Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem
Chapter 05 – EDUCATION
School
Father learnt at a very early age what education can do for a man. He was an industrious student whom his teachers admired for his academic scores. He breezed through local schools. He graduated from College with Honors. He attended the Punjab University Law College. I believe he was the first Law Graduate in the Buttar clan of his twin-village Kirto-Pandori.
He sowed seeded his village by showing what an ordinary farmer’s son could achieve by education (Ch 02 – Best). He was the pioneer whose greatness lies in not just being the first to have achieved what he did, but also in how he lit up the area where he came from.
He became the lighthouse that dispelled the darkness around his village and could dwarf the fabled McCoy and Hatfield feuds of USA. His lead was followed by others where education became the most sought-after thing instead of the previous passion for feudalism.
He led the district that has since produced elites in practically every walk of life. It has become easy for me to look back and see how the Buttars came forward and shined in the fields of law and judiciary, police and military, commerce and communications, medicine and teaching.
Lawyer
Father practiced law as an Attorney for a short while. He was one of the earliest, if not the very first, of the Buttar lawyers. But his thirst for temporal and spiritual knowledge and personal and professional growth remained unquenchable. Doctors in his progeny include one son, one son-in-law, 8 grandchildren with two married to Drs, and 4 great grandchildren some married to Drs.
His progeny so far has had six practicing lawyers and two more law graduates who took jobs with international businesses. On-line shows a great number of Buttar lawyers representing various political parties and contesting elections. His close and distant cousins raised their kids to become District & Sessions Judges and one even a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Father became an Ahmadi. He was of the group that had many highly religious leaders and brilliantly successful lawyers. Some like Ch: Bashir Ahmad, Ch: Aziz Ahmad Bajwa and Mahr Sher M Sial reached up to be District & Sessions Judges. Sir Zafrullah Khan translated the Holy Qor-aan in English and became a Judge of the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
Continued education
The Holy Prophet, s.a.w., had with him a Complete Code (005:004), also known as the Holy Qor-aan. Yet a Hadeeth says that he urged people to get knowledge even if they had to crawl to China. China at that time was the center of worldly knowledges of math, medicine, geography, law, etc. Father followed that instruction to the letter and got the best worldly education as well.
Father knew that education in the spiritual and worldly arenas complemented each other. He continually added to his knowledge and that of his family, his village and the visitors he saw. He was the lightening rod who was determined to improve the life of anyone who ever came close. He showed by his own example that education transformed the life of all individuals and families. He urged his immediate and larger family to continually acquire spiritual and temporal education. He life story illuminates that the road that the Best Exemplar, s.a.w., set down was best to follow.
Father rose with education. He continued learning all his life. He was a Shiite when growing up but learnt of and joined the Ahmadiyya sect after real research. He believed that real education was learning and practicing all that was laid in the Holy Qor-aan. He practiced the teachings of Iss-laam that everyone was rewarded for his own acts and worships. He learnt that knowledge leads to Truth and used education to spread it and followed the Truth wherever it went.
Judge
Father passed the Punjab Civil Service competitive examination under the British Rule of India around 1930. He became a Judge and served in the Judiciary all his life. But his passion was the religious service (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem, as seen by Daughter). He offered his advice, shared his knowledge, promised to pray and helped all who asked for it.
He as a Judge considered the precedents quoted at the Bar studiously. He read judgments that lawyers presented in his court as an opportunity to advance in knowledge. But if he found a bad precedent based upon an erroneous judgment, he refused to follow it. He was not of a judiciary that rubber-stamped bad law. He dissented and showed with reasons how the judgment was wrong.
He considered his duty to correct wrong decisions, particularly about the Moslem Law even during the days of British Rule in India. One such case was where an erroneous judgment was passed by the Privy Council which was the highest judicial entity located in England. That precedent-setting Authority had failed to distinguish the legal term in Arabic language (004:012) translated into Persian language as Aulaad-e-Dukhteri from another Persian phrase Aulaad-e-Dukhter. Father pioneered in the reversal of that bad precedent. (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 11 – Knowledge).
Father corrected others’ perception about Islam by Tubleegh, the process like evangelism. He memorized long portions of the Holy Qor-aan and presented real Islam while others who held positions like him just did their jobs, raised families and accumulated money.
Invitations from abroad
From what I know, twice he was offered jobs overseas that he thankfully declined.
The first was around 1948. He received the offer via Pakistani High Court. The offer was to accept Judgeship in the High Court of Sudan. Father in accordance with his life-long practice of following the Holy Prophet, s.a.w., did the Istikhara. With a clear conscience he declined the offer. He told us that he did not know how much control he would have in Sudan over his environment to shape the future of his children as he could do in Pakistan that he knew full well.
