Professor/Head of Dept. of Urdu (1957-1988)

Faruqui Sb's family belongs originally to Amritsar in East Punjab. However, his grandfather moved to Jaipur and was appointed the ADC to the Prime Minister of Jaipur. Thus, the young Aziz Ahmed was born with a golden spoon in his mouth in a palatial mansion.

During his childhood is was physically very weak. The doctors advised that he should not take any stress. Therefore he would be home all the time and would be envious of the other children who would go to school with their satchels on their shoulders. Finally, his mother allowed him to go and join the nearby Madrassah Taleemul Islam in Jaipur which was in the Deobandi tradition. He studied at this institution from 1936-1944, and graduated with the degrees of Munshi Fazil (highest degree in Farsi) and Adeeb Fazil (highest degree in Urdu literature).

His grandfather was essentially against any English education, and never wanted his children and grandchildren to get involved with anything British. But the young Aziz Ahmed was keen to acquire English language education. He approached the nearby National High School to sit for the Matric Examination, but the teachers were against his joining as he knew little English. Finally, the principal of the school Mr. Sushil Prashad relented and allowed him to join. Not only did he pick up enough English, he also successfully completed his Matric in 1945. He then went on to complete his Intermediate from Maharajah's College in 1947.

During his school and college days, he became a key footballer and cricket player and was considered to be one of the best players in the teams.

Within a week of the creation of Pakistan, he moved to Pakistan in August 1947 and settled down in Hyderabad. The family acquired a house of their own there, though nothing comparable to the palatial home in Jaipur. During the initial days, they had nothing to do but play cricket. Then one day, as he went into the neighbour's house to get back the ball, the gentleman there offered him to become productive by getting a job at his bank where he was a manager. Thus he became a clerk at the Bhaiband Cooperative Bank for less than a year. then in 1948, he got a job at the Government Primary School, Hyderabad as a teacher, which he preferred. He worked there for a year, while he also attempted to complete his BA degree. The Punjab University offered to get immigrants to sit for the degree without pre-requisites, and thus in 1949 he qualified and obtained the degree.

His first job as a proper teacher was at Thatta High School in 1949 where he worked for less than a year. During this period, he got introduced to Allama Daudpota who was the Director Education, by chance. The government had introduced Arabic language as a compulsory subject. Some of the Hindu students wanted to avoid Arabic and requested Faruqui sb to teach them Farsi instead. The next day Allama Daudpota was visiting Thatta and he agreed to allow him to become a Farsi teacher. That was the beginning of a strong friendship with the Allama.

In 1950, he moved to Mirpurkhas at the behest of the Allama to get a degree of B.T. (Bachelor of Training) at the college there. But since he had already gotten a BA degree, after a few months they disqualified him, and he was back into teaching at the Govt High School Mirpurkhas and other schools.

In 1954, he completed his MA in Farsi from Sindh University and a second MA in Urdu in 1957. In 1968, he got his third M.A. - this time in English Literature and won a silver medal. (I remember that day, because then he also started taking some English language classes as well at Petaro).

Soon after he got his MA Urdu, he was selected to join Govt Cadet College Mirpurkhas (known later as Cadet College Petaro) in 1957 as its first teacher. He was selected over other Urdu teachers due to his proficiency in Urdu and Farsi.

He spent the rest of his career until his retirement in 1988 at Petaro.

Other than being the teacher / professor of Urdu, he held several very important positions at Petaro. Throughout his stay, he was the In Charge of Sports until he retired in 1988 and the achievements of that period do go to his credit. He was also In Charge of The Cadet Magazine, and remained the Purchase Officer for 10 years. He was also the In Charge of Examinations throughout this period. He was also the Patron of the Body Building Club during the 1980s

Soon after he joined, he was appointed Associate House Master of Jinnah House during 1957-1958. Although he was the senior most teacher, he never wanted to become a House Master. Finally, he was told that he must serve in that position at least once in order to get his due promotion. Thus, in 1969-1971, he became the House Master of Latif House.

One of the tragedies in his life was the unfortunate death of his eldest daughter Shahida in an accident in early 1966. Mrs. Jamilunnisa, first wife of Prof. S.S. Azim also died in that accident, and both of them were buried at the Petaro graveyard.

Faruqui Sb was famous for his intellectual discourses. He was definitely anti-mullah despite his Deobandi background, and had a flair for left of the center thought in his philosophical leanings. This is so well reflected in his autograph he wrote for me, where he is critical of the typical "ritualism" in our society.  In fact, he knew me well in how my fledgling mind worked.  While at Petaro, I was deeply involved with the Tableeghi Jamaat, going to the dorms every week on gasht and inviting everyone for namaz. We used to have our weekly tableeghi talk at the masjid.  I would never miss my namaz.  And I was so deep into the spiritual activities that I would rarely miss the roza (fasting) of the 13th, 14th and 15th of every month.

Faruqui Sb's almost prophetic autograph hit me many years later. I had left Petaro and gone off to Turkey for doing my engineering at METU.  I stayed in Ankara, Turkey for 2 years, and during those 2 years all my namaz and nafil rozas were gone. I did pray Juma namaz, but my regular prayers were left behind at Petaro. I would remember Allah at times, but the material world showed me that all my rituals were meaningless.  I had never understood Islam or the true meaning of faith in all those years with the Petaro Tableeghi Jamaat.  It was a great spiritual experience in a specific environment, but devoid of true understanding of Allah. Finally, it was when I moved to Boston, USA to study at MIT when I started to re-discover God and the true meaning of faith. It was a journey of a life when I realized that banging my head on the ground or repeated incantations of tasbeeh alone could not lead me to the ultimate reality. Despite all that, East Pakistan was lost, and we Muslims killed each other.

I believe I have a much better appreciation of what is the true meaning of humanity in Islam now. And I pray to the Almighty to grant me greater understanding of faith through love of mankind - not through mere ritualism. I have been regular in my prayers once again for decades. But now it is not merely for the sake of ritualism. Prayer and all other faraiz must be a part and parcel of a greater reality.

I finally met Faruqui Sb again in 2001, after nearly 32 years. He now has a long beard, and looks more like a maulvi himself. I am sure he too has gone through his own experience in life and has found his ultimate reality. I am thoroughly impressed by Faruqui Sb. And I am grateful to him for exhibiting his love for me with beneficence.

May Allah bless Faruqui Sb for being one of those who guided me towards seeking faith with understanding - moving beyond the simplicity of utter blindness!

By the way, just for the sake of those who do not understand Persian, Faruqui Sb summarized the meaning of the Persian couplet he wrote in English in that autograph page. Please see his autograph at the end of this page.

Faruqui Sahib brought out the best of the old memories at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Cadet College Petaro on 24 February 2007 at Petaro. His speech is worth listening to. Please click here to listen to what he says.

Faruqui Sahib had also written an excellent article on Col. Coombes in which he has described so many of his experiences of the early days of Petaro.  Please click here to read his article.

Mr. Aziz Ahmed Faruqui’s own handwriting and signature

“Do not be from the people who deceive God by prostrating before him and counting beads for the Prophet.”

Signed Aziz Ahmed Faruqui

12th July, 1969