GHALIB AND IQBAL*

B. A. Dar

عر با چرخ بگردد کہ جگر سوختہ ای

چون من از دودۂ آزر نفسان برخیزد

The heavens revolve and ages pass

That a person with a burning heart as I is born, From the stock of those who breathe fire.[1]

So says Ghalib about himself. He has been more than fortunate in winning recognition ,for the sterling qualities of his art which charm and please lovers of poetry both Urdu and Persian. He seems to be him-self fully convinced of the greatness of his art and was therefore greatly perturbed at the coldness shown by his contemporaries towards him. This feeling of frustration found expression in several of his verses both in Urdu and Persian.

نہ ستائش کی تمنا نہ ھلے کی پروا

Neither do I desire praise nor care for reward.

And yet he was fully confident of his greatness as a creative artist. In one of his Persian verses he claims to possess the miraculous white hand of Moses while his critics are worshiping the calf of Samiri, the false prophet.

بنہای بہ گوسالہ پرستان ید بیضا

غالب بسخن صاحب فرتاب کجائی

O Ghalib, show your White Hand to these Calf-worshipers ; Can there be any other poet of such miraculous charm and beauty ?[2]

And he was so sure of winning recognition if not during his life time then after his death.

کو کبم را در عدم اوج قبولی بودہ است

شہرت شعرم بہ گیتی بعد من خواہد شدن

The Star of my Destiny has been in ascendance ;

The fame of my poetic art shall spread in the world after my death.[3]

But Ghalib wished to be recognised not only as a poet excelling in the beauty of form; he seems to have the idea that the thoughts he is expressing in his poetry, especially Persian, are original and are as valuable as those of the sacred books of revealed religions. In the in­troduction to his Persian Diwān, he says:

غالب اگر این فن سخن دین بودی

آں دین را ایزدی کتاب این بودی

If the art of poetry be taken as religion (din) ;

This poetical collection of mine would have been its revealed book.[4]

Besides being a great creative artist and poet Ghalib was a great intellectual. It is for this reason that he has been often classed as a philosopher-poet though it would be hardly proper to call him a philo­sopher in the technical sense, for in Ghalib we would probably find no expounding of a consistent thought-system. What one finds in him is "a keen intellectual awareness, a tendency to interrogate things, and offering fresh and often profound comments on them, or re-discovering old truths anew for himself."[5]

In one of his Persian Mathnavis, Mughanni Namah, Ghalib has emphasised the important role of reason and intellect in human life.[6] Poetry, he says, is a valuable treasure of gems but it is intellect alone which can appreciate it. It is the fountain of life which never dries up, which never grows old even in old age. If it is necessary for philosophers, it is equally necessary for the mystics.

When poetry conveys some message of great significance and when music warms up the heart of the listeners and enraptures them, it is all due to reason. It is reason again which illumines the heart with a spiritual light (nur) and leads the individual to the vision of the ultimate truth:

خرد چشمۂ زندگانی بود

خرد را بہ بیری جوائی بود

فروغ سحر گاہ روحانیانیان

چراغ شبستاں یونانیان

خرد کردہ در خود ظہورے دگر

دل از دیدہ پذرفتہ نورے دگر

ز گنجے کہ بینش بویرانہ ریخت

در آفاق طرح پری خانہ ریخت

زدودن ز آئينہ زنگار برد

ز دانش نگہ ذوق دیدار برد

Intellect is the fountain of life,

Intellect makes old age as good as youth.

It provides light to the morning meditation of the Sufi,

And serves as a lamp for the philosophers during dark nights.

Intellect manifests itself anew

And the heart aquires a new light through the eyes.

The treasure that the Intellect casts into the wilderness

Lays the foundation of an abode of beauty (and peace) in the world.

Intellect rubs off rust from the mirror

And the eyes could enjoy the pleasure of Vision.

In the tashbib (introduction) of Qasida 19, he relates his imaginary meeting with `Aql Fa"āl i.e. Active Intellect.[7] According to Muslim pbilosophers, this Active Intellect is the lowest of the ten intellegences which gives individual forms to material objects and universal forms to the human intellect.[8]

The Active Intellect invites all intellectuals to a meeting to discuss some problems and thus attempt to arrive at some answers to the common riddle of life.

تا بہ بینند کہ اسرار نہانی بیداست

That they might see that the hidden secrets are manifest.

