Jamiluddin Aali
belongs to that select group of men of letters whose literary interests and activities have spanned a very wide portion of the literary spectrum. His true métier is poetry and prose in which he has been perpetuating the traditions of his family.
In poetry, Mr. Aali has been an innovator par excellence, in so far as he has revived the classical form of doha and adapted it into Urdu imparting a distinct South Asian Muslim cultural flavour while retaining its beauty. Besides doha he has also written ghazals, poems, lyrical ballads or geets and patriotic songs. His long poems reflect a unique discourse on great Scientific and Philosophical themes, blended with aesthetics.
In prose, Mr. Aali is known for his incisive and picturesque travelogues with subtle but effective patriotic undertones and his newspaper columns he has been writing for past 45 years, have played a very significant role in awakening the laity to the need of intellectual pursuits and mature thoughts on contemporary national and international issues. This prose style is unique and comprehensive to all classes of readers. His mission has been the search and dissemination of knowledge.
He has been acknowledged by eminent critics of the Urdu world as a trend setter. Mr. Aali has been very active, multi-dimensionally, in the development of national language by virtue of his close, purely honorary, association with Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu Pakistan for the past 45 years. He has been instrumental in the publication by the Anjuman of around 300 books and manuscripts to which he has contributed learned introductions which speak volumes of his erudition and scholarship. Mr. Aali has also remained the Chairman of Urdu Dictionary Board.
Under the aegis of this very Anjuman he was associated as Honorary Secretary for 12 years and Honorary Administrator for three years with the Urdu College, which evolved into two prestigious institutions. The Urdu Science College Building was raised during Mr. Aali’s tenure. He was highly instrumental in growth of the English-Urdu Dictionary of Dr. Moulvi Abdul Haq and in the arrangement and publication of some rare manuscripts and great classics has been one of Mr. Jamiluddin Aali’s main passion. ***
***Furthermore, he has also vehemently served for the expansion of the Urdu College into Federal Govt. Urdu University and remained the Deputy Chair of its Senate for 3 years. ***
Mr. Aali has been associated with the development of not only the national language and its institution, but also of regional languages. He is one of the principal founding fathers of the Pakistan Writers Guild which has a membership comprising men of the letters of all Pakistani languages. Mr. Aali has been constantly devoted to services for the welfare of indigent Pakistani Writers and the bereaved families of those who are no more.
Mr. Jamiluddin Aali as an expansion of his activities also entered the field of practical social science. He has been a Senator from Sindh in the upper house of parliament where he was also elected as Chairman of Senate’s Standing Committee of Education, Scientific and Technological Research.