It is not that Abba Ji was a control freak. He encouraged his children to follow their instincts. His eldest son became a lawyer. His youngest son became a physician. One son chose business. Another son served people in need. His eldest daughter obtained a master’s degree in geography. His youngest daughter got a master’s degree and taught Statistics in Punjab University as professor. Another daughter earned a master’s degree and another daughter a bachelor’s degree. What father wanted the most was that they all were practicing Moslems the Ahmadiyya way. He succeeded in his mission as they all followed him, though to varying degrees as ordained by Allah.
Laa-ik-raa-ha-fid-dee-nay سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch:002, Verse 257 No compulsion in religion. 002:257
The second time was around 1970. During his pilgrimage (See 5 Acts of worships or pillars of Islam) to Mecca he met the top brass of some African nation. He was offered to go to the African country and dispense justice the Moslem way. Father thanked the offeror and declined. He reasoned that his own age and the language of the offeror’s countrymen stood in the way.
Marriage
Father married for the first time around 1931 to Amina ( امينه ) Begum, a daughter of Ch: Sultan Ahmad Kahlon, a lawyer (I think) in Sialkot. Father noticed soon after marriage that his bride’s educational levels and health conditions would hamper raising a family as he envisioned.
Father knew that he with his education could accomplish only so much, but with a wife on the same wavelength they could advance his children’s education a lot more. So, he tried, prayed and eventually got blessed with a wife who worked just as diligently as him.
Father informed Khaleefatool Massih II, r.a. of his matrimonial dilemma. It was decided to find him another wife. The burqa-wearing tall daughter of Police Officer Ch: Faqir Mohammad got recommended by a missionary of Ahmadiyya sect. An initial protest by her father that the said daughter was hardly 15-yr-old was quickly withdrawn. And my mother was married to my father.
Father knew that spiritual studies at home were the start, and all his living children today are grandparents – each heading highly educated families(See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem, as seen by Daughter)
Father’s 2nd marriage was in 1933 to Sakina ( سَکِيۡنَةٌ ) Begum. She was a daughter of Ch: Faqir Mohammad of Waraich family from Gujrat. She lived her life true to her name. The word Sakina is often used in the Holy Qor-aan such as the following.
Sa-kee-na-toon سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch:2, Verse 249 & سُوۡرَةُ الفَتْح – Ch 48, Verses 005 & 019 Peace. Contentment. Satisfaction. Serenity. Security. Tranquility. 002:249
Ammi Ji brought peace of mind and tranquility in the life of Abba Ji. She proved an excellent partner in his goal to raise educated spiritual members of the human village. Married at 15, she gave birth to nine (9) children and passed away in 10th pregnancy when she was hardly 30. She was our mother.
Ammi Ji sacrificed for her father her education beyond high school. She sacrificed for her religion all that a teenager views in a privileged life ahead. She sacrificed for her children her own comforts for 14 years of married life spent in schooling, reading to, washing, dressing, and sowing, knitting and cooking for them who numbered seven (7) 1-to-13 years old when she died (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 3 – Coach). She sacrificed her life for her husband who wanted many educated children practicing Islam.
Ammi Ji’s death made my Father aware of the toll that childbearing takes on a woman’s body. So much so that when our second son was born barely 1 year after our first son, Father told me to slow down because he wanted to save us from what he had lost by the death of his dear wife.
Coincidence
And years later came from the Malik family of Multan another lady with the same name Sakina, married Chaudhry M Anwar Buttar with the same family name, of the same village Kirto and raised the same number of six children who are also grandparents raising educated families.
- Whether introduced, influenced or just inspired by Father’s progress via education, that Buttar side encouraged their bright star to trudge along on the pathway of knowledge. After completing his education M Anwar Buttar rose to a high office in the Railways. Later he moved over to law. As an Advocate of the Pakistan Supreme Court and High Courts he contributed to the judiciary hundreds of precedent-setting judgments.
- Their eldest lawyer son passed LLM in England and rose to be a Judge of the Pakistan Supreme Court. The next son is lawyer who also passed LLM in England and is an internationally recognized, renowned and rewarded lawyer in Australia. The youngest son retired as a Pakistan Army Brigadier. The oldest daughter married a lawyer who retired as Attorney General. The two youngest daughters are Doctors practicing medicine in USA.
Next generation
Father knew from his experience that leaving a good student in Almighty God’s care with a limited freedom from parental restrictions to make independent choices had helped him grow in education, profession and life. He knew what education does and passed that benefit to children. I benefitted beyond measure (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 19 – Son’s Education). We learnt from him to memorize, repeat, and work continually in accordance with the words of the prayer like the following.
