Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, a lawyer by profession, was a prominent figure of the early Ahmadiyya movement. He was the first Muslim missionary to Britain and the author of numerous works about Islam.
Life
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was born in Punjab, India in 1870. His grandfather, Abdur Rashid, a poet, was at one time chief Muslim Judge of Lahore during the Sikh period. Kamal-ud-Din was educated at the Forman Christian College, Lahore where he was drawn towards Christianity, but later experienced a renewed devotion to Islam through the writings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement. In 1893 he joined the movement and became a close disciple of Ghulam Ahmad in reference to whom he wrote in 1914: Kamal-ud-Din worked as a lecturer and then as principal of Islamia College, Lahore. After graduating in law in 1898, he started a legal practice in Peshawar. In 1912 he proceeded to England in pursuence of a legal case on behalf of a client and was instructed by Hakim Nur-ud-Din, the first khalifa of Ghulam Ahmad, to keep three things in view, one of which was to try to get the Mosque in Woking opened which was originally commissioned by the Begum of Bhopal, and had been reported to have been locked for some time. Having reached London, Kamal-ud-Din enquired about the Mosque, met with other Muslims and was able to have the Woking Mosque unlocked. Here he laid the foundation of the “Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust” as well as the journal The Islamic Review. Having left his legal career, from 1912 until his death, Kamal-ud-Din devoted his life to the propagation of a decidedly non-denominational Islam in Britain. Besides visiting England several times for lengthy periods, he also toured other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, including his home country of India, delivering lectures on Islam. In 1923, he performed his second Hajj in the company of Lord Headley, the famous British convert and the Khwaja's close friend and associate. The same year, he was also elected member of the League of Nations Union. Following the split within the Ahmadiyya movement in 1914, Kamal-ud-Din aligned himself with the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement under Muhammad Ali. In 1920, Kamal-ud-Din toured Southeast Asia where, through public discourses, he successfully managed to win confidence among some Indonesian Muslims. He delivered a number of speeches in Surabaya and Batavia which attracted headlines in several leading newspapers.
Literary work
Below is a partial list of English books by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, which can be read online:
