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He was born in January 1901 in a village Tola (maternal ancestor's home ) in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal, India. His father, Syed Rahat Ali, was a legal practitioner and was an influential landlord of Village Mogra, District Burdwan. Maulana Ahmad had his early education in the town of Burdwan. He passed his degree with distinction in English from the Presidency College, Calcutta in 1923. He became mindful of the fallen condition of the Muslims through the Khilafat Movement, to which he rendered voluntary service off and on for four years. He thought of having a first-hand knowledge of Islam through a study of the Arabic language, which took him to the University of Deoband near Dehli in 1923, and he studied there for almost two years. His tutor in the Qur'an was Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, who, after independence was given the title of Sheikh-ul-Islam by the Government of Pakistan.He was drawn towards the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement through The Light, then a fortnightly, under the editorship of Maulana Muhammad Yakub Khan. He proceeded to Lahore for comparative study of religions in 1925. He joined the editorial staff of The Light in 1926. He also worked as assistant to Maulana Muhammad Ali, the well known translator of the Quran into English. He was deputed in July 1927 by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Anjuman to act as missionary of the Calcutta Islamic Missionary Movement at Shillong, Assam, among the most advanced of the hill tribes, the Khasis.
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Maulana Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad was
the first to write several books and booklets on Islam for that
tribe. At the special request of Hazrat Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
(Founder of the Woking Muslim Mission, England) he
proceeded to England in 1931 and acted as Assistant Imam of the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking till the end of 1932
(Click here to view the original appointment letter). On his return to Lahore, he
took up editorial responsibilities of
The Islamic Review.
He proceeded to England again in 1934 as Imam of the Shah Jehan
Mosque, Woking. He returned to Lahore in 1939 and became
editor of the monthly
The Islamic Review
and undertook revision of books by Hazrat Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. He
became Secretary of the Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust,
Lahore in 1948. He was also appointed as editor of the weekly
The Light
of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at-i Islam, Lahore in 1950 and remained
its editor till his death. He was entrusted with the work of
translating
Sahih al-Bukhari
into English by Maulana Muhammad Ali and was able to complete four of
its
paras
till his death on January 13, 1956. He lies burried in the Ahmadiyya
section of the Miani Sahib Graveyard in Lahore. |