[Reader-list] Two Iqbals & One Faiz

[hpp at vsnl.com]

Dear Friends

I read with interest Yasir's posts on Iqbal and Faiz. 

"...and the absence of religious metaphor as in faiz's 'raaj karay gee khalq e khudaa' or as hard as that is to translate.

raaj karay gee : will rule
khalq e khuda : lit. creation of god - but also meaning the laity,
crowd, people, awaam

or, utthay ga analhaq kaa naara
the cry 'i am truth/god' will rise above (mansur hallaj was crucified
for this utterance)"

I was struck by the term "khalq e khuda" used by Faiz. From the little I know, 
and that too accreted in the strangest of ways - this has great resonance 
in Sufi consciousness. To me this directly recalls "khidmat e khalq" - service of 
people ("one who loves my people is beloved to me"), which is also the secret 
100th name of Allah, knowing which gives immense power to the knower, 
"knowing" here meaning an existential state, of being. Thus, the person 
whose life is lived entirely for others, possesses great powers, blessed to 
him by God whose work he is fulfilling. There is also I believe a Koranic 
link to this conception, if I'm not mistaken, in the "Cave" chapter. Of course 
the term "khalq e khuda" can also be seen as a (sacred?!) political principle / ideal, 
where the people are sovreign. Thus, religion and God has been cast aside, the world 
liberated from their thrall and tyranny, and in its place the conviction 
that humanity is foremost, and human needs, human ideals, human progress, human 
freedom, human happiness are pre-eminent, sacred. 

Bringing the two terms, people and God, together also makes for interesting 
dimensions in my mind - the People, who are God; God's people; people's God.

The reference to Mansur Hallaj is also noteworthy for me, suggesting 
that the poet is consciously and explicitly invoking one set of concepts and 
symbols, and their relation to the power to stir, raise, arouse, awaken, 
inspire, transform etc. Hallaj was right in his way, as was the view that 
apostasy had been committed. And thus the great mystery of it all, whose 
answer - can only be in silence. The brutality of his killing also indicates 
the necessarily brutal break with everything that is known that Sufi 
consciousness and way of life makes.  Thus modern political revolutionary
consciousness, pertaining to the nature of the human-designed external 
world, and the status of the human here, is posited as akin to / part of the 
inner revolutionary concerns of the Sufi. And revolutionaries too have been 
butchered / martyred like Hallaj.

Thanks for your patience.

Best

V Ramaswamy
Calcutta
cuckooscall.blogspot.com