Ghalib comes forward and begins to ask questions. I would only mention some of these questions asked by him. What is the secret of life? What is this world? How is One and Many related? What is the nature of free will and determinism? What is good and evil ?Is it possible for the finite individual to reach the Infinite? If not, how far is our effort to reach that goal justified? It is this intellectual approach of Ghalib that distinguishes him from his contemporary poets. This aspect of his is much more emphasised in his Persian poetry than in Urdu, though glimpses of it are easily discernible there as well. The following well-known verses, for instance, speake of a great mind in search of truth but the way Ghalib gives expression to his thought is not that of a cold intellectual but of a creative artist :

جب کہ تجھ بن نہیں کوئی موجود

پھر یہ ہنگامہ اے خدا کیا ہے؟

سبزہ و گل کہاں سے آئے ہیں؟

ابر کیا چیز ہے؟ ہوا کیا ہے؟

Where none exist besides Thee,

O God, what is all this going around?

Whence do this greenery and flowers come?

What is cloud and what is air?

But his stature as an intellectually-oriented poet is truly revealed in his Persian verses which have not received attention they deserve.

Iqbal once tried to bring this fact to the notice of Ghalib's admirers.

In a message on Ghalib Day celebrated by Anjuman-i Urdu Punjab in February 1937, Iqbal said:

"On this day I would like to remind you of the message of Ghalib himself:

بگذر از مجموعۂ اردو کہ بے رنگ من است

Leave aside my collection of Urdu poetry which lacks beauty and colour.

Ghalib invites you to his Persian poetry... While reading it, we should however note how far Baidil's philosophy of life influenced Ghalib's mind and how far he was able to understand and assimilate it ..."

In the following verses Ghalib describes how he feels constrained to give expression to ideas which belong to another world:

آتش اندر نہاد من زدہ اند

لالہ و ارغوان نمی خواہم

بادۂ من مدام خون دل است

ارمغان از مغان نمی خواہم

سخن از عالم دگر دارم

ہمدم و راز دان نمی خواہم

سینہ صائم، قلندرم، مستم

راز خود را نہان نمی خواہم

Destiny has made my nature fiery,

I need no tulip; nor any fruit of red colour;

Blood of the heart is my wine always,

I need no gift from the wine-seller.

My poetry is from another world,

I need no companion or sharer of secrets.

A sincere heart, a qalander and intoxicated I am I need not keep my secret hidden.[9]

One can easily find here similarities of phrases and ideas with Iqbal.

Ghalib tried to create a new world for himself and for others to contemplate and enjoy. He calls himself the nightingale of a yet-to-be created garden that will come into being through his songs, born out of the fire generated by his undying love for new worlds:

ہوں گرمئ نشاط تصور سے نغمہ سنج

میں عندلیب گلشن نا آفریدہ ہوں

The pleasure of the Idea fires my imagination,

And I sing as a nightingale of a yet to be created garden.

It was this fire, all-consuming and all-pervasive, which Ghalib felt in himself and which found expression in his verses:

ہے ننگ سینہ دل، اگر آشت کدہ نہ ہو

ہے عار دل نفس، اگر آزو فشاں نہو

If hearts is not a fire-temple

It is not worthy of my body;

My heart would feel ashamed

If my soul does not sprout out fire

In one of his Persian Ghazals he says:

دلے دارم کہ در ہنگامۂ شوق

سرستش دوزخ است و گوہر آتش

بہ خلد از سردی ہنگامہ خواہم

بر افروزم بہ گرد کوثر آتش

It which found expression in his verses:

I have a heart that through the ecstasy of love

Its nature is Hell and its essence fire.

In the cold atmosphere of Paradise

I kindle fire all around the pond of Kauthar.[10]

Another very significant feature of Ghalib's poetry is his independence of spirit, his conscious revolt against the conventional and the customary, an open mind for the new instead of the old rotten values. He has the courage to stand by his own convictions and was always ready to suffer for them. "Do not think," he says, as reported by Hali, "that whatever the ancients have written is true. Were there no asses in the times gone by?"

لازم نہیں کہ خضر کی ہم پیروی کریں

مانا کہ اک بزرگ ہمیں ہم سفر ملے

It is not necessary that we follow Khidhr;

If we meet him, we shall look upon him

As a fellow traveller and not as a guide.

In a Persian verse, he has expressed this idea with reference to the life of Abraham and his father (or uncle) Azar.

بامن میاویز اے پدر، فرزند آزر را نگر

ہر کسی کہ شد صاحب نظر دین بزرگان خوش نکرد

Don't fall foul of me, O Father;

Look at Abraham, the son of Azar.

Whoever acquires insight

Becomes dissatisfied with the faith of his ancestors.[11]

Same idea has been expressed by Iqbal:

اگر تقلید بودے شیوۂ خواب

پیمبر ہم رہ اجداد رفتے

Had conventional behaviour been a worthy ideal,

The Prophet too would have followed

In the footsteps of his ancestors.[12]

His spirit of independence manifested itself most obstrusively in his comments on the reprinting of A'in-i Akbari by Sayyed Ahmad Khan. As a work of scholarship it as of course a commendable step but Ghalib's point of view reflected his conviction that the old order was bound to give place to a new order with all the possibilities of pro. viding better opportunities to the people. In spite of his great regard for the Sayyid, he could not resist expressing his personal conviction:

پیش این آئین کہ دارد روزگار

گشتہ آئين دگر تقویم پار

In face of the present new prevalent order Old order has become as obsolete as last year's calander.[13]

Thirdly, Ghalib is enamoured of life here and now, a life which is fully lived and richly enjoyed. He has a deep passion and yearning for a meaningful life in proportion to the vicissitudes and miseries that he had to suffer throughout his long career of over seventy years. He was fully aware of the intensity of pain and evil in life and the consequent disillusionment and frustration that one meets everywhere at almost all times. And yet he was able to find not only solace but actual enjoyment out of this life because to him life qua life was worth living in spite of everything.

رونق ہستی ہے عشق خانہ ویراں ساز سے

انجمن بے شمع ہے گر برق خرمن میں نہیں

Life is enriched by Love which is a house-consuming fire; Without lightening (that is evil) that falls on the harvest (and thereby tends to destory it),

There would be no brightening up of human life.

Several verses can be quoted which express his great passion and zest for life. Only one or two would suffice here:

ہزاروں خواہشیں ایسی کہ ہر خواہش پہ دم نکلے

بہت نکلے مرے ارماں لیکن پھر بھی کم نکلے

ہوس کو ہے نشاط کار کیا کیا

نہ ہو مرنا تو جینے کا مزہ کیا

عشق شسے طبیعت نے زیست کا مزہ پایا

درد کی دوا پائی درد بے دوا پایا

A thousand desires and each desire more charming than the other,

Most of them are satisfied yet a great lot remained.

What a delight my ambitious nature finds in activity !

No zest in life there would be if there were no death.

Through Love I feel ecstasy in life,

A remedy for pain and yet an eternal pain itself.

This experiment with life here and now, sometimes leads man to what is religiously called sin. Should one stay one's foot merely for the fear that his footsteps miy lead him astray? This is the eternal conflict of good and evil which is involved in the very determination of man to say yes to life, to accept it at its face value and to plunge deep into it —sometimes bringing out pearls of rarest beauty and sometimes plung­ing into darkness. But the effort continues on the part of man. It is the effort, the determination to try the hazards for achieving ends and objects, that is valuable and desirable. Man as flesh is liable to sin; these are foibles which further prompt man to try harder. To commit sin in the attempt is not as much evil as never to try. Ghalib realises this truth which he expresses thus:

خوئے آدم دارم، آدم زادہ ام

آشکارا دم ز عصیان می زنم

As a progeny of Adam, I inherit Adam's temperament ; I openly confess my liability to committing sin.[14]

For comparison I give Iqbal's following verses from the Jāvid

Nāma:

چوں بروید آدم از مشت گلے

با دلے، با آرزوئے در دلے

لذت عصیان چشیدن کار اوست

غیر خود چیزے ندیدن کار اوست

زانکہ بے عصیان خودی ناید بدست

تا خودی ناید بدست، آید شکست

When Adam grows from a handful of dust

With a heart throbbing with desire,

He is destined to taste the delight of sin

And to see nothing besides himself ;

Without committing sin, self does not develop,

And without selfhood, life must end in total failure.[15]

It is not that one commits sin for the sake of sin but because it is the necessary adjunct of Man's unique nature and his selfhood which involves constant struggle against difficulties and odds. And we find Ghalid ever reaby to meet these challenges of life:

می ستیزم با قضا از دیر باز

خویش را بر تیغ عریان می زنم

I have been fighting with fate since long

And meeting the challenge of the naked sword.[16]

In another place, he says:

ساقئ ہمت کہ صلا می دہد

بادہ ز خم خانۂ لا می دہد

ہمت اگر بال کشائي کند

صعوہ تواند کہ ہمائی کند

نئیر توفیق اگر بر دمد

لالہ عجب نیست کز اخگر دمد

The Saqi of ambition gives an open invitation,

He offers you wine from the tavern of Negation;

If ambition could spread its wings

Goldfinch could become a Humā (a fabulous bird of good omen) ;

If the sun of ambition could shine

Tulip can grow out of embers.[17]

These ideas Ghalib and Iqbal shared to a great extent and I feel that it was this community of ideas and spirit which led Iqbal nearer to Ghalib. Before I take up how Iqbal treats Ghalib in his works I would like to refer to some very important events in the lives of both. It is said that Ghalib met an Iranian scholar, Abdul Samad by name, who was a Zoroastrian before his conversion to Islam, and had the opportunity to live with him for two years. It was probably due to this contact that Ghalib seems to have developed interest in the philosophic heritage of Iran as symbolised in the system of Ibn al-Arabi and Shihabuddin Suhrawardy Maqtul, specially the latter whose system of thought draws heavily from Zoroastrian sources.

The question whether the doctrine of Unity of Being so ardently, passionately and repeatedly expounded by Ghalib in his Urdu and Persian verses in varied forms, was the product of intellectual formulation as a result of this contact or merely a product of artistic requirements or aesthetic expression of different wayward moods, as expounded in the famous sentence of Hazin that:

تصوف برائے شعر گفتن خوب است

i.e. Mysticism is the fondest expression for the poetic art—is difficult to decide. I would rather explain Ghalib's partiality for Unity of Being more the result of an aesthetic rather than intellectual need. This tendency in Ghalib must have got some intellectual support due to the influence of this Iranian scholar.

yet Ghalib was equally conscious of the incompatibility of holding this doctrine in all its implications of moral laxity and denial of human responsibility with the demands of a religious system like Islam. He expresses this contrast in a beautiful verse of a Ghazal:

زموز دین نشناسم، درست و معذورم

نہاد من عجمی و طریق من عربی است

I do not understand the implications of din (religion);

Therefore I must be excused.

For by temperament I belong to `Ajam (Iran),

While my faith is Arabian.[18]

The disparity between the two, `Ajam and Arab, had been the subject of a great controversy long after the time of Ghalib and still remains undecided. But Iqbal seems to accept this dichotomy and has given expression to it in words reminiscent of this very verse of Ghalib.

عجم ہنوز نداند رموز دین ورنہ

`Ajam is not yet aware of the secrets of Religion.

It was again under the influence of this Iranian scholar that Ghalib became familiar with the intricacies of Persian idiom of which he was later so proud. His inclination towards Shiaism in spite of what he says about his being a Turk, was again no doubt the result of this contact. What I have called an "inclination towards Shiaism" may be interpreted as a conscious attempt on the part of Ghalib to bring about a compromise between the two different currents of the main Islamic stream. The dichotomy of Arab and `Ajam, the thesis and antithesis, may be so resolved that a higher and more comprehensive synthesis is evolved. One may doubt the authenticity of this fact in the case of Ghalib but Iqbal, under similar circumstances and under similar influences, did make a serious attempt in this direction.[19] In the life of Iqbal we come across a similar personality with almost similar results. An Iranian scholar `Abdul `Ali Hiravi (d. 1922) happened to visit Lahore during his long sojourns. Iqbal happened to attend his religious sermons.

In one of his letters dated 31 October 1916 to Maharaja Kishan Parsad, he speaks very highly of his intellectual attainments. He says, "He is a very great scholar. Although Shia by faith, his exposition of the Qur'an and then surprisingly very profound and appealing. I attend his lectures now Iqbal's infatuation for m about him which was Ghalib published in Makhzan expression in Se when he  a poem September 1901 wrote 01 and later included in Bāng-i Darā. It is one of the greatest tributesever paid by any poet to Ghalib. It must however be remembered that Iqbal's opinion of Ghalib as expressed here is most probably confined to his Urdu poetry alone.

