Titles of books: 1. KitabaiN Baat Karti HaiN, 2. Sana Nama
- Zinda YadaiN: Authored by Riaz Ahmad Parwaz
Riaz Ahmad Parwaz is a veteran poet, translator, and essayist aside from being a column and travelogue writer. He is a prolific writer, with at least twenty-six publications to his credit. Only last year did he publish three books in a row viz. KitabaiN Baat Karti Hain, Sana Nama, and Zinda YadaiN which are the subject of this review. Besides, these books also reflect on his versatility as a literary writer.
KitabaiN Baat Karti HaiN
Riaz Ahmad Parwaz is a literary adventurist. In the instant publication he has incorporated his versified tributary impressions about a fairly large number (68) of books, the Holy Quran being the first and foremost in the catalogue. Most of these books have their creative roots in Faisalabad — Lyallpur of yore. No doubt, it is a novel way of estimation that bespeaks the author’s literary insight and adeptness.
Dr Riaz Majeed has contributed a thought-provoking albeit nostalgic introduction to the work. He lauds the author’s attempt terming it as an innovative literary exercise in the backdrop of a buzzing industrial town parallelly transiting to a viable centre of knowledge, culture and art.
Names of some notable authors with their publications (projected in the book), are being mentioned here to give the reader an idea of the author’s vast reading and his ability to analyse and appreciate the experience. Hafiz Ludhianvi’s Meraj-e-Safar, Khaliq Qureshi’s Shakh-e-Sidra, Dr. Riaz Majeed’s Rabbana La-kal Hamd, Ahmad Shahbaz Khawar’s Rooh Zaa’ir Hai Shahr-e-Tayba Ki, Syed Masroor Badayuni’s Hamdia Qit’aat, Rai Khuda Bakhsh Kalyar’s Seerat-e Rahmat-e-Alam, Faiz Jhanjhanvi’s Aabshar, Dr. Suraj Narayan’s RagoN May Shararay, Shafqat Hussain Shafqat’s Saakit RaushniyaN, Dr. Abdul Aziz Malik’s Mu’asar Tanqeedi Rujhanat, Zaheer Qureshi’s Teri Wadi Wadi GhumooN, Prof. Ashraf Khan Sharaf’s Shahr-e-DilbaraN, Prof. Afsar Sajid’s Tazkiray Aur Tajziyey, Altaf Hassan Qureshi’s MulaqataiN, Dr. Shabbir Ahmad Qadri’s Farzand-e-Urdu, Dr. Saeed Ahmad’s Par-e-Ta’oos, Dr. Yunus Amin Sheikh’s Neeli Aankh Samundar, Syed Wasil Hashmi’s Aa’ina Khamosh Tha, Sarwar Khan Sarwar’s Fishar-e-Zabt, Rubi Jafri’s Ma’eN Aur Tum, Bashir Ejaz’s Lyallpur Nama, Prof. Khalid Shabbir’s Warq Warq Zindagi, Dr. Riaz Ahmad Riaz’s Bar Sabeel-e-Safar, Ashfaq Babar’s Ab Parinday YehaN Nahi Aatay et al.
Sana Nama
It is a large collection of Riaz Ahmad Parwaz’s Na’at, numbering 499. Dr. Riaz Majeed has written its foreword. Syed Qamar Ashraf, Riaz Ahmad Qadri, and Sarwar Khan Sarwar
have separately contributed their concise views on the book. The author has diminished the font of the text so as to diffuse it wholly in the limited space of the book. Parwaz’s devotional verse is immersed in sublimity of thought and feelings corresponding to the purity and piety of the subject.
Zinda YadaiN
The book is a collection of Parwaz’s verse divided into sub-heads viz. Hamd-o-Sana, Personages, Elegy, Poems, and Ghazal. Prof. Muhammad Yaqub Mazhar Gill has written a thoughtful introduction to the book, closely examining its literary pros and cons.
Panegyrics in verse related to personages like Dr. Riaz Majeed, Dr. Ifzaal Ahmad Anwar, Afzal Ahsan Randhawa, Prof. Khalid Shabbir, Ameer Nawaz Ameer, Dr. Majid Mushtaq, Anwar Goendi, and Salamat Sheikh belonging to academia, literature, and other walks of life, constitute the second part of the book. This is followed by a few personal elegies, some miscellaneous poems, and a good number of ghazals.
Precisely these publications amply demonstrate their author’s life-long interest in books, literature and litterateurs coupled with his profuse knowledge, experience and worldly wisdom. One would love to see that public institutions promoting literature, culture and art in the country such as the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Idara-e-Farog-e-Qaumi Zaban, and National Book Foundation recognise and decorate people of Riaz Ahmad Parwaz’s literary calibre and capability, who are living in anonymity despite their firm commitment to the cause of literature.
