Hafeez Jullundhri

Abul Asar Hafeez Jalandhari (14 January 1900 – 21 December 1982) was a Pakistani poet, writer and lyricist who wrote the lyrics of Pakistan's national anthem (the Qaumi Tarana) and of the anthem of Azad Kashmir, and authored the four-volume epic Shahnama-e-Islam. Born in Jalandhar in the Punjab, he migrated to Lahore in 1947 and held cultural and publicity posts in the new Pakistani state. ^{1 2}

He was born Muhammad Abdul Hafeez in Jalandhar; his father Shams-ud-Din was a hafiz and his mother was Jahan Bibi. He received a formal education up to the seventh grade, after which he continued to study at home and at the mosque in his neighbourhood. He took an early interest in poetry and was encouraged by the poet Maulana Ghulam Qadir Grami, learning Urdu and the principles and techniques of poetry before he was ten years old. The English article notes that he was born into a Punjabi Muslim family and that he was considered a devout Muslim; both are descriptions of his upbringing and standing, not a recorded school affiliation. ^{1 3}

From 1922 to 1929 he edited journals and magazines in several cities before settling in Lahore, where he won wide literary acclaim. After the partition of India in 1947 he migrated to Lahore. He was a member of the seven-member National Anthem Committee set up in August 1947; he wrote the lyrics of the Azad Kashmir anthem in 1948, and his text for Pakistan's national anthem was chosen from 723 entries in 1949 and officially adopted in 1954. In the new state he served as director of publicity (1948–1953), adviser to the Minister for Information and Broadcasting (1953–1955), writer-adviser to President Ayub Khan (1956–1958), chairman of the president's advisory council (1958–1965), head of the army's publicity section with the rank of major general, and briefly director general of public relations of the Pakistan Army; he was also made honorary chief of the Aiwan-e-Iqbal office in Lahore. ^{1 3}

His first collection of poems, Naghma Zar, appeared in 1925, followed by Soz-o-Saaz (1932) and Talkhaba-e-Shireen (1933). His best-known work, the Shahnama-e-Islam, appeared in four volumes between 1928 and 1947; modelled on Ferdowsi's Shahnama, it is a versified history of Islam and biography of the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad from his birth to the Battle of Badr. ^{1 3}

He died in Lahore on 21 December 1982. He was first buried in Model Town, Lahore, and was later moved to a tomb built for him by the Government of Pakistan near the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore. He received the Pride of Performance award in literature from the president of Pakistan in 1958, and the Hilal-i-Imtiaz. ^{1 3}

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