahs for 'always serving as agents of the rich people' and being 'promoters of uncontrolled Capitalism.' In 1951, Parvez exposed the real face of Jamaat-e-Islami through several articles in the Tolu-e-Islam. He was the first to declare this political party as a Terrorist organization. "The mullah's have hijacked Islam," he said. Revered all over the world and especially in Pakistan, his students are amongst the highest ranking scholars and men of letters. Parvez was the right hand man of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the foun-der of Pakistan and was one of the leading activists of the Pakistan movement.