Searching for Solace

THE book Searching for Solace: A Biography of Abdulla Yusuf Ali, Interpreter of the Qur’an, by M. A. Sherif, describes the turbulent forces in the life of a man whose “bond with the Qur’an was forged in these times of anguish when searching for solace.”

Searching for Solace: A Biography of Abdulla Yusuf Ali, Interpreter of the Qur’an

Written by M. A. Sherif

Published by Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, 1994

Selected by Linda “iLham” Barto

M. A. Sherif describes the turbulent forces in the life of a man whose “bond with the Qur’an was forged in these times of anguish when searching for solace.” Having known and loved Abdulla Yusuf Ali through his interpretation and commentary of the Qur’an, I was saddened by details of his life –a life that “began with promise, swung between moments of darkness and summits of achievement and ended in tragedy. In a sense,” states the author, “it was like the history of British India.” The political events and educational achievements of British India and Yusuf Ali’s contributions to them were a greater part of the book than his spiritual endeavors, but my selection from the book describes the Yusuf Ali that I first knew.

“Yusuf Ali’s close contact with students, both in Lahore and at meetings of the Progressive Islam Association in London, led to an awareness of the doubts and sense of scepticism that coloured the new generation’s attitudes towards religion. He was aware that Indian Muslim youth were in intellectual crisis, unsure where they stood on great questions –whether religion was holding them back from ‘progress,’ or if religious faith could be reconciled with science. He was prepared to engage in the debate between religion and modern attitudes, unlike many of the traditional ulema who were hopelessly out of touch. In his own lifetime he had witnessed a scientific and technological revolution in the west and understood perfectly the new hope that Indian society too should move with the times: ‘The scientist now holds in his hands the key to every kind of future advance in human culture.’ The publication of his commentary was a boon to educated Indian Muslims because it assured them Islam had nothing to fear from science. In Yusuf Ali they had a scholar who not only quoted from scientific textbooks but was able to relate the latest scientific observations to verses in the Qur’an with enthralling brilliance.”