In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Ever Merciful.
Love for All, Hatred for None.
When he turned 90 a devoted admirer wrote to him:
"You are ninety today; a record glorious in every respect, fulfilling in all dimensions of life; your equation with God being the most envious. I am sure generations to come would wish to emulate you. I am equally sure that future historians must see you very much bigger as their view would be un-jaundiced. Sooner or later your services to the Muslims of the Sub-Continent, particularly of Pakistan, must stand out in bold and lustrous relief in historical accounts."Prompt, as was his wont, came the reply:
"If I could believe myself truly deserving of one hundredth portion of the encomia that the generosity of your heart has persuaded you to heap upon me, I would deem myself most fortunate. Yet I must humbly acknowledge with deep gratitude the countless bounties that Allah, the Lord of immense grace, had bestowed upon me throughout a long life unworthy as I know myself to be. In the conduct of daily life I am completely helpless and without experience. I have no concept of the value of currency and have never kept an account. Yet in the discharge of the responsibilities pertaining to a variety of assignments to which His grace has been pleased to call me from time to time, I have been enabled to acquit myself without discredit. Among His numberless bounties are a good memory and intellectual appreciation of the problems with which I have been confronted. With the help of these and constant, humble, earnest and zealous supplications, my own and of numerous warm hearted and revered patrons and friends, Allah has of His abundant grace and mercy, covered up the multitude of my defaults and shortcomings. Praise be to Him for evermore."His humility charismatic characteristic, his stature unmistakably evident.
In presenting the following few comments by eminent contemporaries and the press in the context of his services to Pakistan and the Muslims world, we are only seeking to affirm his rightful place in the history, particularly noting the present unfortunate trend of disparaging or ignoring his contributions today, what objective historians are bound to acknowledge tomorrow.
"It has now become imperative that the Muslims should close their ranks and should carry on a united struggle to secure their future in India. All other considerations sink into insignificance in comparison with this. You will appreciate that it is not possible to set out in the space of a letter all the factors to which the situation has given rise. I can only assure you that before writing to you I have considered the problem in as many of its aspects as my mind has been able to grasp.Even the draft of the statement issued by Khizar Hayat Khan on his resignation was prepared by Muhammad Zafarullah Khan.The deliberate conclusion at which I have arrived is that notwithstanding every possible consideration to the contrary, personal, party or ideologic, you ought to seize this opportunity to come to a settlement with the League so that henceforth all efforts in the Punjab should have a unified direction and Muslims should devote themselves to safeguarding their future not only in the Punjab but throughout India. You should make immediate contact with the leaders of the Muslim League in the Punjab, whether they are in jail or outside of it, and tell them that the situation created by the British Prime Minister's statement renders it imperative that you should come to an understanding with each other. You should also make it quite clear to them that on your side you do not insist upon remaining in power nor lay down any condition with regard to how the Ministry should be reconstituted. If on their side they insist that your Muslim supporters in the Assembly should join them unconditionally I would earnestly request you to accept the condition."
"For four days on end Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan argued the Muslim case in most forceful, most brilliant and most reasonable manner. Success is in the hands of Providence, but the excellence and the ability with which Zafarullah Khan advocated the Muslims case has given satisfaction to the Muslims inasmuch as they feel that their just and righteous cause has been represented before the powers that be in the best possible manner. We are confident that all Muslims of the Punjab, whatever their religious beliefs, would acknowledge and be grateful for this service."
"Now that the Boundary Commission has concluded its hearings, I wish to express deep sense of gratitude which I and all other Mussalmans of the Punjab feel towards you. Your unremitting toil in the collection of material, your brilliant presentation of our case and your profound interpretation of law and history have won universal admiration. In this most critical hour of our history, you have rendered an inestimable service to the Millat and created a lasting place in the hearts of all Mussalmans. We can never forget how willingly you agreed to interrupt your important discussions in London, return and fulfil this patriotic mission. The knowledge that your zeal was inspired solely by your love for Islam fills our hearts with pride and gratitude."
