Written by: Waseem Abbas
Posted on: October 27, 2022 | 
| 中文
Faiz Ahmed Faiz in Karachi, 1968
Poetry is simply wordplay; you describe your emotions with the use of classical maxims, adjectives, similes and metaphors. It is only immortalized if it conveys the burning issues of the day along with the aesthetics of the poet, all through verse. Few poets can claim to have produced poetry that relates to the issues of every age, and which appeals to all sections of society worldwide. Faiz Ahmed Faiz is one such poet.
Young Faiz Ahmed Faiz
"Nisar Ma Teray Galiyon Kay" is one nazm that captures the real essence of Faiz's poetry in its entirety. The poem has all the ingredients of Faiz the poet: raising his voice against the oppressors, treading non-conformist paths, using classical diction and style, mixing romanticism with revolutionary zeal and the hope of the eventual rise of the oppressed.
Faiz's stature in Urdu poetry is uncontested, and he has mixed realism into hitherto surrealistic Urdu poetry. Noon Meem Rashid wrote in the foreword of Faiz’s first collection, Naqsh-i-Faryadi: “This is a collection of ghazals and nazms by a poet standing at the intersection of romance and realism”. Faiz’s impact and influence in the contemporary era is such that 'you can love him, or you can hate him, but you can't ignore him.' He was not a regular Urdu poet who wrote poem after poem on the beauty of his beloved, mentioning her long black hair that glitter as she walks, praising her beautiful eyes, and her face as bright and spotless as the sun, lips as thin as a petal, and voice as soothing as a bird. His beloved is situated in a social setting and is influenced by the happenings of the day.
Noon Meem Rashid and Faiz
In his famous poem 'Mujh se Pehli se muhabbat meray Mehboob na mang' (my beloved, do not demand the love I gave you once), Faiz says:
Aur bhi dukh hain zamanay ma muhabbat kay siwa
Rahatain aur bhi hain wasl ki Rahat kay siwa
"This world of ours bleeds
With more pains than just the pain of love;
And many more pleasures beckon us all the time
Than just the fleeting pleasures of a reunion with you"
Dilip Kumar and Faiz
Moeen Qazi eulogies Faiz's poetic prowess for seamlessly mingling the love of the beloved and the societal oppressions, and penning both in the traditions and diction of classical ghazal and nazam. Love and revolution go side by side in Faiz's poetry, Qazi retorts: "At the hands of an artistic rebel like Faiz, even surrealism became a weapon in the advance of the proletariat."
Faiz's poetry is a reflection of his times; it reverberates with the themes like the issues of the working class, injustice, exploitation of the workers, poverty, and the suffering of ordinary men and women. Yet he doesn't let his poetry become political rhetoric. He was a progressive and art for him served a purpose. Poets and artists, like all human beings, reside in a social world, so they must be cognizant of the realities of their era and their poetry should reflect it. He maintained that 'art for art's sake' is not as effective as 'art for the sake of life'. He was of the view that any art that doesn't inspire action from the onlookers is simply not great as art. Content, not form, has primary importance in poetry.
Faiz was not only a man of words but also a man of actions. He did not shy away from challenges and resisting oppression. He was one of the main suspects in the 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy case, was jailed and tried for plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government of Liaqat Ali Khan. The plan ostensibly was to oust the government backed by the Western bloc and replace it with a government that was more independent. Gen Akbar Khan, who masterminded and led the conspiracy, blamed the civilian government for the disastrous incursion in Kashmir and the lack of vision for Pakistan's future. Many army officers and communist leaders joined him in the conspiracy, most notably Sajjad Zaheer, Major General Nazir, Colonial Hasan Khan, Brigadier Latif and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Faiz with Sajjad Zaheer
Faiz's poetry is replete with religious symbolism, but his understanding of religion is inspired by Sufi thought and not by obscurantist and dogmatic religious scholars. Faiz's resolve to fight religious extremism and authoritarian rulers made this iconoclast an international name. Faiz in his famous nazm ‘Ham dekheñge’, which is replete with religious symbolism and has become an anthem of resistance both in Pakistan and India’ writes:
“ham dekheñge
lāzim hai ki ham bhī dekheñge
vo din ki jis kā va.ada hai
jo lauh-e-azal meñ likhkhā hai
jab zulm-o-sitam ke koh-e-girāñ
ruuī kī tarah uḌ jā.eñge
ham mahkūmoñ ke pāñv-tale
jab dhartī dhaḌ-dhaḌ dhaḌkegī
aur ahl-e-hakam ke sar-ūpar
jab bijlī kaḌ-kaḌ kaḌkegī
jab arz-e-ḳhudā ke ka.abe se
sab but uThvā.e jā.eñge
ham ahl-e-safā mardūd-e-haram
masnad pe biThā.e jā.eñge
sab taaj uchhāle jā.eñge
sab taḳht girā.e jā.eñge
Bas naam rahegā allāh kā
jo ġhā.eb bhī hai hāzir bhī
jo manzar bhī hai nāzir bhī
uTThegā anal-haq kā na.ara
jo maiñ bhī huuñ aur tum bhī ho
aur raaj karegī ḳhalq-e-ḳhudā
jo maiñ bhī huuñ aur tum bhī ho”
translation:
“We’ll see!
We’ll so damn see the promised day —
carved on the stone of eternity
When the mountains of oppression
will disperse in the air like feathers
When ground beneath the feet of us
will thump with the beats of our hearts
When over the heads of the rulers
will crash a thunderous roar
When idols from the holy shrine
We’ll throw away for good
When we the denigrated ones,
we the purest souls
will take the highest seat
we’ll fling all crowns to dirt
and thrash all thrones to ground.
What will remain is only His name –
He who’s present and also isn’t
He who observes
and is also observed
The sky will drown with the cries
of I am truth, I am God, I am one with God
And what will rule the world
is only His creation —
which is you, which is me
which is everyone.”
Faiz with Iqbal Bano
Faiz spent many years in prison and many more in exile, in England and Lebanon. His opposition to tyranny was not confined to geographical boundaries, as he supported the Vietnamese cause and the Palestinian liberation movement. In fact, he was a close friend of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)'s leader Yasser Arafat in his quest for Palestine's liberation.
Faiz and Yasir Arafat
Faiz’s personal life was also a subject of great debate even in his life. Faiz was born in 1911 in Sialkot, but his life revolved around fighting for the downtrodden section of society. Faiz, the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize, remained a harsh critic of imperialism, the Army, and the establishment, but he fought for the British Army in World War II. Ali Madeeh Hashmi, the author of Faiz’s authorized biography and the poet’s grandson, argues that Faiz fought against Fascists in WWII, which is not a deviation from his principles. Controversies didn’t evade Faiz even after his death; when his family decided to give him a Muslim burial, his lifelong communist friends objected to it. Ali Madeeh quotes Salima as saying: “They were very angry. They said, as an atheist, he would not have agreed to that (traditional burial). But I said, Abba organized that for anyone in the family who died. His sister passed away, his mother passed away, all of that was done…But those diehard communists, they weren’t convinced.”
Faiz anf his wife with their kids
Faiz had become a legend during his lifetime due to his revolutionary politics and poetry, his commitment to Marxism, his humanist approach towards society, and above all, as a man who never compromised his principles, even if the price was imprisonment and exile. Faiz's revolutionary poetry and life inspired many in his lifetime and continues to do so, and hopefully, his message of humanism and egalitarianism will inspire the coming generations as well.
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