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May 5, 2002
REVIEW: Affairs of the heart
IN the eastern tradition, people are quite secretive about their affairs of the heart. They feel highly embarrassed when someone refers to their intimate matters. Hence the secrecy that shrouds this aspect of the lives of the famous, especially those who are idealized and revered. This was the reason why the book under review was withdrawn immediately after its publication, although it does not contain any vulgar language — but for the fact that it is about the personal lives of two of the most highly respected allamas of Urdu literature. It was a strange coincidence that Shibli Nomani and Muhammad Iqbal got entangled romantically with the same woman, Atiyyah Faizee, who took them by storm.
By all accounts, the relationships had no physical dimensions — not even a case of holding hands with any of the two gentlemen is cited. Although Urdu poetry has a long tradition of a ‘beloved’, she (in fact always referred to as a man) is always notional. In Atiyyah’s case this age-old tradition was broken and Shibli dared to address her directly in his verses.
Iqbal met Atiyyah after Shibli had already fallen for her and he too felt attracted to her. During their friendship, Iqbal addressed a few letters to her which contain no more than laments of the domestic problems he was facing at the time. He wrote similar letters to a German friend with whom he had stayed while in Germany. Yet no stone was left unturned by one of the Iqbal fans to destroy these letters, a fact that was bitterly lamented by Salim Ahmed in his article “Bayad-i-Iqbal” (Riwayat-3).
Unlike Iqbal, the writer says that Shibli was intensely moved by Atiyyah — and it was certainly more than platonic love — but it remained confined to verbal expression. It is quite interesting to note that somewhere in his writings, Shibli praises an Arab who approached his beloved while her parents were away. She almost panicked and asked him to leave the place immediately. This pleased the Arab immensely who told her that had she welcomed his advances, he would have killed her. But this is Shibli as a high-profile moralistic author. On the contrary, Shibli as a lover says to Atiyyah:
(Upon my life, that naughty idol’s company
Taught me all the manners of union)
This is quite a departure from the image of Shibli as the biographer of some of the greatest figures of Islam. The writer goes on to say that it was love at first sight and that too at quite an advanced age for Shibli. If true this reflects on the unconventional society in which Shibli moved. A weekly columnist goes to the extent of hinting at Shibli’s intimate attachment to Abul Kalam Azad as well.
How does the book project Atiyyah who was certainly not an ordinary woman? She belonged to a Nawab family, and was much ahead of her times. Well-read herself and full of curiosity and admiration for the writers she met, she never took them romantically. While Shibli loved her, Atiyyah herself was not serious about him. In fact, at the first opportunity she was quick to remove wrong impressions about herself. She was unconventional and lively and it was certainly her charming personality and intelligence which won her lasting fame, though she never wrote a word.
Dr Waheed Qureshi has compiled a controversial book indeed, which Irfan Ahmed has ‘re-discovered’ after fifty years of oblivion for the benefit of keen readers of Urdu literature.
Shibli ki hayat-i-mua’shiqa
By Dr Waheed Qureshi
T & T Publishers, 31-S-101/E, Bank Colony, Samanabad, Lahore. Tel: 042-7576894
ISBN 969-8305-45-9
126pp. Rs100
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