IN the passing away of Shamsur Rehman Faruqi, the Urdu language has lost a celebrated literary critic, a scholar par excellence and an immensely gifted novelist. His scholarly pursuits and his being a bookworm have been covered at length in the relevant obituary piece (Dec 26).

He extensively wrote on the poetry of Mir Taqi Mir. Though he was a full-time civil servant, he found time not only for his scholarly pursuits, but also brought out a literary magazine ‘Shabkhoon’.

His magnum opus, spread over more than 800 pages, ‘Kai Chand Thay Sar Asman’, is the fictionalised story of the life of Nawab Mirza Khan Dagh Dehlvi (1831-1905). It is an excellent novel, and excels on many counts, especially the quality of the language used. He pictured the life of the protagonist in such details that it presents a living experience.

His other works of the same genre include ‘Aftab-e-Zameen’ on the life of poet Mushafi. This story was written under a nom de plume. I spent days trying to discover the name of the author and was gratified in discovering him. In the same vein, he wrote on Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and Allama Iqbal’s lives.

Faruqi, in association with Frances Pritchett, translated the great work of Shams-ul-Ulama Maulana Mohammad Azad’s ‘Aab-e-Hayat’ into English. It contains extensive notes of original research dealing with the real events. The commentary and the research on Azad’s book are as informative as the book itself.

He was not in agreement with the mission and the views of the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA). Perhaps it was to counter the PWA narrative that he brought out the magazine and gave it an unliterary name meaning ‘a surprise attack by night’.

Despite my admiration for his literary pursuits, I am obliged to note that he went too far in opposing the progressive thought. One example is an article he wrote ranking five Urdu poets of the 20th and early 21st centuries about their poetic excellence. Number one on the list was his friend Ahmed Mushtaq (the title of his magnum opus referred to earlier is from his couplet). The second to fourth positions were assigned to poets like Munir Niazi, Zafar Iqbal and Nasir Kazmi. The fifth position was assigned to Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

I would refrain from commenting on the merit of the poets other than Faiz, lest I become disrespectful. But Faiz shared the honour with Allama Iqbal for being the greatest poet of the 20th century. Assigning him the fifth ranking before some nondescripts was, and is, astonishing.

I also recall attending the Faiz Festival in Lahore, probably in 2015, when Faruqi was invited to speak on Faiz. Explaining the popularity of Faiz’s poetry, he opined that its main reason was that it could be sung. I thought it was highly unjust to confine the merit of Faiz’s poetry to this factor alone.

Faiz was a great humanist who felt the pain of humanity and sang the oppressed and the downtrodden song. Additionally, he was a great human being. Faruqi was entitled to his views, but an accomplished, highly successful scholar like him should have seen beyond his prejudice.

Shamim Ahmad
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2021