M A Sherif - Searching for Solace: A biography of Abdullah Yusuf Ali interpreter of the Quran

The winter of 1953 was a harsh one in Britain. On Wednesday 9 December, a confused old man was found out of doors, sitting on the steps of a house in Westminster. The police took him to Westminster Hospital. He was discharged the following day and a London County Council home for the elderly in Dovehouse Street, Chelsea, took him in. He suffered a heart attack on 10 December and was rushed to St. Stephens Hospital in Fulham. Three hours after admission he died. Unusually, there were no relatives to claim the body and arrange for the funeral. However the deceased was known to the Pakistan High Commission and as soon as the Coroner for the County of London had completed the inquest, an Islamic burial was arranged in the Muslim section of Brookwood cemetery, Surrey. So, in these enigmatic circumstances, ended the remarkable life of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, at the age of 81.

Yusuf Ali is best known for his monumental English translation and commentary of the Qur an, first published in 1934 and subsequently printed for sale and free distribution on an unprecedented scale. The voluminous Yusuf Ali is a standard reference in mosques and homes in the English-speaking Muslim world, perhaps the most widely circulated work of twentieth-century Islamic scholarship. The reputation of the work appears to have been enhanced by the passage of time, a tribute to the authors accurate rendering of the Quranic Arabic, command of English expression and erudition.

The need for a biography of Yusuf Ali has been keenly felt, particularly by readers of his work on the Qur an curious to know what sort of man was behind such a tour de force . Entries on him are to be found in a few biographical directories, but these are not commonly available and their contents possess a hagiographic quality. When Yusuf Ali died the obituary notices in the Muslim press contained far less factual detail in them than those in The Times or The Daily Telegraph of London. The Muslim world seems to have settled for an image of a quiet scholar with mystical leanings and left it at that, a gross injustice to a life of political involvement, prolific literary output and public service.

Yusuf Ali belonged to a brilliant generation of Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, all born in the 1870s, who acquired an Oxbridge education or underwent training for the Bar in London or, as in the case of Yusuf Ali, both. This was a generation which included Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Muhammad Iqbal, and lesser known but influential personalities like Fazli Husain and Shaikh Abdul Qader. Yusuf Ali did not possess the genius of a Jinnah or Iqbal, the dash of a Jauhar, or the political acuity of a Fazli Husain. These contemporaries were to take the star roles in the making of modern Muslim history, but it is a tribute to Yusuf Alis versatility that he was never far from the centre stage and while the casts changed and the prima donnas burnt themselves out, he continued as a minor but persistent player. Yusuf Ali participated in a startling number of key events, from the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to the Unionist-Muslim League cold war prior to Partition. He presided over numerous educational conferences and was an acknowledged expert on Indian education. He served on the 1932 Punjab University enquiry committee, was a member of its senate and played a role in the Unionist governments far-reaching educational programme for Punjab. Yusuf Ali was not only acquainted with the leadership of his generation, but had met and was influenced by the great Muslim personalities who made their mark in the nineteenth century-men like Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan of Aligarh fame; Justice Badruddin Tayebji, one of the early leaders of the Indian National Congress; and Sayyid Ameer Ali, jurist and author of The Spirit of Islam .

Yusuf Ali was a man of extraordinary industry and deep emotion. His personal turmoil and triumphs are of interest in their own right, but his life possessed a richness of experience which can be used to obtain a better understanding of a momentous period of modern Muslim history. By delving into his life, it is possible to relive some of these moments and appreciate the pressures of the time.