The Sage of the Pen), was a 20th and 21st century theologian, philosopher, Isma'ili scholar, poet and linguist known for his work on Islamic theology, metaphysics, hermeneutics, poetry and the Burushaski language.

Though the rural context to which he was born offered him little in the way of formal education,[6] 'Allamah Hunzai's zeal for self-study earnt him proficiency in Burushaski, Urdu, Arabic and Classical Persian, which allowed him to study manuscripts collected by his father and other local scholars, including, among others, Khusraw's Wajh-i Din (which he later translated into Urdu), Jami' al-Hikmatayn and Zad al-Musafirin, and Ja'far b. Mansur's Sara'ir wa-Asrar al-Nutaqa - some of the most complex in their genre.

This early phase of inquisition also saw him take to poetry, with Sa'di's Bustan, Gulistan and Karima, as well as Hafiz-i Shirazi's Divan and Rumi's Kulliyat-i Shams included in his father's collection of manuscripts.

[7] He would later recall how he used to carry his herding-stick in one hand, and the Qur'an in the other, which he studied with great avidity, and began to develop original theological and hermeneutical positions over its injunctions.

[8] He recalls having become "habituated" to seeking knowledge as a result of nurturing the zeal he possessed therefor during his days as a shepherd,[8] and he thus continued to study books on classical philosophy and poetry during his leisure time.

[5] In addition, his works constitute a vast corpus of original Isma'ili esoteric exegesis,[4] which reflects a deeper engagement with the process of ta'wil (lit.

These aspects of his works are very briefly elaborated upon below: Among the historically unprecedented philosophical injunctions of the 48th Isma'ili Imam is his declaration that "Islam's basic principle can only be defined as monorealism and not as monotheism".

[27] In 1980, a Latin-script transliteration of this Diwan was published, having been rendered by Professors Ettiene Tiffou and Yves Charles Morin of the University of Montréal, who had prior to this approached 'Allamah Hunzai for assistance with their research on the Burushaski language.

In 1996, a selection of 'Allamah Hunzai's Uighur, Urdu, Persian and Burushaski poems was chosen to feature in an anthology of Isma'ili poetry entitled Shimmering Light, published by I.B.