Hum Dekhain Gay
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
Woh Din ke Jis ka Wadah Hai
Jo Loh-e-Azl pe Likha hai
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
It is necessary that we shall also see
That day which has been promised
Which is written with God’s ink
We shall see
After the death of Faiz Ahmed Faiz a severe vacuum was created in world’s poetry which can still be felt, ARY News reported.
He was an influential left-wing intellectual, revolutionary poet and one of the most famous poets of the Urdu and Punjabi language in 20thcentury from Pakistan. Listed four times for the Nobel Prize in poetry, he received the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union in 1962.
Faiz was controversially named and linked by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan’s government for hatching the conspiracy against Liaquat Ali Khan’s government. Having been arrested by Military police, Faiz among others received a maximum sentence at that time, although his sentence was commuted after the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951.
He remained extremely influential in Pakistan and his work continues to influence the country’s literature and arts. Faiz was publicly honored by the Pakistan Government after his literary work was publicly endorsed and posthumously honored him with nation’s highest civil award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990.
Faiz’s writings are comparatively new verse form in Urdu poetry based on Western models. Faiz was influenced by the works of Allama Iqbal and Mirza Ghalib, assimilating the modern Urdu with the classical. Faiz used more and more demands for the development of socialism in the country, finding socialism the only solution of country’s problems.
In 1972, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Faiz as Culture adviser at the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. Faiz continued serving in Bhutto’s government until 1974 when he took retirement from the government assignments.
Faiz was an avowed supporter of Sufism. He had close relations with several Sufi saints of his time.
Once when he was asked how he could compare Sufis with socialist comrades, he replied, “They [Sufis] are the real comrades”. He is also credited for coining the term Ana al-Haqq in the political sense.
Faiz, whose work is considered the backbone of development of Pakistan’s literature, arts and poetry, was one of the most beloved poets in the country.[ Along with Allama Iqbal, Faiz is often known as “Poet of East”.
While commenting on his legacy, classical singer Tina Sani mesmerized Faiz’s legacy as she says:
“Faiz Ahmad Faiz… Was like a comrade, his thoughts were soft but effective and inspired the classical singers as it did others in the plays we did… Faiz’s poetry never gets old because the problems and situations in this country have not changed. Today we sing him because of his beautiful poetry, missing out on the reasons behind his poems that had predictions…”
—Tina Sani, commenting the legacy of Faiz
Faiz died on 20th November 1984 at the age of 73 in Lahore.
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