Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

Myriad Shades of Life

in Mirza Ghalib

Myriad Shades of Life

in Mirza Ghalib

Tasleem A. War

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

By Tasleem A. War

This book first published in 2021

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without

the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-5275-6469-X

ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-6469-5

For my father

Ghulam Mustaffa War

& children

Reyhan and Noorain

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ................................................................................. viii

Introduction ................................................................................................ 1

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison ................... 7

Mirza Ghalib and John Donne: A Comparative Study of their Poetry ..... 23

Ghalib and Shakespeare: A Comparative Study of their Poetry ............... 41

The Death Poetry of Mirza Ghalib: A Critical Evaluation ....................... 61

Ghalib’s Art of Dialectical Poetics ........................................................... 81

Surviving Trauma: Crafting Poetry from Pain ....................................... 102

Representation of Ahl Al-Bayt and the Karbala Martyrs: A Study

of Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal .................................................. 122

Bibliography ........................................................................................... 145

Index ....................................................................................................... 151

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing a book on Mirza Ghalib has not been a cakewalk. I went through

many trials and tribulations in accomplishing this uphill task. I must put it

on record that there are many people who have played a significant role in

writing this book. I developed interest in Mirza Ghalib at an early stage of

my life and the same culminated into a passion at the postgraduate level in

the classes of my teacher Mr. Mohammad Amin Malik who would often

quote Ghalib in his lectures in 2002. Ever since I have been studying

Ghalib’s poetry, quoting him, exploring different dimensions in his poetry

and comparing him with many English poets in my classes to MA students.

However it is after listening to Professor G. R. Malik’s inspirational,

insightful and innovative lectures on Ghalib in 2014-15 that I decided to do

a detailed critical study of various aspects in Ghalib’s poetry. Indebted to

my friend and colleague Dr. Mufti Mudasir, who gave me valuable

suggestions over the years and helped me in translating some verses of

Ghalib. I am equally thankful to my colleagues Professor Lily Want, Dr.

Nusrat Jan and Dr. Iffat Maqbool for their faith, encouragement and ideas.

This venture would not have been possible without the support of my

family. I thank all my family members, particularly my wife, who bore with

me for a long time to enable me to complete this book. Gratitude and love

for all my nieces and nephews Tayiba, Mantasha, Saira, Imran, Abdullah

and Shifa for their concern for this book.

It is pertinent to mention that two articles from the book “Mirza Ghalib and

Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison” and “Death Poetry of Mirza

Ghalib” were published in journals Contemporary Literary Review India

and The Literary Herald in 2020.

Last of all, I am thankful to Mr. James Brittain for proofreading this book

and the whole team of Cambridge Scholars Publishing for publishing this

book. Any mistakes and inadequacies in the book are purely mine.

INTRODUCTION

There are few poets in the world who are not only widely read and

researched but are quoted in day to day life by one and all. Mirza Ghalib is

one such poet. Like the world famous writers Shakespeare, Sophocles and

Iqbal, his poetry continues to endure and touches the soft strings of all

hearts. One of the distinguishing features of Ghalib’s poetry is that it

presents us with myriad shades of life. These myriad shades of life are

reflected by him across his poetry and in his letters. Ralph Russell

in his

review of a book on Ghalib rightly makes the following comment about

him, “To understand Mirza Ghalib, one has to swallow not just the world

but the whole universe”. It is an apt observation about Ghalib due to the

multidimensional and pluralistic nature of his poetry. He remains so rich a

poet that there are still many shades in his poetry which have not been

fathomed. He is an enigma, a puzzle which has not been completely cracked,

something which only adds to his greatness. Russell is right when he says

that many of Ghalib’s verses have attained a proverbial status and people

quote and remember them, even singing his ghazals every now and then.

Their multidimensional nature, their dialectical twists by means of

paradoxes, are of perennial appeal and make him dear to one and all. His

work cuts across the barriers of caste, colour, creed, sex and religion. As a

result, a poet like Mirza Ghalib never becomes outdated or unfashionable

but continues to have more and more appeal with every passing day. Pankaj

K. Deo in the article “Ghalib: A poet for all times” remarks:

Ghalib has written for every mood, every occasion and for every person and

hence remains one of the most quoted Urdu poets. The best part is that every

time you read his shayari (poetry), a new shade of meaning comes out of it.

No wonder, every generation has interpreted Ghalib in its own way, and it’s

the malleability of his character that makes him so relevant in each era. The

readers in every age see in Ghalib’s verse a reflection of their own emotions

and desires, and the poet does not disappoint them, for he has penned

thousands of such breath-taking verses.

When alive, he called himself the nightingale of the garden yet to come into

existence but the same garden has partly come into existence as we can say

without exaggeration that there is hardly any other poet who can match the

status of Ghalib. He was so confident about his poetry that he compares it

Introduction

with the voice of the angel. One major reason for his popularity after his

death was the publication of Yadgar-e-Ghalib by Altaf Hussain Hali, his

disciple. Much of what we know about Ghalib today is due to the efforts of

Hali and his systematic study of Ghalib and his poetry. Ghalib defines

poetry as the creation of meaning and in doing so he has set a benchmark

for all his predecessors and successors. The majority of Ghalib critics hold

the view that a new shade of meaning comes to the forefront when one reads

his poetry. Sayyid Fayyaz Mahmud in his book Ghalib: A Critical

Introduction, further argues:

Stephen Spender in his “Making of a Poem”, says that the ‘faith’ of a poet

is two-fold, a faith in his vocation, and a faith in his own truth. The poet

must feel that his is a sacred task and that he is capable of expressing his

‘inmost experience’, ‘finest perceptions’, ‘deepest feelings’ and ‘uttermost

sense of truth’. This conviction Mirza Ghalib never lost, though the almost

primitive force of his vision was mellowed with time….The orchestration of

deeply felt ideas, passionate yearning for the unattainable and a sort of pagan

joy in the continuous acts of creative Beauty, reached peaks which he so

often touched in his unreformed youth, but he appeared gradually to respond

more and more to the call of the world and of reason, and began to see things

in the light of common day. Normal human demands, social restrictions, the

eternal struggle between wants and gratifications between the forces of life

and the longing for surcease, became his themes.

