By: Mohd Saifuddin

Riyadh based NRI Physician, nutritionist and humorist Dr. Abid Moiz is a popular and familiar name and face for the Urdu loving people. He is popular not only in the Sub continent and the Middle East but equally popular all over the world among Urdu lovers. His career of humor writing spreads over a quarter century in which he provoke laughter on the faces of his readers all over the world with his superb pieces, in fact the real masterpieces. A dedicated humorist who is not only associated himself for the development and promotion of Urdu language but also for strengthening various Urdu publications. Being the overseas editor of Shugoofa and the Member of the advisory board of the Science magazine, his contributions for the development of these magazines are remarkable.

We rarely find Urdu humorists writing eloquently on the scientific topics but Dr. Abid Moiz distinguished himself as a fluent writer, rather we can call him an exceptional scientific humorist. As it’s a rare combination to be a physician and humorist, he made a niche in penning humor on science which was rarely touched by traditional Urdu humorists. He deals with social issues as equally as scientific topics.

Being a medical practitioner he is well aware of putting scars on the deceased parts of the body. He smartly uses this talent and tries to heal the social diseases. He is the only Indian columnist in Saudi Arabia to get published in the popular Urdu Magazine every week on a regular basis, it’s indeed a rare distinction and honor for an Indian living is the Kingdom.

Dr. Moiz is an international columnist in a true sense; he wrote regular humorous columns for the magazines published from India and Pakistan. Currently he writes a weekly column “Baat se Baat” for the Urdu Magazine. Previously it used to be titled as “Fikahiyaa” published from Aug 1999. “Phir chidi baat” is another column which started to publish in Etemaad Urdu Daily, Hyderabad, India from March 06.

He inclined towards writing at the very tender age and his first article titled “Library Ki sair” was published in Rahnuma-e-Deccan Urdu daily somewhere in 1977. He started writing a regular column in 1983 for Shugoofa monthly titled “Mera shahar logan so mamoor kar” which ran for over four years. He also wrote an irregularly regular column on the life of NRIs living in the Kingdom titled “Khiyaamnama” published in Shugoofa and Urdu News. Later his selected articles were published in two books titled “Wah Hyderabad” (Published in 1994) and “Sag Gazeeda” (Published in 1995). He also wrote humorous articles for Raabta monthly, published from Pakistan, and it was also famous among the readers.

A student got her M.Phil from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India after completing her thesis on the contributions of Dr. Abid Moiz. Another student is doing his Ph.D. on his contributions from the same university.

Recognizing his devotion and services for the cause of Urdu language and especially humor writing, the management of Shagoofa has rightly published the special issue dedicated to Dr. Abid Moiz. It was a perfect time for such a memorable issue as the Shugoofa has just completed forty years of its publication and this special number got published just before the anniversary issue (scheduled to come out in January 2009), making this a very special, memorable and historical issue.

It is a rare honor for a writer when a prestigious magazine like Shagoofa brings out a special issue dedicated to him or her. Dr. Abid Moiz has now registered himself amongst the elite of Urdu literature whose special issues were brought out by Shugoofa. The writers for whom Shugoofa brought out special number in the past include the big names of the literary world such as Mujtaba Hussain, Narender Luther, Yuosuf Nazim, Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui, Ibrahim Jalees, Kanhayya Lal Kapoor, and few others.

November issue of Shugoofa is dedicated to Dr. Abid Moiz and titled as “Abid Moiz Number”. This special issue of 220 pages covers diverse aspects of the writings and life of Dr. Abid Moiz. A part of the magazine is dedicated for the selection of his writings and the other comprises the commentary and views on his personality and his writings by various authors and his friends. It contains the special messages from the Former Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the Vice President of India Mr. Hamed Ansari, Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mr. M. O. H. Farooq, former Consul General of India at Jeddah Dr. Ausaf Saeed and Managing Editor Urdu News and Urdu Magazine Mr. Tariq Mishkhas.

Former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh Narender Luther, himself a prominent humorist, released the special issue at a function held in Hyderabad recently. This function was presided over by Mr. Mujtaba Hussain, a senior and most renowned Urdu humorist.

Among the selection of his writings, apart from his humorous stories 2-3 pieces from each series of his columns were included. Quotes from his writings were used cleverly demonstrating diversity of the writer’s vision.

Those who penned their views about Dr. Abid Moiz include the prestigious names from diverse fields such as Urdu literature, journalism, academics, medicine and social service to name few.

Abid Moiz covered some of his memoirs in his summarized biography whereas Rasheeduddin tried to extract hidden parts of his life in a detailed interview. F M Saleem interviewed Mrs. Abid Moiz to find out the effects of his literary activities in his personal and family life. To express What Abid Moiz is as a father; his daughter Syeda Mah Talath penned an impressive article about him. His uncle Nayeemullah Shareef threw light on his writing skills and mentioned how he was astonished to see his nephew reading humorous write up in a literary gathering in Jeddah. Mohammed Saifuddin prepared a short profile of Dr. Abid Moiz spanning over his educational, literary, cultural and social life.

Those who wrote commentary and reviews on the writings and skills of Dr. Abid Moiz includes Prof. Baig Ehsaas, Dr. Mohsin Jalgaanvi (Etemaad Daily), Muztar Majaz, Javeed Akhtar, Rasheed Abdul Sami Jaleel, Dr. Iqbal Wajid, Mohammed Yousuf Raheem Bidari, Mohammed Abdul Rasheed Junaid (Awaz Weekly from Saudi Gazette), Mrs. Sadeqa Sultana and Syed Majid Bugdal.

Narender Luther, Hifzur Rahman Azmi, Parvez Yadulla Mahdi (USA), Raouf Taher (Urdu Magazine), Dr. Aslam Parvez, Kaleem Chughtai, Dr. Tariq Gazi (Canada), Naseem-e-Saher, Aleem Khan Falaki, Dr. Layeeq Salah, Shujauddin Ghori, Abul Farah Humayun, Prof. Hussain Saher, Dr. Majid Kazi, Afsar Armori, Shaheen Nazar (Arab News), Arch. Abdul Rahman Saleem, Mrs. Azra Naqvi, Mrs. Atiya Fatima, Syed Zia ur Rahman (Yahind.com), Vaqar Naseem Wamiq, Dr. Saeed Anwar, Nayeem Javeed, Mrs. Ilyas Afridi, Raouf Khalish and Mir Firasat Ali Khusro expressed their views about Dr. Abid Moiz.

Prominent Urdu poets Talib Khundmeri, Rasheed Abdul Sami Jaleel, Iqbal Shana, Shaukat Jamal and Ahmed Abdul Aleem Akhtar presented poetic applause for Dr. Moiz.

In his editorial, editor of Shugoofa Dr. Syed Mustafa Kamal expressed his views and appreciated the contributions of Dr. Abid Moiz and his attachment to Shugoofa.

As the Guest Editor for this special issue, Senior Journalist Ghouse Arsalan worked tirelessly to gather, collect and arrange the contributions from the writers to design the issue so impressive and attractive.

Cover page designing and caricature by Omar Azam and Shafi Sadeq are as good as the contents.

The Abid Moiz Number of Shugoofa monthly is a document containing selection of his writings, collection of views and expressions about him that will be an essential part of the library of Urdu lovers. Students of Urdu literature and those interested in Urdu humor must grab this issue as it won’t be affordable for them to miss this important issue, they will love to preserve it as an important document for their future reference.