Three years ago, we set our intention on something far greater than a shipment of books. We set our hearts on a legacy.
What began in Islamabad was not merely a private collection, but a living archive, Dr. Ghazi’s life of reading, teaching, and intellectual devotion. Volumes spanning the classical ʿulūm, rare and niche disciplines, and works that provoke the deepest curiosity of a serious seeker. Books that do not simply sit on shelves, but ask questions of those who open them.
The path to bring them to the Darul Qasim Library was anything but smooth.
Ports stalled. Paperwork froze. Timelines collapsed.
Crates moved from Islamabad to Karachi, only to be halted again as unrest in the region brought everything to a standstill. Weeks turned into months. Months into silence. At times, it felt as though the books themselves were being tested, would they reach the hands they were meant for?
Then the seas.
From Karachi across the vast Atlantic, navigating storms both literal and bureaucratic, the shipment made its way to New York. Even there, the journey was not over. More delays. More uncertainty. More moments where hope had to be carried quietly, patiently, faithfully.
And then, almost unexpectedly…it happened.
On a sleek, snow-draped Chicago day, as winter settled gently over the city, the crates arrived at our Glendale Heights campus. After three years of waiting, struggle, and duas, the doors opened, not just to boxes, but to possibility.
These books are now here.
Resting. Waiting.
Soon to be cataloged, processed, and finally released.
Soon, students will pull them from the shelves late at night.
Soon, margins will be filled with notes.
Soon, ideas long dormant will ignite new questions, new research, new paths.
But this is only the beginning.
Because when a collection like this arrives…
it never comes alone.