Similarly Hasan Abdullah in his book The Evolution of Ghalib also seems

to be in agreement with the above two quotes, when he makes the following

observations about Ghalib:

Ghalib’s Urdu ghazals attract a highly diverse set of people—rich and poor,

literary and scientific, uneducated and erudite, layperson and polymath,

lover and beloved, men and women, young and old, even the oppressor and

the oppressed, those sunk into the past and reactionary, as well as those who

are forward-looking and progressive. The plausible reasons appear to be that

his couplets, which are expressed in the most exquisite language using

devices such as wordplay, hyperbole, irony and paradox, reflect diverse

situations, depict a range of human emotions and provide deep insights into

man’s life and his relationship with Nature.

The present study thus makes an attempt to highlight the different shades of

meaning or life in his poetry and letters, which include common human

emotions, concerns common to the whole of mankind like love, hatred,

jealousy, suffering, pain, trauma and disappointments in life. He weaves

heterogeneous ideas by means of his art of dialectical poetics by employing

literary devices like paradox, irony, humour, conceits and unconventional

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

metaphors. He is a master in creating meaning out of nothing. His

philosophy of life, that is, his ironic vision of life, is reflected throughout

his poetry and the myriad shades of life or meaning which are present in his

poetry are embedded in his vision of life. Like Shakespeare and Sophocles,

Ghalib creates the colourfulness of life in all its horror and glory. Just as life

itself is colourful in its myriad shades, Ghalib’s poetry offers us a vision of

life which is at once pluralistic, multifarious and universal. Taking its cue

from this aspect of Ghalib, the book contains seven critical essays on a range

of issues like comparing Ghalib with Shakespeare, Donne and Iqbal, and

highlighting the most predominant concerns of his poetry and letters, such

as his art of dialectical tension, his death poetry, his study of trauma, and

his representation of Karbala and Ahl al-Bayt. There is hardly any serious

critical reading of the aspects which have been taken up in the present study

which makes it all the more relevant and useful.

The first essay, entitled “Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in

Comparison”, attempts to argue how these poets made experiments in both

form and content in their poetry. They represent the best that has been

written in these languages and have set a bench mark for prospective poets

for all time to come. Iqbal was such an admirer of Ghalib that he wrote a

poem about him and made him a character in his magnum opus Javid Nama

too. For Ghalib creating poetry is like drawing the heart blood from the

veins of speech and Iqbal shared this understanding with him. Ghalib

believed in creating meaning out of nowhere which makes his poetry

enriching. If Ghalib is a master in creating meaning, Iqbal not only adds

meaning to things but is a poet with a message too. His poetry has meaning

as well as message. Both of them are rebels in terms of style and theme.

Emerson’s famous adage, ‘Who so would be a man must be a non-

conformist’ fits well to both the poets due to their originality and freshness.

The chapter therefore attempts to compare the two poets by critically

analysing their

biographies, beliefs about poetry, the contribution that they

made to both Urdu and Persian, and above all their thematic concerns. The

study shall also attempt to evaluate critically their poetry so as to foreground

the commonalities between them.

The second essay is entitled “Mirza Ghalib and John Donne: A Comparative

Study” and attempts to highlight how Ghalib and Donne, representing two

different civilizations, came to use language and themes differently for

which they were held in contempt. Notwithstanding the difference between

them, their poetry, representing the best that has been written in terms of

form and content, came to have a universal appeal. Taking its cue from this

proposition, the essay therefore makes an attempt to compare these two

Introduction

poets on the premise that there are many things in common between them,

not least the unconventional themes in their poetry and their experimentation

in the use of language. Both of them were disliked and often ridiculed by

their detractors primarily for their style. Donne was criticised for his

metaphysical style and Ghalib for his Andaz-e-bayaan (style) and their real

worth was recognised posthumously.

The third essay continues in a similar vein, and is entitled “Mirza Ghalib

and William Shakespeare: A Comparative Study”. Shakespeare and Ghalib

are the most popular poets not only in their respective cultures but all over

the world. One of the main reasons for this is the universal and perennial

appeal and relevance of their poetry. Shakespeare’s name is famous not only

for poetry but also for dramas while Ghalib’s oeuvre was restricted to poetry

only. Notwithstanding the differences between them, there are many things

they have in common. For instance, both of them went through immense

financial difficulties, as a result of which Shakespeare had to bank upon his

benefactors and Ghalib had to rely upon his creditors. They were also treated

very adversely by their critics. Shakespeare’s contenders were the University

Wits and other sonneteers who often poked fun at him and Ghalib too was

not held in good estimation by his contemporary poets. As a sonneteer

Shakespeare made experiments both in his style and themes and Ghalib too

floated new themes and new rules of versification as a ghazal writer.

Furthermore the issues/themes which form the warp and thrust of their

poetry are representative of

every man. Their poetry is not intellectually

demanding for the readers but straightforward, clear, brief and lucid. Hence

the essay in question makes an attempt to compare these literary luminaries

keeping in view the parameters mentioned above.

The fourth essay, “Death poetry of Mirza Ghalib: A Revaluation”, aims to

highlight Ghalib’s preoccupation with death both in his poetry and letters.

