Hyderabad: Hyderabad has a strong connect with poetry. With the city’s founder, Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah, himself being a shayer of no mean repute, the penchant for shayeri among the people is understandable. However, not many know that Allama Iqbal, one of the greatest poets of Urdu, also had links with Hyderabad.
The Shayer-e-Mashriq (poet of the East), whose birth anniversary was observed the other day, visited Hyderabad in 1910. Subsequently he made two more visits and delivered extensive lectures on the ‘Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’ at the Town Hall, the present Assembly building. In a letter to his friend, Atiya Begum, he wrote my visit to Hyderabad had some meaning which I shall explain to you when we meet. But none knows what it was.
During his first visit, Iqbal was the guest of Maharaja Kishen Pershad, the then Prime Minister of Hyderabad. Iqbal spent five days in the city and made a visit to the Qutb Shahi tombs. The full moon night and the serene ambiance of the royal necropolis had such an effect on him that he penned the famous poem Goristan-e-Shahi (royal necropolis) right there. The 116-line nazm depicts in detail the helplessness of man, the inevitability of death and rise and fall of kingdoms. Sample the moving verses:
Aasman, badal ka pehne kharqa-e-dairina hai
(The sky is clothed in the cloud’s old, tattered robe
Kuch mukddar sa jabeen-e-mah ka aaeena hai
The mirror of moon’s forehead is somewhat gloomy)
Chandni pheeki hai iss nazara-e-khamosh mein
(The moon light is pale in this silent panorama
Subah-e-sadiq so rahi hai raat ki aghosh mein
The dawn is sleeping in the lap of the night)
Kis qadar ashjaar ki hairat faza hai khamoshi
(How astonishing is silence of the trees
Barbat-e-Qudrat ki dheemi si nawa hai khamoshi
This silence is the soft tune of Nature’s harp)
Zindagi se tha kabhi maamoor, ab sunsaan hai
(Was full of life at one time, now is desolate
Ye khamoshi iss ke hangamon ka goristan hai
This silence is the cemetery of its past elegance)
Sote hain khamosh, abadi ke hangamon se door
(Far from the habitations’ crowds are sleeping
Muztarib rakhti thi jin ko arzu-e-na-saboor
Those who were restless with unfulfilled longings)
Hai azal se ye musafir sooye manzil ja raha
(Far from the habitations’ crowds are sleeping
Aasman se inqalabon ka tamasha dekhta
Those who were restless with unfulfilled longings)
Kya yehi hai un shehenshahon ki azmat ka ma’al
(Is this the end of these emperors’ magnificence?
Jin ki tadbeer-e-jahan bani se darta tha zawal
Whose diplomatic policies knew no decline?)
Hyderabad has a warm regard for Iqbal and the city too occupied a special place in the poet’s heart. The first Iqbal day was observed in Hyderabad on January 7, 1938, in the lifetime of the poet. Also, Bazm-e-Iqbal, the first organization in the name of the celebrated poet, was set up here. The city also takes the credit for publishing a collection of his early poems for the first time, though unofficially. In 2010 the Iqbal Academy celebrated Jashn-e-Iqbal to commemorate the historical trip of the poet to city. Eminent scholars held forth on the poets all time relevance and his message of humanism.
Syed Khaleelullah Hussaini, eminent educationist and visionary, who is greatly influenced by Iqbal, is responsible largely for keeping the poet’s philosophy and thought alive in Hyderabad. Hussaini set up an organisation, Bazm-e- Ahbab, where the poetry of Iqbal was read and pondered upon. Later in 1954 this organisation took the name of Majlis-e-Tameer-e-Millat. In 1959 he established the Iqbal Academy to carry out research on the poets works. Today the Academy is one of the leading centers of studies on the poet. It organised important seminars in 1973 and 1977 as part of Iqbal’s birth centenary year. In 1986 an international seminar was held in which Iqbal experts such as Dr. Anne Marie Schimmel, Dr. Jagannth Azad, Dr. Syed Wahiduddin attended. The Academy boasts of 6000 books on Iqbal.
A recipient of many honorary doctorates, Iqbal was also honoured with a D. Litt by the Osmania University in 1938. A letter written by Iqbal in his own hand addressed to Maharaja Kishen Pershad is preserved in the Idara-e-Adabiyat-e-Urdu, the institution founded by Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zore, for promotion of Urdu. The Idara also has letters of other eminent poets like Daagh Dehlvi and Jigar Muradabadi.
Iqbal’s death plunged Hyderabad into grief. Poet, Ali Akhtar, beautifully captured peoples feeling thus:
Kash apni umar ke iyyam de sakta tujhe
(Wish I could have given days of my life to you
Aur wapas maut ke hathon se le sakta tujhe
And brought you back from jaws of death)
Hyderabad is home to many poets, including Daagh Dehlvi, the outstanding poet who took pride in correcting Iqbal’s early poems. But it is Iqbal alone that Hyderabadis remember week after week. Decades after his demise, he lives on. People here are eager to know more about the poet who penned the enduring patriotic song – Saare jahan se achcha…
Mehfil-e-Iqbal Shinasi, the literary session, to understand and appreciate the philosophy and works of Urdu’s best-known poet is going on here without a break since October 8, 1997. Only the dreaded COVID-19 halted its uninterrupted run for a few months. People flock to the Masjid-e-Aliya’s conference hall every Wednesday evening to gain a fresh perspective about the Shayer-e-Mashriq. During the last two decades, every aspect of Iqbal’s poetry, thoughts and philosophy have been analysed and discussed threadbare by professors, critics and scholars.
Nowhere in the world have so many programmes been organised on any poet. The credit goes to Ghulam Yazdani, senior advocate, for organizing the weekly programmes in a systematic way.
For Hyderabadis the shayer-e-insaniat remains a never-failing source of inspiration.
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