According to Iqbal, Ghalib's greatest characteristics are two : first a lofty creative imagination which produces several universes of beauty and imparts tongue to the dumb, life to the dead and movement to the stationary. He is in search of Beauty which lives in the form of "yearning" in the heart of everything in the world and finds expression in words which give a new significance to our life, as the sweet music of the stream by breaking the monotony of the mountains, enlivens the whole atmosphere. Secondly, his great intellectual stature which contributed greatly towards perfecting his poetic art and giving it a form unique in the history of Urdu literature:

لطف گویائی میں تیری ہمسری ممکن نہیں

ہو تخیل کا نہ جب تک فکر کامل ہم نشین

It is not possible to compete with you in the beady of expression, Unless imagination and mature thought coalesce.

It is due to this wonderful synthesis of imaginative power and intellectual creativity that Ghalib, the "bud of Delhi", can rightly claim to excel the "rose of Shiraz." I may however add that what appeared to Iqbal in 1901 as a "bud" yet waiting for time to grow and mature into a flower, has now grown full bloom, spreading its fragrance to all corners of the world. The greatest tribute that Iqbal has paid to Ghalib in this poem is to rank him along with Goethe, who lies buried in Weimer.

گلشن ویمر میں تیرا ہم نوا خوابیدہ ہے

Your brother poet lies buried in Weimer.

And to Iqbal Goethe was the symbol of the greatest creative artist[20]

In Payām-i Mashriq, Iqbal has brought together four poets of the o world in a symposium on Life, two from the West, Browning and BBf fife, and two from the East, Ghalib and Rumi.[21] The bubbling wine from' Browning thinks, lacked invigoration and therefore needed support outside to make it regain its pristine fervour and energy. This led him

to seek help from Khidhr, the unerring guide of mankind in the Muslim religious tradition, who is said to have taken the legendary Alexander of Sikandar Nama to the Fountain of life. Browning would pour water taken from Khidhr into the cup and try to make it invigorating as before.

گلشن ویمر میں تیرا ہم نوا خوابیدہ ہے

But Byron would not like to be under obligation to anybody, not even to Khidhr, for it would be to stain the purity of life. The best way would be to melt one's heart into water and pour it into the wine-cup of life in order to make it more stimulating.

Then Ghalib comes forward and suggests his own prescription. To make life once more invigoration, to give it its original warmth and to make it as strong as before, Ghalib would like to render wine more bitter, more penetrative, more effective so as to reach teh inner core of one’s heart by melting glass and pouring it into the cup of life:

تا بادہ تلخ تر شود و سینہ ریش تر

بگدازم آبگینہ و در ساغر افگنم

That the wine be more bitter and the chest more sore,

I melt the glass and pour into the cup.

Rumi comes in the end. His stand is quite different from that of the rest. He asserts that life in its purity does not need any admixture ; a water from the fount of Eternity or from the inner recesses of one's heart or even melting of glass would not achieve the ultimate purpose. To be truly worthy of Life, one must establish contact, direct and im­mediate, with the ultimate source of Being and Existence. Unless this contact is established, no half-way remedies would make our life mean­ingful and significant:

آمیزشے کجا گہر پاک او کجا

از تاک بادہ گیرم و در ساغر افگنم

Leave a side would purity of Life; it needs no admixture,

I would fetch win e direct from the plant and pour it into the cup.

Iqbal has here brought the four outstanding poets of the world togeth a contest on the ideological level and not on the artistic plane. It isetherinbasic question of life and in this Iqbal feels Rumi's approach better and truer than Ghalib's and, for that matter, than others'. But o n the artistic plane, one is constrained to conclude that Iqbal was greatly struck by the aesthetic quality and beauty of Ghalib's ghazal and composed this piece of symposium after his style. I would like to beauty y h and charm;

رفتم کہ کہنگی ز تماشا بر افگنم

در بزم رنگ و بو نمطے دیگر افگنم

نخلم کہ ہم بجائے رطب طوطی آورم

ابرم کہ ہم بروئے زمین گوہر افگنم

راہے ز کنج دیر بہ مینو کشادہ ام

از خم کشم پیالہ و در کوثر افگنم

I decided to destroy all antiquated things

And to set up a new pattern of life in this world.

I am a tree that produces songs instead of dates,

I am a cloud that showers pearls on the ground.

