1.
Urdu
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Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
2.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
3.
South Asia
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Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
4.
Mir Taqi Mir
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Meer Muhammad Taqi Meer, whose takhallus was Mir, was the leading Urdu poet of the 18th century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself. He was one of the poets of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal. The main source of information on Mirs life is his autobiography Zikr-e-Mir, however, it is said to conceal more than it reveals, with material that is undated or presented in no chronological sequence. Therefore, many of the details of Mirs life remain a matter of speculation. Mir was born in Agra, India in August or February 1722, Mirs father died while the poet was in his teens. He left Agra for Delhi a few years after his fathers death, to finish his education, especially, as Frances W. Mir lived much of his life in Mughal Delhi. Kuchha Chelan, in Old Delhi was his address at that time, however, after Ahmad Shah Abdalis sack of Delhi each year starting 1748, he eventually moved to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow, at the kings invitation. Distressed to witness the plundering of his beloved Delhi, he gave vent to his feelings through some of his couplets, though he was given a kind welcome by Asaf-ud-Daulah, he found that he was considered old-fashioned by the courtiers of Lucknow. Mirs relationships with his patron gradually grew strained, and he severed his connections with the court. In his last years Mir was very isolated and his health failed, and the untimely deaths of his daughter, son and wife caused him great distress. He died, of an overdose, on Friday,21 September 1810. The marker of his place was removed in modern times when a railway was built over his grave. His complete works, Kulliaat, consist of six Diwans containing 13,585 couplets, comprising all kinds of forms, ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire. Mirs literary reputation is anchored on the ghazals in his Kulliyat-e-Mir and his masnavi Muamlat-e-Ishq is one of the greatest known love poems in Urdu literature. The death of his members, together with earlier setbacks, lend a strong pathos to much of Mirs writing – and indeed Mir is noted for his poetry of pathos. Mirs famous contemporary, also an Urdu poet of no inconsiderable repute, was Mirza Rafi Sauda, Mir Taqi Mir was often compared with the later day Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib. Lovers of Urdu poetry often debate Mirs supremacy over Ghalib or vice versa and it may be noted that Ghalib himself acknowledged, through some of his couplets, that Mir was indeed a genius who deserved respect. Here are two couplets by Mirza Ghalib on this matter, Ghalib and Aish were opponent to each other but both of them believed the superiority of Mir and also acknowledged Mirs superiority in their poetry
5.
Ghalib
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Ghalib born Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, on 27 December 1797 – died 15 February 1869), was the preeminent Urdu and Persian-language poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. He used his pen-names of Ghalib and Asad, during his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he described. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted, Ghalib, the last great poet of the Mughal Era, is considered to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Today Ghalib remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also among the Hindustani diaspora around the world, Mirza Ghalib was born in Kala Mahal, Agra into a family descended from Aibak Turks who moved to Samarkand after the downfall of the Seljuk kings. His paternal grandfather, Mirza Qoqan Baig Khan, was a Saljuq Turk who had immigrated to India from Samarkand during the reign of Ahmad Shah and he worked at Lahore, Delhi and Jaipur, was awarded the subdistrict of Pahasu and finally settled in Agra, UP, India. He had four sons and three daughters, Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan and Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan were two of his sons. Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan married Izzat-ut-Nisa Begum, an ethnic Kashmiri and he was employed first by the Nawab of Lucknow and then the Nizam of Hyderabad, Deccan. He died in a battle in 1803 in Alwar and was buried at Rajgarh, then Ghalib was a little over 5 years of age. He was raised first by his Uncle Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan, at the age of thirteen, Ghalib married Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh. He soon moved to Delhi, along with his brother, Mirza Yousuf Khan. In accordance with upper class Muslim tradition, he had a marriage at the age of 13. After his marriage he settled in Delhi, in one of his letters he describes his marriage as the second imprisonment after the initial confinement that was life itself. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a theme in his poetry. Translation in English The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and he has also later translated Faiz Ahmed Faizs most famous Ghazal - Gulon me rang bhare too. At the age of thirty he had seven children, none of whom survived, there are conflicting reports regarding his relationship with his wife. She was considered to be pious, conservative and God-fearing, Ghalib was proud of his reputation as a rake. He was once imprisoned for gambling and subsequently relished the affair with pride, in the Mughal court circles, he even acquired a reputation as a ladies man. Once, when someone praised the poetry of the pious Sheikh Sahbai in his presence, Ghalib immediately retorted, How can Sahbai be a poet
6.
