Hakim Ahmad Shuja MBE (; sometimes written as 'Hakeem Ahmed Shujah' and 'Hakim Ahmad Shuja Pasha') (4 November 1893 – 4 January 1969), was a famous Urdu and Persian poet, playwright, writer, film writer and lyricist, scholar and mystic, from former British India, later Pakistan. Background Hakim Ahmad Shuja was born in an old and prominent family of mystics and Islamic religious scholars, who had migrated from Arabia, Afghanistan and Turkey to India between the 10th-12th centuries AD. From his paternal side, he was a direct descendant of Abdul Qadir Gilani, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari and Abdul Wahid bin Zaid, and from his maternal side, of the Sadozai tribe which at one time ruled Afghanistan.; also Lazard, above</ref> During the times of the Sultans of Delhi, the family came to prominence as religious divines and Hakims i.e. practitioners of the traditional Hikmat (the Unani, or Greek system of medicine) and by the time of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great (c.1542-1605) they were established as Court Physicians at Lahore, in the Bhati Gate area of the Old City. Later, family members served as Chief Qazis (or Qadis) at Lahore and Kashmir under Afghan (Durrani) rule, and a branch were ministers during Ranjit Singh's Sikh rule. The Hakim family, or 'Hakim-Khana' of Old Lahore were mostly Sunni Muslims, but during the 18th and 19th centuries a branch the 'Fakir-Khana' became Shias. Ahmad Shuja's father, Hakim Shuja-ed-din, was a Sufi mystic of the Chishtiya order and one of the early pioneers of the Urdu literary press in Lahore, bringing out the famous Shor-i-Mahshar journal and participating actively in the work of the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam and Anjuman i Punjab associations. Early life and career Hakim Ahmad Shuja was the only son of his parents, who both died when he was still a minor, and was brought up largely by an elder cousin, Hakim Amin-ed-din, a barrister. After receiving basic education in Arabic and Quranic studies at home, and initial Sufi training under various mystics in both Chishti and Qadiri traditions, he was then admitted for 'English education' to the old Central Model School, Lahore and later went to the famous Aligarh Muslim University, from where he graduated with honours. For some time, Ahmad Shuja then worked as a lecturer at the Osmania University in Hyderabad state (Deccan) but was not happy and returned to Lahore to seek employment there. After several journalistic and academic ventures,