ALTHOUGH the recent developments in India-occupied Kashmir are very disturbing and the reaction from the Muslim ummah has been very dismal, the fact is an overwhelming majority of Pakistani Muslims still strongly believe in the concept of ummah, or an Islamic nationhood that is based on faith and transcends all geographical or racial and ethnological boundaries.
A writer in Dawn (Sept 7, 2019) has quoted former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani as saying that “the bubble of an Islamic ummah has burst”. He has raised the question “but why did it take Pakistan so long to figure that out?”
Just because many Muslim countries do not wholeheartedly support our stance on the Kashmir issue and are more mindful of their own economic interests, the 1400-year history of the concept of a nationhood based on Islamic faith and brotherhood cannot be declared non-existent. The ummah was not a bubble, it was a reality and it still exists. Yes, a politician or a writer may disagree to the idea of an Islamic ummah, but they cannot deny its existence. The Islamic countries may have their excuses and weaknesses but it does not prove that the concept of ummah has simply vanished into thin air. It is the Muslims who are at fault not their beliefs, as Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who converted to Islam, has said “Islam is perfect, people are not”.
A new book tracking the emotions of Muslim unity and fellow feeling based on the concept of an Islamic millat or ummah, as reflected in Urdu poetry over the last 150 years, has just been published. It shows how our poets have expressed their love for their faith and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), stressing the concept of a Muslim nationhood and ummah, whenever a calamitous turn of events made the Muslims suffer. Be it Muslims of Kashmir or Palestine, the treacherously perpetrated defeat of Tipu Sultan or Muslim’s struggle for a free motherland, be it the fall of Delhi in 1857 or the fall of Dhaka in 1971, poets of Urdu have shown how their hearts bled over the disasters befalling Muslims, no matter to which geographical area these poets belonged.
Delhi fell to the British in 1857 and Dhaka fell to India-backed insurgents in 1971. But between these two tumultuous points in history, there have been other upheavals, too. How our poets reacted and reflected on these tumults, with a touch of Islamic and patriotic feelings, is the topic of this new book by Dr Muhammad Tahir Qureshi.
Titled Hamari milli shaeri mein naatiya anaasir: suqoot-i-Dehli ta suqoot-i-Dhaka, the book is in fact a doctoral dissertation tracking the manifestation of naat elements in Urdu poetry against the backdrop of emotions and feelings dubbed as ‘milli’. Beginning with the connotations of the word ‘millat’, Dr Tahir Qureshi says that the ‘millat’ is almost synonymous with the word ‘ummat’ or ‘ummah’. Ummah is an Arabic word and it denotes a nation or a group that believes in a Prophet. Ummah is used for a nation to which a Prophet, or messenger, is sent and all those who believe in that Prophet become a part of his ummat or ummah, he adds. Muslims, being the followers of the last Prophet (PBUH), are called ‘Ummat-i-Muhammadi’ or ‘Ummat-i-Muhammadiya’. Hence, all Muslims are one ummah, no matter what their colour, race, language or country is. Unlike the western concept of nationhood, ‘millat’ or Ummah is based on faith. Muslims are also referred to as ‘Millat-i-Islamia’ or the ‘Islamic Nation’, notes the researcher.
The word ‘milli’, therefore, means ‘of or relating to the millat or Ummah’ and ‘milli’ poetry is one that reflects the sentiments based on that feeling of being a part of a hugely enormous group dotting the entire world, from Indonesia to Nigeria to Europe to North America and beyond.
Just published by Karachi’s Naat Research Centre, the 636-page book has 13 chapters. Beginning with the meanings of the words like Ummah, millat and naat, the researcher has successfully signposted the historical events that the poets of Urdu wrote about.
After the 1857 war of freedom, for instance, poets expressed their anger and grief in their ‘milli’ poetry emphasising their Muslim identity through naat elements and later on, says Tahir Qureshi, poets such as Altaf Hussain Hali, Shibli Naumani, AKbar Allahabadi and Nazeer Ahmed especially wrote poetry on social, religious and political aftermath of 1857.
While quoting from poets such as Zafar Ali Khan , Muhammad Ali Jauhar, Allama Iqbal and many others, the author proves that in every era the poets of Urdu felt a deep sense of being a part of the Ummah and commented on different historical events while praising Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and supplicating Allah for mercy to the Ummah. But Tahir Qureshi was ever so careful as to note that not only the events of the subcontinent but also the upheavals in other Islamic regions as well, notably Palestine, inspired poets. In the latter part of the book, prayerful verses by various poets reflecting the concern for Muslims in Kashmir and East Pakistan are also reproduced.
The 1965 war with India and the fall of Dhaka too became a topic in Urdu’s milli poetry and poets from different parts of the country expressed their sentiments, never forgetting the prayers and tributes to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The dissertation is written in a flowing prose with ample references and careful analysis. An index at the back of the book makes it all the more valuable. This is how a PhD thesis proves that all through the history, Urdu poetry is bound by one common thread: the feeling of being a part of Ummah. The concept of Ummah is very much alive even today.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2019
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