A linguist, educationist, historian and a great scholar, Abdullah Yousuf Ali was a versatile personality and not just a translator of the Holy Qur’an. This extra dimension of the great Islamic scholar has been brought to life in “The Writings of Allama Abdullah Yousuf Ali,” a book compiled by Muhammad Haneef Shahid, author of around 50 books on Allama Iqbal, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Islam and other subjects.

The author, who works at the King Saud University library in Riyadh, has gleaned the material from various libraries in India, Pakistan and Britain for his publication.

The 188-page book, published in Lahore, projects Yousuf Ali in a new light as a writer, journalist and speaker who, as the “king of words,” shook the conscience of millions of non-Muslims through his superb English translation of the Holy Qur’an.

A little-known aspect of Yousuf Ali is his support for the Palestinian cause. On his way back from Geneva to London in 1937, he visited Paris to attend an exhibition. What struck him was the Palestine Pavilion with its banner, “The Land of the Jews.” It was a moment of revelation for him and he wasted no time in speaking out on the Palestine issue on his return to London.

Yousuf Ali declared that “Palestine was part of the ‘Jazirat ul-Arab’ and no Muslim would willingly see it given to people of another religion.” In the same address he went on to deplore the measures taken against the Arab revolt, such as the introduction of the “Star Chamber” methods, the alteration of the law to allow the validity of uncorroborated evidence and the ban on the Mufti of Jerusalem. He also composed a poem on Palestine that is infused with an ethereal quality:

What joys and sorrows — laughter, tears —

Are woven in thy web of life?

What thrills of mingled hopes and fears?

What tragic dreams of love and strife?

What statecraft plots have scarred thy brow?

O Holy Land of Palestine!

O Land of Peace! say when and how,

In these strange days, can peace be thine?

One way alone can bring thee peace:

That ancient rights be not suppressed,

That aliens from encroachments cease,

And Quds be given its rightful rest.

Yousuf Ali’s love of Islam inspired him to perform the pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah. “I have seen with my own eyes the city and territory of Madinah with all the country around and between the holy cities,” he wrote. “I have realized for myself the scenes in which the revelations came which I have humbly sought to interpret.”

Though Yousuf Ali is known for his mastery of the English language, he was equally well-versed in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Urdu, Persian and Arabic. Born in Surat in western India on April 4, 1872 in a Dawoodi Bohra family, he learned Arabic from his father in his early childhood. “It was between the ages of four and five that I first learned to read Arabic words, to revel in its rhythm and music, and wonder at its meaning.”

A product of Anjuman-i-School and Wilson College, Bombay, Yousuf Ali had a brilliant academic record. He won a prize for his proficiency in Latin and obtained a fellowship in Greek history. These esoteric languages contributed to the Hellenic influence on his mind and inspired his commentary of the Holy Qur’an.

For instance, he reveals that the word “Prophet” is derived from a Greek source and means originally “one who speaks beforehand,” “one who speaks forward.” In this sense, he explains, “prophecy” corresponds exactly with the Persian word “peshin-goi” which implies nothing more than foretelling future events. He also tells us that the name of Prophet Ilyas is referred to as “Elijah” in both Hebrew and Greek languages.

The book contains many other surprises on Yousuf Ali. For instance, he served as the revenue minister of Hyderabad, Deccan during 1919-1920 under the Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan.

He represented India at the League of Nations Assembly in 1928, when India was a crown colony. He also had connections with Aligarh Muslim University as a member of the court.

Interestingly, Yousuf Ali attached great importance to Hindustani as the lingua franca of India. As a lecturer in Hindustani and Hindi at the School of Oriental Studies in London, he said Hindustani served as a “ a clearing house for ideas between the East and the West.”

“ The frontiers of the Aryan languages of India,” he continued, “ are not easy to define. But if we take Urdu and Hindi together, we find a vast area and population within the circle of ideas covered by these languages.”

A man of vision and far-sightedness, he realized that the greatest problem in Indian education was that it lacked moral content for character building. As he put it: “Indian human nature is not more perverse or unregenerate than any other human nature, but the circumstances and institutions which we offer lead to many of the undesirable results which we deprecate.... The supply of teachers with great force of character and personality is all important.”

A world traveler who toured the East and the West, it was a great tragedy that Yousuf Ali died in the most poignant circumstances in England as a lonely and forlorn man in a government hospital on Dec. 10, 1953. His body had to be identified by the then Pakistan’s high commissioner to Britain. But the legacy he left behind has benefited millions of people. If ever anyone deserves a posthumous award for service to Islam, it is Abdullah Yousuf Ali.