Mir Babar Ali Anis
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Mir Baber Ali Anees was an Urdu poet, born in 1803 in Faizabad, Oudh now in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who died in 1874 in Lucknow, North-Western Provinces. Anis used Persian, Hindi, Arabic, and Sanskrit words in his poetry, Anis wrote prolonged Marsias, which was a custom of his times, but nowadays only selected sections are narrated even in religious ceremonies. He died in 1291 Hijra, corresponding with 1874 A. D. Mir Babar Ali Anis was born in 1803 CE at Faizabad, a Musavi sayyed, descended from the 7th Imam, Musa al-Kadhim, he belonged to a family of poets. In his book Khandaan- e-Mir Anees ke Naamwar Sho’ara, Zameer Naqvi listed 22 poets from Mir Anis’ family, Mir Anis was a fifth-generation poet, a fact he mentioned in the first stanza of his famous Marsiya Namak-e-Khwaan-e-Takallum hai Fasaahat meri. He says, His mother appears to have been his main inspiration, but he was also intellectually curious and gifted. Anis gained a traditional Shia education, masood also notes that Anis was well versed in Persian as well as in Arabic. Anis also had training and gained a thorough knowledge of old. Mir Anis was invited to Lucknow where he reached the zenith of his reputation, Mir Anis did not like to move out of Lucknow apprehending that his art would not be appreciated elsewhere. Yet, after the annexation of Oudh by the British, he was persuaded to visit Azimabad, Dulhipur, Hyderabad and Allahabad. While returning from Hyderabad, he sojourned at Allahabad in 1871 and recited his marsia in the Imambara of late Lala Beni Prasad Srivastava, Vakil and he died in 1874 CE and is buried at his own residence in Lucknow. According to Muhammad Hussain Azad The late Mīr Sahib must certainly have composed at least ten thousand elegies and he composed as easily and casually as he spoke. Anis is also known as pioneer in Rubai, an Urdu poetry branch, besides being a master of the Marsia, Anis was also a specialist of the Rubai, the shortest complete poem in Urdu, containing only four lines. Mir Anees had a capability for the writing of Rubais. He immeasurably enriched the contents of the Rubai, making it much more colorful, Anis introduced the tragic events of Karbala and their moralistic effect to Rubai. Thus, he widened the scope of Rubai to unfathomable limits, the inclusion of Karbala resulted in the florescence of the Urdu Rubai. Thus, many internal and external aspects of our life found their echo in the Urdu Rubai. Anis. was a master of simple, natural utterance, with a command on the language. He is especially notable for presenting the scene or situation, over and over again, in different words or phrases
7.
Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer
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Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer was a leading Urdu poet who excelled and perfected the art of Marsiya writing. He is considered the leading exponent of Marsiya Nigari or marsiya writing along with Mir Anis, Mirza Dabeer was born in 1803 in Delhi. He started reciting marsiya since childhood during muharram ceremonial gatherings called majalis and he started writing poetry under the tutelage of Mir Muzaffar Husain Zameer. Dabeer himself was a scholar of his time. He migrated from Delhi to Lucknow, where he found suitable environment to develop, Mirza Dabeer died in Lucknow in 1875 and is buried there. According to Muhammad Husain Azad in Aab-e-Hayat, Mirzā Sahib died on the 29th of Muharram, AH1292, in his lifetime he must have written at least three thousand elegies. Not counting his salāms and nauhas and quatrains, and theres no doubt that with him elegy composition in India reached its conclusion. Now no such time will come, nor will such accomplished persons be born, salaam and rubai, he seldom wrote ghazals too. A couplet from one of his salaams is an example of his genius comparable to Ghalib, Hurr fida pyaasa jo Shah par ho gaya Ai salami. Meaning, When the thirsty Hurr sacrificed his life for the Shah, O salami, Anis and Dabeer rivalry is the most debated and talked about rivalry in Urdu literature. Their rivalry led to the development of two distinct styles/schools of Marsiya-nigari or marsiya writing at its inception, the staunch supporters of each of the masters identified themselves as Aneesiya and Dabeeriya. The impact of rivalry was so intense that the followers could neither free themselves from their influence nor surpass either masters brilliance, although the populace divided themselves into two separate groups the two poets remained at cordial terms and acknowledged each other with great respect. Mirza Dabeer was born in 1803, a later than Anis. This chronological closeness is amazing Dabeer is a poet unduly neglected, what is deplorable is the fact that no complete, authentic text of Dabeer’s poetry is available and critical work on him too is buried in the files of literary journals. Mirza Dabeer stands in need of research and study as he has been ignored by the scholars, in the inaugural session, Dr. Syed Taqi Abidi of Canada presented a review of Dabeers quatrains. Prof. Muhammad Zaman Azurda presented an article on Dabeers prose-writing in the second session, youths besides senior litterateurs and intellectuals attended the seminar in a large number. Dr. Syed Taqi Abedi, who is settled in Canada, was the keynote speaker, Dr Abidi claimed that Mir Anees and Mirza Dabeer had used more words in Urdu poetry than any other poet. He said Nazir Akbarabadi had written 8,500 couplets, whereas Dabeers tally was 120,000, video series consist 8 marsiya based on topic and 2 soaz written by Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer
8.
Muhammad Iqbal
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He is called the Spiritual father of Pakistan. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, Iqbal is admired as a prominent poet by Pakistanis, Indians, Iranians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and other international scholars of literature. Though Iqbal is best known as an eminent poet, he is also a highly acclaimed Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times and his first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these, his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim, along with his Urdu and Persian poetry, his Urdu and English lectures and letters have been very influential in cultural, social, religious and political disputes. In 1922, he was knighted by King George V, granting him the title Sir, while studying law and philosophy in England, Iqbal became a member of the London branch of the All-India Muslim League. In much of South Asia and the Urdu speaking world, Iqbal is regarded as the Shair-e-Mashriq and he is also called Mufakkir-e-Pakistan, Musawar-e-Pakistan and Hakeem-ul-Ummat. The Pakistan government officially named him a national poet and his birthday Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl, or Iqbal Day, is a public holiday in Pakistan. In India he is remembered as the author of the popular song Saare Jahaan Se Achcha. Iqbal was born on 9 November 1877 in Sialkot within the Punjab Province of British India and his grandparents were Kashmiri Pandits, the Brahmins of the Sapru clan from Kashmir who converted to Islam. In the 19th century, when the Sikh Empire was conquering Kashmir, Iqbal often mentioned and commemorated his Kashmiri Pandit Brahmin lineage in his writings. Iqbals father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad, was a tailor, not formally educated, Iqbals mother Imam Bibi was a polite and humble woman who helped the poor and solved the problems of neighbours. She died on 9 November 1914 in Sialkot, Iqbal loved his mother, and on her death he expressed his feelings of pathos in a poetic form elegy. Who would wait for me anxiously in my native place, who would display restlessness if my letter fails to arrive. I will visit thy grave with this complaint, Who will now think of me in midnight prayers, All thy life thy love served me with devotion— When I became fit to serve thee, thou hast departed. Iqbal was four years old when he was admitted to the masjid to learn the Quran and he learned the Arabic language from his teacher Syed Mir Hassan, the head of the madrassa and professor of Arabic language at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, where he matriculated in 1893. He received Intermediate with the Faculty of Arts diploma from Murray College Sialkot in 1895, the same year he enrolled at the Government College Lahore where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, English literature and Arabic in 1897, and won the Khan Bahadurddin F. S. Jalaluddin medal as he took higher numbers in Arabic class, in 1899, he received his Masters of Arts degree from the same college and had the first place in Punjab University, Lahore. Iqbal married three times, in 1895 while studying Bachelor of Arts he had his first marriage with Karim Bibi and they had daughter Miraj Begum and son Aftab Iqbal
9.
Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq
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Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq was an Urdu poet and scholar of literature, poetry and religion. He wrote poetry under nom de plume Zauq, and was appointed poet laureate of the Mughal Court in Delhi just at the age of 19, later he was given the title of Khaqani e Hind by the last Mughal emperor and his disciple Bahadur Shah Zafar. He was a youth, with only ordinary education, who went on to acquire learning in history, theology. Zauq was a prominent contemporary of Ghalib and in the history of Urdu poetry the rivalry of the two poets is quite well known. During his lifetime Zauq was more popular than Ghalib for the values in those days were mainly confined to judging a piece of poetry on the basis of usage of words, phrases. Content and style were not much taken into account while appreciating poetry Zauq was born at Delhi in 1789 and his father, Sheikh Muhammad Ramzan was a lowly placed soldier in the Mughal army. It was no less than a miracle that Zauq, without having the treatment on account of the penury of his family. His father had no means to equip his son with the best available education of the time and he was sent to a maktab that was run by Hafiz Ghulam Rasool. Hafiz himself was a poet and used Shauq as his nom de plume, under his influence the young Muhammad Ibrahim also got attracted towards poetry. Hafiz provided the encouragement, took him as his pupil in poetry too. Though Zauq could not complete the course of the maktab, he got hooked to poetry, in those days Shah Naseer was the most famous master poet of Delhi. Zauq began showing his ghazals to Shah Naseer for improvement, Naseer recognised the natural talent and made him his pupil. Gradually, Zauq began participating in the mushairas and his natural bent of mind towards poetry coupled with his singular obsession to excel in the pursuit brought him fame and fortune. He would be appreciated in the mushairas than his mentor. Shah Naseer got very annoyed with the popularity of Zauq. He threw him out of the group of his pupils, Zauq, thereafter, relied only on his talent and continued writing poetry with a vengeance. Another poet, Meer Kazim Husain Beqarar, a friend of Zauqs was appointed the mentor of the Crown Prince Zafar, through him Zauq could get the chance to enter the royal court. He also started participating in the royal mushairas and he remained the poet laureate of the Mughal Court till his death in 1854
10.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
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Faiz also wrote poetry in the Punjabi language. A notable member of the Progressive Writers Movement, Faiz was an avowed Marxist, Faiz was identified as an opponent of the Prime minister Liaquat Ali Khans government in the Rawalpindi conspiracy case, along with the left-wing military sponsor Major-General Akbar Khan. The Military police arrested Faiz as a result, held to trial by its JAG branch and these were commuted after the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951. His work remains influential in Pakistan literature and arts, Faizs literary work was posthumously publicly honoured when the Pakistan Government conferred upon him the nations highest civil award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990. Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born into a Tataley Jat family on 13 February 1911, in Kala Qader, District Sialkot, Punjab, Faiz hailed from an academic family that was well known in literary circles. His home was often the scene of a gathering of local poets and his father Sultan Muhammad Khan was a barrister who worked for the British Government, and an autodidact who wrote and published the biography of Amir Abdur Rahman, an Emir of Imperial Afghanistan. Although his family were devoted Muslims, Faiz was brought up in a tradition of Islam. According to Muslim orthodox tradition, he learned Arabic, Persian, Urdu language, Faiz was also a Pakistan nationalist, and often said Purify your hearts, so you can save the country. After matriculation, he joined the Murray College at Sialkot for intermediate study, in 1926, Faiz enrolled in Department of Languages and Fine Arts of the Government College University, Lahore. While there, he was influenced by Professor Mir Hassan. Professor Hasan had also taught the renowned philosopher, poet, and politician of South Asia, in 1926, Faiz attained his BA with Honors in Arabic language, under the supervision of Professor Mir Hassan. In 1930, Faiz joined the programme of the GCU. The same year, Faiz passed his exam in the 1st Division from Punjab Universitys Oriental College. It was during his years that he met M. N. Roy. While Alys opted for Pakistan citizenship, she was a member of Communist Party of Pakistan. Together, the couple gave birth to two daughters Salima and Moneeza Hashmi, while Faiz was brought up as an orthodox Muslim, he saw himself as an agnostic. Estelle Dryland writes that although Faiz took his place within an Islamic community, undoubtedly, during his trial, when to the Prosecutor-General, Faiz famously quipped, Don’t you know applying ‘Fragrance is Sunnah. The questioner protested and said, My dear sir, I doubt if you are a one for following the Sunnah
11.
