|
|
|
|
|
William Abdullah QuilliamWilliam Abdullah Quilliam, 1851 - 1932, poet, solicitor, ambassador, Islamic scholar, journalist, and leader, who is particularly noted for founding England's first mosque and Islamic centre. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Quilliam was influential in advancing Islam within the British Isles, gaining many converts through his literary work and the many charitable institutions he founded. A descendent of Captain John Quilliam RN, First Lieutenant on HMS Victory with Horatio Nelson, William Abdullah Quilliam was born in Liverpool, England to a wealthy watch manufacturing family in 1851. He soon established himself as a noted solicitor, founding the largest advocacy practice in the North. While visiting southern France in 1882, Quilliam crossed over to Algeria and Tunisia, where he learned about Islam and soon converted, at the age of 31. Returning to Liverpool, he began to spread Islam among the masses, as Shaykh Abdullah Quilliam. Quilliam influenced the paths of many converts, including his formerly Methodist mother, his sons, and prominent scientists and intellectuals. He soon published three editions of his masterpiece, The Faith of Islam, translated subsequently in thirteen languages, gaining him fame all over the Islamic world. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Morocco and Afghanistan accorded him many honours, including granting him finance for a potential English mosque. The Islamic Institute and Liverpool Mosque was established by Abdullah Quilliam as England's first mosque, accomodating around a hundred Muslims, in Liverpool's Broughton Terrace. Soon followed a Muslim college, headed by the professors Haschem Wilde and Nasrullah Warren, which offered courses for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Quilliam's weekly Debating and Literary Society within the college attracted many non-Muslim intellectuals, leading to the conversion of over a hundred and fifty Englishmen towards Islam. Quilliam's legacy lives on: the Abdullah Quilliam Society was formed in 1996, and his mosque is now Liverpool's Registry for Births, Deaths and Marriages. Western Muslims, particularly converts to Islam, see him as a forefather of the path they have undertaken. External Link *The Riddle of Life, poem by Abdullah Quilliam
|
 |
| |
|
|