The 147th death anniversary of Mirza Ghalib yet again went unnoticed, as do his views, reflecting the build-up of an apathetic mindset of our society. The only difference this time was that newscasts on some TV channels briefly referred to the unique style of Ghalib's poetry - a profile of remembrance that manifests our confused values and priorities. But, unlike us, Ghalib knew the reality of the world and life thereon when he said:
Bazeecha-e-itfall hai Dunyia mere aagay
Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha meray aagay
Shakespeare expressed the same view when he wrote the phrase "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players" in his famous play 'As You Like It', but Ghalib went a step ahead by concluding that the world and life thereon were no more than attractive mirages; he came to this conclusion (vividly summarized in his following verse) based on historical facts, and his assessment of what went on around him:
Hasti ke mut faraib mein aajaiyo Asad
Aalum taman halq-e-dam-e-khayal hai
Not many seem to realize that the slide we are witnessing in our values owes itself to side-lining the warnings of the intellectuals who emphasized the importance of shunning lust and practicing the values that ensure a truly human existence, not merely in form but also in conduct. What worries the saner elements is that the slide in our values is making us more tolerant of inhumanity - apathy that pushing the society into a bottomless pit.
While we may continue to ignore his majestic contribution to poetry and literature, and through them to values, Ghalib remains a towering figure who was blessed with remarkable discerning abilities and vision, the intellect for portraying human feelings in a picturesque manner, and the complex cosmic realities, all in a narrative that make the readers understand that these feelings and realities are the ultimate truths and ever-lasting realities.
No matter which direction a society adopts, these realities determine its ultimate fate, comprehending which is a God-gifted ability that the chosen are blessed with. It is therefore no surprise that the three all-time great poets of the Indo-Pak subcontinent that the eminent critic Ali Sardar Jafri chose to write about in his famous book titled "Paighumbaran-e-Sukhan" includes Mirza Ghalib, besides Kavi Kabir Das and Mir Taqi Mir.
Ghalib's poetry covers all aspect of life including the pain of love, Quranic verses, a quest for exploring the universe, cosmic realities, mannerism and humour, but what he promoted very beautifully were the key human values - doing only that which eventually results in good for all, choosing the righteous as the guides, showing unlimited love and respect for the righteous, not compromising on the ideas whose righteousness one firmly believes in, and shunning favours. Ghalib convincingly promoted these values in his following verses:
Qatra darya mein jo mil jaiey to darya ho jaiey
Kaam achcha hai woh jis ka kay ma'al achcha hai
Bik jatay hein hum apni mat-e-sukhan ke sath
Laykin ayar-e-tab-e-kharidar dekh kar
Chahiye achchon ko jitna chachiye
Yeh agar chahein to phir keya chahiye
Likhtay rahey junoon ki hikayat-e-khoonchakan
Harchand ismein hath humarey qalam hwey
Dard minutkash-e-dawa na hua
Mein na achcha hua, bura na hua
Besides promoting the basic human values what made Ghalib's poetry unique was its timelessness - aspect that makes his verses seem describing today's realities. This is probably the most amazing and admirable aspect of his poetry, which made him a globally renowned poet, and convinced many European intellectuals to study his poetry and then take on the tough task of translating many of his verses.
The fact that besides many poets of the Indo-Pak subcontinent poets like Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz admired his poetry and adopted his style establishes yet again Ghalib's greatness as a poet. The qualities of his poetry that impressed these two great poets was its clarity about the essence of faith, the world and life thereon, and the diction and narrative style Ghalib adopted for expressing his views.
In an assertive yet beautiful style, in the following verse Ghalib boldly declares his belief in the oneness of the Creator and insists that unity of mankind is the divine scheme, and therefore until the division of humanity into religious, sectarian, and racial factions is undone, humanity will not fulfil its obligation to its Creator, which is the most important single message his poetry offers to humanity:
Hum muwahhid hein, hamara kaish hai tark-e-rusoom
Millatain jub mit gaien, ajza-e-iman ho gaien
In the following couplet, he refers to a verse in the Holy Quran wherein the Creator describes the abilities and determination He has blessed mankind with for 'conquering' the universe, and the perfect explanation of this Quranic verse, as done by Hazrat Ali (RA) by highlighting the Creator's prime pre-condition for success in this adventure ie the adventure's conforming in its entirety to the divine scheme.
Hai kahan tammana ka doosra qadam ya Rab
Hum ney dasht-e-imkan ko aik naqsh-e-pa paya
Like every human being, Ghalib too had his weaknesses, but made what him different from the rest was his clarity of views about faith, virtue and vice, and the eventual accountability for human conduct on the Day of Judgment. The following two couplets manifest his consciousness of these eternal reality as well as his honest regrets over his failures - a level of integrity that is very uncommon:
Kaabay kis mounh se jaogey Ghalib
Sharm tumko magar nahien aati
Yeh masael-e-taswuf, yeh tera bayan Ghalib
Tujhey hum Wali samajhtey, jo na bada fhowar hota
But he also begs the Creator for mercy on a fair basis via appreciation for the sins not committed, though the desire to commit them was there. Ghalib was also one of those poets who sometimes asked the Creator seemingly plausible questions, as reflected in the following verses, the second indirectly pointing to the reservations that angels had when God created Adam (and their possible sustained bias against mankind):
Gar karda gunahon ki saza aur jaza hai
Nakarda gunahon bhi hasrat ki milay dad
Pakrey jatey hain farishton ke likhey par insan
Admi koi hamara dam-e-teriri bhi tha
Ghalib lived through the period that witnessed the end of the Mughal Empire and India eventually becoming a colony of the British Empire, the bloodshed it entailed, and the sheer inhumanity demonstrated by soldiers of the East India Company in humiliating and crushing the Muslims in India in general, and in Delhi in particular. While his following verses depict the sad realities of that time, they are apt in describing the scenario prevailing in today's poorly governed Pakistan:
Koi surat nazar nahien aati
Koi ummeed bur nahien aati
Aagey aati thi hal-e-dil pey hansi
Ab kisi baat par nahien aati
Ghalib foresaw the build-up of a social chaos that was to engulf the world because it was going to be led by those who were power-hungry instead of being committed to spreading peace and prosperity to materialize the divine scheme. Take, for instance, the following verse that sums up what can fairly be called the most realistic assessment of the conduct of today's leadership everywhere:
Hum ko unsay wafa ki hai ummeed
Jo nahien jaantey wafa keya hai
As you look around, denial, suppression, injustice and brutality is the order of the day while the leaders' main aim is grabbing power and crushing those demanding justice and equality, and a lot of this inhumanity that is dividing the human race into ever-more factions, is often justified in the name of religion. How sad Ghalib - defender of the basic universal human values - was with this build-up is portrayed by his following verse:
Ho chukin Ghalib balaein sub tamam
Aik marg-e-naghani aur hai
It is this aspect of his poetry that deserves appreciation and promotion as part of an effort to rationalize the human society - something that is being ignored despite the increasing need for its realization and acceptance.