Firaq Gorakhpuri
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Raghupati Sahay, better known under his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri, was a writer, critic, and, according to one commentator, one of the most noted contemporary Urdu poets from India. He established himself among peers including Muhammad Iqbal, Yagana Changezi, Jigar Moradabadi, raghupati Sahay was born into a Hindu Kayasth family in Gorakhpur in 1896. He was selected for the Provincial Civil Service and the Indian Civil Service, later, he joined Allahabad University as a lecturer in English literature. During his life, he was given the positions of Research Professor at the University Grants Commission, after a long illness, he died on 3 March 1982, in New Delhi. As a distinguished poet, Firaq Gorakhpuri was well-versed in all traditional forms such as ghazal, nazm, rubaai. His biography, Firaq Gorakhpuri, The Poet of Pain & Ecstasy, the book included anecdotes from his life and translations of some of his best work. com/urdu-poet-firaq-gorakhpuri/ Firaq Gorakhpuri at Kavita Kosh An example of his work, Video on YouTube
12.
Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi
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Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi born Ahmad Shah Awan on 20 November 1916 – died 10 July 2006, was an Urdu and English language Pakistani poet, journalist, literary critic, dramatist and short story author. He wrote 50 books on such as poetry, fiction, criticism, journalism and art. His poetry was distinguished by its humanism, and his Urdu afsana work is considered by some second only to Prem Chand in its depiction of rural culture and he was also editor and publisher of the literary magazine Funoon for almost half a century. He received awards such as the Pride of Performance in 1968, Qasmi was born in the village of Anga in Khushab District, British India. He graduated from a school in Campbellpur, now renamed Attock city in 1931. Later he studied at Sadiq Egerton College in Bahawalpur and he graduated from the University of the Punjab, Lahore in 1935. He had a brother, Peerzada Mohammad Bakhsh Qasmi, and a sister and he became an active member of the Progressive Writers Movement as a secretary, and was consequently arrested many times during the 1950s and 1970s. He died on 10 July 2006 of complications from asthma at Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore, Qasmi had a long career as a writer and editor. He edited several prominent literary journals, including Phool, Tehzeeb-i-Niswaan, Adab-i-Lateef, Savera, Naqoosh and he also worked as the editor of the Urdu daily Imroze. Qasimi contributed weekly columns to newspapers like Rawan Dawan and Daily Jang for several decades. His poetry has included both traditional ghazals and modern nazms, in 1948, he was selected as the secretary general of the Anjuman-e-Taraqqi Pasand Musannifeen for Punjab. In 1949, he was elected the secretary-general of the organisation for Pakistan, qasami was the mentor of poet Parveen Shakir. In 1974, he was appointed secretary-general of Majlis-Taraqee-Adab, a body established by the government of West Pakistan in 1958. His literary work has been appreciated and admired by Urdu writers, poets and critics, although there is criticism of his literary work. An example of Qasmis writing style is, Dawar-e hashr
13.
Ahmad Faraz
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Ahmed Faraz was a Pakistani Urdu poet. He was acclaimed as one of the best modern Urdu poets of the last century and he died in Islamabad on 25 August 2008. He was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz and after his death Hilal-e-Pakistan by the Government of Pakistan, Ahmad Faraz was born in Kohat, to Syed Muhammad Shah Barq. His brother is Syed Masood Kausar and he moved to Peshawar with his family. He studied in famous Edwardes College, Peshawar and received Masters in Urdu, during his college life, the progressive poets Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ali Sardar Jafri were his best friends, who impressed him and became his role models. Ethnically a Pashtun Syed, Ahmad Faraz studied Persian and Urdu at the Peshawar University and he later became a lecturer at the Peshawar University. Ahmad Faraz served as Chairman, National Book Foundation, Islamabad, Faraz has been compared with Faiz Ahmad Faiz, holds a unique position as one of the best poets of current times, with a fine but simple style of writing. Even common people can understand his poetry. In an interview with Rediff of BBC News, he recalls how his father and he didnt like the clothes meant for him, but preferred the ones meant for his elder brother. Following that arrest, he went into a self-imposed exile and he has been awarded with numerous national and international awards. In 2006, he returned the Hilal-e-Imtiaz award he was given in 2004 and he mentioned his current writings and said, I now only write when I am forced to, from the inside. Maintaining a tradition established by his mentor, the revolutionary Faiz Ahmad Faiz, famous among the poetry of resistance has been Mahasara. Faraz was also mentioned by actor Shahzada Ghaffar in the Pothwari/Mirpuri telefilm Khai Aye O. Faraz died of kidney failure in a local Islamabad hospital on 25 August 2008
14.
Fiza Ibn-e-Faizi
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Fiza born Faizul Hasan Ibn-e-Faizi, was a modern Urdu and Persian poet. He was a native of Mau district of Uttar Pradesh and is considered a poet and had received numerous awards within the Urdu world. At least, six collections of Faizi had been published and acclaimed. Fiza Ibn-e-Faizi was born in Doman Pura, Mau and studied in Jamia Islamiya Faiz-e-Aam, Mau and graduated in Urdu literature, having been born into a poor weaving family, he was unable to further his education. He had avocations of weaving and saying poetry, for few years, he taught in his alma mater. In 2008, the head of his native city built a memorial gate. In 2009, having lived a life, Faizi died after prolonged illness. Ahmad Faraz Ghalib Abul Kalam Azad Tahir Faraz Data India, national Seminar on Ali Sardar Jafri held at Mau
15.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
16.
