Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was one of the foremost leaders of the Indian freedom struggle. He was not a run-of-the-mill politician, but an intellectual and thinker who spent several decades writing and speaking on diverse issues, including education. His commitment to the pluralist ethos of the Indian freedom struggle is reflected in his work and career as the first minister for education, science, and culture in independent India. Several scholars have written on Azad's political contributions and on his theological acumen as an Islamic scholar par excellence. However, few have examined in detail and acknowledged his immense contributions to nation building, particularly in the areas of education and culture. The need to do this is even more significant in the context of Islam today, not only in India but also globally. Maulana Azad's ideas on education are found scattered in his writings, speeches and letters, which run into thousands of pages. He drew inspiration from diverse sources, ranging from religion to philosophy and from history to science. Most of his early engagements with, and thoughts on, education in Al-Hilal (1912-14) and Al-Balagh (1915-16), his two journals, are in Urdu, and deal with his Islamic-centred concerns, touching upon the madrasa system and its obsolete teaching methods and curriculum. Another significant work is Tazkirah (1919), which deals with his family's traditions of learning and education. Azad also makes significant remarks on philosophy and education in his celebrated literary work, Ghubar-i-Khatir (1946), a collection of letters written from the Ahmadnagar Fort prison between 1942 and 1945. He spent almost three decades thinking and writing about education before he was entrusted with the difficult task of building a national education system for independent India in 1947. It will be useful to look at the foundations of the proposed national education system that Azad articulated at various platforms as a minister for education (Speeches of Maulana Azad, 1947-1958). This commentary focuses on some of the key issues raised by Azad in his four addresses between 1947 and 1952, in which he unfolded his plans and also commented critically on the system of inherited education.