Chicago: Dr Abidullah Ghazi, an internationally known scholar and writer on Islam, has passed away Sunday morning (April 11) in Chicago. He was 85, his scholar and journalist brother Mohammad Tariq Ghazi informed through a note. Tariq Ghazi lives in Canada.
Dr Ghazi was author and editor of about 150 text and support books on Islamic syllabus designed with his wife Dr Tasneema Ghazi especially for the Muslims children living in Western countries or studying in English-medium schools. He was among the 500 most influential Muslims of the world selected by Jordanian Royal Academy.
He did his M A (political science) and BTh from Aligarh Muslim University where he was a classmate of Mohammad Hamid Ansari, former Vice President of India.
He did another M A (Economic) from the London School of Economics and PhD on the revivalist views of Raja Rammohan Roy from Harvard University.
Dr Ghazi was an accomplished Urdu poet and had published his anthology, Zikr e Saman Izaraan.
Eldest son of Maulana Hamidul Ansari Ghazi, a freedom fighter and renovwned Urdu senior journalist of era of freedom struggle. Maulana Ansari was also the grandson Maulana Muhammad Miyan also known as Mansoor Ansari, who was the organzing spirit behind the Reshmi Rumaal Tahreek (Silken Letters Movement), first independence movement following the debacle of 1857.
Dr Ghazi and Dr Tasneema Ghazi have five chiildren, Bushra Yasmin @ Seemin Ghazi, Rashid Mansoor Ghazi, Saba Ghazi-Amin, Suhaib Ghazi, a lawyer, and Dr Usama Ghazi, the note informed.