Partition of India
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The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947 which accompanied the creation of two independent dominions, India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India and Dominion of Pakistan, the partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and the Punjab, based on district-wise Hindu or Muslim majorities. It also involved the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury, between the two new dominions. The partition was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, the two self-governing countries of India and Pakistan legally came into existence at midnight on 14–15 August 1947. The violent nature of the created an atmosphere of hostility. The term partition of India does not cover the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, nor the earlier separations of Burma and Ceylon from the administration of British India. It does not cover the incorporation of the enclaves of French India into India during the period 1947–1954, nor the annexation of Goa, other contemporaneous political entities in the region in 1947, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and The Maldives were unaffected by the partition. The Hindu elite of Bengal, among many who owned land in East Bengal that was leased out to Muslim peasants. The pervasive protests against Curzons decision took the form predominantly of the Swadeshi campaign led by two-time Congress president, Surendranath Banerjee, sporadically—but flagrantly—the protesters also took to political violence that involved attacks on civilians. The violence, however, was not effective, as most planned attacks were either preempted by the British or failed, the unrest spread from Calcutta to the surrounding regions of Bengal when Calcuttas English-educated students returned home to their villages and towns. Since Calcutta was the capital, both the outrage and the slogan soon became nationally known. In conjunction, they demanded proportional legislative representation reflecting both their status as rulers and their record of cooperating with the British. This led, in December 1906, to the founding of the All-India Muslim League in Dacca, although Curzon, by now, had resigned his position over a dispute with his military chief Lord Kitchener and returned to England, the League was in favour of his partition plan. In the three decades since that census, Muslim leaders across northern India, had intermittently experienced public animosity from some of the new Hindu political and social groups. In 1905, when Tilak and Lajpat Rai attempted to rise to positions in the Congress. It was not lost on many Muslims, for example, that the rallying cry, World War I would prove to be a watershed in the imperial relationship between Britain and India. Indias international profile would thereby rise and would continue to rise during the 1920s, back in India, especially among the leaders of the Indian National Congress, it would lead to calls for greater self-government for Indians. Secretary of State for India, Montagu and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford presented a report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding trip through India the previous winter
17.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
18.
Hindu
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Hindu refers to any person who regards themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism. It has historically used as a geographical, cultural, or religious identifier for people indigenous to South Asia. The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time, by the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear, competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu-Muslim wars. A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages. The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma, the Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals, scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. Hindoo is a spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory. At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the third largest group after Christians. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to Indias 2011 census. After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar. These together accounted for 99% of the worlds Hindu population, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means a large body of water, covering river, ocean. It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries, the Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hidush, the people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama. The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term, the Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India. Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma. The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that Hindu retained its geographical reference initially, Indian, indigenous, local, virtually native. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves, the poet Vidyapatis poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together, Each makes fun of the others religion
19.
Ghazal
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The ghazal is a poetic form with rhyming couplets and a refrain, each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as an expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in Arabic poetry in Arabia long before the birth of Islam and it is derived from the Arabian panegyric qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet, in style and content, it is a genre that has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation. The ghazal spread into South Asia in the 12th century by the influence of Sufi mystics, although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Dari poetry and Urdu poetry, it is now found in the poetry of many languages on the Indian Subcontinent. Ghazals were written by Rumi and Hafiz of Persia, the Azeri poet Fuzûlî in the Ottoman Empire, Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of North India, and Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bengal. Through the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the ghazal became very popular in Germany during the 19th century, the Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the form, both in English and in other languages, he edited a volume of real Ghazals in English. Ghazals were written by Moti Ram Bhatta, the pioneer for Ghazal writing in Nepali language and it is common in ghazals for the poets name to be featured in the last verse. The Arabic word غزل ġazal is pronounced, roughly like the English word guzzle, in English, the word is pronounced /ˈɡʌzəl/ or /ˈɡæzæl/. The most prominent subject of ghazal even after the end of era of Urdu literature has been love, specifically an unconditional. Ghazals from the Indian subcontinent have an influence of Islamic mysticism, Love is always viewed as something that will complete a human being, and if attained will lift him or her into the ranks of the wise, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazal law may or may not have an element of sexual desire in it. The love may be directed to either a man or a woman, the ghazal is always written from the point of view of the unrequited lover whose beloved is portrayed as unattainable. Most often, either the beloved has not returned the love or returns it without sincerity or else the societal circumstances do not allow it. The lover is aware and resigned to this fate but continues loving nonetheless, representations of the lovers powerlessness to resist his feelings often include lyrically exaggerated violence. The beloveds power to captivate the speaker may be represented in extended metaphors about the arrows of his eyes, most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God or the poets spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of Sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry, most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about Divine Love. Others are about love, but many of them can be interpreted in either context
20.
Bollywood
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Bollywood is the sobriquet for Indias Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema, Bollywood is also one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Furthermore, Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed, according to Matusitz, J. & Payano, P. In 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood, Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced in Indian cinema. The name Bollywood is a derived from Bombay, India, and Hollywood, California. Bollywood does not exist as a physical place, some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood. The naming scheme for Bollywood was inspired by Tollywood, the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal and it was this chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables, Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name Tollywood being coined. However, Tollywood is now used popularly to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, the term Bollywood itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the worlds largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna. Raja Harishchandra, by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India, by the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Iranis Alam Ara, was a commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals, Bollywood, the 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times, India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, in 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made another film, a version of Mother India. However, colour did not become a feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the fare at the cinema. Following Indias independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded by historians as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema. Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period, examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara, Shree 420 and Dilip Kumars Aan
21.
Allah
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Allah is the Arabic word for God in Abrahamic religions. In the English language, the word refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means the god, and is related to El and Elohim, the word Allah has been used by Arabic people of different religions since pre-Islamic times. More specifically, it has used as a term for God by Muslims. It is now used by Muslims and Arab Christians to refer to God. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used in this way by Bábists, Baháís, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, similar usage by Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia has recently led to political and legal controversies. The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists, grammarians of the Basra school regarded is as either formed spontaneously or as the definite form of lāh. The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the theory. Cognates of the name Allāh exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew, the corresponding Aramaic form is Elah, but its emphatic state is Elaha. It is written as ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form Elohim, but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah. Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions, different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic polytheistic cults. Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a god or a supreme deity of their pantheon. The term may have been vague in the Meccan religion, according to one hypothesis, which goes back to Julius Wellhausen, Allah was a designation that consecrated the superiority of Hubal over the other gods. However, there is evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities. Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier, some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities. There is disagreement on whether Allah played a role in the Meccan religious cult. No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed, muhammads fathers name was ʿAbd-Allāh meaning the slave of Allāh. The Aramaic word for God in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā, arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word Allah to mean God
22.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
23.