Rub-bay zid nee il-ma سُوۡرَةُ طٰه – Ch 20, Verse 115 God add to my knowledge 020:115
Father made sure that our actions conformed to the words we uttered whether in prayers or in life. He inculcated in us what he had himself learnt and practiced all his life. To him the truth in talking was the same as it would be stated an oath on a Holy Scripture. He lived his life that way. He trained us to do the same.
.
Tr – Azam Ali – an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 05 – Education
Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem
Chapter 05 – EDUCATION
School
Father learnt at a very early age what education can do for a man. He was an industrious student whom his teachers admired for his academic scores. He breezed through local schools. He graduated from College with Honors. He attended the Punjab University Law College. I believe he was the first Law Graduate in the Buttar clan of his twin-village Kirto-Pandori.
He sowed seeded his village by showing what an ordinary farmer’s son could achieve by education (Ch 02 – Best). He was the pioneer whose greatness lies in not just being the first to have achieved what he did, but also in how he lit up the area where he came from.
He became the lighthouse that dispelled the darkness around his village and could dwarf the fabled McCoy and Hatfield feuds of USA. His lead was followed by others where education became the most sought-after thing instead of the previous passion for feudalism.
He led the district that has since produced elites in practically every walk of life. It has become easy for me to look back and see how the Buttars came forward and shined in the fields of law and judiciary, police and military, commerce and communications, medicine and teaching.
Lawyer
Father practiced law as an Attorney for a short while. He was one of the earliest, if not the very first, of the Buttar lawyers. But his thirst for temporal and spiritual knowledge and personal and professional growth remained unquenchable. Doctors in his progeny include one son, one son-in-law, 8 grandchildren with two married to Drs, and 4 great grandchildren some married to Drs.
His progeny so far has had six practicing lawyers and two more law graduates who took jobs with international businesses. On-line shows a great number of Buttar lawyers representing various political parties and contesting elections. His close and distant cousins raised their kids to become District & Sessions Judges and one even a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Father became an Ahmadi. He was of the group that had many highly religious leaders and brilliantly successful lawyers. Some like Ch: Bashir Ahmad, Ch: Aziz Ahmad Bajwa and Mahr Sher M Sial reached up to be District & Sessions Judges. Sir Zafrullah Khan translated the Holy Qor-aan in English and became a Judge of the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
Continued education
The Holy Prophet, s.a.w., had with him a Complete Code (005:004), also known as the Holy Qor-aan. Yet a Hadeeth says that he urged people to get knowledge even if they had to crawl to China. China at that time was the center of worldly knowledges of math, medicine, geography, law, etc. Father followed that instruction to the letter and got the best worldly education as well.
Father knew that education in the spiritual and worldly arenas complemented each other. He continually added to his knowledge and that of his family, his village and the visitors he saw. He was the lightening rod who was determined to improve the life of anyone who ever came close. He showed by his own example that education transformed the life of all individuals and families. He urged his immediate and larger family to continually acquire spiritual and temporal education. He life story illuminates that the road that the Best Exemplar, s.a.w., set down was best to follow.
Father rose with education. He continued learning all his life. He was a Shiite when growing up but learnt of and joined the Ahmadiyya sect after real research. He believed that real education was learning and practicing all that was laid in the Holy Qor-aan. He practiced the teachings of Iss-laam that everyone was rewarded for his own acts and worships. He learnt that knowledge leads to Truth and used education to spread it and followed the Truth wherever it went.
Judge
Father passed the Punjab Civil Service competitive examination under the British Rule of India around 1930. He became a Judge and served in the Judiciary all his life. But his passion was the religious service (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem, as seen by Daughter). He offered his advice, shared his knowledge, promised to pray and helped all who asked for it.
He as a Judge considered the precedents quoted at the Bar studiously. He read judgments that lawyers presented in his court as an opportunity to advance in knowledge. But if he found a bad precedent based upon an erroneous judgment, he refused to follow it. He was not of a judiciary that rubber-stamped bad law. He dissented and showed with reasons how the judgment was wrong.
He considered his duty to correct wrong decisions, particularly about the Moslem Law even during the days of British Rule in India. One such case was where an erroneous judgment was passed by the Privy Council which was the highest judicial entity located in England. That precedent-setting Authority had failed to distinguish the legal term in Arabic language (004:012) translated into Persian language as Aulaad-e-Dukhteri from another Persian phrase Aulaad-e-Dukhter. Father pioneered in the reversal of that bad precedent. (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 11 – Knowledge).
Father corrected others’ perception about Islam by Tubleegh, the process like evangelism. He memorized long portions of the Holy Qor-aan and presented real Islam while others who held positions like him just did their jobs, raised families and accumulated money.
Invitations from abroad
From what I know, twice he was offered jobs overseas that he thankfully declined.
