A distich by Ghalib on Wahdat al Wajood

naqshbandijamaati

naqshbandijamaati

sunniport user
:s1:

A poem of philosophical bent to get your minds over by the greatest Urdu poet of them all...


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Na thaa kuchh to Khudaa thaa, kuchh na hotaa to Khudaa hotaa
Duboyaa mujh ko hone ne, na hotaa mai.n to kyaa hotaa
---Ghalib
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When nothing existed there was God; if nothing existed God still would exist.
But Existence itself has drowned me; if I did not exist what would exist?
 
I may be wrong, but I think Mirza Ghalib was the one I read about who was a staunch Sunni and was strongly influenced by the great Imam Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi. There are many of his lines that are to do with Imkan-e-Nazeer (Imtina'e Nazeer) and support the Sunni viewpoint. It was 'Allama Fazl-e-Haq who bought Ghalib's attention to writing about this.
 
i think it is a tragedy of our instant coffee / instant messaging generation is that almost everything is considered sans context, sans subtle differences, sans everything. ghalib was a drunkard - it is common knowledge. and no imaginative stretch of his poetry can turn him into a saint.

na masayil e tasawwuf, na tera bayaan ghalib,
nahin hum wali samjhtey GO na baada khaar hota

and i wish people give up this alassing about. there are many noble men and men of high character that we can emulate, venerate, admire and wax endlessly about.

---
some people take it to incredible lengths. why does a drunkard with a recorded history of mocking religiousness and flagrant endorsement of impiety, deserves so much coverage is beyond me. oh, yes. he had an extraordinary talent for poetry - so did marlon brando for acting. but who cares?

can't we doff this acquired taste for 'art' from the western culture? a children's charity will receive a hundred thousand with much difficulty and they will spend twice as much on a photograph showcasing poverty.

anyway, we will save that for another rant.

for the record: meer taqi meer is no less a poet and infact, acknowledged by ghalib himself. as for personal tastes, i think the greatest urdu poet was imam ahmed riDa khan. call me a fanatic, but there you are.
 
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The rejoinder was brilliant: daboya tujh ko peene nay, na peeta tu, to kya hota! :D

Granted, Ghalib was a drinker (though he drank in moderation according to the biographical sources -but still it is no excuse), but what has that to do with his work AND I never for one moment said he was a saint, did I? And this is one particular couplet which is not praising the virtues of wine. Wasn't it Mawla i Kainaat :as: who said do not look at who is saying it but what is being said?

I think you're rant on this ocassion is unjustified. Being religious doesn't mean surely that we disown all those parts of our cultural or traditional heritage whose practitioners mightn't have been totally upright Muslims! After all the ulama have to learn about classical arabic poetry as part of their dars i nizami and a lot of those poets were not particularly pious men either e.g. Abu Nawas or al Mutanabbi or Imru'l Qays...

Yes, Ala Hazrat :ra: was - is- a masterful poet of Urdu na'at but we mustn't let love blind us to the virtues of others either; otherwise we lose credibility. His brother was too but his brother was also a shagird of Nawab Daagh Delhvi...

Ghalib, in his defence, was famous for his poetry not for his piety and he never claimed such either. Yet he has written some touching naatiyya poems too, and some great philosophical ones like the one I quoted; I was hoping the focus would be on this couplet and not Ghalib's character....

***

Aqdas thanks for that info. about him and Mawlana Fazl e Haqq and Imkaan e Nazeer...xan you find out more about this? (The stuff I have read of him, including parts of his diwan suggest he had very strong Shi'i leanings...)
 
i was told that a pious man (don't remember the name) saw Ghalib in his dreams walking in jannah and a sweet aromatic smell coming out of his mouth. the piuos man says that i was amazed that what he is doing here as he was a drunkard. moreover, the stunning fragrance! i asked him and he replied:

"there was no chance of my bakhshish. but Allah accepted one of my deeds which i didn't even remember."

"and what was that?" asked the pious man.

he replied, "once i was invited in a mehfil of milad. i went there. but with all the burdens of my bad deeds, i did not have the courage to go and sit with the people but i found the best place for me was the shoekeeping place just after the entrance. regardless of how people forced me i remained sitted there till the end. and this became the cause of my bakhshish."

don't know it's authenticity but who knows the infiniteness and limitlessness of Allah's mercy. nobody!!!
 
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That was a beautiful story! I hope it is true. After all I've heard ulama mention the story of the man who'd committed 100 murders but who had repented ere he died. The angels argued over him and so Allah told them to measure the distance from where he was going to do repentence and where he'd set off and if he was closer to the former he'd be saved and if the latter he'd be doomed. Yet Allah ordered the land to contract so it was nearer to his destination and so he was saved! Such is the love Allah has of repenters and His Mercy is Infinite!

Anyone who has read Ghalib's letters and seen him weep for the poor Muslims being oppressed will know of his heart...

Also we mustn't forget his close friendship with Shaykh Fazal e Haqq...
and his naats...

In his own words:

Kal keliye karooN aaj khissat sharaab mein?
Yeh soo-e-zann hai, Saqi e Kausar kay baab mein!

My poor paraphrase:
Why should I stop drinking today for fear of tomorrow?
I have a greater trust in the Prophet* than that!

*literally: The Cupbearer of the fountain of Kawthar.
 
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In his own words:

Kal keliye karooN aaj khissat sharaab mein?
Yeh soo-e-zann hai, Saqi e Kausar kay baab mein!

My poor paraphrase:
Why should I stop drinking today for fear of tomorrow?
I have a greater trust in the Prophet* than that!

*literally: The Cupbearer of the fountain of Kawthar.
Click to expand...

SubhanAllah. these are my first naat's verses of ghalib. Bro Naqsh. i'll be very thankfull if you could post his naat poetry, be it in urdu, be it just one naat.

and sidi, are you a murid in the silsilah naqshbandiyah of pir Syed Jamaat Ali Shah sahab Ra?
 
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Insha Allah I will post the whole natiyya poem later today. I am not sure how many other such ones he has. Perhaps in the Farsi Diwan he'll have more (I don't have it so i don't know).

Yes I am a murid of Pir Sayyid Afzal Husayn Shah Sahib Naqshbandi-Jama'ati of Alipur Sharif.

:)
 
so NJ (now sunniSkeptic) has left us. But I had a question regarding his understanding of the Verse.
Is ghalib really referring to wahdatal wujood or is he just feeling sorry for himself?

A very capable scholar said the meaning of the verse is as follows:-

ghalib in the first line affirms that Allah will exist forever and he was, is and always will be. Then Ghalib says, that my pitiful existence has drowned me and left me disgraced, if I didn't exist then would it really matter? Would it make a difference to anything?

I too wasn't too warm in accepting this interpretation until I stumbled across another verse by Ghalib

mere hone meiN he kya ruswayiy
Ey! Woh Majlis nahiN, khalwat hi Sahiy

What do the other brothers think (those brothers with a passion for poetry), which interpretation do you think is correct and what did Ghalib mean?

 
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