I have opened a way to the Paradise through the corner of the tavern,

I take up a cupful from the pitcher and pour it into Kauthar.[22]

In the Jāvid Nama while on a journey through the skies "in quest of ever-new manifestations," Iqbal arrives at the sphere of Jupiter, where he meets Ghalib, Hallaj and Qurrat ul `Ayn Tahira, the three pure spirits harbouring a fire in their hearts that might easily melt the world.[23] Their tulip-like red attires symbolise their inner yearning which has kept them in constant fervour since eternity and are so much intoxicated with the wine of their own melodies that they prefered an ever-roaming life in space to any particular allocation in Paradise.

To Iqbal, Ghalib shares with Hallaj and the Lady of Iran a common feature. He calls them all آتش نوا, musicians of the songs of fire that burns whatever is old, antiquated and unworthy of preservation; they are moved by a passion and fervour that knows no limits and brings about intoxication of a sort, a characteristic of a truly great genius that destroys in order to build anew on a strong foundation for a better future. All three of them, in short, symbolise in their person important signposts on the onward journey of the Muslim community towards its destined goal. The words they use are often provocative as if they wished to cry and shriek into the ears of the men who were unwilling to listen to them, who were un-aware of the malady they were suffering from and therefore did not feel they needed a doctor—a surgeon who knows how to apply the knife of his thought to the virtues of the times. This provocative role created no doubt a great stir but at the same time it poured new blood into the veins of the people thus contributing to-wards a new resurrection.

Hallāj, in Muslim tradition, stands for revolution and a new world-order. His cry of Ana'I Haq (I am the Creative Truth) is "the bold affirmation of the reality and permanence of the human ego in a profounder personality" in an age which tended to deny the very existence of human self. It was, as Iqbal says, a challenge flung against the Mutakallimin.[24]

Hallaj, thus, stands, in teh eyes of Iqbal, for revolution against the established order whether in morality, religion or in literature.

The revolutionary character of Hallaj is apparent when Iqbal calls both Neitzsche, the German thinker and McTaggart, his teacher at Cambridge (U.K.), as new Hallajes, for both, in their way, revolted against the inert and antiquated order prevalent in their days. The beautiful Lady of `Ajam, Qurrat ul `Ayn Tahira, whose name has grown into a legend, symbolises in her life the same revolutionary zeal to build anew on the ashes of the old. Both Hallaj and Tahira have the honour of laying down their lives for the promotion of the cause dearest to their heart.

Ghalib, though not a martyr as Hallaj and Tahira, is yet in the eyes of Iqbal an equally ardent revolutionary in the world of art. His songs and laments are a source of inspiration to the weary soul of the individual in search of spiritual peace.

این نواہا روح را بخشد ثبات

(these songs afford solace to the spirit).[25] Well could Ghalib sing with Hallaj.

زخاک خویش طلب آتشے کہ پیدا نیست

تجلئ دگرے در خور تقاضا نیست

Seek fire, as yet unseen, from your own self ;

Light borrowed from others cannot illumine the temple of your soul.[26]

And then cry out :

بیا کہ قاعدۂ آسمان بگرد انیم

قضا بگردش رطل گران بگردانیم

ز حیدریم من و تو، زما عجب  نبود

گر آفتاب سوئے خاوران بگردانیم

Let us change the ways of the Heaven, And the decree of the Destiny,

By distributing a large goblet of wine.

No wonder if you and I, being devotes of Haider,

Turn back the sun towards the East.[27]

Ghalib and Hallaj being revolutionary by nature and burning with the fire of infinite yearning, could not remain content within the confines of a Paradise which, according to the Mulla, is an abode of eating, sleeping and singing, or, you may say, wine, houries and pageboys. Anguished lovers like Ghalib would rather prefer a life of eternal wandering, strung by tumult-arousing love and seek direct vision of the Ultimate Being:

جنت عاشق تماشائے وجود

Lover's Paradise is contemplation of Being (Beauty).[28] or as Ghalib says:

سنتے ہیں جو بہشت کی تعریف سب درست

لیکن خدا کرے وہ تری جلوہ گاہ ہو

What we hear about Paradise may be true,

But we wish it would be your Abode of Manifestation.

