Hazoorpur and Bhera
He took his primary examination at Lower Middle School Hazoorpur, five kilometres east of , where his father was Headmaster. At Government High School Bhera he stood first in the school in 1944, with 634 marks.
The student
His education runs through the manuscripts from Hazoorpur to Damascus. These are the points he records himself.
Talim-ul-Islam College, Qadian
After matriculation he had no intention of studying further, given what his parents could afford. Then carried a notice that a college had opened at and was inviting Ahmadi students who had passed matriculation. He consulted his parents and travelled there in June 1944.
After passing the matriculation examination from Government High School Bhera in 1944, the humble one had no intention of pursuing further education in view of his parents’ financial resources.
Roll number one
In the college’s opening year he was the first name on its rolls. The first fifty-one students had been ordered by their matriculation marks, and his were the highest. Even when students with higher marks joined later, his roll number remained one.
The hostel and Majlis-e-Irfan
At Qadian he lived in the Fazl-e-Umar Hostel. He records the hostel years, the companions invited to speak there, and the Majlis-e-Irfan held after Maghrib in Masjid Mubarak, where (ra) sat with members almost daily.
In those days, Hazrat Amir-ul-Mu’minin Khalifatul Masih II (ra) used to grace Masjid Mubarak almost daily after the Maghrib prayer and remained present among the members of the Jamaat until the Isha prayer.
Lahore after migration
After migration the college moved to Lahore. He remained in its first building for about six months, then in the ruined D.A.V. College building, which had lost its doors, window frames, cupboards, furniture, laboratory glass and library volumes.
B.Sc. and Jamia-tul-Mubashireen
He passed the B.Sc. examination from Lahore in 1950. His period at lasted five years, and he graduated in 1956.
Arabic study in Damascus, 1956
From Damascus he was to learn Arabic before going on to Ghana. He left in February 1956, read in the Zawiya al-Hasani, the Damascus city library and the American Library, and studied Arabic newspapers. He stayed about nine months and reached Accra in November 1956.
The son
He wrote little about being a son. What he left is precise.
Master Imam Ali Sahib
His father was Master Imam Ali Sahib Huzoorpuri thumma Bherwi, a teacher in the Education Department of District Board Sargodha.
Headmaster at Hazoorpur
He was Headmaster of the school where his son took the primary examination, Lower Middle School Hazoorpur.
In his own account¶4
The acceptance of prayer
From his days teaching at Salem School, his father told an account of the acceptance of prayer. Anweri writes that it left a lasting impression not only on his father, but settled permanently on all the children.
Aba Jan related an incident that left a lasting impression not only on him, but also established it permanently upon us children. It was about the acceptance of prayer.
In his own account¶8
Father and son
Together they travelled from Bhera to the first held at Rabwah, by train through Malakwal.
We, father and son, first reached Malakwal from Bhera by train.
In his own account¶114
The four Ghana years
During his four years in Ghana, his father, retired and settled in Rabwah, came to the house and consoled his wife, counting down the years until his son returned.
In his own account¶21
The missionary
As a Waqif-e-zindagi, he went where he was posted rather than choosing where to serve. Across a life of ninety years, that service carried him across four continents.
Damascus and the first foreign posting
He spent about nine months in Damascus to learn Arabic before the posting to Ghana. He reached Accra in November 1956 and served in Ghana until 1960, his first foreign posting.
Beyond Masjid Nuur
During his first period in Germany, invitations from schools, colleges and churches made the work beyond more extensive than the activity within it. At an Islam Day, a priest introduced him by reading the Quran in German translation. He thanked him, explained the pillars of Islam, played the Azan on a tape recorder and translated it as it sounded, then addressed the second coming through Gospel prophecies.
