Iqbal Ahmad was born on 10 August 1930 in Shillong, Assam, India. His father, Maulana Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, at that time was working as a missionary for the Shillong Muslim Mission. This mission was patronised by Sir Sadullah Khan, who later became Chief Minister of the Province. Mr Ahmad had his early education at Woking, Surrey, England, where his father was Imam of the well-known Shah Jehan Mosque. He returned to Lahore in 1939 with his family. He passed his Matriculation at Muslim High School, Lahore and Intermediate in Science at Islamia College, Lahore. He did his degree in Commerce at Government Hailey College of Commerce, Punjab University, Lahore in 1950. He was well known as a debater, secretary of the Student’s Union and editor of the English section of the College magazine, Al-Iqtisad.

He went to England in 1953 to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. Along with the articleship, he took a keen interest in the activities of the Woking Muslim Mission. Suddenly, in January 1956, his father died of heart failure in Lahore and four months later, in May of the same year, Dr S. M. Abdullah, Imam of the Woking Muslim Mission, also died of heart failure. Thereby, the responsibilities of the Mission fell on his shoulders. He fulfilled these admirably till the arrival of Maulana Muhammad Yakub Khan.

During these difficult times, he represented Islam on behalf of the Mission at various important meetings and attended the annual meeting of the World Congress of Faiths.

While Mr Ahmad was officiating as the Imam of the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, a tragic air crash of a KLM plane, Hugo de Groote, occurred in the early hours of Thursday, 14 August 1958. This disaster caused the instantaneous death of all those on board: ninety-one passengers of many nationalities and a Dutch crew of eight. Thirty-two bodies were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean at a point 120 miles due west of Galway Bay, Ireland. Only twelve were positively identified. The remaining twenty-two unidentified. The victims were interred in the cemetery of St Mary in the Hill on Tuesday, 19 August 1958. As their religious creeds were, of course, not known, it was decided that the burial should be preceded by a funeral service, in which religious leaders representing all the faiths known to have been held by the passengers would participate.

“First the ‘Te Deum’ was chanted by the Very Rev. Canon P. Glynn of St. Joseph’s Galway, assisted by a number of priests and friars. This was followed by rites in accordance with the Muslim faith, the prayers being said by the Imam of London, Mr I. Ahmad.” (Extract from the Condolence Report, published by KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, The Hague, September, 1958.)

As the bodies could not be identified, the problem arose as to how to conduct the funeral service for the victims belonging to different faiths. A call came to the Mosque at Woking to send somebody to solve the problem. Mr Ahmad was sent by the Woking Muslim Mission. He made two suggestions: “Let us all read out translations of the funeral prayers and see what is the main purport of these prayers recited by each faith.” All agreed that the prayers are meant to seek God’s forgiveness for the deceased and to grant patience to the members of the bereaved family. As regards who should lead off the congregational service, Mr Ahmad suggested that they should decide the order in accordance with the revelation of each religion in history. It is obvious that Judaism came first, then Christianity and last of all Islam. In this order, the religious leaders of all known faiths led funeral service prayers for all the bodies of the victims. The universal concept of Islam came to the rescue of this rather delicate religious issue. The Imam from Woking did not make any compromise; rather he demonstrated the universal spirit of Islam. Thus the Woking Muslim Mission, during its tenure (1912–1965) at the Shah Jehan Mosque, always tried to present a unified Islam, preaching and practising its universal teachings.

He worked as Assistant Editor of The Islamic Review from 1956 to 1959. In 1958, Maulana Abdul Majid, editor of The Islamic Review, went on an extensive tour of the Middle East and Indonesia and the entire responsibility of editing The Islamic Review fell upon him.

He obtained his Certificate in Education from the Institute of Education, University of Southampton, in November 1962. He then obtained his B.A., with Honours, in the subject of Oriental Studies at Victoria University, Manchester, in July 1969. During his Honours course, he studied Arabic and Persian under Professor John Andrew Boyle, Professor of Persian Studies, and Professor C. E. Bosworth of the University of Manchester.

Afterwards, he joined the M.A. programme to further improve his knowledge in Arabic and Oriental studies. His subject of his thesis was Naseer Khusrau’s Safar Namah, which is in Persian.

Later, he joined the teaching profession. In the late sixties, he came to Manchester to live, teaching first at Temple Junior School and then at Levenshulme Girls’ High School. As a teacher, he won great admiration for being more than a teacher to his students.

In 1970, the Local Authority approached him to help BBC Radio Manchester with its programmes covering the activities of ethnic minority groups and he became actively involved in the presentation of two programmes, Link and Eastward North Westwards for a number of years. In spite of his teaching and broadcasting commitments, he managed to find time to participate in many conferences and seminars and to supervise and edit the first issues of the Mancunian Indian, published by the Indian Association of Manchester.

A man of high literary taste and knowledge, Iqbal Ahmad earned the respect and affection of many people of many races, cultures and religions. He devoted his time and energy to the welfare of those who could benefit from his help and guidance. Being a Muslim, he even helped in raising funds to build a gurdawara in Manchester.

He was also an active member of the ‘Scribbler’s Club’ of Manchester and contributed to Scribbler Magazine.

Mr Ahmad’s articles, besides The Islamic Review, appeared in the weekly Light and weekly Pagham-i Sulh, of the Ahmadiyyah Anjuman Lahore, as well. He did some translation work such as the English translation of Taudhih-i-Maram (‘A Clarification’) by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. It deals in a scholarly and philosophical manner with the nature and work of angels in the working of the universe. His second translation was of Kashf al-Israr (‘Unveiling of the Secrets’) by the great saint of Lahore, Hazrat Ali Hujwiri, generally known as Data Ganj Bakhsh. He typed and compiled stories and experiences of people who joined the fold of Islam through the Woking Muslim Mission, England, that had appeared in the pages of the monthly The Islamic Review. The material was published along with other aspects of Islam in the form of a book, Islam Our Choice.

It was in recognition of his services to the people of Manchester in general and to the Asian community in particular, that he was made a Justice of the Peace in January 1976.

Due to failing health, he was compelled to give up teaching in 1975 and presenting Link in 1976, although he continued to produce Eastward North Westwards for Radio Manchester, even after he entered Ladywell Hospital and until his death on 2 October 1978. A special edition of Eastwards North Westwards was dedicated to the memory of Mr Iqbal Ahmad.

Because of his wide circle of Christian and Muslim friends and admirers, in addition to the congregational funeral prayers at the Central Mosque on Wilmslow Road, Manchester, on a special request, the Pastor of the Church of England, Salford, allowed a Muslim funeral prayer service to be held at the church. This was led by Maulana S. M. Tufail, former Imam of the well-known Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, Surrey, and the Christian service was led by Rev. Ronald Freeman. His body was flown to Lahore, Pakistan, and was buried in the Lahore Ahmadiyya cemetery in Garden Town, Lahore.

He will long be remembered by both the Asian and non-Asian communities of Manchester as a strong believer in the universal brotherhood of man and as a teacher who pioneered ways of solving the educational problems of ethnic groups.