KARACHI: Mirza Ghalib, a grand classical Urdu and Persian poet of the subcontinent, played a significant role through his poetry in creating social harmony among the people.

Ghalib’s poetry emphasises that the universal character of Hazrat Ali is beyond any sectarian or creedal orientation, as Ali comes into sight not as an accident of time, but as a cosmic emanation and metaphor.

Prof Dr Syed Nomanul Haq, a senior professor at the Habib University, expressed these views while speaking at a seminar on ‘Ali as History, Ali as Metaphor: Mirza Ghalib’s Cosmic Excursion’ held in the Tariq Rafi Lecture Theatre of the university on Friday. The seminar was well attended by poets, scholars, teachers and students. In the end of the talk, Prof Dr Noman Naqvi also conducted a question and answer session. In the talk, the speaker highlighted various aspects of Ghalib’s stunning manqabat, a genre of poetry eulogising Hazrat Ali, comprising dozens of lines.

Prof Haq, who is also the head of the university’s comparative liberal studies programme, said the history of Urdu poetry revealed that many Urdu poets had drawn rich inspiration from Hazrat Ali, irrespective of their sectarian and religious orientation. He added that such great poets as Mir Taqi Mir and Allama Iqbal had also drawn immense inspiration from the cosmic beam of Ali.

Finding a relationship between Ghalib’s ghazal and Ali, he said the poet had an honour in ‘ghazalizing’ the universal personality of Hazrat Ali. He added that Ali was a universal reality, and metaphor that had multiple meanings.

“Ali is Maula, Bu Turab, Asadullah,” he said. “Ghalib’s relationship with Hazrat Ali — Maula, Bu Turab, Asadullah — has given a powerful spin to the poet’s creative world, such that he transcends history and constructs an alternative universe with its own universal grammar.”

He talked about the concrete yields of the glorious manqabat, and said that these yields were not only philosophical and poetic, but also cultural and social. In the first phase of the creative act, which is called tamheed (preamble), Ghalib describes the universe, ideas, right and wrong, faith, belief and kufr.

Dhar juz jalwa-i-yakta-i-mashooq nahin
Hum kahan hotey agar husn na hota khudbeen
Bey dili hay tamasha ke na ibrat hi na zouq
Bey kasi hay tamanna ke na dunya hi na deen

In the manqabat, after a guraiz, which provides a poet a way to change his topic from tamheed to the original one, Ghalib comes to his topic, Ali, Prof Haq said.

Mazhar-i-faiz-i-Khuda jan-o-dil-i-Khatm-i-Rusul
Qibla-i-aal-i-Nabi, kaaba-i-aijad yaqin

Describing Hazrat Ali as a manifestation of God’s beneficence, and a love of the Last Prophet (PBUH), Ghalib also declared Hazrat Ali as a centre for the progeny of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Prof Haq said.

He pointed out that in poetic and theological imagination, the personality of Hazrat Ali had risen from the domain of contingent history to that of metaphysics.

“Ghalib’s manqabat is just poetry, it is not a philosophy, and we can only talk about his cosmic excursion,” he said.

“There is an obvious message in the poetry of Ghalib that Ali is a universal message for humanity,” the professor said. “This message cannot be confined to any religious or creedal boundaries.”

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2018