to force the Afghan people into a social condition contrary to what Afghans had been raised in, in religious belief and Islamic traditions. He also believed that some foreign elements had incited this and was influenced by the changes in social conditions then occurring in Turkey.
When the Afghan people rose against Amanullah, Bacha-i Saqao, one of the tribal men, seized power and spread corruption through the country for a time. Amanullah left Afghanistan. His brother, Sardar Inayatullah Khan, tried to replace him but could not stand against the revolution. During this period Nadir Khan, one of Afghanistan’s leading statesmen and commanders, whose authority was respected, organized his army and managed to eliminate Bacha-i Saqao and save the country from sedition. He then took power in Afghanistan, which submitted to him, and became King Nadir Shah. He was known for firmness, good administration, and abundant Islamic feeling, and was the father of the current King Muhammad Zahir Shah.
On this occasion I recall verses from a poem by the great Lebanese man, the late Amin Nasir al-Din, about King Amanullah Khan and the revolution that rose against him and swept away his kingdom:
“Awaken, Amanullah, if you are Muslim, and tell the throne how you dream. If a king does not support judgment with the quality of kingship, this king’s fate is to be destroyed. I reproach you for the path of the guardians, a people whose aim was to seek help for the sanctuary. You walked, while they had gone astray, in their footsteps, and whoever follows the misguided is a criminal. I saw the sons of Afghanistan in the guise of an unbeliever, praying and bowing before the idol of ‘reform.’ Is that reform anything but corruption, by which you struck the people until they suffered?”
The Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose was one of the most prominent Indian leaders opposing British policy and British colonialism in India. He was a political refugee in Germany, and I met him repeatedly and visited him many times. He was bold and courageous and remained in Germany until 1944. He then agreed with the German authorities that they would arrange travel for him to the Far East to work against the British in India, Burma, and other areas under the yoke of British colonialism. The Germans carried him by submarine to the Far East, and he reached Burma, but the aircraft carrying him in Burma crashed and Bose was killed. A senior Pakistani officer I met in Pakistan in 1951 told me this, saying that he himself had been in the doomed aircraft and was seriously injured in the crash. Bose’s death was a great loss to India.
Among those I met in Germany was the well-known Moroccan scholar Dr. Taqi al-Din al-Hilali. I had known him as a professor at the famous Nadwat al-Ulama institute in Lucknow, India, and then met him in Berlin after he had completed his studies at its university. He immediately proposed that I seek the release of the great fighter Emir Abd al-Krim al-Khattabi, who was detained by the French on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. France and Spain had cooperated to crush his famous revolutionary movement in the Rif of Morocco after the Spanish armies could not defeat it. France then prepared several armies under famous commanders to fight him. Through their joint action, the French and Spanish forces overcame the great fighter, and France carried him, his family, and his brother Emir Muhammad into exile on the island. Emir Abd al-Krim had by then spent fifteen years in his distant exile, so I immediately approached German officials and asked them to work with the French authorities for his release.
I also asked them to seek the release of the famous Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba, who was detained in France and is today the president of Tunisia. At first the Germans hesitated, saying that this would offend France under the circumstances. I continued pressing the request and explained the good effect that releasing the two men would have on Muslims and Arabs.
After some time, they released Habib Bourguiba and his Tunisian colleagues, including Dr. Habib Thameur, Rashid Idris, Yusuf al-Ruwaysi, Husayn al-Turki, and other men of the Tunisian national movement. They had been detained in France, which was under German occupation, and after their release we met them repeatedly in Europe.
As for Emir Abd al-Krim, the Germans apologized for not immediately approaching the French about his release because he was living on Madagascar, claiming that it was impossible to transport him under the conditions of the current world war.
Later God enabled me to meet Emir Abd al-Krim in Egypt, when we took advantage of the passage through the Suez Canal of the ship carrying him from exile to France. I saw him with my own eyes, and we often met during the ten years we spent in Egypt, and I spoke