During the early years of our borrowing from the newly discovered mine of English literature, the English essayists too had attracted the attention of a few Urdu writers. Some writings of those days remind us of that influence which did not last long. In fact, our writers were more anxious to learn and draw inspiration from English poetry and fiction.

It was only in the '60s that we came across a revival of interest in that long forgotten genre of English literature.

Some writers in their enthusiasm coined a new term inshaiya as a synonym of essay and began writing with the assertion that they are pioneers of this genre in Urdu.

Soon a quarrel erupted among them — each claiming to be the first to write an inshaiya in Urdu. Interestingly during those same years a quarrel of sorts had started in a small circle of modern poets too.
 
Fighting for the common cause of prose-poem, each of them claimed to have written the first prose poem in Urdu and so wished to be treated as the founder of this newly discovered genre.

However, once again we found to our disappointment that the enthusiasm for inshaiya was short-lived.

On the other hand, the musketeers of prose-poem stuck to their cause. One senior poet, Mubarik Ahmad, who traced his descent from the modern verse school of Miraji, devoted himself solely to this cause.

This devotee of prose-poem deserves our homage. He has passed away but the prose-poem has come to stay as a genuine form of poetic expression in Urdu.

As for inshaiya those who took up its cause showed much enthusiasm at the start. They seemed to be saying that this form of prose will soon represent Urdu prose in a way better than any other form. But this enthusiasm did not last long.

Slowly and gradually it drained away. Its practioners lost interest in their newly discovered form of expression.

It is now after long years that one from among the partisans of inshaiya of those times have cared to collect all such writings in a volume and brought them out under the title Mata-i-Deeda-o-Dil. He is Syed Mashkoor Husain Yad, who has presented this volume as a collection of 'thought provoking inshaiyas'.

Three books published in quick succession form part of this collected volume, the first being Johar-i-Andaisha. It had come out in the mid-'70s with an introduction by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, who was happy to find that every Inshayia written by Mashkoor had a touch of Pakistaniat.

How happy he was to see an imported form of expression being Pakist-anised my Mashkoor. So he declared him as the founder of Pakistanised inshaiya.

Winning this honour, Mashkoor tried to write in a more serious way and presented his new volume under the title Waqt Ka Istara (The Metaphor of Time).

Qamar Jameel from Karachi, while writing a foreword to this volume, found these writings as philosophical essays.

He saw Mashkoor grappling with the problem of time and good and evil in his inshaiyas and expressed satisfaction that there is at least one writer who has brought with him philosophical thought in Urdu. Dismissing other inshaiya writers as jokers he installed Mashkoor Husain on the pedestal of a thinker.

But Mashkoor Husain is an impatient soul. He cannot stick for long to any of his favourites. He could rest on his laurels in the field of essay writing but other pastures began to tempt him.

He turned to literary criticism and began writing on Ghalib. He is a prolific writer and so brought out a number of volumes on Ghalib in quick succession. From Ghalib he made a jump to Iqbal and presented a critical study of his poetry.

Recalling Qamar Jameel's compliments regarding his philosophical thinking he turned from Iqbal to Mullah Sadra and wrote a book on his philosophical thought. Soon he even turned to religion and brought out a book, a sort of 'Quran-made-easy'.

After remaining engaged in religious studies for some time he set aside all his prose writings and devoted himself to poetry.

In the midst of such writings, swiftly shifting from one subject to the other, inshaiya appeared to be something forgotten by him. But now, quite unexpectedly, he has brought out all his inshaiyas in one volume.

Does he intend to turn back to essay writing? No. He has not made any such promise in his foreword to the volume.

By bringing out the collection he has just reminded us of his past achievement in a genre that at one time was most dear to him.