In one of his Persian Mathnavis ,Ab-i Guhar Bār, Ghalib, during the course of a story, describes the traditional paradise as the dullest place imaginable, unsuitable for ardent lovers who cannot bear the monotony of drinking wine day and night at regular intervals out of the same cups:

دران پاک میخانۂ بے خروش

چہ گنجائش شورش نای و نوش

سیہ مستئ ابر و باران کجا

خزان چون نباشد بہاران کجا

نظر بازی و ذوق دیدار کو؟

بفردوس روزن بدیوار کو؟

In that sacred tavern with no commotion

There is no scope for the tumults of life ;

There shall be no dark clouds and rain to brighten up,

When there be no autumn,

What charm would spring bring?

There is no prospect of stealing a view of the beloved

For there is no opening in its wall.[29]

Unless there is something disturbing, something unexpected and unfore­seen breaking the monotony of the routine, Ghalib and Hallaj would not like to dwell in it and therefore their decision to wander for ever and ever.

بے خلشہا زیستن بازیستن

باید آتش در نہ پا زیستن

To live without stings and pricks is no living;

One must live with fire under one's feet.[30]

Muhyuddin Ibn al-'Arabi once said that the fruits of Paradise need the heat of the Hell to ripen. In other words, the paradise would be in-complete without hell; both must be brought together to afford complete and ful enjoyment. As Ghalib says:

خلد میں کہیو تو دوزخ بھی ملا لیں یارب

سیر کے واسطے تھوڑی سی فضا اور سہی

If you permit, O God, we may bring a tittle of Hell into Heaven;

Let there be a somewhat different atmosphere for pleasure's sake. And the reason is that the Paradise as it is, cannot satisfy the cravings of a heart burning with ardour of love. Ghalib says:

جنت نشود چارۂ افسردگئ دل

تعمیر باندازۂ ویرانئ ما نیست

The Paradise does not afford any solace to our sad heart ; It is too small to satisfy our inner yearnings.[31]

This hell in paradise, fire in water, as Ghalib describes himself in one of his qasidas.[32]

از برون سو آبم اما از درون سو آتشم

is one of the effects of what Ghalib calls aجگر سوختہ  a "burnt heart" in his famous verse which had been since long a subject of great controversy:

قمری کف خآکستار و بلبل قفس رنگ

اے نالہ نشان جگر سوختہ کیا ہے؟

The dove is a handful of ashes, the nightingle a network of colour,

O lamentation, what is the sign of a burnt heart ?

Iqbal has tried to develop the idea of Ghalib in this verse in his own way which is not much different from what Ghalib himself would have expounded.

A lamentation that rises out of a burnt heart manifests itself in the world in variegated forms. It has made the dove a handful of ashes while the nightingale has acquired through this very lamentation, a variety of colours. In every case the actuality is in proportion to the potentiality. In the case of the dove, it leads to death whip in the case of a nightingale it leads to flowering of life in a multiplicity of colours. Iqbal sums up this discussion :

تو ندانی این مقام رنگ و بوست

قسمت ہر دل بقدر ہائے و ہوست

In this station of colour and scent

The portion of every heart is determined by its lamentation and yearning.[33]

It is an eaho of what Ghalib has said about "the unlimited possibilities of existence:

توفیق باندازۂ ہمت ہے ازل سے

آنکھوں میں ہے وہ قطرہ جو گوہر نہ ہوا تھا

Divine Grace has ever been commensurate with one's ambition, The tear in the eye is a drop of water that preferred not to be a gem.

Much depends on one's effort which is the result of constant prompt. ings from within one's heart, the expression of love, search and attainment of ideals:

شوق ہے ساماں طراز نازش ارباب عجز

ذرہ صحرا دستگاہ و قطرہ دریا آشنا

It is desire which affords opportunity of glory to the weak,

An atom has the possibility of being a desert and a drop, the ambition of being an ocean.

The last point which Iqbal raises with regard to Ghalib in Javid Nāma revolves round the Mathnavi which Ghalib wrote at the request of his friend, Fazl Haq of Khayrabad who, although a logician of great eminence, played a reactionary role in the religious field. He opposed tooth and nail the reform movement initiated by Shah Ismail Shahid and asked Ghalib to write a Mathnavi in his defence which he accordingly did.[34]

One of the disputed points was whether God could produce another Muhammad. Fazl Haq held that God cannot and would not while Shah Isma'il held that God can but would not produce another one like him because it would go against prophet's finality. Ghalib had started writing the Mathnavi to defend Fazl Haq's stand but the logic of the argument as well as, most probably, Ghalib's own common sense led him to a stand which supported Shah Isma`il's thesis:

صورت آرایش عالم نگر

یک مہ و یک مہر و یک خاتم نگر

Look at the arrangement of the universe;

One sun, one moon and therefore one final prophet.

