MAQAM-E-FAIZ KOI RAAH MEIN JACHA HI NAHIN
JO KU-E-YAAR SE NIKLAY TO SU-E-DAAR CHALAY
Critiques maintain that the poetic canvas of Faiz extends only from KU-E-YAAR to SU-E-DAAR and does not extend beyond. This criticism despite having streak of reality cannot be deemed as wholly realistic. No poet and for that matter no ideologue can transgress or completely ignore the spatio- temporal fabric and the socio-cultural matrix which he himself is the product of. Exogenous factors, be they social, cultural, economic, political or religious play a pivotal role in shaping man’s endogenous landscape. As such no poet , philosopher or ideologue can be deemed as completely trans-personal or trans-historic. Faiz being no exception to this generalization. In this backdrop , it will be too naïve on the part of critics to maintain that Faiz’s poetry oscillates between KU-E-YAAR and SU-E-DAAR.
A deeper analysis reveals that Faiz despite speaking in a specific ideological paradigm never let his poetry to be trapped in the lozenge of that specific ideology but rather tried to attain and maintain highest standards of trans-personality and trans-historicity. Faiz romanticized the revolution and clothed the oppressor in the metaphors of poetic aestheticism. As an example he says, HUI HAI HAZRAT-E-NASEH SE GUFTAGOO in a specific context. Instead of the fact that this couplet was written in a specific political context has a universal appeal and global readership because poet has succeeded to the degree of perfection in universalizing the individual. It is true about almost the entire poetic episteme of Faiz.
Poetry which has been otherwise handmaid of KHAM-E-ZULF-I-YAAR was taken to entirely new horizons by poets like Ghalib, Iqbal and then Faiz. Faiz is despised not at the petty affairs of heart break or SITAM-E-YAAR , he is rather worried about the human welfare at large. Having an ace insight into Persian literature he enriched urdu poetry with new TARAKEEB and carried some versatile experiments with thought and form which proved to be successful almost all the time. His off quoted poem KUTTAY is luminous illustration of his rhetoric and poetic ingenuity. This poem transforms a slogan into poetry- And this is what Faiz is best at. He transforms by virtue of his unique literary skills, a slogan into poetry whereas other resistance writers have desperately desecrated the soul of poetry by transforming it into slogans. Faiz remains an icon and an age defining persona in the literary history of urdu literature. It is in reference to visionaries, seers and geniuses like Faiz that it has been said ;UMER HA DAR KABA WA BUTKHANA NALAD MI HAYATTAZ-E- BAZM-I-ISHQ YAK DANA-E-RAAZ AAYAT BADUM. Amir Suhail Wani is a freelance columnist with special interests in Iqbaliyat & mystic thought.
