By Ayaz MalikIT was 10 p.m on Saturday night when my daughter who holds two masters degrees one of them in education, came gasping to my cubicle which people of the upper strata call bedroom, and cried 'just come and see what Junoon group is doing to the poet of the East on Zee TV'. I was then thinking about the Hyderabad dateline. It was a real spectacle. I was shocked to see Junoon group making a mockery of Iqbal's poem Khudi ko kar buland itna keh har taqdeer se pahle, Khuda bande se khud poochhe bata teri raza kia hai. It was simply vulgar and nauseating. At least this is how I felt for I admit that I am no lover of pop music, I just wanted to smash the TV set but could not do so as this is the only source of entertainment for my children. Nevertheless I got the topic for my dateline.
It was only a day earlier that veteran journalist Sajjad Meer had sounded a note of warning at a seminar organised by the government-sponsored National Forum Sindh at Bhitshah to pay homage to the great poet late Shaikh Ayaz. It took a lot of courage to say. Meer said it between the lines but the message was loud and clear. Do not treat Ayaz like the people of Punjab had treated Iqbal. He actually used the word Zulm. Allama Iqbal is a celestial poet as Majnoo Gorakhpuri has said. So are Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Shaikh Ayaz but what have the people of Punjab done to him, converted him into a deity. Iqbal was a peerless poet, a philosopher and a thinker. The best homage that could be paid to him was to disseminate his message, to understand him and make others understand him and to preach and practise his teachings. But what happened is that the poet of the East has been put on a high pedestal and is being worshipped. That is exactly what Sajjad Meer meant to say about Shaikh Ayaz. Do not commit this Zulm on Shaikh Ayaz by putting him on a high pedestal and start worshipping him said Sajjad Meer in a loud voice, asking people to disseminate and practise his philosophy and ideology.He went on to say that Shaikh Ayaz was the soul of Sindh and his life and works should not be projected in a distorted manner.
These views should be endorsed by all the saner elements. But the irony is that due to centuries old traditions, we tend to idolise our heroes but seldom try to follow their message. As a sage has said 'We must not touch our idols. The gilt sticks to our fingers'.
There cannot be two opinions about the greatness and universality of Shaikh Ayaz. This humble scribe has no credentials to comment on the life and works of Shaikh Ayaz. Literary giants like Mohammed Ibrahim Joyo, Abdul Kadir Junejo, Dr. GA Allana, Prof Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, Abdul Hameed Memon Sindhi, Zahida Hina, Asif Farrukhi and Jamiluddin Ali sung hymns in praise of Shaikh Ayaz using every adjective in the dictionary in the process. Shaikh Ayaz deserves much more. Several seminars on the life, works and achievements of the immortal poet have already been held in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and about half a dozen in Hyderabad under the aegis of different organizations.
Shaikh Ayaz, rightly or wrongly has been divided into different compartments, according to the personal perceptions of the scholars and writers. He has been termed as the poet of resistance, a poet of Sindh, a revolutionary poet and the poet of downtrodden masses. It was perhaps because of this division that Sajjad Meer had to voice his misgivings. It goes without saying that the poetry and philosophy of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai had left indelible marks on the heart and mind of Shaikh Ayaz which were reflected in the genius of his poetry.
No wonder that Ms Zahida Hina in her paper read at Bhitshah on Friday, had said that Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai was the 'Taj Mahal', and Shaikh Ayaz was a 'Qutub Minar'. It can be said without any fear of contradiction that Shaikh Ayaz was the greatest poet Sindh gave birth to after Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. The difference between a writer and a poet and a common man is that the former is more sensitive and he is the mirror of his age. Shaikh Ayaz's poetry depicts his own era and the miseries of the Haris, the downtrodden masses and the atrocities unleashed by the authoritarian regime. He is known as the poet of resistance because he wrote against One Unit which had completely distorted the identity of Sindh and Sindhi people but he was much more than simply a poet of resistance. He was pilloried for the mystic poetry of his later age and some even called him the poet of mysticism. However, we will not be doing justice to the great poet if we divided him into different compartments.
One of the greatest playwrights and writers of the present age Abdul Qadir Junejo perhaps is very right in saying that the later age poetry of Shaikh Ayaz was a continuation of his first and second phases. Without revolution, no great works can be produced. According to Abdul Qadir Junejo although stones were hurled at Shaikh Ayaz but flowers were also pelted on him and he did not show any reaction but kept his heart and mind open.
Describing the different phases of Shaikh Ayaz's poetry in his well researched paper, Junejo goes on to say that after partition, Ayaz filled the vacuum in Sindhi literature which was created due to the migration of Hindus. While during the second phase, Ayaz produced poetry of resistance following the creation of One Unit, was jailed and his works were banned. In the opinion of Junejo, Ayaz became a mystic in his third phase. However Junejo insists that it was a continuation of the first two phases and the immortal poet should not be misunderstood. To confine Shaikh Ayaz to Sindh and Iqbal to Punjab would be a great injustice. This fact should not be overlooked that Shaikh Ayaz was equally a great Urdu poet and it was he, who introduced Urdu Poetry among the Sindhi people. Had Shaikh Ayaz done nothing else except the translation of Shah Jo Risalo into Urdu alone, his immortality was assured as long as the Sindhi and the Urdu languages remained alive. The translation of Shah Jo Risalo in Urdu verse is itself a monumental achievement. That he was a perfectionist could be gauged from the fact that he did not take the Urdu translation of Shah jo Risalo for granted. He consulted eminent scholars Dr Gurkukhshani and Prof Dr Nabi Bux Baloch to check the veracity and authenticity of his translation.
The Sindh governor, Lt Gen(retd) Moinuddin Haider, who presided the Bhitshah seminar was very right in proclaiming that Shaikh Ayaz had built bridges between the people of Sindh, Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan and Urdu-speaking people.
The Sindh CM has done well to announce a grant of Rs one million for the Shaikh Ayaz Foundation which faces tremendous responsibilities to publish and translate the works of Shaikh Ayaz. It is indeed a happy augury that people like Mohammed Ibrahim Joyo and Prof Mehtab Akbar Rashidi and many other eminent scholars are associated with this foundation.
The Sindh Governor has also volunteered to publish one book of the great poet from the Governor's funds. It is quite obvious that many other associations will spring up to own and exploit the great poet, who, according to Mehtab Rashidi is still alive. The greatest service that can be rendered to the Sindhi language and the immortal poet is to preserve and disseminate his message and not to project the great poet as a deity and a saint. It is also important that the mushroom growth of organisations in this regard should be checked and if any one has any love for the departed soul, he should cooperate with Shaikh Ayaz Foundation and not with the dummy organisations. Shaikh Ayaz is dead. Long live his works.
