‘Muslim devotional poetry of South Asia’ honoured at IBA session

The Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, School of Economics and Social Sciences, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, organised a session titled ‘Muslim Devotional Poetry of South Asia’, on the main campus.

The event featured recitation of naats written in Urdu, Persian, Sindhi and Punjabi. The IBA faculty and students recited devotional verses of renowned Sindhi poet Maulvi Ahmad Mallah and famous Urdu and Persian poets, including Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.

The highlight of the event was a special guest appearance by naat-khwaan Zara Madani, who is well-known for her regular singing appearances in Coke Studio Pakistan and the film ‘Khuda Ke Liye’. The audience was moved to hear Ms Madani’s qirat of Surah Rahman and appreciated her hauntingly beautiful original compositions and recitation of the famous Urdu devotional verses, ‘Lauh Bhi Tu Qalam Bhi Tu’ and ‘Taazim Se Leta Hai Khuda Naam-e-Muhammad’ by Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Khwaja Muhammad Akbar Warsi respectively, and Punjabi verses ‘Main Lajpaalaan De Lar Lagiyaan’ by Abd us-Sattar Niyazi.

Some other Urdu poets whose naatiyah verses were recited at the event include ‘Nushur’ Wahidi, Kunwar Mahendra Singh Bedi ‘Sahar’, and Najmunnisa Munawwar Ali Bukhari ‘Najm’. IBA students Hamraj Singh, Muhammad Ahmad, and Syed Ghazi Haider Zaidi also recited naats in Sindhi, Arabic, Persian, Braj Bhasha and Urdu.

Keeping with the spirit of honouring original contributions to the field of devotional poetry in praise of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), IBA SESS lecturer and poet Syed Muhammad Baqar Mehdi Rizvi, who teaches Urdu Literature and Psychology, presented examples of his own naatiyah shaairi. His work was acclaimed by the audience, as well as by Ms. Madani, who then took the stage and expressed appreciation for Mr. Rizvi and his fine contributions to the field of Urdu poetry as a young poet in Karachi.

Adding to the creative spirit of the evening, IBA SESS lecturer and literary translator Ms. Zahra Sabri, who had organised the event, presented her own English translation and recital of Ghalib’s famous Persian naat ‘Haq Jalwah-gar zi Tarz-e Bayan-e Muhammad Ast’ and commented on how the devotional poetry of literary giants like Ghalib and Mir is often overlooked by enthusiasts who tend to be familiar only with their mainstream ghazals.

Ms. Sabri, who teaches Indo-Islamic History and Urdu Literature at the IBA, also discussed the importance of Muslim women poets in the domain of South Asian devotional poetry. She spoke about how the long-standing tradition of women’s milads inside private homes has historically offered a training ground for the recital and appreciation of devotional poetry, and how naats and hamds penned and composed by women in such settings form important material for literary research, forming some of the earliest examples of women’s contribution to the field of Urdu literature.

The literary session honoured the spirit of the holy month and concluded with iftar for the attendees.