[Reader-list] Two Iqbals & One Faiz

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Ramaswamy,

Many thanks for your thoughtful response, I learnt a lot from your 
nuanced reading of Faiz. Just to throw a not so well wrought thought, 
which occurs to me, mainly through an aural resonance of a fragment of 
the text, and to add to your rich mix of interpretation -

could it be that the  phrase 'raaj karay gee khalq e khudaa' could also 
be read as an sort of riposte to the slogan 'raaj karega khalsa' (the 
pure shall prevail - a Sikh motto ) which had travelled a certain 
distance from being a declaration of the will of the oppressed (those 
originally rallying to the Khalsa/Sikh revolt against Imperial Mughal 
rule) to being a statement of secterian power (a slogan of Sikh 
political power and statehood,and used especially during 1947 by rioting 
Sikh mobs as they attacked Muslim villages and settlements)

Also, if we entertain this thought, then, the transformation of the 
robustly masculine 'karega' (masculine verb ending) to the feminine 
'karegee' (feminine verb ending) becomes another thing to think about.

This is not said seriously, but whimsically, albeit with some 
appreciation of the need for the impure to prevail.

regards

Shuddha



hpp at vsnl.com wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
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