One of the fondest memories of my childhood is that of my birthday because it was the day I would usually receive books as present. My mother, along with my maternal uncle, always had the taste for Urdu literature.
I guess I am lucky to be part of the small group among my generation who have read the entire Urdu children story book collection by Feruzsons. It includes series such as Qisa Hazar Raatun Ka to Taslim Hosh Rubaa and Dastan i Ameer Hamza with last one being my personal favourite. Later on with age, I moved on the other books starting with Shafique Rehman and Patras Bukhari and ending up on Qurat ul Ain Haider.
During my school days, I was addicted to books by Ishtiaq Ahmad, who used to write (and still is writing) a detective series titled ‘Inspector Jamshed’. I loved that series but my mother would always say that “This is nothing; you should read that series, it is way better”. I always believed that mother was exaggerating but one day going through library of my grandfather, I came finding a book from “that series” which my mother always mentioned.
I thought that I should at least give it a try and instantly fell in love with it! I started searching again and found several more books and finished those in one go. I was fascinated by the vision and the techniques of the author as it looked like a book from contemporary times. Thus I looked him up and turns out he is the most successful and most read author in the history of the country.
The books were from a series which is known as “Imran Series” and the author was none other than the great Ibne Safi. Asrar Ahmed, today known as Ibne Safi, was born on July 26, 1928, in the village of Nara in India. It was an incident which triggered the mind of this genius to write the series as in his own words that it was in a literary sitting (in 1951) where a senior literary figure commented that only erotic Urdu stories makes a good sale otherwise it is a declining trend.
Ibne Safi disagreed with the gentleman, saying that nobody had tried to stop this flooding of porn literature. Another person added that this trend could not be stopped unless some replacement literature was created and put on the market. Ibne Safi thought long and hard about the type of literature that would appeal to the market. Ibne Safi promised himself that he would try to present an alternative.
He started a new series of mystery novels under the title of Jasoosi Duniya (The World of Espionage). Ibne Safi launched his first original characters, Colonel Fareedi and Sergeant Hameed in the first novel Dilaer Mujrim (The Brave Criminal). Followed by his migration to Pakistan, he created the character Ali Imran in 1952 and started publishing the Imran Series.
Ali Imran, better known simply as Imran, is an Oxford graduate holding both M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry. He disguised his abilities and qualities by acting immature and having a weird sense of humor. He is the only son of DG Intelligence Bureau who has kicked him out of the house due to his non-serious attitude. He owns a sports car and lives in a flat with his cook and a body guard.
Behind this stupid and idiotic personality, he is the X-2, Chief of the Secret Services of Foreign Department. Very few people know about this side of his personality and he commands a team of 8 people which includes a Swiss girl as well. Together they solve different cases and bring down different people who are a threat to the solidarity of the country.
Ibne Safi, a crazy diamond, is Pakistan`s best settling author. He also created other famous characters like Col Fareedi and Hameed. His books were widely read and translated by people of South Asia. He also used give informal lectures to under training officers of Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan. During the early 1960`s he suffered from schizophrenia and wasn’t able to write anything for three years.
But eventually he made a come-back and his return was one of the most celebrated events in the history of the country. In 1974, Hussain Talpur (aka Maulana Hippie), experimented with a film Dhamaka based on his characters from Imran Series. Javaid Sheikh made his debut as Zafarul Mulk along with Hussain as Jameson, and the actress Shabnam played the character Sabiha.
His books had influence on the lives of people while he said that he just wrote to entertain people, he didn’t focus on improving morality as he used to say that if people cannot learn from Quran and Sunnah, then his books have absolutely no chance. He was a pure entertainer. Ibne Safi created a different world which came into existence right after the bloodshed of 1947, right in the middle of Cold War, a world in which he openly took the name of countries like France, USA, Russia or China yet there was no mention of Pakistan or India.
It was not all about thrilling story regarding some case but it was small tits bits to make it all more colorful and interesting. In one of his novels, he mentions his favorite actor Waheed Murad through the dialogue of one of the characters. The city depicted in the series is clearly Karachi yet he never names it. He takes us in to an era where there were bars and night clubs in the city; unlike today, it was a time period where people were allowed to live according to their will.
The main character owns a sports car and attends different parties. There was no forceful compulsion of religion every now and then. Imran`s team has people from all religions and that fact never comes as a factor in questioning their loyalty to the country or organization.
For me, he was a writer who was ahead of his time, he believed in the power of nuclear technology and its peaceful use, he dreamt of a world where computers would operate and control traffic signals, he used special frequency audio devices and above all, he believed in equality and equity of human race. He died on July 26, 1980 and I always remember the last line he ever wrote which was “I am tired now. I just want to get some sleep.”