Qudrat Ullah Shahab (or Qudratullah Shahab; February 26, 1917– July 24, 1986) (Urdu: قدرت الله شهاب) was an eminent Urdu writer and civil servant from Pakistan. He is best known for his autobiography Shahabnama.
Early Life
He was born in Gilgit in 1917, where his father Abdullah Sahib was Governor during the Dogra rule. Abdullah Sahib was from Aligarh where he was also a student at MAO college and a protegé under the supervision of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He later immigrated from Aligarh and settled down in Gilgit.[3] Shahab started writing in his early days both in Urdu and English languages. At aged 16, he won an international essay competition organized by the Readers Digest, London. He graduated from Prince of Wales College, Jammu, and later from Government College Lahore.
Indian Civil Service
He was selected for Indian Civil Service in 1940 and later volunteered to serve in Bengal during the famine of 1943, where he served as magistrate at Nandigram. He came under heavy fire from the authorities when he distributed part of the strategic rice reserves to starving local community.
Pakistan and his career
After coming to Pakistan he was first posted in the Ministry of Commerce as a Deputy Secretary and then as Chief Secretary of the new state of Azad Kashmir at Muzaffarabad. Thereafter, he became Deputy Commissioner of Jhang, Punjab. He also served as Director of Industries of Punjab and dealt mostly with settlement issues concerning migration. He was appointed by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad his Principal Secretary and remained on this post during Iskander Mirza’s and Ayub Khan’s regimes. He served as Ambassador of Pakistan to Netherlands in 1962 and later as Secretary of Information and Education. He resigned after clash with the new regime of Yahya Khan and opted for a self-imposed exile at UK. Shahab was elected a member of the executive board of UNESCO in 1968.
Literary works
Shahab had been writing since his student age in English and Urdu languages for contemporary newspapers and magazines. However, his main contribution to Urdu short stories earned him recognition in literary circles. Particularly, he entered into the circle of prominent writers like Ashfaq Ahmed, Bano Qudsia, Mumtaz Mufti, Wasif Ali Wasif, and poets like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ibn-e-Insha, Jamiluddin Aali, Hafeez Jullundhri. While serving as Secretary Education, he was elected as the first Secretary General [4] of Pakistan Writers' Guild, founded at Karachi in January 1959[5].
He is best known for his autobiography Shahab Nama. In the first chapter, Shahab mentioned how the idea of writing a memoir occurred to him when he paid a visit to Ibn-e-Insha in London. While they were discussing the philosophy of life, it inspired him to pen his own experiences. The complete work was published after his death in 1986, and then soon became a cult favorite among the Urdu knowing circles of the Indian sub-continent.
Spiritualism
There has been much debate on the spiritual side of his personality. Mumtaz Mufti, Shahab's close friend and a well-known writer had been writing on and off about this side, but rather in low tone. Also in Shahab Nama, Shahab shared some of his spiritual experiences, especially the bewitched bungalow of 18 civil lines (Cuttuck) that attributed in his understanding of Parapsychology.
The real disclosure came in the final chapter of Shahab Nama that alluded to an out-of-world personality whom he used to call Ninety[6] as his spiritual guide. After Shahab Nama published, which was actually after Shahab's death, Mufti wrote his autobiography, Alakh Nagri, and openly discussed the hidden traits of Shahab's life. Mufti wrote in the foreword of the book:
- "Since Shahab has opened his own secrets in the last chapter of Shahab Nama, I find no reason not to share experiences which I witnessed about the mysticism of Shahab"[7] -- (English translation of the original text in Urdu).
Legacy
From the early days of Pakistan, Shahab worked with front-line leadership of the country till the regime of Yahya Khan. Shahab unveiled in Shahab Nama, and Mufti conferred it in Alakh Nagri, that the idea of giving a constitutional name to Pakistan as Islamic Republic was actually proposed by him to Ayub Khan. Shahab did argumentation in the parliament in the favor of this idea, which was unanimously accepted by the then leaders.
The last chapter of Shahab Nama about his exposure to spiritualism has heated much debate and in some circles it is considered as highly controversial[8]. Though through out his lifetime, Shahab had enjoyed a respectful image among his colleagues and friends. Many of his friend writes paid him tributes in their essays and short stories. Notably, Mumtaz Mufti made him the subject of his autobiography Alakh Nagri and later dedicated another book Labbaik. Bano Qudsia, a veteran Urdu writer, wrote a book Mard-e-Abresham on Shahab's personality. A collection of essays about Qudrutullah Shahab have been collected in a book Zikr-e-Shahab.[9]
Death
Shahab saab passed away on 24 July 1986 in Islamabad and laid to rest in H-8 Graveyard
References:
- ^ http://strayreflections.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/final-restion-place-of-hz-qudratullah-shahab-ra/
- ^ http://criticalppp.com/archives/26595
- ^ Shahab Nama
- ^ http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/P_0032.HTM
- ^ http://pakwritersguild.org/history_01.htm
- ^ http://www.monthlycrescent.com/muslim-luminaries/qudrat-ullah-shahab/
- ^ http://www.esnips.com/doc/d39d2751-fe68-4305-bfa9-8c8ed593fd7a/alakh-nagri
- ^ http://www.accountancy.com.pk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2133
- ^ http://khudi.pk/2010/04/15/book-review-shahab-naama/
- ^ http://www.aulia-e-pakistan.com/xData/xPages/Desc-24-QudratullahShuhab.php