@Mirza Ghalib
Khizr-e-Rah (Khizr the Guide)
Al-Khizr (Arabic: “the Green One”) is an enigmatic figure in Islam. He is best known for his appearance in the Qur’an in Sura al-Kahf. Although not mentioned by name, he is assumed to be the figure that Musa (Moses) accompanies and whose seemingly violent and destructive actions so disturb Moses that he violates his oath not to ask questions.
Islamic tradition sometimes describes him as Mu’allim al-anbiya (Tutor of the Prophets), for the spiritual guidance he has shown every prophet who has appeared throughout history. In Sufi tradition, Khizr has come to be known as one of those who receive illumination direct from God without human mediation. He is the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path and also figures into the Alexander Romance as a servant of Alexander the Great. Al-Khizr and Alexander cross the Land of Darkness to find the Water of Life. Alexander gets lost looking for the spring, but Khizr finds it and gains eternal life.
The poem, first read in a session of the Anjuman Himayat-e-Islam (‘Association for the Service of Islam’) in 1921 was written against the backdrop of widespread pessimism and gloom in British Indian society. The aftermath of the destruction of World War I, the abolition and dismantling of the last ‘Muslim Caliphate’ the Ottoman Empire, the massacre of hundreds of innocents at the hands of British Indian soldiers at the infamous Jallianwala Bagh (1) and other repressive acts by the ruling British had created a somber mood across the land. This, combined with the ongoing economic depression, had created almost universal despondency, particularly in Indian Muslims. Interestingly, the poem also alludes to the dawn of a new age, where workers will no longer fall for the ‘tricks of the money-men’ inspired, no doubt, by the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 and the establishment of the first worker’s government in history:
‘Uth kay ab bazm-jahan kaa aur hee andaaz hai
Mashriq-o-Maghrib may tere daur kaa aaghaaz hai’
[Translation]
‘Rise, for a new age dawns
Your era begins in East and West’
Iqbal begins the poem by first setting the scene in some detail. Like most poets and artists, he had a keen eye for nature’s beauty and wrote many poems extolling the same. As with many of his best poems, this one, too, is in the form of a dialogue. The poet goes first, describing the peaceful scene around him:
“Saahil-e-daryaa pay main ek raat tha mehway nazar
Gosha-e-dil main chupaay ek jahan-e-iztiraab
Shab sakoot afzaa, hawa asooda, darya narm sair
Thee nazar hairan kay yeh darya hai ya tasveer-e-aab”
[Translation]
“Sunken in thought was I, one night on the river-bank
My anguish buried deep in my heart
Still was the night, quiet, calm the river
Amazed was I at this picture of serenity”
Warming up a little, after painting a picture of nature in all its tranquility, the poet then plumbs a little deeper into his imagination.
“Raat kay afsoon say taair aashianon main aseer
Anjum-e-kam zau giraftar-e-talism-e-mahtaab”
[Translation]
“Songbirds caged by night’s magic
Dimly lit stars imprisoned by the moon’s sorcery”
As the poet paints the scene, he comes face to face with the object of his search, the elusive Khizr.
“Dekhtaa kya hoon kay woh paik-e-jahan paimaa Khizr
Jis kee peeree main hai maanind-e-seher rang-shabaab”
[Translation]
“Who do I see but that wanderer, Khizr
Young like the early morn”
Khizr then addresses our poet and issues him a challenge:
“Keh raha hai mujh say ae joya-e-asrar-e-azal
Chasm dil waa hoe toe hai taqdeer-e-aalam be-hijab”
[Translation]
“Said he, O seeker of the secrets of eternity
The Universe’ fate is clear only to the ‘seeing eye’”
In his poetry, Iqbal often explores metaphysical ideas relating to life, death, birth, heaven and hell. In fact, his doctoral dissertation submitted in 1908 at the University of Munich was titled “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia” and this remained an abiding interest throughout his life.
What does Khizr mean by ‘the seeing eye’? Ancient Esoterics and Mystics believed that there exists some special force inside humans which could perceive the essence of reality independent of intellect or reason. This was named Intuition which is usually taken to mean the ability to sense or know immediately without reasoning. It has been, variously, called ‘Gnosis’ in ancient Greek philosophy or ‘Irfan’ in the Sufi tradition. What the poet is implying is simply that the ‘secrets of eternity’ are invisible to the average person. They cannot be found by seeing, hearing, touching or any of the senses that humans ordinarily use to make sense of the world around them. One needs something more, willingness and a desire to look beyond the surface of things to try to get to their essence, something that requires effort, dedication, desire and love of learning and knowledge.
That other great mystic, Mirza Ghalib expressed it thus:
‘Bay-khudi besabab nahin Ghalib
Kuch toe hai jis kee pardaa daari hai’
[Translation]
‘This intoxication is not meaningless, Ghalib
Something remains hidden from view’
In fact, this is a constant subject in mystical literature and poetry and countless volumes have been written on it through the ages.
Moving on, Iqbal gets to the questions he wants to ask Khizr. He starts out with an easy one:
‘Chor kar aabaadian rehtaa hai tu sehraa naward
Zindagi teri hai be-roz-o-shab-o-fardaa-o-dosh’
[Translation]
Why is Khizr forever ‘wandering the deserts?’
living a life ‘without yesterday or tomorrow?’
He then gets to the questions that make up the subject of the rest of the poem:
‘Zindagi kaa raaz kya hai, saltanat kya cheez hai
Aur yeh sarmaya-o-mehnat main hai kaisa kharosh?
[Translation]
‘What is the secret of life, what is monarchy (or government?)
Why this antagonism between labor and wealth?’
Khizr, in the first section of his response titled ‘Sehra Nawardi (Desert Wandering)’ answers the first question by another one:
‘Kyun ta’ajub hai meri sehraa nawardi par tujhe
Yeh taga poe-e-dama-dam zindagi kee hai daleel’
[Translation]
‘Why this surprise at my wandering ways?
This eternal struggle is the very proof of life’
Thus Iqbal illustrates a profound concept of life, its ever changing, dynamic, never still nature. Henri-Louis Bergson (1859 –1941) a French philosopher widely popular during his lifetime concluded that time eluded mathematics and science. To him, the ordinary, rational mode of understanding divides time into static intervals of seconds, minutes, days, weeks etc which prevents one from accessing the ‘ultimate reality’ of things.
And, in fact, humans, by virtue of our limited understanding of the universe, can only measure time this way. To us, there is always a time that has passed, a time that is to come and very briefly, the time that is now. It is a cruel irony that also by virtue of our human nature, most of us dwell either in sorrow of our past or in fear of a future that is inherently uncertain. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, in his haunting poem ‘Hum Log’ (‘Us’) expressed it thus:
‘Dil kay aiwanon main liyay gul shuda shamon kee qataar
Noor-e-Khurshid say sehmay huay uktaay huay
Muzmahil saaet-e-imroz kee bayrangi say
Yaad-e-Maazee say ghameen, dehshat-e-fardaa say nidhaal’
[Translation]
‘Carrying a line of extinguished candles in the depths of our hearts
Exhausted and frightened of the sunshine
Enervated by the colorlessness of our days
Sorrowful at the past and terrified of the future’
Khizr, on the other hand, is presenting the opposite message. The change that time brings and the struggle that it implies, whether we like it or not, is proof of life and is what grants life meaning. The struggle is life in the most profound sense of the term. Cessation of movement, of change, of struggle means death, and though that is peaceful, it is no longer life.
Khizr underlines this point in the last verse of this section:
‘Zindaa tar hai gardish-e-paiham say jaam-e-zindagi
Hai yehi ae bekhabar raaz-e-dawam-zindagi’
[Translation]
‘Robust is life’s wine cup because of this eternal movement
This, O unknowing one, is the secret of eternal life’
The next section of the poem titled ‘Zindagi (Life)’ is where Khizr explains to the poet the meaning of life. He begins:
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