A Thousand Yearnings by Ralph Russell & Marion Molteno

Author:Ralph Russell & Marion Molteno [Russell, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789386702159
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Publishing Pvt Ltd
Published: 2017-08-04T21:00:00+00:00

* Saki: The cup-bearer, traditionally a beautiful young man, who serves the assembled company with wine.

The Humanist Values of the Ghazal

As might be expected, this generous spirit also finds expression in a passionate humanism, and a belief in the equal value of all humankind—and this too brought them into conflict with orthodox views. The poets derive their view from the Islamic belief that when God created Adam He exalted him (and through him all humankind) above the angels and commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before him. Satan refused to do so and was cursed and banished forever from God’s presence.* All human beings are, in the common Muslim phrase, ashraf ul makhluqat—the best of created things. But orthodox Islam tended to equate ‘humankind’ with ‘Muslim humankind’; not so the poets. For them God had granted to all the descendants of Adam the same exalted status.

This assumed a special significance in India, where Muslims were a minority and the overwhelming majority of their fellow Indians were Hindus—and thus, in the language of the orthodox, ‘infidels’ and ‘idolators’. Urdu poets consistently challenge this narrow Islamic orthodoxy, and often used Hindu imagery in a positive way, to make their point more powerfully.

Mir asserts that all true lovers of God, no matter under what name they worship Him, and in what kind of building, are equally favoured in God’s eyes:

What does it mean to me? Call me ‘believer’, call me ‘infidel’.

I seek His threshold, be it in the temple or the mosque.

kis ko kahte hain nahin main jaanta islaam o kufr

dair ho ya kaaba matlab mujh ko tere dar se hai

He links the Kaba (the building in Mecca which is the focus of the Muslim pilgrimage) and Somnath (the site of one of the most famous of Hindu temples) as equally capable of inspiring religious devotion:

It is the power of His beauty fills the world with light,

Be it the Kaba’s candle or the lamp that lights Somnath.

uss ke farogh e husn se jhamke hai sab mein noor

shama e haram ho ya ki daya Somnath ka

To orthodox Muslims, the worship of idols is anathema; but Mir—in common with the mystics—uses idolatry as a symbol of a truer devotion to God than that of orthodox ritual. For an idol is a symbol of beauty, and beauty is the manifestation of God. So Mir says:

True Musalman am I, for to these idols

I pledge my love.‘There is no god but God.’

hain musalmaan—un buton se humein

ishq hai—la illaah ilaillaah

‘There is no god but God’ are the first words of the Muslim profession of faith. There could not be a more forceful way of asserting that God and ‘these idols’—that is, God and beauty—are one and indivisible.

The very men who thought it blasphemy to worship idols

Sit now before the mosque and put the caste mark on their brow.

jo kufr jaante thhe ishq e butaan ko, vo hi

masjid ke aage aakhir qashqah lagaa ke baithe

The bond of love is all—Islam and unbelief are nothing:

Take rosary and sacred cord and wear them on your neck.

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