The predominant concern of Ghalib’s poetry is the way he talks about death:

the theme is the quintessential feature of his poetry. It is such an important

feature that it almost gains the status of a character, occurring again and

again. Therefore the essay aims to highlight this particular obsessional

tendency of Ghalib and relates it with the life events which haunted him

from time to time. An attempt has also been made to look at the different

connotations of death as used by Ghalib across his poetry. There are many

aspects in his poetry and letters which have been critically examined by

critics all over the world but this aspect—arguably the most predominant

feature of his poetry—has hardly been examined at all, hence the fourth

chapter of this text seeks to address this imbalance. It also attempts to

highlight how Ghalib foregrounds his unconventional technique of the

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

treatment of death and the defamiliarisation this creates.

The fifth essay concerns Ghalib’s “Art of Dialectical Poetics”. It shows how

critics like Altaf Hussain Hali and Gopi Chand Narang have tried to

foreground the dialectical tension in Ghalib. When we do a close textual

analysis of Ghalib’s poetry we find that it is essentially dialectical in nature

and is so because his mental structure is itself dialectical. There is a thesis

followed by an anti-thesis which eventually leads to synthesis. The

dialectical structure is so embedded and ingrained in his poetry that it

permeates it throughout. Since Ghalib found life full of contradictions in

which there is always a tussle between appearance and reality, these same

opposing forces are reflected in his poetry by means of enigmas, paradoxes

and irony. For Ghalib, life is neither a tragedy nor a comedy but a tragic

comedy, rather a tragic farce. This tragic and farcical nature of life is

represented by Ghalib in his poetry and letters too. Hence the essay attempts

to analyse the poetic/artistic philosophy of Ghalib which is essentially

dialectical and show how it is the single most characteristic feature of his

poetry.

The sixth essay is entitled “Surviving Trauma: Crafting Poetry from Pain”

and aims to highlight the suffering, human predicament and the resultant

trauma which are part and parcel of his poetry. The list of the million

incidents and events which strike a shattering blow to one’s consciousness

is endless when it comes to the life of Ghalib. We often wonder why Ghalib

has become so popular everywhere and why does he appeal to one and all

regardless of affinities: the thing that he shares in common with the whole

of humanity is suffering—be it poverty and debt, the disappointment which

emerged out of his loss of loved ones, or his humiliation and unfulfilled

desires. What makes Ghalib a very popular and great poet is that these things

were the warp and woof of his life and that consequently they’re reflected

by him in his poetry and letters. It is not therefore an exaggeration to say

that Ghalib lived his poetry. The essay therefore makes an attempt to

examine critically his life, poetry and letters to understand how Ghalib

grapples with the trauma he experienced and which came to define him.

There seemed to be no end

to the problems of life for Ghalib, hence, he

craves for death as an escape, both in his poetry and letters. The essay

attempts to apply theoretical insights from trauma studies, from such

scholars as Cathy Caruth, Kai Erikson, Bessel van der Kolk and Neel

Burton. An attempt has also been made to highlight the invincible courage

and fortitude which Ghalib displayed while facing all the fearful ordeals in

his life. Ernest Hemingway’s famous quote “Man can be destroyed but not

defeated” suits Ghalib well, as he did not bow before the number of

Introduction

problems in life. Unlike many ordinary people who eventually yield before

the challenges of life Ghalib faces them head on. He was well equipped with

the weaponry of humour, which is a distinguishing feature of his life, poetry

and letters. By means of his humour and his poetry he vents all the

frustration, anguish, pain and trauma which are very conspicuous in his

creative output and letters.

The last essay, “Representations of Ahl al-Bayt and the Karbala Martyrs: A

Study of Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal” aims to highlight the

contribution of the two poets to the genres of the marsiya, salam and qasida

in terms of the martyrs of Karbala. An attempt has been made to trace the

genesis of marsiya and other sub genres of it like soaz, noha and rawda

khwani in Urdu poetry in particular and the contribution made to the

marsiya by Mir Anees and Mir Dabir. The essay also aims to foreground

how both Ghalib and Iqbal regarded themselves as the servants of Imam Ali

(a.s), and how they expressed their ardent love, devotion and empathy for

the martyrs of Karbala—like Imam Hussain (a.s) and his companions—and

paid rich and glowing tributes to them.

MIRZA GHALIB AND MUHAMMAD IQBAL:

STUDY IN COMPARISON

Ghalib and Iqbal were the two greatest poets of the sub-continent in the 19

and 20

centuries. Ghalib was born either on December 17 or 27, 1797 and

died on 15 February 1869. Iqbal was born on November 7 1877, almost 9

years after Ghalib’s death, and died on 21 April 1938. Both of them wrote

poetry in Persian and Urdu, and by their own admission their best work was

that written in Persian. Critics have gone to the extent of saying that Iqbal

was born to take to the logical conclusion the unfinished mission of Ghalib.

Before we come to analyse and compare their poetry let us take a look at

what Iqbal says about Ghalib. It is well known to all that Iqbal treated Ghalib

as his master and he not only praises him in his poetry but in his prose too—

that is, in Stray Reflections. He records the following impressions about

Ghalib:

As far as I can see Mirza Ghalib—the Persian poet—is probably the only

permanent contribution that we—Indian Muslims—have made to the

general Muslim literature. Indeed he is one of those poets whose imagination

and intellect place them above the narrow limitations of creed and

nationality. His recognition is yet to come. (Shafique 2006, 50)

Iqbal goes on to express his gratitude to Ghalib in the following way, “I

confess I owe a great deal to Mirza Ghalib and Abdul Qadir Bedil as they

taught me how to remain oriental in spirit and expression after having

assimilated foreign ideals of poetry” (Shafique 2006, 53). In addition to

this, Iqbal also wrote a poem on Ghalib in which he highlights his worth and

contribution, arguing:

ﺮﮑﻓ نﺎﺴﻧا ﺮﭘ ی ﺮ ﺗ ﯽﺘﺴﮨ ﮯﺳ ہ ﯾ ﻦﺷور اﻮﮨ

ﮯﮨ ﺮﭘ غﺮﻣ ﻞﯿﺨﺗ ﯽﮐ ﯽﯾﺎﺳر ﺎﺗ ﺎ ﺠ ﮐ

Through you the secret was revealed to the human intellect

That innumerable enigmas are solved by human intellect

(Khalil 1997, 71)

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

ﻒﻄﻟ ﯽﯾﺎﯾﻮﮔ ﮟﯿﻣ یﺮﯿﺗ یﺮﺴﻤﮨ ﻦﮑﻤﻣ ﮟ ﯿ ﮩ ﮩ ﻧ

ﻮﮨ ﻞﯿﺨﺗ ﺎﮐ ہﻧ ﺐﺟ ﮏﺗ ﺮﮑﻓ ﻞﻣﺎﮐ ﻢﮨ ﮟﯿﺸﻧ

Matching you in literary elegance is not possible

Till maturity of thought and imagination are combined

(Khalil 1997, 71)

In this poem Iqbal glorifies Ghalib’s creative imagination. He also compares

Ghalib with Goethe and finds life in his songs. Khundmiri in his book Some

Aspects of Iqbal’s Poetic Philosophy argues, “this is not a mere poetic

simile; there is a deeper kinship of spirit between Ghalib and Goethe. If

‘ceaseless striving’ has a meaning in itself for Goethe, ‘Striving even if it is

fruitless’ is a source of joy for Ghalib” (12). Such was the influence of

Ghalib on Iqbal that he brings him together with several other poets—

Byron, Browning and Rumi—in his Payam-i-Mashriq. He does not stop

here but takes Ghalib on a spiritual journey in Javid Nama in the company

of Mansoor Al-Hallaj and Qurrat-ul-Ayn Tahira. Besides Iqbal, his close

friend Sir Abd Al Qadir in the Preface to Bang-e-Dara also highlights the

connection between the two poets:

No one knew that after the late Ghalib, someone would rise in India who

would again inspire Urdu poetry with a new spirit and through whom the

matchless imagination and the rare imagery of Ghalib would be created

anew and would lead to the glorification of the Urdu literature. However,

Urdu was fortunate in getting a poet of Iqbal’s calibre, the superiority of

whose literary elegance has impressed the Urdu knowing people of the

whole of India and whose reputation has spread to Iran, Asia Minor and even

to Europe. Ghalib and Iqbal share many common characteristics. If I were a

believer in the transmigration of soul I would have certainly said that the

love which Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib had for Urdu and Persian poetry

did not allow his soul to rest in peace even in the Elysium and compelled

him to reappear in another material form to render service to poetry, and was

reborn in a corner of Punjab, called Sialkot and was called Muhammad

Iqbal. (Iqbal Bang-e-Dara Preface)

Before examining and analysing their poetry it is important to compare them

from a biographical point of view. Both of them were proud of their

ancestors. Ghalib was originally from Samarkand, Central Asia. His

grandfather was a Selijuq Turk who had migrated to India in the 18

century. His father Mirza Abdullah Beig was an employee of the Nawab of

Lucknow, the Nizam of Hyderabad and then he took service with Rao Raja

Bakhtawar Singh, the ruler of Alwar. It is here that he was killed in a battle

in 1803. Since his ancestors were from Turkey, Ghalib also referred to

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

himself as a Turk and was proud of his ancestry. In a letter of February 15,

1867, he briefly describes the history of his family: “I am of Seljuk, Turkish

stock. My grandfather came to India from beyond the river (Transoxiana)

in Shah Alam’s time” (quoted in Russell 1994, 23). The reference to his

ancestral family is made by Ghalib frequently in his writings and he held a

very high opinion about the fact that his ancestors were soldiers for a

hundred generations. Another claim of superiority that Ghalib made was his

mastery of the Persian language; Persian represented the culture of the

whole Islamic world for several centuries and was thus the language of

literature par excellence. Urdu, by contrast, was an inferior language for

poetry. According to Ralph Russell, the third claim that Ghalib makes about

himself is about his poetry. Ghalib writes, “the love of poetry which I had

brought with me from eternity assailed me and won my soul” (in Russell

1994, 28). Iqbal was born in Sialkot and his ancestors were originally

Kashmiri Brahmins who had migrated to Sialkot in the 19

century. Like

Ghalib, Iqbal was also proud of

his ancestors as he himself writes, “Look at

me, in India you will not see another man of Brahmin descent who is versed

in the mysteries of Rum and Tabriz” (Iqbal 1927, 11).

Ghalib became a single orphan at the age of 5 and subsequently his uncle

Nasrullah Beg looked after him for some time before he himself passed

away in 1806 after falling off an elephant. In spite of his father’s early death

his mother made sure that it did not affect his education and as a result he

showed outstanding performance in both the Persian and Urdu languages.

He knew the basics of Arabic too. He was fortunate enough to be a student

of a renowned teacher, Agra Muazzam Ali, who recognized his abilities and

encouraged him accordingly. He also had the privilege of being a student of

Mulla Abdul Samad, a distinguished scholar of Persian from Iran. Samad

taught him for two years when he was only 14 years of age. It is said that

Ghalib was so thankful and so attached to him that he brought him to Delhi

when he moved there and even kept writing to him after he left India. Iqbal

was five years old when he was sent to the local mosque to learn the Quran

and the Persian language. He, like Ghalib was also fortunate to be a student

of a reputed teacher

, Sayyid Mir Hassan, who was also a distinguished

scholar of Arabic and the Quran. Iqbal continued to be under the tutelage of

Mir Hassan at Scotch Mission School and College where Mir Hassan was

the professor. Both of them were influenced by Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil

(1642-1720) a famous poet of India. Like Iqbal’s confession above, Ghalib

also acknowledges the influence of Bedil on him, as is evident in the

following verse:

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

ﺯﺮﻁ ﻝﺪﻴﺑ ﮟﻴﻣ ہﺘﺨﻳﺭ ﺎﻨﮩﮐ

ﺪﺳﺍ ﷲ ںﺎﺧ ﺖﻣﺎﻴﻗ ﮯﮨ

Writing Urdu after Bedil’s style

Is a difficult task O Assad!

