Umar Farooq

I'm Umar. I translate sometimes, mainly poetry.

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Abu'l-Ma‘āni Mirza ‘Abd al-Qadir 𝘉𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘭:

From compassion to magnanimity, and then courtesy to loyalty true,
All that I sought, I see has taken its leave from this world too!

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Related themes:

Exhaustion of spirit, emotional burnout, existential weariness.

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Miyan Muhammad Bakhsh writes:

کوئی آکھے پیڑ لکّ دی، کوئی آکھے چُک
وچلی گل اے محمد بخشا وچوں گئی اے مُک

Some call it bodily malady, or flesh's pain tho' hard to see,
But, in my heart of hearts, the matter doth truly be,
That, from within, I am weary and undone utterly!

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

One day, Mawlana Muhammad Akram 𝘎𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵 Kunjahi (raHimahu Llah) was passing through the market when an impudent and mischievous lad blocked his path, asking him without preamble:

"What is the scale¹ of a quatrain²?"

In the meantime a few lads who were classmates of the aforementioned one also arrived at the scene. They knew that stopping and addressing an elder brusquely like this on the street was contrary to the proprieties of the era. However, being emboldened by their classmate's audacity they joined him, forming a circle around Ghanimat, repeating the question.

Ghanimat by this time having composed himself, spoke saying, "Listen then!" Upon which he uttered the following Farsi quatrain, composed extempore:

𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘺𝘵ā𝘯 𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘺𝘴𝘩-𝘪 𝘮𝘢𝘯 ā𝘮𝘢𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘳 𝘳𝘢𝘩,
𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘴ī𝘥 𝘻𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘻𝘯-𝘪 𝘳𝘶𝘣ā‘ī 𝘯ā𝘨𝘢𝘩,
𝘤𝘩ū𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘬𝘩ī-𝘪 𝘵𝘢𝘣‘𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘳ā 𝘣𝘢-𝘥ī𝘥𝘢𝘮, 𝘨𝘶𝘧𝘵𝘢𝘮,
𝘭ā 𝘩𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘢 𝘸𝘢 𝘭ā 𝘲𝘶𝘸𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘪𝘭𝘭ā 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭ā𝘩³

𝐓 𝐑 𝐀 𝐍 𝐒 𝐋 𝐀 𝐓 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍

By a devilish lad coming afore me I was waylaid,
With him suddenly asking me the scale of a quatrain,
Upon seeing his mischievous nature, I exclaimed:
"There is no power nor strength except by God!"³

—
Thus, Mawlana Ghanimat demonstrated both the scale of a Persian quatrain to the questioner, as well as conveyed his displeasure with his manner of asking. A near impossibly eloquent and elegant riposte, as well as a very quick-witted one!

𝐍 𝐎 𝐓 𝐄 𝐒

¹ - 𝘸𝘢𝘻𝘯
² - 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘢‘𝘪
³ - The last line, the 𝘩𝘢𝘸𝘲𝘢𝘭𝘢, is oft used to express astonishment, exasperation, or to ward off something perceived as mischievous or evil.
_

– taken from the preface to 𝘥𝘪𝘸𝘢𝘯-𝘪 𝘨𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵, by Prof. Ghulam-i Rabbani ‘Aziz. 1958. Lahore.

— translated by this faqir, UF.

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

A fresh effort:

Pir Waris Shah on this life's ephemerality and the certainty of death's coming. In Panjabi:

وارث شاہ اک دن اساں وی ٹر جانا
کنڈے مار کے ایہناں حویلیاں دے

Waris Shah ik din asaañ vi Tur jaanaa
kunDe maar ke inhaan haveliyaañ de

T R A N S L A T I O N

Waris Shah, one day we shall depart too,
Bolting these grand mansions with adieu!
—

Pir Sayyid Nasir al-Din 'Nasir', in Urdu, on a similar note writes:

جن کے جانے سے جان جاتی تھی
ہم نے ان کا جانا بھی دیکھا ہے

jin ke jaane se jaan jaati thi
ham ne un ka jaana bhi dekha hai

T R A N S L A T I O N

Those whose leaving would take one's heart–
I have witnessed them too herefrom depart!
—

Miyan Muhammad Bakhsh, in a similar vein, writes in Panjabi:

ایہ دنیا اک مسافر خانہ اک آوے اک جاوے
کسے دی کی مجال محمد اتهے پکّے ڈیرے لاوے

eh dunya ik musaafir-khaana ik aave ik jaave
kisse di ki majaal Muhammad ithe pakke deyre laave

T R A N S L A T I O N

One arrives and another departs, for this world is but a wayfarer's inn,
O Muhammad, who dares to think they can establish a home herein?!