The first was around 1948. He received the offer via Pakistani High Court. The offer was to accept Judgeship in the High Court of Sudan. Father in accordance with his life-long practice of following the Holy Prophet, s.a.w., did the Istikhara. With a clear conscience he declined the offer. He told us that he did not know how much control he would have in Sudan over his environment to shape the future of his children as he could do in Pakistan that he knew full well.
It is not that Abba Ji was a control freak. He encouraged his children to follow their instincts. His eldest son became a lawyer. His youngest son became a physician. One son chose business. Another son served people in need. His eldest daughter obtained a master’s degree in geography. His youngest daughter got a master’s degree and taught Statistics in Punjab University as professor. Another daughter earned a master’s degree and another daughter a bachelor’s degree. What father wanted the most was that they all were practicing Moslems the Ahmadiyya way. He succeeded in his mission as they all followed him, though to varying degrees as ordained by Allah.
Laa-ik-raa-ha-fid-dee-nay سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch:002, Verse 257 No compulsion in religion. 002:257
The second time was around 1970. During his pilgrimage (See 5 Acts of worships or pillars of Islam) to Mecca he met the top brass of some African nation. He was offered to go to the African country and dispense justice the Moslem way. Father thanked the offeror and declined. He reasoned that his own age and the language of the offeror’s countrymen stood in the way.
Marriage
Father married for the first time around 1931 to Amina ( امينه ) Begum, a daughter of Ch: Sultan Ahmad Kahlon, a lawyer (I think) in Sialkot. Father noticed soon after marriage that his bride’s educational levels and health conditions would hamper raising a family as he envisioned.
Father knew that he with his education could accomplish only so much, but with a wife on the same wavelength they could advance his children’s education a lot more. So, he tried, prayed and eventually got blessed with a wife who worked just as diligently as him.
Father informed Khaleefatool Massih II, r.a. of his matrimonial dilemma. It was decided to find him another wife. The burqa-wearing tall daughter of Police Officer Ch: Faqir Mohammad got recommended by a missionary of Ahmadiyya sect. An initial protest by her father that the said daughter was hardly 15-yr-old was quickly withdrawn. And my mother was married to my father.
Father knew that spiritual studies at home were the start, and all his living children today are grandparents – each heading highly educated families(See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem, as seen by Daughter)
Father’s 2nd marriage was in 1933 to Sakina ( سَکِيۡنَةٌ ) Begum. She was a daughter of Ch: Faqir Mohammad of Waraich family from Gujrat. She lived her life true to her name. The word Sakina is often used in the Holy Qor-aan such as the following.
Sa-kee-na-toon سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch:2, Verse 249 & سُوۡرَةُ الفَتْح – Ch 48, Verses 005 & 019 Peace. Contentment. Satisfaction. Serenity. Security. Tranquility. 002:249
Ammi Ji brought peace of mind and tranquility in the life of Abba Ji. She proved an excellent partner in his goal to raise educated spiritual members of the human village. Married at 15, she gave birth to nine (9) children and passed away in 10th pregnancy when she was hardly 30. She was our mother.
Ammi Ji sacrificed for her father her education beyond high school. She sacrificed for her religion all that a teenager views in a privileged life ahead. She sacrificed for her children her own comforts for 14 years of married life spent in schooling, reading to, washing, dressing, and sowing, knitting and cooking for them who numbered seven (7) 1-to-13 years old when she died (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 3 – Coach). She sacrificed her life for her husband who wanted many educated children practicing Islam.
Ammi Ji’s death made my Father aware of the toll that childbearing takes on a woman’s body. So much so that when our second son was born barely 1 year after our first son, Father told me to slow down because he wanted to save us from what he had lost by the death of his dear wife.
Coincidence
And years later came from the Malik family of Multan another lady with the same name Sakina, married Chaudhry M Anwar Buttar with the same family name, of the same village Kirto and raised the same number of six children who are also grandparents raising educated families.
Next generation
Father knew from his experience that leaving a good student in Almighty God’s care with a limited freedom from parental restrictions to make independent choices had helped him grow in education, profession and life. He knew what education does and passed that benefit to children. I benefitted beyond measure (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – Ch 19 – Son’s Education). We learnt from him to memorize, repeat, and work continually in accordance with the words of the prayer like the following.
Rub-bay zid nee il-ma سُوۡرَةُ طٰه – Ch 20, Verse 115 God add to my knowledge 020:115
Father made sure that our actions conformed to the words we uttered whether in prayers or in life. He inculcated in us what he had himself learnt and practiced all his life. To him the truth in talking was the same as it would be stated an oath on a Holy Scripture. He lived his life that way. He trained us to do the same.
.
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