Dialogue with one's own self

Dastak uss darvazey par: Aek fikri mukalma, is the latest publication from the prolific writer Dr Wazir Agha. Fiction Group, one of the city's established literary bodies, organized a sitting on Sunday to discuss the merits of the book, which includes both prose and poetry.

Divided into nine chapters, each one opening with a verse, the book begins with a dialogue. The author poses questions about life and everything from religion to science to philosophy. He is the questioner as well as the searching soul providing the answers.

Defining his book, Dr Wazir Agha recalls the famous Sanskrit treatise Bhagved Gita and the philosophical discourses of Plato and Socrates all delivered in the form of a dialogue. As we conclude from the text, he poses questions and invites the readers to help him find the answers. He does not reject any ideology coming from the West or the East. To him, a poet is more important than a sufi as the former delves deep into the intricacies of the universe.

Saba Ikram admired Wazir Agha as an ideologue and also a literary journalist, apart from his other qualities. In the rising wave of globalization when ideologies and cultures were coming closer, Wazir Agha, he said, was a world citizen. His prose was simple and could illustrate even intricate philosophical issues for the benefit of his readers.

Dr Mohammad Mohsin, a humorist and a prodigious reader, pointed out the strands of humour in the book which lightened the seriousness of the weighty text. A. Khayyam, a short story writer, said Wazir Agha seemed to be knocking on the doors of his own self and talking to his hamzaad (second self). His vision of and studies in both the physical and social sciences was admirable, Khayyam said. "Every time I read it, I find as it I reading the book for the first time."

Yawer Aman, a poet, paid his complements to the author and his treatise in two brief verses. Shamim Manzar thought every person had a dual personality - the outer self and the inner self - and Dr Wazir Agha had tried to discover the latter. Muslim Shamim felt that Urdu's literary tradition seemed to have lost its touch with the old values of philosophical thought, and had been overtaken by a lethargy of the mind. Wazir Agha had done well to invite his readers to participate in an intellectual discourse in on changing social phenomenon.

Let me quote a few lines from the book:

"Thou (the questioner): Talk about yourself. Do you really hear the voices coming from within your soul?"

"In recent times, I read an interesting book, by one Julian Jeans. He has written that till around 3,000 years back man was linked with "inner voices". In the face of every crisis, he would take some step only after hearing patiently the 'order' or the 'advice' coming from within, which he thought was coming from the gods themselves. But around 3,000 years ago, when human consciousness took command, the inner voices were silenced. And now the voices outside had become overpowering as if a jin had taken control of human beings or a qabza group had occupied a vacant plot."

Dr Wazir Agha was introduced by Ali Haider Malik.

* * * * *

LAST Sunday's papers carried the sad news of the death of Adeeb Raipuri, a distinguished naat-go and a critic in the classical mould. He was 80.

Adeeb emerged as a ghazal poet in the early decade of the 50s, but turned towards naat - verses composed in honour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) - and devoted himself totally to the promotion of this genre. His collection of naats include 14 books, and there is also some work in prose. As generally known, Adeeb Raipuri was acknowledged as the first poet in Pakistan to introduce naats in mainstream poetry and give this genre the place it deserves. His own personal library has 2,500 books on naats and religious poetry.

Islamic culture in all its manifestations is a complete whole and is interconnected - poetry, painting, calligraphy, architecture, etc., all meeting at some point. Adeeb Raipuri was also a calligraphist and had expressed his creativity in different styles. He had many disciples in different corners of Pakistan.

Prof Dr Peerzada Qasim, Vice-Chancellor, University of Karachi, while condoling the death of Adeeb Raipuri, recalled the poet's self-less efforts in the founding of the Naat Academy. National Language Authority Chairman Iftikhar Arif and his resident director in Karachi, Agha Noor Mohammad Pathan, said that Adeeb's death was a major loss for religious poetry. Some of his naats were partly translated in English and other South Asian languages.

A local literary body, Mehre-Munir Academy International, held a reference to acknowledge the services of Adeeb Raipuri. Academy chairman Sabir Daud and others after speaking on various aspects of devotional poetry advised universities in the country to encourage and invite scholars to write research papers on Adeeb's religious and mystic poetry.

* * * * *

ANOTHER noted poet famed for his mysticism and religious themes, Prof Hasan Azeemabadi, who died in Karachi on May 11, 1980, was remembered last week at the Bazm-i-Adab-o-Saqafat. A meeting and mushaira were held. Prof Afaq Siddiqui presided over the deliberations. The late Prof Hasan was acknowledged as a popular mushaira poet in pre-independence India. He was a contemporary of famous poet Prof Andleeb Shadani and he too was a professor in Urdu literature. After migrating to Pakistan, he got his ghazals compiled and printed in book form, titled Zamzamistan. Prof Hasan's literary writings, summed up in two volumes, are under publication and hopefully will appear soon, family sources say.

* * * * *

THE Urdu-Sindhi Adabi Foundation, a literary body and the brainchild of the young poet Jamal Naqvi and senior writer Prof Afaq Siddiqui, held a sitting in memory of Sachal Sarmast, also known as Shaer-i-Haftzaban. Kausar Naqvi presided over the proceedings.

Sachal, it is popularly held, was, in his sufi cult, a man above all prejudices of religion, sect, caste and creed. With a powerful diction he ruled over the minds of the people during the 18th and 19th centuries. Prof Afaq Siddiqi presented some passages from his book on Sachal and his Persian verses. Poet Wazahat Naseem, Shafiq Ahmad Shafiq, Prof Seema Seraj, Ahmad Saeed Faizabadi and Ghulam Farooq took part in the proceedings, which included a mushaira in which Urdu and Sindhi poets participated.