Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/145

Rh great forward movement, which the latter half of the nineteenth century saw among his co-religionists, he often stood well nigh alone. On many occasions he was the only Muhammadan at public ceremonies and social gatherings. Realising that the old days of race exclusiveness were over, he was eager to go everywhere and to know everyone. There was no branch of social life in which he did not take part, and there was no scheme for the benefit not only of his co-religionists but of the community generally that had not his hearty support. His correspondence was enormous, all classses [sic] of people appealing to him for advice and help, and many societies claiming his interest or his presence at their meetings.

The services of Abdul Latif to the cause of Muhammadan education it is difficult to exaggerate. In his earlier days, regarded from the modern stand point, it was practically non-existent. The Muhammadans were literally following the dictum of the Kaliph Omar that 'whatever books differ from the Koran are pernicious and those which agree with it are superfluous.' To Abdul Latif belongs the credit of being among the first to see that however well this non-progressive policy may have sufficed in the days when the sword was mightier than the pen, it meant ruin to the community that persisted in it under modern conditions of universal progress and advance. Early in his career he began in a small way to do what he could to combat that spirit of