Leadership, Learning, and Legacy in One Time One Life
By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
17 June 2026
This biography presents Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad as a scholar whose life links hardship, education, spirituality, and institution-building into one inspiring public legacy.
Main Points:
· It highlights the Sheikh’s early struggle with poverty and orphanhood, showing how adversity shaped his character and later leadership.
· It emphasizes education as a social mission, not just a personal achievement, and connects learning with community uplift and institutional reform.
· It points to language, mentorship, and communication as key strengths, especially his ability to reach people across linguistic and social boundaries.
· It stresses his spiritual depth and social engagement, including peace efforts, humanitarian work, and opposition to extremism.
· It notes a major limitation: the biography praises his public life well, but gives less attention to his writings, ideas, and intellectual legacy.
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One Time One Life: The Incredible Story of Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, The Grand Mufti of India
Author: Salam Kolikkal
Co-Authors: Yasar Arafath, Shabeer M.K, Dr Ahammed Junaid N.P & Athila Hussain
Publisher: Magic Moon Publishers, New Delhi, India
Year of Publication: 2026
Pages: 298+32 picture pages
Price: Rs 699
ISBN: 9788198144546
Salam Kolikkal’s One Time One Life: The Incredible Story of Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, The Grand Mufti of India is an ambitious biography that seeks to capture not merely the life of a religious scholar, but the making of a public moral figure whose influence extends across education, philanthropy, social reform, institutional development, and transnational Islamic leadership. The book presents Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad as a man whose life cannot be reduced to one sphere alone: he is scholar, mentor, reformer, institution-builder, communicator, and spiritual guide. The biography’s very title suggests singularity and urgency, as though the author wishes to remind the reader that a life once lived can still shape many lives after it. In this regard, the book is not simply a record of events; it is an argument about leadership, service, and the ethical responsibilities of scholarship.
What gives the book its initial force is that it roots greatness in struggle. The Sheikh is not introduced as a polished elite figure who moved naturally into prominence. Rather, the narrative draws strength from poverty, orphanhood, disciplined study, and spiritual perseverance. The details of dire poverty, of having enough to eat only in the most minimal sense, and of being orphaned at the age of twelve establish a powerful moral contrast with the later account of stature and influence. This contrast matters because it turns the biography into an example of how deprivation can, under the right discipline and guidance, become the soil of responsibility. In many biographies of eminent religious leaders, the early years are either sentimentalized or rushed through; here they appear central to the formation of character.
The book also succeeds in presenting education as more than a personal achievement. It becomes a social mission. The Sheikh’s continuation of studies after orphanhood is not narrated as an isolated act of individual determination but as part of a larger moral and intellectual journey. This is one of the book’s finest achievements: it shows how learning can become a mode of rescue, not only for one life but for an entire community. The biography repeatedly returns to the idea that change comes through education, and that this change must be practical, widespread, and institutionally supported. In this sense, One Time One Life speaks directly to modern educational anxieties. It argues, quietly but firmly, that progress without learning is fragile, and that communities without institutions remain vulnerable to both internal decline and external neglect.
One of the book’s most important themes is the role of language in leadership. The Sheikh’s mastery of Urdu and Hindi to connect with people across the subcontinent reveals a politically and culturally intelligent form of religious leadership. Language here is not only a sign of scholarship; it is an instrument of accessibility. The ability to speak to different publics matters because it makes leadership relational rather than remote. A scholar who can communicate across linguistic boundaries is better positioned to build trust, transmit ideas, and participate in broader civic and intellectual conversations. This detail is significant because it demonstrates that the Sheikh’s influence was not accidental or purely charismatic. It was crafted through effort, adaptability, and an awareness of the social function of language.
The biography also gives due importance to mentorship, and this is another of its major strengths. The suggestion that a Sufi master or mentor is essential to understanding the Qur’an and Hadith introduces a classical Islamic epistemology into the narrative. Knowledge is not presented as a solitary accomplishment. Rather, it is relational, disciplined, and ethically guided. This is a crucial point in an age when many people attempt to interpret religion with inadequate grounding or fragmentary learning. The book’s repeated stress on following mentors’ advice and the danger of inadequately educated scholars is not merely nostalgic; it is corrective. It reminds the reader that scholarship without formation can become doctrinal noise, while scholarship shaped by companionship can become wisdom.