Muhammad Ali at Masjid Nuur, 1966
In February 1966, as the Vietnam War escalated, the American draft board reclassified Muhammad Ali as fit for military service. He refused to go, applied to be recognised as a conscientious objector and, on 23 August 1966, asked to be exempted as a minister of religion. With American boxing commissions closed to him, he defended his world title abroad that year, in Toronto, London and Frankfurt. He arrived in Frankfurt on 30 August 1966 to fight Karl Mildenberger at the Waldstadion on Saturday 10 September. On Friday 9 September, the day before the fight, he came to Masjid Nuur for the Friday prayer, where Maulana Anweri was the Imam, and a UPI photographer recorded him at prayer and reading at the lectern. The press that followed him came too. Isaac Sutton photographed him at the lectern for Ebony and Jet, his pictures at prayer appeared in West German newspapers, and on 11 September the Pakistan Times in Lahore printed one with the caption that he was praying in the only mosque of Frankfurt. Al Fazl reported on 14 September that Maulana Anweri and Chaudhry Abdul Latif, the for West Germany, could be seen praying beside him. Maulana Anweri later told his grandson that he had invited him, and that during the prayer Muhammad Ali watched him closely and followed every movement, as though he were offering the salat in this way for the first time. He was glad, too, that the press had come with him: for a community that was still very small, it carried the mosque into national and international newspapers. In April 1967 Ali refused induction and lost his title; the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971.
Books in public places
He began placing Jamaat literature in university libraries with Frankfurt University Library. In 1973, the Jamaat also had a hall at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Later responsibilities
From 1972 to 1976 he served in Germany as and Missionary In-Charge. He later served two terms in Nigeria in the same offices. While serving as Amir and Missionary In-Charge in the Gambia, he was instructed by the to take charge of Nigeria in March 1983. He returned to Pakistan in April 1986.
The teacher
His work as a teacher began with an institution he had been sent to rescue and included a failure he recorded without concealment.
The school at Swedru
He was sent to Ghana to run a Jamaat Arabic school at Swedru, for which the stay in Damascus had prepared him. By the time he arrived, the Amir of Ghana, Maulana Nazir Ahmad Sahib Mubashir, already regarded the school as a burden.
A school in the mosque room
He was introduced to local African members and to the schoolchildren, but the building was not ready. For the first five or six months, a room in the mosque served as the school. His instruction was to run it by whatever means were possible.
The failure at Swedru
The request for the school had not come from the central administration, so nothing had been settled beforehand, not even how many years it would run. When he left Swedru for Accra, neither a student nor an elder came to see him off. They regarded him as leaving after destroying their Arabic school.
From Jamia student to Jamia teacher
After returning in February 1960, the Headmaster of Talim-ul-Islam High School Rabwah asked him to teach science. Before his leave ended, Tehrik-e-Jadid instructed him to report to as a teacher under its Principal, Syed Mir Dawood Ahmad Sahib. The institution in which he had studied for five years then called him back to teach.
The translator
His translation work took two forms. One belonged to books and public addresses. The other helped people live in a country whose language they did not yet possess.
Mera Hajj Baitullah
He translated Dr Muhammad Abdul Hadi Italo Chiussi’s Mera Hajj Baitullah into Urdu.
In his own account¶311
The Quran in Esperanto
He worked alongside Dr Chiussi as Chiussi translated the Quran into Esperanto from German, English and French translations and the five volume English commentary. He reported the progress each week. Dr Chiussi later followed the same method for a collection of Ahadith.
Spoken and published translation
At the Islam Day, he translated the recorded Azan as it played. His first book was written in English and translated into German by others.
Translation for daily survival
When Pakistanis began arriving in Germany, he prepared each person’s case, took him to the lawyer and then to the police office the following day, and translated for him himself. Translation here was not literary work. It helped people whose German did not yet exist for the life they had to conduct.
In his own account¶537
A language for the life ahead
The arrival of Hadayatullah Hübsch made German correspondence possible. Anweri urged newly arrived friends to learn German even at their own expense, because without the language their degrees counted for nothing.
The husband
His account of marriage was inseparable from departure, family service and illness. His wife was Ayesha Siddiqa.
The first departure
Before his first departure, the house filled with relatives from Bhera. Their presence temporarily lightened the grief of the separation that was approaching.
What the first farewell taught him
When the next departure followed his graduation from Jamia, he arranged to leave from Lahore station rather than Rabwah because of the state in which his wife and young daughter had been at the earlier farewell.
In his own account¶247
Nigeria together
Nigeria was his first foreign posting with his family. He travelled with his wife Ayesha Siddiqa, their daughter Hafsa Anweri and their son Zakaria Ismail Anweri.
In his own account¶353
Ayesha Siddiqa’s eye
Within weeks of arriving in Nigeria, she suffered severe pain in her right eye and its pupil became dilated. At University Hospital Ibadan, glaucoma was diagnosed and the eye was lost. He recorded that the cause of the pain she had endured for two and a half years became clear then, and that adequate medical facilities had not been available in time.
