The ancient Greeks considered wisdom to be an important virtue, personified as the goddesses Metis and Athena. Athena is said to have sprung from the head of Zeus. She was portrayed as strong, fair, merciful, and chaste. To Socrates and Plato, philosophy was literally the love of Wisdom (philo + sophia). This permeates Plato's dialogues, especially The Republic, in which the leaders of his proposed utopia are to be philosopher kings, rulers who understand the Form of the Good and possess the courage to act accordingly. Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, defined wisdom as the understanding of causes, i.e. knowing why things are a certain way, which is deeper than merely knowing that things are a certain way.
I always called him Nizami sahib, never Majid Nizami sahib or Majid sahib. When I joined the Nawa-i Waqt House only Nawa-i Waqt was being published. There was a vacancy in the paper for a cartoonist. I started making a pocket cartoon on daily basis under the heading of Yeh Lahore Hae. In 1976 I left for Edinburgh for my M.Sc. and Ph. When I returned in 1981 I rejoined Nawa-i Waqt to continue Yeh Lahore Hae. Time passed and 1985 October The Nation was launched, since then I have been a part of Nawa-i Waqt House and its publications.
During all this long period I had only a few meetings with Nizami sahib. He was a person with a very impressive and dominating personality. I always found him in a pensive and thoughtful demeanor. He always talked serious there was no room for useless harangue or homilies. This style of his and a settled way of thinking or feeling about something never allowed his visitors and even close friends to indulge in casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details which were not confirmed as true.
He was a person who was generously bestowed by Allah with wisdom of highest order. He had the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. This quality of his was regarded by me as one of four cardinal virtues; he had a habit or disposition to perform the action with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance. This implied a possession of knowledge or the seeking thereof to apply it to the given circumstance. This involved an understanding of people, objects, events, situations, and the willingness as well as the ability to apply perception, judgment, and action in keeping with the understanding of what is the optimal course of action. He had absolute control on his emotional reactions (the "passions") so that the universal principle of reason always prevailed to determine his action. He had the disposition to find the truth coupled with an optimum judgment as to what actions should be taken, to judge correctly and to follow the best course of action, based on knowledge and understanding.
The Chinese scholar Confucius had said “Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.” I do not know whether Majid sahib knew about this saying but I know for sure that he was an ardent possessor of these qualities. Religious to the core and imbued with the spirit of nationalism he never went after cheap popularity, over exposure on TV channels and interviews in print media. Religion to him was a way of life, a way of discipline and organization not keeping long fully oiled black beards and ankle high shalwars. His nationalism spirit was so high he never surrendered to any of the dictators or even so called democrats. I was in a meeting which was held at Mian Nawaz Sharif’s residence in Model Town, Lahore. The meeting was to discuss to go nuclear or not following the Indian atomic explosion. I clearly remember without mincing words he told Mian sahib to go for the nuclear blast. He never wanted Pakistan to suffer any kind of humiliation or weakness vis-à-vis India.
To add to their prestige several high-fashioned schools, colleges and private institutions wanted Majid sahib to be on their boards of governors or advisory bodies but he always declined such offers. He did not want that people should come to him for favour of admissions and such things. Judicious and fair journalism was like blood in his veins. Exploitation and black-mailing are the words that did not exist in his lexicon. He was the mentor of hundreds of journalists that are flourishing today. Alas the institution called Majid Nizami is not visible on the horizon of journalism today. The sun has set never to rise again. I pray for him he was a great man.