Eminent educationist, scholar and social worker, Aboobucker Mohamed Abdul Azeez, was born in Vannarponnai in Jaffna on 4th October, 1911. His father S.M. Aboobucker J.P. was a leading lawyer, Quazi, Vice-Chairman of the Jaffna Urban Council and the first outstation President of the All-Ceylon Muslim League. His mother died in 1918 and his father re-married. He was then petted and pampered by his maternal grandparents and aunt. They encouraged him in his studies and Azeez studied late into the night with the aid of a flickering oil lamp.
Azeez joined the Allapichchai Quran Madrasa in 1916 where he learnt to read the Quran. After passing the Standard III examination in Tamil medium in 1920 at the Mohammadiya Mixed School, he joined the Hindu school R.K.M. Vaidyeshwara Vidyalayam in 1921 and Jaffna Hindu College in 1923 and studied there until 1928. It was at these schools that he gathered a good grounding in the Tamil language and nuances of Hinduism, and he had great respect for his teachers.
As a boy Azeez was a near prodigy, having been always one jump ahead of the age limits during his academic career, so much so that when it came to entering the University in 1928 he had to wait for a year as he was underage. So he spent this year at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo.
On his days spent at Vaidyeshwara Vidyalayam Azeez had stated, “I now feel thrice-blessed that I did go to Vidyalayam and nowhere else. My period of stay, February 1921 to June 1923, though pretty short quantitatively was extremely long qualitatively. It was at Vidyalayam that I became first aquainted with the devotional hymns of exquisite beauty and exceeding piety for which Tamil is so famed through the ages and throughout the world”. Azeez was a scholar in Tamil and for a Muslim he had a deep knowledge of Tamil literature and he would quote the Kural, the masterpiece of the poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar, with the best of the pundits. Azeez’s speeches were fluent and in pure Tamil and were a treat to listen to. In later years his routine every morning was to listen to Hindu devotional songs (thevarams) over the radio. He relished the beauty of Tamil in these songs, and reading Tamil in ola leaves as well with a close friend and high ranking public officer. His admiration for Tamil activated the Tamil Sangam to greater heights at Zahira College, Colombo when he was Principal.
With his abiding interest and love for Tamil, Azeez put his elder son, Ali, in the Tamil medium from the kindergarten at Ladies’ College in 1946 until he switched to Science subjects for the S.S.C. examination in 1957 at Royal College, which at that time were taught only in English. The other Muslim boys opted for the English medium from inception. On an amusing note, it was revealed by Marhoom Justice M. Jameel at a public meeting to remember Azeez, that when he was A.G.A. Kandy Azeez had requested his friends to avoid speaking to Ali in Tamil lest he spoils his speech in Tamil. Ali recollects that he spoke Tamil in three different accents at home, Jaffna Tamil with his father, Eastern style with driver Ibrahim from Kattankudy and ‘sonaha’ Tamil with his mother.
Having been a distinguished student and a respected old boy of the two Jaffna schools, Azeez was honoured to declare open the Diamond Jubilee Carnival at Jaffna Hindu College in 1951 and deliver the Golden Jubilee Address at Vaidyeshwara Vidyalayam in 1963.
Azeez was an Exhibitioner in History at the University College and graduated with Honours in History from the University of London in 1933. He joined the Colombo Zahira College hostel as a resident tutor and the Law College, but left shortly when he was awarded the Government Arts Scholarship in 1933, to proceed to St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge in 1934. Before leaving, he appeared for the Ceylon Civil Service Examination.
His sojourn at Cambridge was short-lived and he returned after one term on passing the C.C.S. examination. He was second in order of merit after K. Kanagasunderam, and nine were selected including C.P. de Silva. He was the first Muslim Civil Servant and preferred to follow a career in the public service. He joined as a young cadet at Matale as Office Assistant in 1935. Thereafter, he held the posts of Administrative Secretary, Department of Medical and Sanitary Services; Secretary to the Minister of Health (Hon. Dr. W.A. de Silva); Additional Landing Surveyor, H.M. Customs; Assistant Government Agent (Emergency), Kalmunai; Deputy Food Controller; Assistant Government Agent, Kandy; Information Officer; Additional Controller of Establishments, Treasury; Assistant Commissioner of Parliamentary Elections and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Local Government (under Minister Hon. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike).
Azeez’s great achievement, if not the greatest, was his contribution to food production while serving as A.G.A. in Kalmunai. During the Second World War a shortage of food was looming and the Government had to find ways and means of accelerating food production. One of the areas selected was the Southern region of the Batticaloa District from Paddiruppu to Kumana, the present Ampara District. For this purpose Azeez was specially selected by the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. D.S. Senanayake, and was transferred at short notice to set up the Emergency Kachcheri in Kalmunai.
