PERSONALITY

And when wine, as it is poured, is the sobbing

of children whom nothing will console–

when nothing holds,

when nothing is:

at that dark hour when night mourns,

be near me, my destroyer, my lover me,

be near me.

(Be Near Me by Faiz Ahmed Faiz translated by Agha Shahid Ali)



Faiz Ahmed Faiz, born on February 13th, 1911 in Sialkot (Punjab), Pakistan, was one of the most famous poets of the Urdu language in our era. Born in a respectable and literary environment and a very promising student with a religious background he started memorizing the Holy Quran at the age of four and in 1916 started his formal education in the famous school of Moulvi Ibrahim Sialkoti, and learnt Urdu, Persian and Arabic. Faiz was admitted to the Scotch Mission High School in 1921 in Class IV. He passed his Matriculation Examination in the 1st Division from Murray College, Sialkot and during this period learnt Persian and Arabic from Allama Iqbal’s teacher, Shamsul al Ulama Moulvi Syed Meer Hasan. He passed his B.A. (Honours) in Arabic from the Government College, Lahore and then M.A. in English from the same College in 1932. He also passed his M.A. in Arabic in the 1st Division, from Oriental College, Lahore. He became Lecturer in English at M. A. O. College, Amritsar in 1935 and then at Hailey College of Commerce, Lahore. Joined the Army as Captain in 1942 and worked in the department of Public Relations in Delhi. Then he was promoted to the rank of Major in 1943 and Lieut. Colonel in 1944.

The humorist Kashmiri poet Ghulam Ali Bulbul (author – Gula-Khandan) who hailed from Bandipore in South Kashmir, a promising student of my father Mir Ghulam Rasool Nazki was Faiz’s colleague in the British army. It is pertinent to add that Bulbul also immigrated to London and later died in Honslow, a London suburb. Faiz resigned from the Army in 1947 and returned to Lahore, where, in 1959 he was appointed as Secretary, Pakistan Arts Council and worked in that capacity till 1962. Returning from London in 1964 he settled down in Karachi and was appointed as Principal, Abdullah Haroon College Karachi.

Faiz was Editor of the monthly magazine Adabe-Latif from 1947 to 1958; worked as Editor under the Progressive Papers Ltd, of the Pakistan Times, the Urdu newspaper Imroze and the weekly Lail-o-Nihar. In the 1965 war between India & Pakistan he worked in an honorary capacity in the Department of Information. He acted as Editor of the magazine Lotus in Moscow, London and Beirut. He was a member of the Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind (All India Progressive Writers’ Movement). In 1962, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union.

Faiz was an avowed supporter of Sufism. He had close relations with several Sufi saints of his time. He was a favourite of Baba Malang Sahib, a Sufi of Lahore, Ashfaq Ahmad, Syed Fakhruddin Balley, Wasif Ali Wasif and other renowned Sufis. Once when he was asked how he could compare Sufis with socialist comrades, he replied, “They [Sufis] are the real comrades”. He is also credited for coining the term Ana al-Haqq in the political sense. His Major works include Naqsh-e-Faryadi (1943) Dast-e-Saba (1952) Zindan-Nama (1956) Dast-e-Tah-e-Sang (1965). All these have been combined as one book Nuskha haaye Wafa.

One of the close associate of Faiz ahmed Faiz and pioneer of progressive writer’s movement in the Indian sub-continent Syed Sajjad Zaheer popularly known as Banay Bhai visited Srinagar in 1967. He and his writer-wife Razia Sajjad Zaheer and daughter Nadira Babber holidayed in Srinagar for a month. From dawn to dusk Syed Sajjad Zaheer was surrounded by writers and artists of Kashmir. Jagan Nath, well read publisher and owner of Allied Press had his office adjacent to present Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd Poloview (earlier Grindlay’s bank) overlooking the Jhelum. In the balcony of Jagan Nath’s office he organised a sitting of writers with Banay Bhai. This was attended to by many Kashmiris including the founder father of our Progressive Movement Dina Nath Nadim, famous painter poet G R Santosh, artist Bansi Parimoo, Somnath Zutshi, H K Bharti, Umesh Kaul and this author.

Amongst these poets I recited a poem.



Is ghata toap andharai main akaila shair

Khawaabe na deeda ki soughat liya phirta hai

Aur kya lata yeh tamseel ke duniya ka fakir

Harphay na ghufta ki soughat liya phir ta hai



When I read these lines the spontaneous reaction of Banay Bhai was, ‘Yeh Too Nana Munna Faiz Boal Raha Hai’. There was no exaggeration in the comment because people of my era by and large were influenced by Faiz. Those were the days when modernism was coming up and progressive movement losing its sheen. All progressives were condemned as slogan mongers and propagators of communism.

Faiz no doubt was a Marxist by conviction but in his poetry he presented a unique blend of Sufism and modernity. The romantic undertones of his poetry were fascinating. Annal Haq of Mansur Hallaj represented the sensitivities of the downtrodden. This was a new approach.

This deep understanding of tradition and insight into the history of mankind remained favourite theme up to his last days. So it is not very difficult to make an assessment of Faiz Ahmed Faiz as a human rights activist, intellectual and poet.

He remained an open book and stood the test of time under all regimes in the most trying circumstances. No matter what, he always was a committed poet whether in exile, jail or as prisoner of political upheavals in Pakistan. This to me is also one of the reasons of his becoming the most popular Urdu poet of the world today.

When I started writing poetry in early 1960s Faiz’s anthology of poetry Zindan Nama was talk of town in sub continent. He had been acquitted from Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. His joining the British army, then becoming a teacher, later a journalist and ardent commentator through his poetry against the political establishment contributed to his romantic image.

A fighter against feudalism, architect of progressive movement in Pakistan and beloved of millions of comrades almost everyone of our generation tried to imitate him.

So much so my first years of poetry were directly influenced by his semi-classical style. Faiz was inimitable (yet we all tried to imitate him) and he never coined words for himself. He only used them from repository of the classical phraseology and terminology of great masters say Ghalib, Sauda, Mushafi, Hatim and Mir. Sometimes he was closer to Mir Dard in his earlier ghazals.

He could mould any word from classical language according to his choice and skillfully get it fitted in the modern era. So the oft used and obsolete similes and metaphors emerged as new and fresh symbols in his poetry. He was a unique combination of past and present.

He played the game of poetry in such an artistic manner that the traditional meaning of JAM (Cup), PAIMANA(Peg), SHAMA (Candle), MEHFIL (Gathering), DAAR(Guillotine), WAYIZ (Religious Adviser), MOHTASIB (Watch man), QASID (Postman), ZINDAN (Jail), and others attainted new dimensions. Sometimes the context in which he used them gave birth to new meanings, opening the horizons of the mind of the reader.



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