But then he added that God in his infinite mercy can create many worlds and therefore each world can have a final prophet;

ہر کجا ہنگامۂ عالم بود

رحمۃ اللعالمینے ہم بود

Wherever the tumultuous clamour of a world arises, There too is a Mercy unto all beings.[35]

Iqbal asks Ghalib to explain the verse more clearly but Ghalib expresses his inability to put in simple words the richness of ideas implied in the verse. Being pressed hard by Iqbal, Ghalib cries out:

خلق و تقدیر و ہدایت ابتداست

رحمۃ اللعالمینی انتہاست

Creation, shaping and guidance are the beginning, A Mercy unto all beings is the end.

It is a reference to the Quranic verse :

الذی خلق فسوی و الذی قدر فھدی

God created and shaped, determined and guided.[36]

God's role in the universe is to create, determine the nature of every object and then to afford it guidance from within its own self. But what is the object of this whole process of creation? It is to reach a stage of perfection that is designatedرحمۃ اللعالمین "Mercy unto all," the Perfect Man. He is the final end of creation.

Round a simple verse of Ghalib which, no doubt, is pregnant with great possibilities of meaning, Iqbal has developed a philosophico­theological doctrine of Logos or the Perfect Man.

This doctrine was developed by Philo, the Alexandarian Jew under the influence of Greek philosophy and can hardly be said to be com­patible with the conception of a theistic God present in the Quran. Between God who is Spirit pure and simple and the universe of matter there can be no direct and immediate contact. The Perfect Man is the intermediary between the two ; it is he who first reflects the light Divine and then distributes it to the universe in ever decreasing degrees. Among Muslim thinkers it was adopted first by Hallaj, then by Ibn al-'Arabi and al-Jili and since then it has become the stock-in-trade of Muslim mystics and poets. Ghalib refers to it in the beginning of the same Mathnavi:

جلوۂ اول کہ حق بر خویش کرد

مشعل از نور محمد پیش کرد

شد عیان زان نور در نزم ظہور

ہرچہ پنہان بود از نزدیک و دور

نور حق است احمد و لمعان نور

از نبی و اولیا دارد ظہور

The first epiphany of God directed towards itself

Produced a candle out of Nur-i Muhammad.

All the hidden things of the universe, far and near,

Were made manifest through this light.

Ahmad is the Light of God and reflection of this Light

Is present in every prophet and saint,

This very doctrine of Logos to which Ghalib refers in this Mathnavi has been expounded by Iqbal in explication of one of Ghalib's verses. But Iqbal makes this detailed exposition come from the mouth of Hallaj who expounded it in its mystic rather than philosophic aspect. More-over, Hallaj is not a pantheist like Iqbal while Ghalib after Ibn al-`Arabi was a great advocate of Pantheism.

To conclude with a verse from Ghalib :

در تہ ہر حرف غالب چیدہ ام میخانہ ی

تا ز دیوانم کہ سر مست سخن خواہد شدن

Every word of mine is a tavern by itself,

So that it might intoxicate lovers of poetry.[37]

Once more with poppies red and bright Glow the happy hill and dale;

My Muse is also prompted now

By the warble of nightingale

Flowers bright in the valley gay Like a host of fairies stand :

And in their vestures green and blue They look a jolly band.

The morning wind with gems of dew Has decked the bloosoms all ;

That still more glint and shine When darts of Phoebus fall.

Who can say whether the town is Full of grace or the wold,

When for the display of its charms Woods are liked by Beauty cold ?

Know yourself, if you wish to grasp The aim and goal of life,

Your forging ties with others matters not ; With yourself have no strife.

The world of flesh is a world Of Craft, art, loss and gain : The realm of mind is replete With longing, zeal and pain.

The wealth of mind, if attained, Does not end and does not wane ; Whereas the riches of the world Like a shadow lose and gain.

In world of mind I did not find The kingdom of the Man of West;

The Shaikh and Brahman with their feuds Ruffle not mind's repose and rest.

The hint of hermit bold

Struck me with woe and shame :

"If your head before others you bow, You cannot rule mind or frame".

A. A. Shah English rendering of a ghazal in Bāl-i Jibril, 48-49.

 NOTES