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

@panjabipoint0 jazaka Llahu khayran, thank you for the kind words of encouragement. Sadly mawlana ghanimat & the poets you mentioned seem to belong to a portion of Panjab's heritage which is lost to most, be they diasporan or resident. It would be nice to bring some of it to the fore again.

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Mawlana Muhammad Akram Ghanimat Kunjahi (raHimahu Llah) begins his famous mathnawi with an exposition of wujudi doctrine:

بنامِ شاهدِ نازک خیالان
عزیزِ خاطرِ آشفته حالان

ba-nām-i shāhid-i nāzuk-khiyālān
‘aziz-i khātir-i āshuftah-hālān

T R A N S L A T I O N

In the beloved's name, witness to all those of subtle thought possessed,
Dearest to the hearts and minds of those who be in spirit distressed

C O M M E N T A R Y

Mawlana Ghanimat starts as he means to go on, so to speak, with his first line encapsulating that his mathnawi is an exposition of wujudi doctrine of the more phenomenological sort, enshrouded in the thematic frame of a lover/beloved poetic narrative, à la Rumi, Hafez et al.

In the marginalia (hawāshī) of the mathnawi, also in Persian, this is demystified. I have typed it out and translated it below:

شاهد: نامى است از نامهای پيغمبر ما صلی الله عليه وسلم، و در عرف شاهد امـرد و خـوبصـورت را گويند و گواه و محبوب در اصطلاح سالكان، شاهد حق را گويند، با اعتبار ظهور و حضور، زيرا كه حق به صور اشياء ظاهر شده است كه هو الظاهر، عبارت از آنست، و مراد معنی اخير است، و نازك خيـالان،‌ جمع نازکخيال كسانی كه خيال ايشان باريك بود، مراد عشاق يا شعرا

"shāhid: a name from amongst the many names of our Messenger (salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), in common parlance shāhid means 'a handsome young man' or 'one who is beautiful'.
In the nomenclature of the spiritual wayfarers¹ shāhid means 'witness' and 'beloved', they use shahid to refer to The Real², on account of [His] manifestation³ and presence⁴, and this is because The Real becomes manifest⁵ in the forms of things⁶, for 'He is the Manifest...'⁷. The explanation of the phrasing is so, with the intended meaning of it being the latter.

nāzuk-khiyālan: is the plural of nāzuk-khiyāl, meaning those whose thoughts are subtle, refined, and pensive. By this is meant the lovers⁷ and the poets⁸."

N O T E S

¹ - sālikān, those who seek God via sulūk, traversing the path of spirituality, tasawwuf/sufism
² - al-Haqq, one of the names of God, The Divine
³ - zuhūr
⁴ - hudūr/huzūr
⁵ - zāhir
⁶ suwar-i ashyā'
⁷
هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
[Surah al-Hadid: 3]
⁸ - ush'shāq
⁹ - shu‘arā'
—

There was a time, perhaps just stretching past living memory, when this couplet was famous and the people of Panjab (from where mawlana ghanimat hailed) and its adjoining regions would begin letters to their loved ones with it.

This was when Farsi/Persian was still taught widely and it enjoyed a rich appreciation amongst the learned, high Urdu took its loanwords from Farsi and Farsi constructions added eloquence to one's speech. This being lingering effect of Mughal rule, where Farsi was the language of the elite, the courts, the sultan etc.
Farsi has now been supplanted with English now in this regard for the most part, and we are, in my humble opinion, much the poorer for it.

Gone are the days, when people were so refined, subtle, and their speech so nuanced.

— translation and comments by this faqir, Umar

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

@JaggaNadeeri @panjabipoint0 Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. Please do share some verses with me from the aforementioned which resonate with you, and perhaps I will try.

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Mawlana Ghanimat Kunjahi on the elegant, understated beauty of Panjab. In Farsi/Persian:

نه خواهم لاله زار گلشن ایران که سر بر زد
گل‌ داؤدی صبح وطن از خاک پنجابم

na khāham lālah-zār-i gulshan-i īrān keh sar bar zad
gul-i dā'ūdī-i subh-i watan az khāk-i panjābam

T R A N S L A T I O N

For the paradise that be the tulip gardens of Persia never did I yearn,
For our land's pristine morning daisy does bloom from my Panjab's earth!

N O T E S

This couplet beautifully encapsulates Mawlana Ghanimat Kunjahi's love for his homeland, Panjab.

The couplet's power lies in its contrasting imagery. By juxtaposing the Persian "paradisiacal tulip garden" (lālah-zār-i gulshan-i īrān) with the Panjabi "pristine morning daisy" (gul-i dā'ūdī-i subh-i watan) he highlights the unique beauty and value of his homeland Panjab, even when compared to a place renowned for its splendor, as the gardens of Iran are and were.

The "pristine morning daisy" symbolises the simple, unassuming beauty of Panjab. Home is home at the end of the day, and Panjab is Panjab! Well, for us Panjabis at least! 🙂

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

@JaggaNadeeri There is nothing quite like Gujrat. I have loved it dearly from my very first visit there, diaspora child though I was!

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Mawlana Ghanimat Kunjahi (raHimahu Llah, a famous poet, sage, and littérateur from our very own ancestral Gujrat) on the virtue of his homeland Panjab over Kashmir, at least according to him. In Farsi/Persian with translation:

آب شد کشمیر در چشمِ غنیمت از حجاب
تا‌ که نادانسته نامِ خطهئِ پنجاب‌ برد

āb shud kashmir dar chashm-i ghanīmat az hijāb
tā-keh nā-dānistah nām-i khittah-i panjāb burd!

Kashmir drowned in Ghanimat's eyes, his tears obscuring it from gaze–
quite unwittingly, when he happened to take the land of Panjab's name!

— translated by this faqir

N O T E S

The context to the above is that Mawlana Ghanimat once visited Kashmir, a land much praised for its beauty which has been likened to paradise by poets past. Yet, despite his being taken by its beauty he was taken even more by the pangs of separation from his homeland, Panjab.

Thus, he penned this couplet whilst there in Kashmir. The verse uses powerful imagery to convey the poet's deep emotional connection to Panjab. That the mere mention of Panjab, uttered in passing, triggers an overwhelming response (perhaps even a surprise to himself) - eliciting tears such that even the beauty of Kashmir sprawling in front of him is veiled.

The poet's actual name is Muhammad Akram, Ghanimat being his takhallus (poetic pen name), and Kunjahi being his referral, in reference to Kunjah (a town on the outskirts of Gujrat city) where he lived and passed away. He was born to a scholarly family, was a classically trained ‘alim, and an initiate in the tariqah qadiriyyah. His devotion to and love of al-Ghawth al-A‘zam al-Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani is that of legend.

His collected poetry in the ghazal poetic genre is available by the name of dīwān-i ghanīmat. His contribution to the mathnawi poetic genre (nairang-i ‘ishq) in particular is held in high esteem amongst those written in the indo-pak subcontinent; it holds a lofty rank, after those of Amir Khusro and Faizi.

I will be sharing more of his poetry in translation as well as more in regards to him himself, soon.

[Umar Farooq @MuhammadUF12]

Miyan Muhammad Bakhsh on the sacrifice that is inherent to love:

jinhaañ dukhaañ te dilbar raazi sukh unhaañ tooñ vaare
dukh qabool muhammad bakhsha raazi rehn pyaare

جنہاں دکھاں تے دلبر راضی سکھ انہاں توں وارے
دکھ قبول محمد بخشا راضی رہن پیارے

If in sorrow as my lot the beloved be content, then all mine happiness I do readily cede,
Woes untold do heartily accept, Muhammmad Bakhsh, so the beloved remain pleased!