Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
Renowned author, public speaker, humanitarian, and founding editor of Community News & Views, Syed-Mohsin Naquvi passed away on April 4th, 2020 in Philadelphia from complications following heart surgery. Syed-Mohsin was also the founder of Mohsena Memorial Foundation, the publisher of this newsletter, whose mission is to connect communities through education by creating publications, hosting events, and organizing various community projects. He was laid to rest on April 5th in Princeton Memorial Park after a janaza ceremony attended by only his immediate family, burial staff and religious officiant because of the restrictions on physical gatherings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Syed-Mohsin Naquvi was born in Lucknow, India, the eldest child of Mohsena Begum and Zaheer Hasan Naquvi, whose mother Imam Baandi made pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Husayn (pbuh) in Karbala, so that they may be blessed with their first child (of eventually six) after many years of marriage. He was born the year following, an exceptionally beautiful child according to relatives and friends of the family. After completing his studies in Physics at Lucknow’s Jubilee College, Syed-Mohsin emigrated to Pakistan as only a teenager at the urging of his mother Mohsena to complete his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in the same field at Karachi University. In his later years, he would often recount the story that while working at the World Bank in Karachi he was the first person with a computer at his desk. In 1967, barely ten years after arriving in Pakistan, Syed-Mohsin was offered a position working in computers for the Bank of England and subsequently moved to Winchester, UK.
In 1971, when Idi Amin ousted 60,000 Asians from Uganda and many of them arrived in England as refugees, Syed-Mohsin worked as a volunteer in a refugee camp at Newbury, Berkshire, helping unfortunate refugees find residence and employment, and enabling the Shias among them to organize a space to hold azadari gatherings within the camp during Muharram. In London, he had begun reciting short speeches in English at the behest of organizers of the Muharram majalis there, who had noticed the British-born youth of the community seemed to lack understanding in the message of Imam Husayn. It was this observation that would ultimately inform his writings and publications for decades to come.
When his mother, Mohsena, died suddenly from cardiac arrest on April 2nd, 1974 while preparing to recite a majlis, he returned to Karachi, where the entire family had relocated. Six weeks later, he married Saniya Abid, the youngest daughter of the mujtahid and former Dean of Islamic Studies at Aligarh, Maulana Abid Shabbar. Before her passing, Mohsena Begum had a sweet friendship with and admiration for the young woman who would posthumously become her daughter-in-law.
Syed-Mohsin returned to England with his new wife and they had four children, a son and three daughters, all born in the UK. They stayed in Europe for 18 years, with Syed-Mohsin’s cutting-edge knowledge of computer systems taking him on projects to Berlin, Brussels and Amsterdam, where the family spent a handful of years in each country. During this period, they were also able to visit post-revolution Iran, as guests of Ayatollah Shariat Madar, who had been a colleague of Syed-Mohsin’s father-in-law Maulana Abid Shabbar. Syed-Mohsin would later recount that the Ayatollah was the most impressive person he had ever met.
In February 1985, Syed-Mohsin made his final migration with his family to the United States. After researching the public schools, they finally settled in West Windsor, NJ--a town on the outskirts of Princeton. Here, Syed-Mohsin established a weekly Sunday School for Princeton-area Muslim children to learn how to read and understand the Qur’an, lessons in fiqh and Islamic history, as well as how to navigate a moral lifestyle in an American context. It was during this time that he began writing and distributing Community News & Views, a monthly newsletter for Shia Muslims living in the US published under the auspices of the Mohsena Memorial Foundation. As a public speaker, he was invited all over the United States and Canada to recite the majlis of Imam Husayn, and was known for his unique ability to express the deep poignancy of the tragedy of Karbala in his English masa’ib.
It was in Princeton that Mohsena Memorial Foundation was officially established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and Syed-Mohsin published his most famous work, The Tragedy of Karbala through the Princeton University Press, now in its 3rd edition. This was followed by a series of smaller booklets entitled Essays in Islam, which included texts on Hijab, Ghadeer-e-Khum, and The Passing Away of Fatima Zehra. After the advent of the internet and public message boards, Syed-Mohsin began writing articles online, resulting in fierce virtual debates that ultimately informed his book Defending the Shia Faith. He published a handful of other books in the early 2000’s including The House of Love and Understanding Karbala, as well as works in the Urdu language.
After 30 years spent teaching Islam in the English language, Syed-Mohsin’s later years now were focused on the preservation and appreciation of the Urdu language, with a particular emphasis on the socio-linguistic influences of Islam and Karbala on Urdu poetry and literature. After discovering that Urdu was not being taught at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, despite offerings of Hindi and Farsi, Syed-Mohsin advocated for a course to be created, which he ended up teaching at Rutgers University in the summer of 2010. His first published work in Urdu was on Ghalib, which was printed and sold in Pakistan. He had completed two other books in Urdu, and a few more in English which have not yet been published. He also leaves behind many unfinished texts, including a biography of Imam Ali and an English translation of the famous Urdu biography of the Prophet Muhammad, Tareekh-e-Ahmadi. In January 2015, Mr. Naquvi was honored for his 40 years of community service at Princeton University.
Syed-Mohsin Naquvi is survived by his wife, four children and four grandchildren. His legacy will live on through his published books and writings, the students he educated and the many people’s hearts he touched, as well as the continuing work of the Mohsena Memorial Foundation.