"The President of this Court who was a member of that Commission considers it his duty to record his gratitude to Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan for the valian fight he put up for Gurdaspur. This is apparent from the record of the Boundary Commission which anyone who is interested may see. For the selfless services rendered by him to the Muslim Community, it is shameless ingratitude for anyone to refer to Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan in a manner which has been referred by certain parties before the Court of Inquiry." (Munir Report page 197)
"Zafarullah Khan's masterly exposition of the case convinced the Security Council that the problem was not simply one of expelling so called raiders from Kashmir, as the Indian representative would have them believe, but of placing Indo-Pakistan relations on a just and peaceful basis and solving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the will of the people of the State."
"The man who more than any other single person has put Pakistan on the international map as a force to be reckoned with is Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan."
"The Pakistani nation cannot be so ungrateful to Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan (who is serving her with great sincerity and devotion) as to be misled by the uproar of a handful of reactionaries - uproar of a small number of people who are prisoners of their own obscurantism."
"From Sialkot to the Security Council, from Round Table Conferences to international conferences, from the Join Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, from the Viceroy's Executive Council to the Pakistan Cabinet, from the Indian Assembly to the General Assembly of the United Nations and from the Federal Court of the sub-continent to the International Court of Justice, Chaudhry Zafarullah's contribution is clean and consistent, creditable and commendable."(Dawn, Karachi, March 3, 1964)
"I wish to convey to you our deep appreciation for the services you have so selflessly rendered over several decades to the people of Pakistan as well as to the international community. As a leading member of the political movement, which led to the achievement of a homeland of the Muslims in the sub-continent and earlier as President of the All India Muslim League in 1931, you played a very significant role in the creation of Pakistan. As Foreign Minister of Pakistan for the first seven years after the birth of the country, you helped in establishing Pakistan as a state which commanded respect abroad and whose voice carried weight in international forms. Your services to Pakistan, however, did not end there. As President of the UN General Assembly and as a judge of the International Court of Justice you not only served the international community as a whole, but in doing so enhanced the prestige of Pakistan. I can say with full confidence that all of us shared the pride that one naturally felt at the respect you commanded in the international community and the United Nations in your various capacities."
"For the first time the voice of Pakistan was heard in the counsels of the United Nations on a burning topic of world-wide significance when leader of this country's delegation, Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan, addressed the United Nations Palestine Committee at Lake Success on Tuesday. It was a telling speech which tore into shreds the specious pleas put forward by the advocates of the partition of Palestine. Chaudhry Zafarullah did not merely indulge in rhetoric when he described the partition plan as `physically and geographically a monstrosity', he proceeded to prove this by unassailable arguments. Answering the contention that the migration of more Jews into Palestine should be permitted because the Jewish displaced persons desired to go to that country, Pakistan's spokesman asked whether the Americans would consent to relax or abrogate their own immigration laws if displaced persons of various other nationalities desired to enter the United States and settle there? Would America, he further asked, agree to take in the five million displaced persons of the Punjab if they desired to leave the scene of their suffering and cross over to the United States. We have little doubt that the Arabs will rejoice to find the voice of Pakistan so powerfully raised in the United Nations in defence of their cause. The addition of the independent sovereign state of Pakistan to the comity of free Muslim peoples of the World is already beginning to have its effect on international affairs,"the paper concluded.
"It was a most brilliant and exhaustive survey of the Arab case regarding Palestine that I have ever heard."
"The fact of the matter is that Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan has done a job for which 80 crore Muslims of the World owe him a debt of gratitude. I never hesitate to mention this fact to all, the intelligentsia and the common people alike. Even in my speeches at big public gatherings. I freely express this view."
"I avail of this opportunity to thank you from the core of my heart, on my behalf as well as on behalf of the family of Hazrat Gous-ul-Azam, for the great Jihad you waged in a purely Islamic spirit in support of the Holy Land of Palestine before the United Nations. I earnestly pray that Almighty Allah may grant you full recompense for your services and enable you to further serve the cause of Islam."
"Wish reassure your Excellency our deep appreciation your invaluable efforts for just causes of Islam. May God guard you crowning your efforts with success."
"You were God-sent to us, Sir. No words of mine or expressions from my heart could convey to you, Sir, our indebtedness to your leadership. God bless you, Sir, and keep you for us."
"Reading in my bed your speech in the Assembly, I prayed to God to save you and preserve your health for long years in the service of Islam. My congratulations on your clear, human and Islamic statement from the world rostrum."
"Zafarullah Khan will be given a tremendous welcome in the Syrian capital. He raised his voice in defence of humanity, justice and righteousness at every political gathering and at every international forum. Zafarullah in the person who bent all his energies in representing the causes of the Arab countries and as such his name will ever be written in gold in the history of the Arabs. His conscience is saturated with faith; his conversation is marked with reason and logic. He always keeps in view true and unalloyed good of humanity. In welcoming Muhammad Zafarullah Khan today we are welcoming a person of faith, belief and humaneness who wants to see the establishment of a pure, clean and exemplary society in the world, who desires to bring about an environment of brotherhood and camaraderie in which human life could flourish unimpeded and no human being could usurp the rights of another fellow human being."
"Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan holds an enviable position in the world of Islam. He is looked upon as a topmost statesman, in the Middle East in general and in Egypt and other Arab countries, in particular. By his forceful support of Tunisia, Morocco, Iran and Egypt at the United Nations, he has served the cause of Islam in a way no other leader has been able to do."
"It came to me a great surprise that you (i.e. Editor of the newspaper) accepted an opinion expressed by the Mufti about Qadianis or Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, as an effective religious fatwa. If this principle is accepted, the beliefs of human beings, their honour and prestige and their entire future will be at the mercy of the views and opinions of a few ulema. Fatwa is sought and given on a definite and unambiguous matter. Even fatwa pronounced in this manner does not carry more weight than that of an opinion. Nor is it necessary that others should accept it. Islam does not permit papaey of ulema and gives them no authority to pronounce anyone beyond the pale of Islam.Everyone who believes in the Unity of Allah, and in Muhammad (peace be upon him) as His Prophet and turns of Ka'aba for prayers, is surely a Muslim. Such one needs no certificate for being a Muslim. It is utterly against the interest of Muslims to call any sect as heretic; one of the cardinal principles of Islam is that one should not doubt the faith of the other. We know for certain that Zafarullah Khan is a Muslim by profession and by practice. He has been successful in defending the cause of Islam all over the world. Whatever stand was taken in defence of Islam, he was always its successful protagonist. It was for this reason that he came to be respected by all and the hearts of Muslims all the world over were filled with sentiments of gratitude for him. He is one of those ablest leaders who have the knack of skilfully resolving national and popular problems."
"Assure your Excellency wholehearted appreciation of your indefatigable efforts to serve Islamic countries. Arabs aware of your Jihad for Islam."
"Responsible quarters are severely condemning this fatwa. The courage with which Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan has always defended the causes of the Arabs in general and of Egypt in particular in the context of safeguarding Islamic interests, has won him grateful applause of responsible quarters."The newspaper adds:
"Ahmad Khashaba Pasha, the Director of Al-Azhar University has stated that the fatwa had given him intense pain, because Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan had rendered great services to the Muslims and Arab world in general and Egypt in particular. The Al-Azhar chief, in his statement, also mentioned Zafarullah Khan's support and assistance extended to the Egyptian delegation at various U. N. Assembly sessions, particularly his valuable support in the matter of winning for Egypt a seat in the Security Council."
"Against which great personality has he pronounced his fatwa? Yes, against that great person who has done so much for the good of Islam and Muslims that the Mufti has neither been able to do so far nor is he likely to do in the future even if he lives the full span of his life."