Medical care in Germany
He counted the medical help she received in Germany among its blessings. She had suffered from asthmatic bronchitis since Pakistan, where tablets had made little difference. He remained in the room during her procedure and recorded the moment when a dressing loosened and she began to bleed.
A cost borne by two
His account made the cost plain. A marriage lived under was paid for by two people.
The Imam
For years his work had a single address, Masjid Nuur in Frankfurt. His account of the mosque is an account of the office he held in it.
Arrival at Masjid Nuur, June 1964
His first stop in Germany was Masjid Nuur in Frankfurt, where he arrived on 20 or 21 June 1964. The Imam of the mosque at that time was Mukarram Chaudhry Mahmood Ahmad Sahib Cheema. He stayed a night or two and went on to Hamburg.
In his own account¶25
Seven months in Hamburg, then the appointment
He spent seven months in Hamburg learning German and was then transferred to Frankfurt. In his own words, this was where his practical life began. He was still learning German under the arrangements of the university when Chaudhry Abdul Latif Sahib told him that the Centre had appointed him Imam of Masjid Nuur. He reached Frankfurt from Hamburg in February 1965.
The Kalima above the green door
When he was first appointed Imam, the Kalima above the large green door of the mosque was written in thin, fine letters. He had it written afresh in bold letters, and it remained his wish to have an illuminated board instead, although he knew such a board would cost several thousand marks.
The first Khuddam Ijtema in Germany, 1973
The first annual three day of Majlis -ul-Ahmadiyya Germany was held from 9 to 11 June 1973 at Masjid Nuur, Frankfurt, with 50 Khuddam taking part from across the country. He records the message received on that occasion from Khalifatul Masih III (rh).
In his own account¶627
Leading the funeral prayer
The office included the funeral prayer. He describes one offered in an open space inside a cemetery near the main gate, with fifteen or twenty friends, almost all of the Jamaat then present in Frankfurt.
In his own account¶460
The Waqf
Everything else in his life turned on one decision taken at home in Bhera in 1946. He described it plainly, including the moment he hesitated.
A Khutbah heard at Bhera, 1946
In 1946, after passing Intermediate in Science, he came home to Bhera. His parents could not fund further study, so he settled for that much education and began looking for work. In those days a Khutbah of Khalifatul Masih II (ra) reached him, in which (ra) laid particular emphasis on Waqf-e-Zindagi.
In his own account¶6
Qadian, 1947
He reached Qadian in about April or May 1947, the year of Partition. Tehrik-e-Jadid, with the approval of (ra), decided the course he would follow.
In his own account¶7
Where the waqf took him, 1956
In 1956 he passed the final examination of Jamia, and with it his practical life began. -e-Tabshir appointed him Principal of the Ahmadiyya Arabic School at Swedru in the Gold Coast, with a period in Damascus first, to gain proficiency in Arabic.
In his own account¶8
A sentence upon the tongue, Damascus
Before he left Rabwah, Musleh Maud (ra) had advised him that to gain proficiency in Arabic he should read books of stories and tales extensively. In Damascus he did exactly that, working through the collection of Zawiyat-ul-Husni, the city library, the American Library of Damascus and the Arabic newspapers. One night, sleeping in the library hall of Zawiyat-ul-Husni, a sentence flowed upon his tongue with great force and clarity. He woke still feeling the sweetness of the words and wished them to come again. He named this his first spiritual experience and identified it as the state of Ilham as the (as) described it, and he understood it as consolation: to carry on with the work he had come for and leave the visa to Allah. Falhamdulillah ala zalik.
You read books and leave the rest of the matter to me
A Waqf-e-Zindagi and employment at an embassy
The visa was then resolved through the Pakistani embassy: it was proposed that he take employment there. That is exactly where the dilemma arose. He felt hesitation, and set the hesitation down as a question to himself, a Waqf-e-Zindagi and employment at an embassy. He wrote the whole matter to Wakalat-e-Tabshir and to Huzoor. Within a month Musleh Maud (ra) replied that if permission could be obtained to live in this manner, he should do so.
What it cost at home
He left his wife and young daughter behind in Mohallah Dar-ul-Barakat, a place he called in every sense a wilderness. Only a few houses had been built and the rest of the quarter lay deserted.
In his own account¶18
The father
His children grew up through his absences. He wrote about the departures rather than the homecomings.
