woh su'ey laalah zaar phirtey haiN

salam,

subh'an Allah wa jazakAllah khair. definitely, sidi Abu 'Hassan's explanation is very simple and if it refers to an incident then for sure it is a very close explanation, because Ala 'Hazrat's poetry is full of quotes from Quran, 'hadeeth, and hikayyat.

 

gard means dust
gird means around as in ard-gird meaning sorroundings.

it is tempting to use gard/dust for the enemies/`adu, but still gird is appropriate. this is used once again in

laakhoN qudsi haiN kaam e khidmat par
laakhoN gird e mazaar phirtey haiN
​

the mistake was in my original transliteration; others had just copied it. i have corrected this mistake in all posts.

 

i disagree. this is not about any graveyard - and alaHazrat's poetry is not haphazard. check this with any student of urdu poetic forms; no couplet within the poem/ghazal should stray from subject at hand.

it is only fitting that 'jagah' or place is the rawDah. because the focus on this couplet is on the 'place' - the imam's words clearly show an yearning, an awe for the 'place' with the words haay and woh kya jagah hai.

earlier explanations in this thread are much better; particularly, i liked noori's explanation that relates five to the five senses. but i am a simple minded soul who likes simple explanations: simply put,alaHazrat says, the hallowed rawDah is such a place that if five go there to visit, only four return. one among them dies of joy and happiness - or that one is lost forever even if he is alive. the numbers five and four might be there just for the poetic meter/rhyme or for a specific reason.

phirtey hain is an idiom meaning 'return.'

i have a feeling that it might refer to a particular incident where five people visited the rawDah and one passed away. i will try to look up in 'wafa al-wafa' and other histories of madinah/rawDah inshaAllah. [already checked one by ibn Diya al-makki al-Hanafi, d.854 AH but no luck]

haay ghaafil woh kyaa jagaah hai jahaaN
paanch jaatey haiN chaar phirtey haiN

what a lovely place is it; o, the heedless one!
five come here to visit; but only four return

 

salam,

that's like more befitting. Only scholars can reach to the correct meanings of their elders. subh'an Allah.

 

:s1:
jazak Allah khayr for that explanation of Allama Uwaysi's!

 

salam,

If I'm not mistaken then a'ala 'hazrat is speaking of 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste), that a pilgrim goes there with his five senses, but returns with four only which are hearing, touch, smell and tast. pilgrim never forgets that view, as if his eyes are still looking at the blessed golden fence. actually it is heart which does not come back, but ala-hazrat used the sense of sight for his heart, and the relation of eyes with heart is very obvious.

here a'ala hazrat used 'phirtay hain' to mean 'returns from there' because he used 'jatay hain' in first line of the couplet.

 

Good points Sidi Aqdas! But I think when Ala Hazrat wrote 'five' and 'four' he had someone specific in mind.

I used the plural 'hain' for the verse about the Cave as I think that the episode
of the Cave is one in which Sayyidina Abu Bakr :ra: and Huzoor Paak صلى الله عليه وسلم are
always mentioned together. But your interpretation is also possible. That's poetry's greatness.

Yes, Wahabis are braindead!

 

Translation of "Woh su'ey laalah zaar phirtey haiN" (for Haroon)

:s1:

The above transliteration was by Sidi Abu Hasan. I have attempted a translation (in red)as requested--not a literal one but one which, I hope, gets the meaning across insha Allah.

 

Wa alaykum as-salaam,



Yes, it is the very same!

 

woh su’ey laalah zaar phirtey haiN
tere din ay bahaar phirtey haiN

jo terey dar se yaar phirtey haiN
dar ba dar yuN hi khaar phirtey haiN

aah kal `aysh to kiye hum ne
aaj woh be qaraar phirtey haiN

un ke eemaa sey donoN baagoN par
khayl e layl o nahaar phirtey haiN

har charaaghe mazaar par qudsee
kaysa parwaanah waar phirtey haiN

us gali kaa gadaa huN maiN jis meiN
maangtey taajdaar phirtey haiN

jaan haiN jaan kyaa nazar aaye
kyuN `adu gird e ghaar phirtey haiN

phuul kyaa dekhuN meri aankhoN meiN
dasht e taybah ke khaar phirtey haiN

laakhoN qudsi haiN kaam e khidmat par
laakhoN gird e mazaar phirtey haiN

wardiyaN boltey haiN har kaarey
pahra detey sawaar phirtey haiN

rakhiye jaise haiN khaana zaad haiN hum
mol ke `ayb daar phirtey haiN

haay ghaafil woh kyaa jagaah hai jahaaN
paanch jaatey haiN chaar phirtey haiN

bayeN rastey na jaa musaafir sun
maal ke raah maar phirtey haiN

jaag sun saan ban hai raat aayee
gurg bahr e shikaar phirtey haiN

nafs ye koyi chaal hai zaalim
jayse khaaSey bijaar phirtey haiN

koyi kyuN puuche teri baat razaa
tujh se shaydaa hazaar phirtey haiN