Sufism
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Sufism or Taṣawwuf, which is often defined as Islamic mysticism, the inward dimension of Islam, or the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam, is a mystical trend in Islam characterized. These orders meet for sessions in meeting places known as zawiyas, khanqahs. They strive for ihsan as detailed in a hadith, Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, if you cant see Him, Rumi stated, The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr. Sufis regard Muhammad as al-Insān al-Kāmil, the perfect man who exemplifies the morality of God. The orders largely follow one of the four madhhabs of Sunni Islam, classical Sufis were characterized by their asceticism, especially by their attachment to dhikr, the practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers. According to William Chittick, In a broad sense, Sufism can be described as the interiorization, historically, Muslims have used the Arabic word taṣawwuf to identify the practice of Sufis. In this view, it is necessary to be a Muslim to be a true Sufi. However, Islamic scholars themselves are not by any means in agreement about the meaning of the word sufi, Sufis themselves claim that Tasawwuf is an aspect of Islam similar to Sharia, inseparable from Islam and an integral part of Islamic belief and practice. Classical Sufi scholars have defined Tasawwuf as a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else, two origins of the word sufi have been suggested. Commonly, the root of the word is traced to ṣafā. Another origin is ṣūf, wool in Arabic, referring to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, the two were combined by the Sufi al-Rudhabari, who said, The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity. Scholars generally agree that ṣūf or wool is probably the word of Sufi. This term was given to them because they wore woollen garments, the term labisal-suf meant he clad himself in wool and applied to a person who renounced the world and became an ascetic. Others have suggested that the word comes from the term ahl aṣ-ṣuffah and these men and women who sat at al-Masjid an-Nabawi are considered by some to be the first Sufis. Al-Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun both rejected all other than ṣūf on linguistic grounds. Sufi orders are based on the bayah that was given to the Prophet Muhammad by his Sahaba, by pledging allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad, the Sahaba had committed themselves to the service of God. According to Islamic belief, by pledging allegiance to Prophet Muhammad and it is through the Prophet Muhammad that Sufis aim to learn about, understand and connect with God. Such a concept may be understood by the hadith, which Sufis regard to be authentic, in which Prophet Muhammad said, I am the city of knowledge, eminent Sufis such as Ali Hujwiri refer to Ali as having a very high ranking in Tasawwuf
24.
Ali
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‘Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, ruling over the Caliphate from 656 to 661 ACE, and was Imam of Shi‘ite from 632 to 661 ACE. ‘Ali was the first young male who accepted Islam, after migrating to Medina, he married Muhammads daughter Fatimah. Ali took part in the early caravan raids from Mecca and later in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community and he was appointed caliph by Muhammads Companions in 656, after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. ‘Alis reign saw wars and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa. ‘Ali is important to various Sunni and Shi‘ite denominations politically, legislatively and spiritually, while Sunnis consider Ali the fourth and final of the Rashidun caliphs, Shi‘ites regard ‘Ali as the first Imam after Muhammad due to their interpretation of the events at Ghadir Khumm. Shias also believe that ‘Ali and the other Shi‘ite Imams are the successors to Muhammad. This disagreement split the Ummah into the Sunni and Shia branches, ‘Alis father, Abu Talib, was the custodian of the Kabah and a sheikh of the Banu Hashim, an important branch of the powerful Quraysh tribe. He was also an uncle of Muhammad, Alis mother, Fatima bint Asad, also belonged to Banu Hashim, making Ali a descendant of Ismail, the son of Ibrahim. Many sources, especially Shii ones, attest that Ali was born inside the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, according to a tradition, Muhammad was the first person whom Ali saw as he took the newborn in his hands. Muhammad named him Ali, meaning the exalted one, Muhammad had a close relationship with Alis parents. When Muhammad was orphaned and later lost his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, Ali was born two or three years after Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. When Ali was five or six years old, a famine occurred in and around Mecca, affecting the economic conditions of Alis father, Muhammad took Ali into his home to raise him. The second period of life began in 610 when he declared Islam at the age of 10. When Muhammad reported that he had received a revelation, Ali, then only about ten years old, believed him. According to Ibn Ishaq and some authorities, Ali was the first male to embrace Islam. Tabari adds other traditions making the claim of being the first Muslim in relation to Zayd ibn Harithah or Abu Bakr. Some historians and scholars believe Alis conversion is not worthy enough to him the first male Muslim because he was a child at the time. Hence the Shia say of Ali that his face is honoured, the Sunnis also use the honorific Karam Allahu Wajhahu, which means Gods Favour upon his Face
25.
Muhammad
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Muhammad is the prophet of Islam. From a secular historical perspective he was a religious, political, from an Islamic perspective, he was Gods Messenger sent to confirm the essential teachings of monotheism preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is viewed as the prophet of God in all branches of Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, born approximately 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age, he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. Muhammad gained few early followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes, to escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, in Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts, the attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he fell ill, before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. The revelations, which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the Word of God and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammads teachings and practices, found in the Hadith and sira literature, are upheld by Muslims. The name Muhammad means praiseworthy and appears four times in the Quran, Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address, thus he is referred to as the enwrapped in Quran 73,1 and the shrouded in Quran 74,1. In Sura Al-Ahzab 33,40 God singles out Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets, the Quran also refers to Muhammad as Aḥmad more praiseworthy. The name Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, begins with the kunya Abū, the Quran is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe it represents the words of God revealed by the archangel Gabriel to Muhammad, the Quran, however, provides minimal assistance for Muhammads chronological biography, most Quranic verses do not provide significant historical context. An important source may be found in the works by writers of the 2nd. These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, which additional information about Muhammads life. The earliest surviving written sira is Ibn Ishaqs Life of Gods Messenger written c.767 CE, although the work was lost, this sira was used verbatim at great length by Ibn Hisham and Al-Tabari. Another early history source is the history of Muhammads campaigns by al-Waqidi, many scholars accept the earliest biographies as accurate, though their accuracy is unascertainable
26.
