This biography is the first detailed account of the life and ideas of a leading Indian Muslim of his day who represented British India on the world stage. Yusuf Ali came to prominence in the Great War for his outspoken support of the Indian contribution to the Allied effort, and in the decades to follow established a reputation within India and internationally as an educationalist. Sir Muhammad Iqbal sought him out as principal of Islamia College, Lahore. Yusuf Ali is most famous in the English-speaking Muslim world for a major work of twentieth century Islamic scholarship - his The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary, published in 1934.
Twice-married in England and with many British friends, Yusuf Ali belonged to East and West. These personal ties accompanied a quest for a harmonious world order and he was a notable supporter of a variety of fraternities. Searching for Solace is a candid and sympathetic study that draws on Yusuf Ali’s vast literary output as well as unpublished sources and private papers. His public acclaim contrasted with a troubled domestic life and a sense of despair. He turned to the Qur’an for peace of mind and found healing. He then wrote as a man inspired, deploying his literary skills as a prism for the gleams of enlightenment and spiritual upliftment he had experienced. His job as a college principal and his political allegiances also shaped his Qur’anic scholarship and these inter-relationships are explored in this biography.
Yusuf Ali had an abiding faith in the British and could not foresee the sudden end of Empire. World War II found him again acting as a publicist for the Allied cause. His last years in London were lonely and tragic. The ethos of the Indian Civil Service, the Muslim anxieties over Hejaz and Palestine, the emergence of the World Congress of Faiths, the great political dramas that eventually led to the emergence of Pakistan – all come within the orbit of this study. Yusuf Ali’s is a life story that conveys the impact of colonialism and the struggles and aspirations of an earlier generation of Muslims.