(Divan-e-Ghalib, 138)

At the age of fourteen, Ghalib got married to Umrao Jan who was then only

thirteen years old. She was a daughter of Nawab Ilahi Baksh and niece of

the Nawab of Ferozpur Jhirka. Although it was a common practice those

days to get married at this age, one can still discern clearly that Ghalib and

Umrao were married before being mature enough. All that is known about

them is that she gave birth to seven children, with none of them surviving

beyond a few months. Thus it has often been said that he was unhappy in

his married life and had disagreements with her for many reasons. This is

further validated by the letters he wrote to his friends from time to time.

When he was in sixties he heard of the demise of his disciple Umrao Singh

and the death of his second wife. He had young children and therefore saw

no option but to marry for a third time. Ghalib responded in his unique style:

I feel sorry for Umrao Singh but I’m envious of his situation. Allah! Allah!

His chains have been broken twice. And look at me. For the past 50 years I

have had this noose around my neck. Neither the noose breaks nor my neck

gives in. You should tell him, my brother, I can help you raise your kids.

Why is he eager to have this calamity visit him again? (Qtd. in Narang 2017,

257)

Like Ghalib, Iqbal was also a victim of early and incompatible marriage.

Iqbal married thrice and his first marriage took place at the age of 15 in

1892. First, he was married to Karim Bibi. The marriage lasted for 16 years

but he stayed away from her for a long time first in Lahore and then in

Europe. He makes an admission of his failed marriage in a letter to Miss

Atiya Faizee written on April 9, 1909 when he had come back from Europe.

The letter reads:

Life is extremely miserable; they forced my wife upon me, I have written to

my father that he had no right to arrange my marriage, especially when I had

refused to enter into any alliance of that sort. I am quite willing to support

her, but I am not prepared to make my life miserable by keeping her with

me. As a human being, I have a right to happiness—if society or nature deny

that to me, I defy both” (Ish Kumar 1988, 17).

It is said that Ghalib was attracted to an enticing female singer and this claim

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

is validated by a letter which he wrote to Hatim Ali Beg in which,

reminiscing about his youthful days, he talks about a domini (a singing

dancing girl) who had fallen madly in love with him:

We Mughal lads are outrageously passionate. If we fall in love with

someone, we really kill her with our love. I am also a Mughal. In my life I

too afflicted a domini with my love. May God bless the lovers and the two

of us because we have experienced the wound of the loss of loved ones! This

happened nearly forty or forty-two years ago. Although I am not into this

game anymore and I no longer possess the skill of managing a love affair, I

do remember her and her enchanting ways. I will never forget all my life

how she died. (Narang 2017, 106)

The name of the domini was Mughal Jaan and Ghalib was deeply fascinated

by her. Anisur Rahman argues that Ghalib’s romantic life did not come to

an end with Mughal Jaan. He claims that Ghalib was also in contact with a

respectable lady from a well-off family but that this affair also did not last

long. Rahman further argues:

He found another beauteous being yet again who would give all he wanted—

emotional solace and physical contact. This lady was an admirer of poetry

and poets and Ghalib undoubtedly was the one whose companionship any

poetry lover would pine for. She used to send her ghazals to him for his

opinion. This brought both of them closer to each other although she was a

minor poet and Ghalib would not have otherwise drawn closer to her but for

his amorous nature. Ghalib referred to her as the “Turk lady” and enjoyed

her special companionship the most. Their affair went on secretly and

reached a stage where every excuse would only bring greater damage to their

reputation than repair it. Fearing the onslaughts of the society for doing an

inexcusable wrong, the lady chose to sacrifice her life. This put Ghalib to

great agony. (Rehman, 2020)

As far as Iqbal is concerned, he is also said to have developed a strong

affection for a singing girl, Ameer Begum, from the city of Lahore, around

1903-04. Khurram Ali Shafique, a noted biographer of Iqbal in his book

also argues that the affair with the singing girl lasted for a year. He goes on

to say “She is mentioned by name in a letter to a friend and anonymously

called the ‘raison d’être’ of his grand poem ‘The Pearl-laden Cloud’ (1903).

Reportedly, the girl’s mother resented her daughter’s attraction to the frugal

professor and eventually stopped her from seeing him at all” (Shafique

2006, 18).

In Europe Iqbal made a number of friends and some of them he became very

close with. One of them was Aitya Fyzee, a liberal aristocrat from Bombay.

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

They met on April 1, 1907 in London and developed a lifelong friendship

with each other. On his return from Europe, Iqbal wrote many letters to her

in which he shared his personal problems. She eventually married the

prominent artist and writer Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin

in 1913. After the

partition they migrated to Pakistan and settled down there. In 1947 she made

some startling comments about Iqbal. She wrote, “In India, an individual is

obligated to bow before the wishes and orders of his family. In view of this,

many men and women, though endowed with extraordinary intellectual

abilities have ruined their lives.” She measured Iqbal’s life in the light of

these parameters and called Iqbal’s life “a cruel tragedy” (Dawn.com). The

other woman who Iqbal was closely associated with is Emma Wegenast,

from whom Iqbal took German language lessons which helped him to

complete his PhD. Shafique notes that “Emma Wegenast was indeed a very

different case from Atiya Fyzee. Iqbal met her during his brief stay at

Heidelberg in the summer of 1907, and it seems that he became emotionally

attached to her. It has also been speculated that the two wanted to get

married but were prevented because Emma’s family did not allow her to

leave Germany for settling down [sic] in British India” (Shafique 2006, 51).

