Poetry: Spiritual and Terrene
By Syed Afsar Sajid
1. ‘Luhu Lal Ghari: (Marsiye)’ by Iqtidar Javed
2. ‘Bay Baal-o-Par’ by Prof. Dr. Sh. Muhammad Iqbal
Famed poets and intellectuals Iqtidar Javed and Prof. Dr. Sh. Muhammad Iqbal have lately brought out their aforesaid verse collections (‘Luhu Lal Ghari: Marsiye’ and ‘Bay Baal-o-Par’) on spiritual and secular themes in the wake of a humming upsurge in the domain of Urdu poetic creativity.
‘Luhu Lal Ghari: (Marsiye)’
Iqtidar Javed is a versatile writer. Nazm, ghazal, criticism, and column writing are his favourite areas of self-expression and social communication. The instant book adds another laurel to his numerous literary acquisitions, viz. marsiya (an elegy intended to mourn a martyr, more specifically martyrs of Karbala). Epic, tragedy, and lament are its three major ingredients.
Traditionally marsiya in Arabic, Persian and Urdu is considered as a literary genre intended to sanctify and commemorate the supreme sacrifice of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) and his valiant companions in Karbala. Structurally as a literary genre, marsiya bears the following features: face (preamble), figure (character portrayal), departure (for the battleground), arrival (in the battleground), ‘rajaz’ (narration of the heroics of the martyrs), battle (epic), martyrdom (sacrifice), and finally mourning the martyrs.
Dedicated to his late elder sister Fatima Sirajuddin (1938-72), the book in view enfolds
marsiyas (elegiac laments) describing the personages, events, and sacrifices relating to
the Tragedy of Karbala, interspersed with na’at, salam, manqabat, rajaz and nauha.
The book carries a flap scribed by a veteran Indian Urdu poet and literary scholar Sheen
Kaaf Nizam (aka Shiv Kishan Bissa – b.1947) who has made a concise yet detailed probe
into the poetic skills of Iqtidar Javed considering him a gifted poet of nazm which as a
genre often flourishes in pursuit of an empyrean sublime such as we notice in the latter.
Nizam believes that as a marsiya-nigar Iqtidar owes his creative versatility to this
phenomenon.
Noted poet Nazir Qaiser has written an engaging foreword to the book. He terms Iqtidar
Javed’s poetic intuition as ‘kashf’ —- a ‘sufi concept dealing with knowledge of the heart
rather than of the intellect’. It is related to ‘disclosure’ which leads to ‘gaining familiarity
with things unseen behind the veils’. Thus to Nazir Qaiser, Iqtidar Javed is a true mystic
of the Zeitgeist
Iftikhar Arif’s flap further authenticates Iqtidar Javed’s art as a marsiya-nigar in the
tradition set by Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1612), ruler of Golconda (Hyderabad Deccan),
tracking down to, among many, Zameer and Khalique, Meer Anees and Mirza Dabeer, and
then the past century ushering the renaissance of marsiya as reflected in the elegiac
poetry of Syed Aal-e-Raza, Josh, Jamil Mazhari, Nasim Amrohvi, Saba Akbarabadi, Faiz,
Ummeed Fazli, Mustafa Zaidi, Mohsin Naqvi, Hilal Naqvi, and Iqtidar Javed — the author of the present work with a symbolic title denoting the momentous shedding of pietistic
blood exemplifying martyrdom.
Iqidar Javed has employed the technique of nazm in his marsiya that enables him to enrich its intellectual content. His stylistic innovations in the structural pattern of the genre are verily appreciable. The book is sure to draw a wide reading clientele representing both, the initiated and uninitiated.
‘Bay Baal-o-Par’ (The hapless)
Prof. Dr. Sh. Muhammad Iqbal (Tamgha-i-Imtiaz) is a well-known trilingual (Urdu, English,
Punjabi) writer, poet, and critic. He has so far published eleven collections of poetry, three books of criticism, and ten books of prose besides an autobiography and a book on Allama Iqbal in the pipeline. His is a story of pure valour and resilience in the face of heavy odds that he has had to forbear as a visually handicapped person.
The book carries commendatory flaps by Dr. Najeeba Arif, Chairperson, PAL, poet Nazir
Qaiser, and late Prof. Dr. AB Ashraf of Ankara University, Turkiye. Other than that, literary luminaries like Prof. Fateh Muhammad Malik, Naseem Sahar, Prof. Hasan Askari Kazmi, Prof. Anwar Jamal, Shahid Bokhari et al have also added their considered impressions of the person and art of Dr. Iqbal, in the book which is a collection of his miscellaneous poetic work encompassing hamd, na’at, salam, ghazal, nazm, qit’a, hiko, and fardiyaat.
The poet’s couplet ‘Aankh kya khak daikhti hogi!/Jo bina aankh daikhta hun maen’ signifies the tone and tenor of his poetics notwithstanding the constraints that might have with intermittence impacted his conviction and will. The symbolism implicit in the title of the book tends to lend a deeper meaning to its textual expanse and diversity.
To cite late Dr. AB Ashraf, love, humanitarianism, courage, perseverance in face of circumstantial oddities, total submission to the will of God, acknowledging his benevolence, and leading a life of goodness and hope, form the characteristic features of Dr. Iqbal’s poetry. This felicitous couplet ‘Mray dil may tamanna jagti hai/Yehi to bus suboot-e-zindagi hai’ seems to be the crux of his poetic creed.
Dr. Najeeba Arif’s well-considered dictum on the instant book that it is a palpable testimony to his (Dr. Iqbal’s) literary activism and creative angst would aptly sum up any deliberation of his poetry.