Elegy
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In English literature, an elegy is a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any written in elegiac couplets. The term also included epitaphs, sad and mournful songs, the Latin elegy of ancient Roman literature was most often erotic or mythological in nature. Because of its potential for rhetorical effects, the elegiac couplet was also used by both Greek and Roman poets for witty, humorous, and satiric subject matter. Ovid wrote elegies bemoaning his exile, which he likened to a death and this looser concept is especially evident in the Old English Exeter Book which contains serious meditative and well-known poems such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Wife’s Lament. In these elegies, the use the lyrical I to describe their own personal. They tell the story of the rather than the collective lore of his or her people as epic poetry seeks to tell. For Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others, the term had come to mean serious meditative poem and it may treat of any subject, but it must treat of no subject for itself, but always and exclusively with reference to the poet. As he will feel regret for the past or desire for the future, so sorrow, Elegy presents every thing as lost and gone or absent and future. A famous example of elegy is Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in French, perhaps the most famous elegy is Le Lac by Alphonse de Lamartine. Elegy may denote a type of work, usually of a sad or somber nature. A well-known example is the Élégie, Op.10, by Jules Massenet, dirge Elegiac Funeral march Kommós Lament Marsiya Noha Obituary poetry Pastoral elegy history Poetry Rithā Soaz Threnody Ağıt Casey, Brian. Genres and Styles, in Funeral Music Genres, With a Stylistic/Topical Lexicon, american Elegy, The Poetry of Mourning from the Puritans to Whitman. Poetry of Mourning, The Modern Elegy from Hardy to Heaney, the English Elegy, Studies in the Genre from Spenser to Yeats. Media related to Elegies at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of elegy at Wiktionary Elegy Explained at Literary Devices
27.
Hasan ibn Ali
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Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, commonly called Hasan, was the second Shi‘ite Imam, succeeding his father Ali, and preceding his younger brother Al-Husayn. He was the son of ‘Ali and Muhammads daughter, Fatimah. Sunni Muslims respect him as a grandson of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, and he abdicated after six or seven months, and Mu‘awiyah succeeded him to become the first Umayyad Caliph. For the rest of his life, al-Hasan lived in al-Medinah, in seclusion, until he died at the age of 45 or 46 and his wife, Jada bint al-Ashat, is commonly accused of having poisoned him. Al-Hasan was known for donating to the poor, and being kind to them and bondmen, when Al-Hasan was born in the year 624 CE, Muhammad slaughtered a ram for the poor on the occasion of his birth, and chose the name Al-Ḥasan for him. Fatimah shaved his head and gave the weight of his hair in silver as alms, according to Shiite belief, theirs was the only house that archangel Gabriel allowed to have a door to the courtyard of al-Masjid an-Nabawi. Both Shi‘ite and Sunni Muslims consider Al-Hasan to belong to the Bayt of Muhammad, Ahl al-Kisa’ and he also reportedly predicted that Al-Hasan would make peace between two factions of Muslims. In the year 10 AH a Christian envoy from Najran came to Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning ‘Isa. Accordingly, in the Shiite perspective, in the verse of Mubahalah, the phrase our sons would refer to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, our women refers to Fatimah, and ourselves refers to ‘Ali. In response al-Kadhim recited the verses Quran,6,84 and Quran,6,85 and then asked Who is Jesus father, Jesus had no father, said Harun. It is related that Harun asked Musa to give him more evidence, so in the verse, Our sons refers to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn. Al-Hasan was one of the guards defending ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan when the attackers went round the latter, during the reign of ‘Ali, he was a participant in the Battles of Siffin and Nahrawan. According to Donaldson there was not a significant difference between the idea of Imamate, or divine right, expressed by each Imam designating his successor and other ideas of succession at first. This is why Muhammad did not nominate a successor, as he wanted to leave the succession to be resolved by the Muslim Community on the basis of the Qur’anic principle of consultation. The question Madelung proposes here is why the family members of Muhammad should not inherit other aspects of Muhammads character such as Hukm, Hikmah, after ‘Ali was assassinated, Al-Hasan became the Caliph of the Ummah, in a manner which followed the custom established by Abu Bakr. Performing a good act is love for us, the family of the Prophet, Qays ibn Sad was the first to give allegiance to him. Qays then stipulated the condition that the Bayah should be based on, on the Qur’an, the Sunnah of Muhammad, and on the condition of a Jihad against those who declared Halal that which was Haram. As soon as the news of Al-Hasans selection reached Mu‘awiyah, who had been fighting ‘Ali for the caliphate, he condemned the selection, letters exchanged between Al-Hasan and Mu‘awiyah before their troops faced each other were to no avail
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Husayn ibn Ali
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Al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, was the grandson of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, and the son of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad. He is an important figure in Islam, as he was a member of the Ahl al-Bayt of Muhammad and Ahl al-Kisa’, Al-Husayn became the Imam of Shi‘ites after the death of his older brother, Al-Hasan, in 670 ACE. His fathers supporters in Al-Kufah gave their allegiance to him, however, he told them he was still bound to the peace treaty between Al-Hasan and Muawiyah I and they should wait until Mu‘awiyahs death. Later, Al-Husain did not accept the request of Mu‘awiyah for the succession of his son, Yazid I and he insisted on his legitimacy based on his own special position as a direct descendant of Muhammad and his legitimate legatees. As a consequence, he left Medina, his home town, there, the people of Al-Kufah sent letters to him, asking his help and pledging their allegiance to him. So he travelled towards Al-Kufah, but, at a place near it known as Karbala’ and he was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala’ on 10 