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FAIZ AHMED
FAIZ…A SOCIALIST SAINT AND A SOCIAL THERAPIST
By
Dr. Khalid Sohail
First of all I would like to thank my dear friends Syed Azeem, Sara Ebraham, Hameed Bashani, Ameer Jaffri and Ashfaq Hussian for inviting me to this memorable Faiz Mela. I feel honored to
be one of Faiz’s admirers and become part of this
wonderful celebration, which is for Easterners and Westerners alike.
I never met Faiz but I still
feel as if I know him. It is not different than my feeling that I know Meer Taqi Meer,
Asalullah Khan Ghalib,
Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre although I never met
any one of them. That feeling comes from my having read their poetry,
studied their masterpieces and read books about their personal and creative
lives. I spent long evenings contemplating their philosophy and tried to
integrate their insights into life into my own lifestyle. But in one way my
knowing Faiz is different than my knowing Meer, Ghalib, Freud, Russell
and Sartre, because I met many people who had met Faiz.
Such people ranged from my father Abdul Basit who
was Faiz’s student in Amritsar India
to my friend Ashfaq Hussain
who became the editor of an Urdu magazine Urdu International after
his consultation with Faiz. Urdu International
played a significant role in the development of my friendship with Ashfaq. When he was compiling an anthology of all the
writings about Faiz created in the West, I not
only wrote an essay about Faiz’s poetry but also
interviewed Ashfaq in detail about his encounters
with Faiz, an interview that later on became part
of his anthology about Faiz.
All
those people I encountered who had met Faiz had
wonderful things to say about his philosophy and personality. The more I
listened to their stories and their interactions with Faiz,
the more I came to believe that he was a socialist saint. I found that an
interesting synthesis because I know many socialists who are not saints and
many saints who are not socialists. It seems that Faiz
was able to integrate a wide range of such characteristics that usually do
not co-exist. It was like a miracle, but then Faiz
was able to perform many creative and political miracles in his lifetime.
Faiz was a revolutionary in his philosophy but a
teacher by personality. He was successful in sharing his ideas in a gentle,
kind and compassionate way. As a student of human psychology I am as
impressed by his personality as his philosophy. I have met many
revolutionaries and communists who are angry young men and who are always
willing and ready to get into angry debates and bitter fights with people
from other philosophies and ideologies but Faiz
always kept his composure. In my opinion it was because he had not only a
humanist philosophy but also a humanist personality, which is a rare
combination. His personality was motherly and nurturing. That might be one
reason that he is respected by people from all walks of life.
The thing
that impresses me the most about Faiz Ahmed Faiz is his diversity. He was a versatile genius.
Although he was a poet in Urdu, he was a great scholar of English and
Arabic. Although he lived in India
and Pakistan
he had a keen interest in the works of European, Latin American and African
writers. Faiz
had discovered the secrets of human existence and knew how a minority
belonging to the privileged class has been exploiting the majority of the
deprived people for centuries. In his gentle tone he wanted to inspire
downtrodden people to speak up and fight for their rights. He knew that
whispers could be as effective as screams.
It is
not surprising that Faiz became a symbol of human
rights and the struggle against exploitation. He knew that peace could not
be lasting if it was not married to justice. He is admired and adored not
only by Asians but also by people from the Middle East,
Latin America and Africa. He
has become an ambassador of Pakistan
to the world.
Faiz was a shy and humble man but his poetry was so
powerful that people from other disciplines promoted his message. When his
poems were sung by famous singer Noor Jehan and his verses painted by the famous artist Saadeqain, he became known to people from all religious
and cultural traditions. He became so famous in his lifetime that when a
European woman asked his address he said, “Just write ‘Faiz
Ahmed Faiz, Pakistan’
and I will get the letter.” She did not know that he had won the hearts of
Pakistani postmen by writing poems for them when they were on strike and
every postman in the country knew him.
Now
that Faiz has been introduced into Canada,
I hope more and more people become inspired to read his poetry, which has
been translated into English. For me Faiz is a
symbol of justice and peace and we need poets like him more now than ever
before, as human exploitation is unfortunately increasing rather than
decreasing and millions of innocent children are dying all over the world
every year because of lack of food and health care while billions of
dollars are spent on war. Even in Canada
many children live below the poverty line and many single mothers suffer
because of poor living conditions.
In the
end let me share with you one of my favourite
poems of Faiz. This is Azfar
Hussain’s translation from the book Reading
about the World.
Speak
Speak, your lips are free
Speak, it is your own tongue
Speak, it is your own body
Speak, your life is still yours
See how in the blacksmith’s shop
The flame burns wild, the iron glows red
The locks open their jaws
And every chain begins to break
Speak, this brief hour is long enough
Before the death of body and tongue
Speak , ‘cause the truth is not dead yet
Speak, speak, whatever you must speak
After reading this poem, I realized that Faiz was not only a socialist saint, he was also a
social therapist and knew that speaking and sharing one’s truth is the
first step towards healing and liberation. Like a psychotherapist helps his
patients to share their truth in the therapy hour, the poet inspires his
readers to share their truth publicly. As each human being achieves
liberation by breaking their inner chains and opening their hearts, all of
humanity liberates itself. Faiz belonged to that
group of poets and philosophers who dreamt of liberating all of humanity.
He could not only see drops in the ocean but also see an ocean in each
drop.
Faiz
was not only a socialist saint but also a social therapist.
Thank
you.
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