Anwar Jamal’s Spiritual Poetry
By Syed Afsar Sajid
‘Gul-e-Sarsabad’ authored by Anwar Jamal, published by ‘Sukhan Saraye’ Publications, Multan
Anwar Jamal is a reputed veteran writer, poet, critic, and educationist from Multan. He has some sixteen publications in prose and verse to his credit besides numerous literary awards and souvenirs conferred on him in recognition of his literary talent and contribution. The present work ‘Gul-e-Sarsabad’ (2022) is actually a collection of his two ‘na’atia’ books viz. ‘Laulak Lama’ (1984) and ‘Hasunat Jamee-o- Khisalehi’ (2017) ‘Laulak Lama’.
It is a ‘na’atia Musaddas’ of a hundred hexagons, each consisting of a quartet followed by a differently rhymed couplet. The prototype of the poem is obviously Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali’s (1837-1914) monumental work titled ‘Musaddas-e-Hali – Madd-o-Jazr-e-Islam’.
The first edition of the book, published in 1879, contained 294 stanzas whereas its third edition, brought out in 1886, contained a supplement (‘zameema’) of 163 additional stanzas, making a total of 457 stanzas.
It is ‘a story in verse of the ebb and tide in Islam’ in which Maulana Hali has examined ‘the state of social and moral degradation in the then contemporary Muslim society’. Anwar Jamal prefaces his ‘na’at’ with ‘hamd’, the rhyming pattern of both being identical.
The poem titled ‘Laulak Lama’ aptly synthesizes rhythm and meaning. Renowned poet Aasi Karnali viewed it as a ‘na’atia nazm’. In his foreword to the book, the author avers that ‘na’at’ is a reverential delineation of the life and character (’seerat’) of the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH). Maulana Hali’s ‘Musaddas’ is the inspirational source of the poem.
The author of ‘Laulak Lama’ has adeptly assimilated the descriptive and reflective in the poem, turning it into a veritable epic of devotional verse. In the sparse space of a hundred stanzas, he has graphically portrayed the sublime features of the life and character of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
The diction soulfully corresponds with the intrinsic grace and grandeur of the poem. The narrative covers the whole orbit of creation starting from the Fall of Adam, consummating in the advent of Islam, and finally culminating into a supplication to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) for his intercession in redeeming the existential chaos that we are stuck in today.
‘Hasunat Jamee-o-Khisalehi’’
The book is divided into three heads comprising 36 pieces of ‘hamd-o-na’at’: (1) ‘Alif Allah’ (‘hamd’– 4), ‘Ya Ayyohal Muzammil’ (‘na’at’–20), and ‘Ya Ayyohal Mudassir’ (‘na’at’–12).
Interestingly a Hindko verse collection of the same title by well-known Urdu and Hindko poet Aurang Zeb Hussam Hur (b.1960) was awarded ‘Saeen Ahmad Ali Award’ for the year 2017 by the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad. The consanguinity of the two titles seems to be a mere coincidence.
Dr. Aasi Karnali’s preface to the work amply illustrates not only the thematic aspects of Anwar Jamal’s spiritual verse but also the prime virtues of his style and technique. According to him the present collection of the latter’s ‘na’at’ is a distinctive addition to the extant ‘na’atia’ literature in Urdu.
He perceives in it an aura of the diction and stylistics of ‘na’at’ emanating from its inception and then evolution as a literary genre, to the present times. Anwar Jamal’s grasp of the history of Islam coupled with the knowledge of some popular oriental languages and dialects seems to enable him to conceive and compose his religious verse felicitously.
As a ‘na’atia’ poet, Anwar Jamal falls in the line of poets like Mohsin Kakorvi, Bahzad Lucknowi, Iftikhar Arif, Maulana Mahir-ul-Qadri, Iqbal Azeem, Naseeruddin Naseer, Muzaffar Warsi, Hafiz Ludhianvi, Hafeez Ta’ib, Sa’im Chishti, Gauhar Malsiani, Abdul Aziz Khalid, Raja Rashid Mahmood, Khurshid Rizvi, Dr. Aasi Karnali, Dr. Anwar Mehmood Khalid, Dr. Riaz Majeed, Hasan Askari Kazmi, Rashk Turabi, Riaz Hussain Zadi, Riaz Hussain Chaudhry et al.