After his return from Europe, Iqbal is believed to have written to her in

German, “I’ve forgotten all my German, except for one word:

Emma!”

(quoted in Shafique 2014, 52). Pertinently Emma gains importance for Iqbal

biographers after the 1980s when the poet’s letters came to the forefront

through a Pakistani researcher. It is said that Emma had handed over the

letters to the Pak- German Forum before her death in the 1960s (2014, 50).

Ghalib was a free thinker and he never claimed to be a practising Muslim.

There are two things in him which make him a Muslim and which he

thought were enough for his salvation. Altaf Hussain Hali writes that “from

all the duties of worship and the enjoined practices of Islam he took only

two—a belief that God is one and Immanent in all things, and a love for the

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his family. And this alone he considered

sufficient for salvation” (1969, 35). He had two main consolations in his

life. One was his sense of humour and the other his poetry and it would not

be wrong to say that he vented his pain, frustration and anguish through

them. In fact his sense of humour attained a proverbial status which

continues to grow today. The more he suffered the more humorous and witty

he became, and he displayed his wit both in his letters and poetry. He

displayed his presence of mind and ready wit with his friends and

acquaintances in conversation too which made him dear to one and all. The

other mainstay of his life, his poetry, would

keep him going. The remarkable

magic that he attains in his poetry is the ability to turn his grief into verse.

He even presumes himself dead in many of his poems.

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

ﺞﻧر ﮯ ﺳ ﺮﮔﻮﺧ اﻮﮨ نﺎﺴﻧا ﻮﺗ ﭧﻣ ﺎﺗﺎﺟ ﮯﮨ ﺞﻧر

ﮟﯿﻠﮑﺸﻣ ﮭﺠﻣ ﺮﭘ ﮟﯾﮉﭘ ﯽﻨﺗا ہﮐ ںﺎﺳآ ﻮﮨ ﮟﯿﯿﮔ

When man becomes used to sorrow, the pain of sorrow is alleviated

So many hardships have fallen on me that they have become easier to

endure

(Niazi 2002, 32)

Iqbal on the contrary was a staunch Muslim. For him Islam did not stand for

only Tawheed and Risalat as it did for Ghalib, but much more than that. The

Quran was the basic source of inspiration for him and much of his poetry is

motivated and determined by the teachings of it. All of his major poetic

works and his prose works too, including Reconstruction of Religious

Thought in Islam, are influenced by Islamic teachings. As far as the creation

of poetry is concerned, Ghalib firmly believed in the inspirational nature of

poetry:

ﮯﺗآ ﮟﯿﮨ ﺐﯿﻏ ﮯ ﺳ ۃﯾ ﻦﻣﺎﻀﻣ لﺎﯿﺧ ﮟﯿﻣ

ﺐﻟﺎﻏ ﺮﯾﺮﺻ ہﻣﺎﺧ ےاﻮﻧ شوﺮﺳ ﮯ ﮨ

These themes I write of come into my mind from the unseen Ghalib, the

sound my moving pen makes is an angel’s voice

(Russell 1994, 186)

He defined poetry as “the creation of meaning, not the matching of rhymes”

and there is hardly any poet who can match Ghalib in terms of creation of

meaning. For him the creation of poetry is not an easy task. As he writes:

مﺎﺟﺮﻓ ﻦﺨﺳ ﯽﯾﻮﮔ ﺐﻟﺎﻏ ﻮﺘﺑ ﻢﯾﻮﮔ

نﻮﺧ ﺮﮕﺟ ﺖﺳا زا گر رﺎﺘﻔﮔ نﺪﯿﺸﮐ

Let me tell you the profit of Ghalib’s poetic labour

It is heart’s blood that is sucked through the vein of speech

(Myself)

Altaf Hussain Hali in his book Yadgar-e-Ghalib highlights two important

features of Ghalib’s poetry: turfaqi-e-khayal, or ingenuity of thought, and

jiddat-o-nudrat-e-mazaamin, or the innovative freshness of subjects

(Narang 2017, ii). Although these features can be found in other poets of

Sabke Hindi, Ghalib’s treatment of them is different. His poetry is multi-

layered and multidimensional, having a great appeal and making our senses

come alive. The concerns in his poetry are down-to-earth as he focuses on

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

human beings, their wishes, and the inherent paradoxes of life. His creative

ability is such that he uses simple words and commonplace expressions and

shapes them in a way which gives rise to a trove of meaning. As he himself

comments:

ہﻨﯿﺠﻨﮔ ﯽﻨﻌﻣ ﺎﮐ ﻢﺴﻠط سا ﻮﮐ ﮯﯿﮭﺠﻤﺳ

ﻮﺟ ﻆﻔﻟ ہﮐ ﺐﻟﺎﻏ ےﺮﻣ رﺎﻌﺷا ﮟﯿﻣ ے و آ

Think of it as a magical treasure of meaning

Every word that appears in my verse, Ghalib.

(Niazi 2002, 662)

The idea is that his verses cannot be kept in water tight compartments as,

once written, they spread around in different directions, and hence, it is not

possible to draw any boundary lines. Narang suggests that “Ghalib’s life

and poetics are a true reflection of our yearning for freedom” (2017, v).

Ghalib does not subscribe to any particular ideology or school of thought:

he rises above all. This, perhaps, is the reason that he called himself the

‘nightingale of a garden which is yet to come into existence’ in the following

verse:

ںﻮﮨ ﯽﻣﺮﮔ طﺎﺸﻧ رﻮﺼﺗ ﮯﺳ ہﻤﻐﻧ ﺞﻨﺳ

ﮟﯿﻣ ﺐﯿﻟﺪﻨﻋ ﻦﺸﻠﮔ ﺎﻧ هﺪﯾﺮﻓآ ںﻮﮨ

I sing with the heat (excitement) of the delights (joy) of the things I

imagine and foresee.

