By: Zafar Alam Sarwar,
Miracle’s Writer
Hakeem Jee
As long as these hands are safe and sound,
And this blood is hot,
And until truth lies in this heart,
And the speech remains forceful,
We shall teach the tumult of
Harps and flutes to fetters and yokes.
Tumult that will rout out
Drums and noisy pageantry of monarchs,
Free is our thoughts and actions,
And full is our treasury of courage.
Every second we have is a lifetime,
And every tomorrow is our today.
These dusks and dawns,
These suns and moons,
These stars and planets,
All, all are ours, ours alone.
This pen and the tablet,
This drum and the banner,
This treasure and the equipage:
All, all are ours, ours alone.
This is ‘Doosri Awaaz’ (‘Second Voice’) from Selected Poems of Faiz Ahmad Faiz of international fame translated into English in the patriotic spirit by renowned scholar Prof. Sajjad Shaikh. Both, like Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and many others of the same moral and political convictions, are known for their effort against slavery and oppression in any form and struggle for peace, independence, and prosperity.
It was on 13 February that people from all walks of life across the country paid tribute to Faiz at meetings organized to prove that they still remember him for his bravery and work as an inspiring teacher, poet, editor, and writer. Born this day in 1911, at Sialkot, Faiz got early religious education under Maulvi Ibraheem and Maulana Meer Hasan; after formal school and college education there, he joined the Government College, Lahore, and obtained Master’s Degree in English (1933) and Master’s Degree in Arabic from the Oriental College (1934); worked as a lecturer in M.A.O. College of Amratsar (1935-40) and Hailey College (1940-42), Lahore.
He was Editor of The Pakistan Times and Imroze (1947-1958); remained imprisoned March 1951-April 1955 in fabricated Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case, and again, along with other journalists and intellectuals and teachers, under General Ayub’s martial law December 1958 to April 1959; Principal of Haroon College, Karachi 1964-72; Chairman of Pakistan Council of Arts 1972-77; won Afro-Asian Lotus Award 1976; remained in Beirut as Chief Editor, Lotus, 1978-82; back to Pakistan in November 1983 and died on 20 November 1984.
His poetical and prose works, more than 20, include Naqsh-e-Faryadi, Dast-i-Saba, Zindan Nama, Meray Dil Meray Musafar, Letters from jail to Alys Faiz, Mataa-e-Loh-o-Qalam, and Memories and Impressions. Millions of his admirers include teachers and journalists who have worked with him in the struggle for socio-economic justice to the suffering masses,
many young and old people are engaged in doing that noble job.
Collections of his poems have been published in English by Caravan Book House and Urdu by Maktaba-i-Karavan of Lahore and made available to common people at affordable prices.
Faiz’s admirer publisher Abdul Hameed was a teacher for some time at Kabul University long ago.
By the way, another admirer Rehmat Shah Afridi was sent to jail and placed in a ‘death cell’. Why? Reportedly, false cases were framed against him because he believed in and worked for freedom of the Press. The fact cannot be denied that Press is the fourth estate of the state. Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, in his struggle for independence from foreign rule, said: “The Press is a vital necessity for the progress and the nation because it is through the Press that a nation can be guided and its opinion molded for the furtherance of activities in all departments of life.”
What is worth recalling today is the first voice raised by the architect of Pakistan in his address at the 30th session of the Muslim League: “I should like to give a
warning to the landlords and capitalists who have flourished at our expense by a system which is so vicious, which is so wicked and which makes them so selfish that it is difficult to reason them. The exploitation of the masses has gone into their blood. They’ve forgotten the lessons of Islam. There are millions of our people who hardly get one meal a day.” Does it stand today?
I was a frequent visitor to the imprisoned Rehmat Shah Afridi in Lahore. Often, I saw the Editor-in-Chief of The Frontier Post-reading good books and magazines. I heard him saying many things, one of which was:
Revolutionary messages of Faiz and Jinnah
Why should I grieve if my sole treasure,
Pen and slate, is snatched away?
For, I’ve dipped my fingers in my own blood.;
Why should I worry if my tongue is sealed?
For, I have placed my tongue in every link of my shackles.
That was Faiz-in-jail in Rehmat Shah
Afridi’s mind. Who gave life and freedom to both?..
(Zafar Alam Sarwar)