This is also where the spiritual dimension of the book becomes especially valuable. The Sheikh’s reflections on existential questions—why human beings are born, what happens after death, and how one should live in awareness of divine blessing—give the biography a contemplative core. These are not marginal details; they help define the kind of leadership the book admires. The Sheikh is shown not as a public performer but as a man who thinks seriously about ultimate questions. His attention to blessings from the Almighty in an age of distraction and confusion gives the narrative a contemporary relevance. The book seems to suggest that modern life has not erased spiritual hunger; it has only made clarity harder to find. A leader, in this framework, is someone who helps recover that clarity.
The Sufi strain in the biography deserves special attention because it is one of the book’s most humanizing elements. The emphasis on miracles, on attachment of the heart to God, on detachment from materialistic things, and on the nourishment of prayer and remembrance gives the Sheikh a spiritual depth that exceeds administrative leadership. The account of “me time” — prayer, sleep, and reminiscing with an old friend — is particularly effective because it quietly restores interiority to a public figure. Too often, prominent scholars and leaders are narrated only through their public gestures. This biography instead allows room for silence, contemplation, and private renewal. That makes the portrait more believable and more dignified.
At the same time, the book seems deeply committed to the idea that spirituality must lead to social engagement. This is a central thread and one of the biography’s strongest insights. The Sheikh is not portrayed as someone who withdraws from the world in order to preserve purity. He is shown engaging with political leaders, responding after communal riots, helping overseas Indians, assisting in humanitarian crises, and using his position to foster peace and legal redress. This gives the biography a practical moral seriousness. It insists that scholars should remain socially engaged. That is not a minor claim. It is a philosophy of public responsibility. The book argues that scholarship becomes meaningful when it enters society, protects the vulnerable, and contributes to nation-building without surrendering ethical independence.
The issue of communal riots and the choice of legal means over violence is one of the book’s most timely themes. In a polarized environment, the insistence on lawful, non-violent responses is an important ethical position. The Sheikh’s interventions in moments of conflict show him as someone who understands both the fragility of communal relations and the importance of restraint. This is a kind of leadership that is easy to praise and difficult to practice. The biography deserves credit for highlighting it. It does not reduce courage to confrontation; instead, it presents courage as the ability to remain lawful, calm, and socially responsible when others may choose rage or revenge.
The book’s attention to humanitarian intervention also broadens the Sheikh’s profile beyond local or national concerns. His involvement in helping overseas Indians, engaging with Saudi authorities, assisting in the case of Nimisha Priya, and working toward the release or repatriation of Kerala prisoners in Colombo creates the image of a leader whose concerns cross borders. These episodes are important because they show that contemporary Islamic leadership is not only about sermonizing or ceremonial authority. It is also about negotiation, diplomacy, and moral pressure. The biography’s public value increases because it captures this transnational dimension. Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad emerges as a figure who combines rootedness with reach.
One of the book’s finest achievements is its presentation of Markaz Knowledge City as the material embodiment of a vision. “By 2020, his dream had come to life as Markaz Knowledge City, a vast 125-acre township in South India that aimed to redefine the future. Markaz Knowledge City was far from an ordinary endeavour. It was designed to be centre of global innovation, featuring top-tier educational institutions, residential areas, healthcare and hospitality services, recreational facilities, and commercial spaces. Its most remarkable aspect was the cultural essence, a blend of tradition and modernity. At the core of the township was India’s largest souk, inspired by the lively markets of the Arab world but equipped with contemporary amenities. This expansive souk became a central hub for cultural and commercial interactions, merging traditional Islamic architecture with state-of-the-art technology. In addition to commerce, the township included a spiritual enclave, a cutting-edge research and development centre, an international history museum, a world class library, and an international convention centre” (p. 107).
