Raficq Abdulla was born in 1940 in Durban, South Africa. His father, a landowner and businessman, was an Indian whose ancestors came from the Hyderabad in South India, and his mother, a medical doctor, was of Malay parentage. Educated at English prep and public schools and Oxford University, he practised as a corporate lawyer and is now Secretary to Kingston University, London. He describes himself as a secular Muslim, a devotee of all the arts and especially poetry, a lover of pleasure, and a traveller in this life. He has received an MBE for his community work, especially ecumenical work between Muslims, Jews and Christians.
"It dawned on me that there wasn't a single History. There wasn't a single answer to anything. Every event was someone's story. I was taught the English version of Waterloo, but there was also a French version, the officer's version, the foot-soldier's version. So there could be no certainty."
"Suddenly we're aware of the utter contingency of our lives. The music stops and there's silence. Deus Absconditus. But at the end of the day it's the truth. You don't know, I don't know. We have to live with that not-knowing."