Muhammad Aslam Siddiqui
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Ustad Aslam”
10 June 1943 — 17 September 2026 · aged 83
Imam of Mochi Gate and master calligrapher who taught Lahore to write with patience
Lahore, Pakistan Born in Jalandhar, East Punjab (British India) Resting at Miani Sahib Graveyard, LahoreAbout Muhammad
Ustad Aslam used to say that a good line begins in the breath: you exhale, and the pen follows. Born in 1943 in Jalandhar, he was four years old when his family joined the long road to Lahore in 1947, carrying a Qur'an wrapped in green cloth, a copper pot and his father's reed pens. They settled in a two-room house near Mochi Gate in the old city, where he would live for the rest of his life.
At twelve he was apprenticed to a katib, a hand-calligrapher, in the lanes behind Anarkali, and spent years copying alphabets until his wrist ached. By his early twenties he was writing the headlines of an Urdu daily by hand in flowing Nastaliq, thirty lines every night before the presses rolled. When computer typesetting arrived in the nineties and the katibs lost their trade, he turned to teaching, giving evening classes in his own front room to boys and later girls, and visiting classes at the National College of Arts. He also copied three Qur'ans by hand, each taking two years, and for thirty-nine years he led the five daily prayers as imam of a small mosque in his lane, where he was also asked to settle marriages, quarrels and spelling disputes.
He drank sweet doodh patti from a steel glass, bought lassi for the neighbourhood children, and was strict about handwriting but gentle about everything else. He mourned the end of the katib's craft but never complained; he said ink had only changed its clothes. He died peacefully on 17 September 2026, aged eighty-three. He is survived by his wife, Razia Begum, his sons Tariq and Imran, his daughter Ayesha and eleven grandchildren, several of whom already hold their pens the way he taught them.
“Do not press the pen. Let it travel; you only keep it company.”
- Faith
- Muslim
- Place of birth
- Jalandhar, East Punjab (British India)
- Resting place
- Miani Sahib Graveyard, Lahore
- Passed away
- 17 September 2026, Lahore
Janazah Prayer
Friday, 18 September 2026 at 11:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Ustad Aslam Calligraphy School Fund
Keep his evening calligraphy classes open and provide free ink, reed pens and paper to students of the old city.
$1,976 raised of $4,000
49%20 recent contributions
- PO
Peter Odhiambo gave $14.25 · 16h ago
- HR
Haji Rasheed gave $190 · 16h ago
- AD
Aisha Davids gave $14.25 · 19h ago
- MZ
Marco Zhu gave $142.50 · 22h ago
“In honour of a wonderful woman.”
- DM
Dr. Tuhina Mitra gave $47.50 · 1d ago
Life journey
Migrated from Jalandhar to Lahore
1947 · Jalandhar to Lahore
Crossed with his family at the age of four, carrying a Qur'an and his father's reed pens.
Apprentice, then Master Calligrapher (katib)
Nawa-i-Waqt (Urdu daily)1955 – 1995 · Lahore
Wrote headlines by hand in Nastaliq every night for forty years.
Married Razia Begum
1968 · Lahore
A marriage of fifty-eight years.
Imam
Masjid-e-Noor, Mochi Gate1982 – 2021 · Lahore
Led the five daily prayers for thirty-nine years and settled many neighbourhood disputes.
Visiting teacher of Nastaliq calligraphy
National College of Arts1996 – 2018 · Lahore
Taught a new generation to write by hand.
Lifetime Achievement in Calligraphy
Alhamra Arts Council2009 · Lahore
For preserving the art of the katib.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Muhammad is survived by
- Razia Begum· Spouse
- Tariq Siddiqui· Son
- Imran Siddiqui· Son
- Ayesha Malik· Daughter
- 11 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Muhammad.
Knew Muhammad? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- IS
Son, in Birmingham
I left Lahore in 2003 with Abbu's reed pen in my suitcase. He said, 'It will feel heavy until you need it.' Last night I wrote his name in Nastaliq for the first time and my hand did not shake. He is in the pen.
- CN
Former colleague at Nawa-i-Waqt
On press nights he wrote thirty headlines without once looking up. The sub-editors used to say the paper's errors were all in the typesetting, never in Aslam's handwriting. When computers came he wept quietly into his tea, then went home and opened a school.
- BH
Former student, now a graphic designer in Birmingham
I walked into his front room at nine with a broken pen and a bad attitude. He taught me to breathe before every stroke. I design logos in Birmingham now, and every curve I draw still starts with a breath. His last lesson to me, on a video call, was a single word: 'Slower.'
- SK
Art teacher and former student
He was the first calligrapher in my life who let a girl hold the qalam. 'The reed does not know who holds it,' he said. I teach at a girls' school in Gulberg now and say the same thing. He changed my family's mind about what I could do.
- ZA
Student in his evening class
He paced behind us during practice, never saying a word, and then turned a single stroke by a hair with a touch of his finger. We felt that correction in our hands for the rest of the week. On Friday I wrote his name on my wrist.
- HR
Neighbour and mosque committee member
For thirty-nine years he led our Fajr prayer, even in winter, even with a cough. His recitation was like his calligraphy: unhurried, balanced, never showy. The mosque feels like a page from which the master's pen has just been lifted.