During the short span of two years, from April 1942 to January 1944, Azeez travelled the length and breadth of the areas under his purview and worked long hours to put the district in the forefront as a leading producer of food and the granary of the East. At the successful Harvest Festival in Kalmunai in 1943, Hon. Senanayake in his address, while commending Azeez and others of their achievements, said that “I felt that a Muslim in the Civil Service would be able to get the co-operation of the Tamils and Muslims”. Later as Prime Minister and Chief Guest at the Prize Day at Zahira College in 1949 he reiterated that, “During the war when there was a shortage of food, the present Principal, Mr. Azeez, was one of those who helped me considerably in the food drive. From that time I had developed a great affection for Mr. Azeez. He was then a member of the Ceylon Civil Service but he worked really as a citizen of the country”. It is significant that Azeez’s contribution to Eastern Development took place 66 years ago vis-à-vis the current “Eastern Resurgence” programme.
It was in Kalmunai that Azeez cultivated a close relationship with the renowned Tamil scholar and educationist Swami Vipulananda and the poet Abdul Cader Lebbe. Azeez had confessed that the formation of the Ceylon Muslim Scholarship Fund and his accepting the post of Principal at Zahira College, Colombo were due to the encouragement given by Swami. In August 1948 Azeez retired from the Civil Service to succeed T.B. Jayah as Principal of Zahira College, Colombo sacrificing a brilliant career in order to serve his community. Zahira continued to excel in every field during his tenure until December 1961, which was referred to as the “Golden Era of Zahira”, and Zahira emerged as a leading public school. Over 100 Zahirians entered the University during this period. In 1962 Azeez was a visiting lecturer in History at the Vidyodaya University.
Azeez’s vision was to establish the Ceylon Muslim Cultural Centre and a Muslim Cultural University at Zahira College premises as proposed in the Throne Speech in 1961. Due to political changes these did not materialize, and he was disappointed. However, he had an opportunity to implement his ideas when his assistance was sought in the establishment of Jamiah Naleemiah in Beruwela in 1973. With great enthusiasm he embarked on this venture until his demise.
While at Kalmunai Azeez saw the plight of Muslim education. In order to assist needy Muslim students to pursue higher education, he founded the Ceylon Muslim Scholarship Fund in 1945. Over 2,000 students have benefited todate some holding and held high positions in Sri Lanka and overseas.
He also founded the leading youth organization – the All-Ceylon Young Men’s Muslim Association Conference in 1950, which is rendering yeoman service today with over 100 branches.
Azeez was a member of the University Court, Council and Senate for over 10 years from 1953. He was President of the All-Ceylon Union of Teachers and the Headmasters’ Conference. He was awarded the title of Member of the British Empire in 1951, and was honoured as a National Hero and a stamp in his honour was issued in 1986. He was appointed as a Member of the Public Service Commission in March 1963.
Azeez was a voracious reader of English and Tamil. He has many English and Tamil books and publications to his credit, and received the Sahitiya Award in 1963 for his Tamil book “Islam in Ceylon”. His book “West Reappraised” is of interest to researchers, while his contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Centenary Volume of Education in Ceylon contain in-depth information on Muslims of Sri Lanka. He had a special interest in Arabic-Tamil from his childhood influenced by his uncle Assena Lebbe Pulavar, a Tamil scholar, poet and an expert in Arabic-Tamil.
Azeez was well respected by the Tamil community, the climax of which was that the University of Jaffna conferred a posthumous Doctorate of Letters at their first convocation in 1980.
Azeez was appointed as a Senator on 21st June, 1952, on the demise of Senator Sir Mohamed Macan Markar, and was re-appointed in 1953 and 1959. He resigned on 28th March, 1963 on being appointed as a Member of the Public Service Commission.
He travelled widely attending numerous Islamic and other conferences, including Parliamentary Conferences in Nairobi and Warsaw. In 1966 he presented a paper on ‘‘Some Aspects of the Muslim Society of Ceylon, with Special Reference to the 1880s’’ at the Conference on Tamil Studies held in Kuala Lumpur. In 1955 he presided at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Tamil Poets’ Day organized by the Muslim Educational Association of South India. In 1973, a few months before his demise, he presided at the Tamil Nadu Muslim Educational Conference at Chennai and was honoured with the Golden Shawl.
Azeez has been honoured by his inclusion in the “100 Great Muslim Leaders of the 20th Century”, published by the Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi, India.
His sudden demise on 24th November, 1973 at the comparatively young age of 62 years no doubt left a vacuum not only in the Muslim leadership but in the country at large. His wife Ummu Kuluthum (grand daughter of M.I. Mohamed Alie J.P., first Persian Vice-Consul) pre-deceased him. His daughter is Marina and sons are Ali and Iqbal. Iqbal passed away in 2003.
There were many tributes paid to Azeez; one on his personality was “He is a Muslim, he is from Jaffna, he looks like a Burgher and acts like a Sinhalese”. He lived a true Muslim and a Sri Lankan.
KHALID M. FAROUK
Secretary
DR. A.M.A. AZEEZ FOUNDATION