Home after four years in Ghana
When he reached home again after four years in Ghana, his daughter Hafsa Anweri had become eight years old and his son Zakaria Ismail Anweri four.
In his own account¶21
Lahore station, June 1964
Leaving for Germany in June 1964, he took his wife and both children to Lahore, with Abba Jaan along so that the family could travel back to Rabwah together. As the scene of Lahore disappeared from the train he became heavy hearted, imagining the condition of the child. That state stayed with him until Karachi, and returned whenever the scene came back to him.
The children in Nigeria
Nigeria was the first posting where the children came too. Hafsa Anweri, then in her sixteenth year, arrived after matriculation, and Zakaria Ismail Anweri, twelve, arrived having left after the sixth class. He records that no arrangement could be made there for the further education of either, and that the gap later caused them various kinds of difficulty.
The father to those who migrated
After 1974 the mosque filled with people who had left Pakistan with nothing settled. The work he describes is the ordinary work of getting each one through.
After the riots of 1974
After the riots raised against the Community in Pakistan in 1974, many Ahmadi friends reached Germany and sought protection there on the basis of asylum.
In his own account¶773
Masjid Nuur as a reception centre
Masjid Nuur became an asylum centre. Whoever arrived went straight to the mosque. The case was prepared there, food and lodging were arranged there, and translators were provided from there.
In his own account¶774
The lawyer, then the police office
He prepared each man’s case himself, took him to the lawyer, and the next day took him to the police office and did the translating. He also reduced his own visits to the police office, so that the local police would not form the impression that the Imam of the Ahmadiyya Mosque was inviting people over.
Sending friends on to Hamburg
When Frankfurt filled up he began sending friends to Hamburg, where there was a mosque, a mission house, and more room for guests than in Frankfurt.
In his own account¶555
Learn the language
He pressed newly arrived friends to read and learn German, even at their own expense, because without it their degrees, however high, counted for nothing.
In his own account¶607
The brother
His own brothers and sisters appear in the manuscripts chiefly as the family who came to every farewell. The word brother, where he used it with feeling, he used of Hadayatullah Hübsch, the German poet and journalist who accepted Islam. This is brotherhood in faith, not kinship.
The family at every farewell
When word of his going abroad reached Bhera, his parents, his brothers and his sisters all came to Rabwah at the appointed time to see him off, and the people of the neighbourhood arranged farewell gatherings in their own ways.
Paris, April 1973
The two of them travelled to Paris in April 1973 to see the great mosque there. He telephoned its Imam beforehand, saying that two men were coming, one the Imam of the first mosque in Frankfurt and the other a German new Muslim brother of his.
In his own account¶481
An interview that opened a door
German television called Hübsch for an interview as a German Muslim, showing him performing wudu, calling the Azan and offering prayer, with pictures of Masjid Nuur alongside. Letters and telephone calls from Germans asking for information and books followed in great number.
In his own account¶492
Speaking after him
After one of his own speeches, Hübsch explained in his own particular style why he had left Christianity and accepted Islam. He records that the audience took a very good impression from both.
In his own account¶659
A poet and a recognised writer
Hübsch was a poet and a writer of a high standard, and a recognised figure in German journalism and broadcasting. On his death he was mentioned in sixteen German newspapers.
His passing, 2011
Hübsch passed away in 2011 of cardiac arrest. A large number of the German Jamaat offered his funeral prayer, after which he was buried in a cemetery in the south of Frankfurt.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un
In his own account¶496
The author
He wrote from the beginning of his service. The full list of what he published is kept separately.
A Talk Between a Muslim and a Christian
During his first four year stay in Ghana he prepared a small book on Christianity in English, in the form of question and answer. It was published under the auspices of Jamia with the approval of the Principal, and he records that it became very popular. Other missions published translations in their own languages, and the England mission brought out two or three editions.
The German edition
Dr Muhammad Abdul Hadi Italo Chiussi liked this first writing effort so much that he translated it into German on his own initiative, and the German Mission published it as Ein Gespräch zwischen ein Muslim und Christ.
The grandfather
One book carries the record of it.
Asan Urdu, dedicated to two grandsons
He dedicated Asan Urdu to two grandsons, his daughter’s son Mubashir Ahmad Tariq and his son’s son Ata-un-Nasr Anweri, and wrote that teaching the two of them Urdu produced the lessons, which he then cast into a book so that others could benefit.