This passage is striking because it reveals the scale of the Sheikh’s imagination. Markaz Knowledge City is not presented as a simple campus or a charitable project. It is envisioned as an ecosystem. Education, commerce, spirituality, research, culture, and modern infrastructure all coexist in one social design. That is a highly ambitious model, and the biography is right to treat it as one of the crowning achievements of the Sheikh’s life. It also helps explain why the book leans toward institutional history as much as biography. The person and the project are inseparable. The man matters because his vision became structure.
The emphasis on institutions throughout the book is especially important because it prevents the biography from becoming sentimental. Institutions are not emotional symbols alone; they are mechanisms for continuity. Schools, colleges, hospitals, stitching centres, free education, uniforms, legal institutions, media platforms, and vocational channels are all part of the same reformist ecosystem. The Sheikh’s contributions to education are therefore not limited to rhetoric. They are visible in concrete systems that endure beyond his immediate presence. This is a major strength of the biography: it treats institution-building as a form of leadership more durable than popularity.
Education, in fact, is perhaps the most powerful theme in the entire book. The Sheikh’s encouragement of learning English, the establishment of different institutions of learning, and the concern for children and youth suggest a leadership style built around access and future readiness. English, in this context, is not seen as a cultural betrayal but as a tool of participation in wider public life. That is a sophisticated and practical position. Likewise, the concern for education among those who had no access to it shows that the biography is deeply interested in mobility and empowerment. The Sheikh’s model is not elitist. It is uplift-oriented.
The book is equally commendable for its attention to women’s education. Schools, free education, uniforms, and stitching centres all suggest that women’s participation in social uplift is taken seriously. That said, the biography also appears to reflect a conservative understanding of women’s issues. The book wants to show women’s empowerment through education, but it does not seem equally willing to explore questions of autonomy, interpretive authority, or gender equality in a fully critical way. This makes the treatment partial. The educational support is real and valuable, but the ideological framework remains cautious, perhaps too cautious for readers who expect a more expansive gender vision.
The same pattern appears in the treatment of the Sheikh as a prolific writer. Sheikh writes in various languages, yet the biography apparently does not discuss his thoughts, views, and books in enough depth. This is a serious limitation. A truly holistic biography should not only document a subject’s social influence but also chart the intellectual architecture behind that influence. What did he write? What positions did he defend? What theological or social ideas recur in his works? How did his speeches evolve over time? What advice did he offer to scholars, youth, parents, women, or political actors? Without these questions, the portrait remains admirable but incomplete.
This omission matters even more because the book is clearly interested in public engagement. If Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad interacted with global leaders, political figures, and philanthropists, the reader should also be shown how his thought operated in those relationships. Influence is not only about proximity; it is about intellectual force. The biography, seems to record rapport without always unpacking the substance of that rapport. That is a missed opportunity. A more rigorous book would have placed his letters, speeches, fatwas, and published writings at the centre of analysis. That would have given the reader not only the image of a great personality but the shape of a great mind.
The biography should also emphasize the significance of his public communication style. His speeches are described as very good, and his oratory skills appear to be among his most persuasive assets. This is not incidental. For a religious and educational leader, the ability to speak well is often inseparable from the ability to lead well. Oratory enables persuasion, mobilization, reassurance, and correction. The fact that the Sheikh is able to connect with all sorts of people strengthens the biography’s claim that leadership in his case is rooted in service rather than position. He does not appear as a distant authority. He appears as a communicator capable of entering multiple social worlds.
Media outreach is another area where the biography appears especially contemporary. Using media during Covid to communicate and reach out, publishing weeklies, dailies, and fortnightlies for youth, adults, and children, and using media generally as a tool of contact all show a sophisticated awareness of modern communication. This is important because it places the Sheikh in the age of mediated religion and public pedagogy. He does not stand outside modernity; he uses its instruments. In that sense, the biography captures a religious leader who understands that influence today depends on communication systems as much as on personal presence.
The book’s treatment of fund raising and philanthropy also deserves mention. Fund raising is often misunderstood as a merely administrative matter, but here it seems tied to institutional sustainability and ethical purpose. The Sheikh’s relationship with philanthropists, scholars, overseas supporters, and community donors suggests a practical realism about how good institutions survive. The biography appears to value money, but it does so within a framework of dignity. That is why the prompt about scholars receiving money with dignity is important. It signals that financial support, when ethically handled, can preserve honour rather than diminish it.