October 680 by Shimr Ibn Thil-Jawshan, along with most of his family and companions. Anger at Al-Husayns death was turned into a rallying cry that helped undermine the Umayyad caliphates legitimacy, Al-Husayn is highly regarded by Shi‘ite Muslims for refusing to pledge allegiance to Yazid, the Umayyad caliph, because he considered the rule of the Umayyads unjust. His action at Karbala fuelled the later Shia movements, Al-Husayn was the son of ‘Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib, and his wife Fatimah. His maternal grandparents were Muhammad and Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, and his grandparents were Abu Talib. Husayn and his brother Hasan were the last descendants of Muhammad living during his lifetime, there are many accounts of his love for them which refer to them together. Allah loves those who love Hussain, Hussain is a grandson among grandsons. A narration declares them the Masters of the Youth of Paradise, the Shia maintain that the infallibility of the Imam is a basic rule in the Imamate. According to Wilferd Madelung, Muhammad loved them and declared them as people of his Bayt very frequently and he has also said, Every mothers children are associated with their father except for the children of Fatima for I am their father and lineage. Thus, the descendants of Fatimah were descendants of Muhammad, according to popular Sunni belief, it refers to the household of Muhammad. Shia popular view is the members of Muhammads family that were present at the incident of Mubahalah, according to Muhammad Baqir Majlisi who compiled Bihar al-Anwar, a collection of ahadith, Chapter 46 Verse 15 and Chapter 89 Verses 27-30 of the Qur’an are regarding Al-Husayn. In the year AH10 a Christian envoy from Najran came to Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning ‘Isa. Accordingly, in the verse of Mubahalah, in the Shi‘ite perspective, the phrase our sons would refer to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, our women would refer to Fatimah, and ourselves would refer ‘Ali. Mu‘awiyah, who was the governor of Al-Sham under ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, had refused ‘Alis demands for allegiance, after ‘Ali was assassinated and people gave allegiance to Al-Hasan, Mu‘awiyah prepared to fight with him
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Iamb (poetry)
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An iamb /ˈaɪæm/ or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the meter of classical Greek prosody. This terminology was adopted in the description of accentual-syllabic verse in English, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested that the Ancient Greek, ἴαμβος iambos has a Pre-Greek origin. The word may be related to Iambe, a Greek minor goddess of verse, especially scurrilous, in ancient Greece iambus was mainly satirical poetry, lampoons, which did not automatically imply a particular metrical type. Iambic metre took its name from being characteristic of iambi, not vice versa, Iambic pentameter is one of the most commonly used measures in English and German poetry. A line of iambic pentameter comprises five consecutive iambs, Iambic trimeter is the metre of the spoken verses in Greek tragedy and comedy, comprising six iambs—as one iambic metrum consisted of two iambs. In English accentual-syllabic verse, iambic trimeter is a line comprising three iambs, less common iambic measures include iambic tetrameter and iambic heptameter, sometimes called the fourteener. Lord Byrons also She Walks in Beauty exemplifies iambic tetrameter, iambic heptameter is found in Australian poet A. B, banjo Patersons The Man from Ironbark. Related to iambic heptameter is the more common ballad verse, in which a line of iambic tetrameter is succeeded by a line of iambic trimeter, samuel Taylor Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a classic example of this form. The reverse of an iamb is called a trochee, key, Non-bold = unstressed syllable Bold = stressed syllable Iambic dimeter is a meter referring to a line consisting of two iambic feet. The way a crow Shook down on me…, Iambic trimeter is a meter referring to a line consisting of three iambic feet. Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe, Iambic Pentameter is a meter referring to a line consisting of five iambic feet, To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Shall I compare thee to a summers day, Iambic hexameter is a meter referring to a line consisting of six iambic feet. Through iambic shortening, a word with the shape light–heavy or short–long changes to become light–light, the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
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Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda
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Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda was an Urdu poet in Delhi, India. He is known for his Ghazals and Urdu Qasidas and he was born in 1713 in Shahjahanabad, where he was also brought up. At the age of 60 or 66, he moved to Farrukhabad, in A. H.1185 he moved to court of Nawab of Awadh and remained there till his death. When Lucknow became state capital, he came there with Nawab Shujauddaula and he died in A. H.1195 in Lucknow. Sulaimān Qulī Ḳhān Vidād and Shāh Ḥātim were his Ustads, king Shah Alam was Shagird of Sauda. He was also Ustad of Shujauddaulla, Nawab Āṣif ud-Daulah gave him title of Malkushshuara and annual pension of Rs 6,000. Initially he composed in Persian, but switched to Urdu on the advice of his ustad and his work was translated in 1872 by Major Henry Court, Captain, Bengal Cavalry. Kulliyat of Sauda was compiled by Ḥakīm Sayyid Aṣlaḥ, mutallaqate Sauda Vinay Prajapati Nazar Wordpress Blog तख़लीक़-ए-नज़र – Expanding day by day
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Poetry
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Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, in todays increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy, others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, comes from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is The Story of Sinuhe, other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry, the efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in poetics—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as Chinas through her Shijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance, Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Later aestheticians identified three major genres, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry, Aristotles work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic Negative Capability and this romantic approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic
