Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi

Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi (20 November 1903 – 22 January 1981), popularly known as I.H. Qureshi, was a Pakistani historian, scholar, writer, and a professor of political history, first at the University of the Punjab and then at the Karachi University. Apart from his work as an academic historian he was also a well-known playwright.

Quotes

• Islam cannot leave certain spheres of life strictly to the individual, any action which is likely to prejudice the healthy growth of Muslim society will have to be severely prohibited. We do not believe in unrestricted freedom to bring about a lowering of human standards, of spiritual values of allegiance to our common idealism. Anything which brings in germs of decay and degeneration in our physical, moral or spiritual life will have to be ruthlessly curbed and steps will have to be taken that loose talk and loose thinking are not allowed to exist. This does not mean censorship but an enlightened and sympathetic censorship with an appeal to the highest tribunal in the land.
  • quoted in Venkat Dhulipala - Creating a New Medina_ State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India-Cambridge University Press (2015) 414

• Hitler was not wrong when he identified the democracies with internationa Jewry, because high finance and big business which are the backbone of social organization in the democracies are very much in the hands of the Jews; and because finance is the real master of bourgeoisie democracy, the Jews are very much in control.
  • quoted in Venkat Dhulipala - Creating a New Medina_ State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India-Cambridge University Press (2015) 414

• And the achievement of that goal depends on the success we achieve in this land of India in establishing and maintaining a polity in accordance with our ideals. That depends on our will to live, which depends on our willingness to die.
  • quoted in Venkat Dhulipala - Creating a New Medina_ State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India-Cambridge University Press (2015) 416

• The status and the fucntion of the Ulema in the Muslim community have seldom been properly understood by non-Muslims scholars. Superficial observers have thought that the Ulema correspond to priests withoit a church; hence, they consider the presence of priesthood in Islam inevitable. The Ulema are venerated for their learning and piety, hence also they are taken to be priests.
  • Ulema in Politics, Chapter I. The Position of the Ulema in the Muslim Society, p. 1

• The Quran has always held the central position in Islamic thinking. Indeed it holds a position even higher that that of the Prophet, because the Prophet was as much bound by its injunctions as any believer.
  • Ulema in Politics, p. 5

• Islam does not distinguish between the religious and profane. There being no ecclesia, its counterpart the saeculum becomes redundant. In a sense Islam is a secular religion, because it has no church.
  • Ulema in Politics, Chapter I. The Position of the Ulema in the Muslim Society, p. 3

• They established their khanaqahs and shrines at places (i.e., temples) which already had a reputation for sanctity before Islam.
  • Qureishi IH (1962) The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent , quoted in Khan, M. A. (2011). Islamic Jihad: A legacy of forced conversion, imperialism and slavery

• It can be seriously contented if he possessed wisdom of the highest order. If he had, he would not have sought to weaken Islam and the Muslim community of the Subcontinent. At least he would have refrained from interfering with the established principals of Islam. Even Vincent Smith, who narrates Akbar’s aberrations from Islam with relish, concludes that ‘the whole scheme was the outcome of ridiculous vanity, a monstrous growth of unrestrained autocracy...’ How can it then be asserted that Akbar possessed wisdom in the highest degree?
  • Qureshi, I. H. Akbar, The Architect of the Mughul Empire, (Karachi: Ma’aaref Limited,1978),

Quotes about Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi

• His approach is strongly communalistic... He is proud of the political achievements of Muslims in medieval India and believes that they more than satisfied modern ideas of tolerance, benevolence and efficiency... (He) treats the Delhi Sultanate as a welfare state, the Muslim community in medeival India as a nation, and the Sultans of Delhi as Muslims both in a religious and political sense.
  • Peter Hardy, in Historians of India, quoted in Lal, K. S. (2001). Historical essays. New Delhi: Radha.(96-97)

• Interestingly enough an academic conflict is going on between those who do not wish to tamper with facts (Mohammad Habib, S.S.A. Rizvi) and those who are determined to give a benign face to Islam (I.H. Qureshi, Mohammad Mujeeb, Ashgahar Ali Engineer).
  • Lal, K. S. (2002). Return to roots: Emancipation of Indian Muslims. New Delhi: Radha.(9)

External links

• I. H. Qureshi: Ulema in Politics, Renaissance Publishing House, Delhi, 1985