The book also seems to insist on the compatibility of secularism and religion, provided secularism is understood in the Indian sense. This is a valuable and politically meaningful point. Rather than portraying religion and secularism as enemies, the Sheikh appears to represent a model where both can coexist within a plural society. That stance is especially relevant in contemporary India, where misunderstandings about secularism often distort public discourse. By aligning religious leadership with civic coexistence, the biography places the Sheikh within a broader ethical conversation about pluralism, democracy, and social peace.
The Sheikh’s critique of ISIS and his declaration of its activities as un-Islamic, including issuing a fatwa, further reinforce his anti-extremist credentials. This is an important detail because it demonstrates that the biography is not only celebratory but also protective of normative Islam. The Sheikh is shown defending the faith from misrepresentation and violence. In a time when extremist narratives can attract attention by exploiting confusion, the insistence on doctrinal clarity is crucial. This positions the Sheikh as a scholar of moral boundaries as much as a builder of institutions.
The narrative of his relation with history, and especially the fact that he has not visited Pakistan due to problematic India-Pakistan relations, adds another subtle dimension. It suggests that the biography is conscious of political realities and not eager to flatten them into sentiment. The absence is meaningful. It acknowledges that transnational Islamic identity still operates within national tensions. That adds realism to the portrait and prevents it from becoming naïve. Leaders are often judged not only by what they do, but by what situations they have to navigate and what compromises reality imposes upon them.
One of the most admirable things about the biography, is its repeated effort to frame leadership as compassion. Leadership is not presented as power, office, or domination. It is service. It is care. It is practical sacrifice. That is why the book resonates so well with educational values and moral formation. It reminds readers that the greatest leaders are not always those who command loudly; they may be those who build quietly, aid consistently, and intervene responsibly. This makes the book useful not only as a biography but as a source of ethical reflection for teachers, students, scholars, and public servants.
The greatest lacuna, as already noted, is the relative absence of the Sheikh’s intellectual corpus. The biography gives many examples of his social relevance, but fewer pages seem devoted to the actual architecture of his thought. This weakens the work’s scholarly depth. A book on a scholar of this stature should ideally include detailed analysis of his books, his principles, his language of reform, his understanding of theology, and his views on contemporary issues. Without that, the biography remains powerful but not fully complete.
Another limitation is that the book may lean too heavily on admiration. The dozens of associations, institutions, charitable activities, and public interventions make for an impressive profile, but they can also create a slightly over-saturated portrait if not balanced by reflection, tension, or contradiction. Biography becomes more convincing when it allows complexity. A figure like Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad surely contains ambiguities, intellectual shifts, and difficult decisions that deserve more sustained treatment. A very good biography should not only praise greatness; it should explain it.
That said, the book’s production quality and presentation also matter. The publisher deserves congratulations for bringing out such a commendable work, and the printing quality and binding are very good. These material details are not trivial. A biography that seeks to honour a major public figure should itself be produced with care. Attractive presentation, readable formatting, and strong binding all contribute to the reader’s experience and to the sense that the work has been produced with respect. In that sense, the physical book supports the seriousness of the project.
In conclusion, One Time One Life is a significant, engaging, and often inspiring biography that succeeds in portraying Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad as a leader whose life merged scholarship, service, institution-building, spirituality, and public engagement. It is most effective when it shows how hardship became strength, how mentorship shaped wisdom, how education became reform, and how institutions turned vision into social reality. It is less effective when it fails to fully enter the realm of the Sheikh’s writings, ideas, and intellectual legacy. That omission is the most serious weakness in an otherwise valuable book.
For readers interested in contemporary Islamic leadership in India, the biography offers a rich and instructive case study. It shows leadership as compassion rather than domination, as education rather than display, and as social responsibility rather than private prestige. It also teaches that a life can become historically meaningful when it is dedicated to service, discipline, and moral purpose. The title is therefore fitting: one time, one life — but a life that has clearly generated many lives, many institutions, and many forms of remembrance.
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M. H. A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir.
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/leadership-learning-legacy-in-one-time-life/d/140426
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