I am the nightingale of the garden that is yet to be born.

(Rahulnegi.blogspot.com, 2020)

Ghalib’s contemporary, the poet Agha Jan Aesh is on record to have said

about him:

مﻼﮐ ﺮﯿﻣ ﮯﮭﺠﻤﺳ روا نﺎﺑز ازﺮﯿﻣ ﮯﮭﺠﻤﺳ

ﺮﮕﻣ نا ﺎﮐ ﺎﮩﮐ ﺎﯾ پآ ﮟﯿﮭﺠﻤﺳ ﺎﯾ اﺪﺧ ﮯﮭﺠﻤﺳ

We did understand the verses of Mir, and what Sauda says-

But Ghalib’s verses!-Save he and God, we know not who can understand

them

(Schimmel 1979, 8)

Aesh confesses that he did not understand Ghalib’s poetry like many others.

He rejected all the conventions and dogmas and was therefore ahead of his

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

time. When he chose the grammar and the style of his poetry, he did not

follow the beaten track of age old and stilted thought structures but

challenged all the traditional practices. Hali categorically admits that “we

shall have to come up with a different standard to judge the quality of

Mirza’s fine couplets, which I hope people with good judgement will

accept” (Hali 1897, 107). Hali time and again highlights Ghalib’s ingenuity

of thought and innovativeness of topics. Ghalib sheds more light on the

function of poetry by highlighting the interpretative and representational

role of poets in his Panj Ahang in the following way: “Rhythmic speech

which is called poetry has a different place in every heart and has a different

colour for every eye, and as far the poets, every stroke of their plectrum

brings out a new sound, every instrument they use, a different melody” (in

Mahmud 1993, 428). Also in this Persian work he further defines poetry as

the “capital of the world of Divinity”, a phrase which he elaborates on in

the preface:

There should be something virginal in the nature of a verse. In essence it

should be pure and novel and in spirit it should have the capacity to melt. It

should have the sweetness of kindness and the salt of plaintiveness. It should

have the joy of song and the sorrow of tears. It should have elegance of

fitness and the wisdom of greatness. It should reveal the secrets of life, give

a message of beautification and should elicit praise. It should convey the

heart-break of rejection and the keen joy of invitation; it should keep severity

away and interpret a promise, recommend a message, be a means of entry

into any company and may effectively represent scenes of conflict and

battle. (in Mahmud 1993, 427)

Sayyid Fayaz Mahmud argues that Ghalib also talked about the function of

poetry at the individual and social level but his emphasis is more on the

representational and interpretative role of poetry itself. According to

Mahmud, Ghalib does not think of the poet living in a vacuum. He is a social

being who has a responsibility and obligation towards the society of which

he is a part (1993, 427). Elsewhere in his Urdu poetry, Ghalib remarks:

ےا ﺪ ﺳ ا دﺎﺑآ ﮯ ھ ﮭﺠﻣ ﮯ ﺳ نﺎﮩﺟ یﺮﻋﺎﺷ

ہﻣﺎﺧ اﺮﯿﻣ ﺖﺨﺗ نﺎﻄﻠﺳ ﻦﺨﺳ ﺎﮐ ﺎﯾﺎﭘ ﮯ ھ

O Asad! The world of poetry is populated, because of me

My pen is the leg of the throne of the Sultan of Poetry

(Mahmud 1993, 240)

Iqbal too held poetry to be an instrument of pleasure, but he firmly

believed that it should serve the purpose of life. He assigns a fresh role to

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

poetry and for him the poet does not entertain only but has a definite role to

play. He inspires the masses, caught in a state of oblivion, to action. He

expects the poets to be a “trumpet of prophecy” like Shelley. For him ‘a

poet is a part of a prophecy’:

یﺮﻋﺎﺷ ﺖﺴﯾوﺰﺟ زا یﺮﺒﻤﻐﯿﭘ

Since he was not only a poet but a philosopher too, he used poetry as a

medium to communicate his philosophy. Although he started his poetic

career as a conventional poet writing about nature, nationalism and

lover/beloved relationships etc., the bulk of his poetry is motivated by the

vision which he had for the whole of humanity in general and Muslims in

particular. He, like Ghalib, also creates meaning, but at the same time his

poetry has a message as he comments:

یﺮﻣ ےاﻮﻧ نﺎﺸﯾﺮﭘ ﻮﮐ یﺮﻋﺎﺷ ہﻧ ﮭﺠﻤﺳ

ہﮐ ﮟﯿﻣ ںﻮﮨ موﺮﺤﻣ زار نورد ہﻧﺎﺨﯿﻣ

Take not my rhymes for poet’s art,

I know the secrets of the wineseller’s mart.

(Wine symbolically used)

(Iqbal Bal-e-Jibril, 48)

Iqbal did not approve of the philosophy of art for art’s sake. He draws his

inspiration for writing poetry from the Holy Quran and the traditions of

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In an article entitled “The literary opinions

of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)” Iqbal quotes an example of Imraul Qais, the

century Arab poet about whom the Prophet (PBUH) said, “The best of

the poets and their guide to Hell” (1964, 144-145). Taking this tradition as

the yardstick Iqbal argues:

The ultimate end of all human activity is Life—glorious, powerful and

exuberant. All human art must be subordinated to this final purpose and the

value of everything must be determined in reference to its life-giving

capacity. The highest art is that which awakens our dormant will-force and

nerves us to face the trials of life manfully. All that brings drowsiness and

makes us shut our eyes to reality around, on the mastery of which alone life

depends, is a message of decay and death. There should be no opium-eating

in Art. The dogma of “Art for the sake of Art” is a clever invention of

decadence to cheat us out of life and power. (In Abbasi 1997, 462)

Iqbal, like Ghalib, also believed that he was a poet for future generations:

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

ہﻤﻐﻧ ہﻣا ﻢﺧذ ﮯﺑ ﻢﺘﺳادﺮﭘ ﻦﻣ ےاﻮﻧ ﺮﻋﺎﺷ دﺮﻓ ﻢ ﺘ ﺳ ا

ﺮﺼﻋ ﻦﻣ هﺪﻨﻧاد راﺮﺳا ﺖﺴﯿﻧ ﻒﺳﻮﯾ ﻦﻣ ﮟﯾاﺮﮩﺑ رازﺎﺑ ﺖﺴﯿﻧ

I have no need of the ear of Today,

I am the voice of the poet of To-morrow

My own age does not understand my deep meaning My Joseph is not for

the market

(Nicholson 1980, 27)

Apart from the above similarities there is one more feature in common

between Ghalib and Iqbal and that is their love and admiration for Hazrat

Ali (A.S) and Shohada-e-Karbala (the Martyrs of Karbala). Both of them

have written poems on this subject in which they express their strong

admiration for them. In this regard, Hali says of Ghalib that his “real religion

was enmity towards none, but he was inclined towards Shia beliefs and

held…(Ali), after the prophet of God, to be pre-eminent…There was not a

man in the court who did not know that Ghalib was a Shia, or at least a tafzili

(one who, though not a Shia, acknowledges the pre-eminence of Ali)” (in

Russell, 100). He expresses his fervent love in verses such as:

ﺐﻟﺎﻏ ﮯﻣ شﻮﻧ ﮯﻧﻮﮨ ﺮﭘ ﺮﮔ ﺖﻨﮔ ہﻧ ﺎﺟ ںﻮﮑﺳ

تﺮﺴﺣ ہﯾ ﮯ ﮨ ہﮐ ﺪﻌﺑ گﺮﻣ ﮭﭽﮐ مﺎﮐ ﻮ ﮑ ﺳ آ

ﻦھﺪﻨﯾا ﺎﻨﺑ ےد ﮭﺠﻣ ﻮﮐ ﻢﻨﮩﺟ ﺎﮐ ےا اﺪﺧ

ﺮﮨ ﻦﻤﺷد ﯽﻠﻋ ﺎﮐ ہﺠﯿﻠﮐ ﻼﺟ ںﻮﮑﺳ

Ghalib! If I can’t go to Paradise for being a wine bibber I wish that I be of

some use after my death

I implore you to convert me into a fuel of Hell

That I can burn the hearts of the enemies of Ali (A.S)

(Digital Akhbar “Imam Hussain…” 2020)

In the line above, Mirza Ghalib expresses his heartfelt love for the progeny

of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and hatred for the enemies of Ahl al-Bayt.

He also pays glorious tribute to Hussain (a.s) in many of his verses, for

instance:

مﻼﺳ ﮯﺳا ہﮐ ﺮﮔا هﺎﺷدﺎﺑ ﮟﯿﮩﮐ ﻮ ﮑ ﺳ ا

ﻮﺗ ﺮﮭﭘ ﮟﯿﮩﮐ ہﮐ ﮭﭽﮐ ﮯﮑﺳا اﻮﺳ ﮟﯿﮩﮐ ﻮ ﮑ ﺳ ا

ہﻧ هﺎﺷدﺎﺑ ہﻧ نﺎﻄﻠﺳ ہﯾ ﺎﯿﮐ ﺶﯾﺎﺘﺳ ﮯ ﮨ

ﻮﮩﮐ ہﮐ ﺲﻤﺧ لآ ﺎﺒﻋ ﮟﯿﮩﮐ ﻮﮑﺳا

Blessings on him who deserves to be called a king Or if not then let us call

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

him something higher You do not call

him either a king or a sultan

Let us call him the Panjatan

(Digital Akhbar “Imam Hussain…” 2020)

Similarly, Iqbal also draws inspiration from Karbala which according to him

transcends all sectarian barriers. He conveys a universal message to

mankind to follow Imam Hussain (a.s) who sacrificed his life and his family

in the cause of Truth. Iqbal glorified Hussain (a.s) in many of his poems, as

in the following lines:

ﺖﻘﯿﻘﺣ یﺪﺑا ﮯھ مﺎﻘﻣ یﺮﯿﺒﺷ

ﮯﺘﻟﺪﺑ ﮯ ﺘ ھ ر ﮯ ھ زاﺪﻧا ﯽﻓﻮﮐ و ﯽ ﻣ ﺎ ﺷ

The place of Hussain (a.s), the Martyr great is fact, not bound to Space or

Date,

Though the Syrians and the Kufis may often change their wont and way.

(Bal e Jibril)

Iqbal in the verse above argues that Hussain (a.s) remains a representative

of truth and the love of God. His glorious martyrdom shall continue to

inspire and be a model standing for justice and the fight against injustice

and oppression. Hussain (a.s) through his martyrdom has become an eternal

truth while on the contrary the people who ruled Kufa and Syria shall keep

on changing colours like chameleons and attempt to gain power by means

of deceit, manipulation, fraud and trickery. Iqbal praises Hussain (a.s) and

his companions elsewhere also in the following way:

نﺎﻨﻤﺷد نﻮﭼ ﮓﯾر اﺮﺤﺻ ﻻ داﺪﻌﺗ

نﺎﺘﺳود ہﺑوا نادﺰﯾ ﻢھ دﺪﻋ

Like the grains of desert sands His (Hussain’s) enemies were countless

While the number of his friends equalled God (yazdaan)

(Naqvi 1977, 60)

Iqbal’s idea in the above verse is that Hussain’s (a.s) enemies were countless

and are likened to the sand grains of the desert, but Hussain’s (a.s)

companions are equivalent to God Himself as the 72 companions are

equivalent to the numeral summation of alphabets in ‘Yazdaan’ (which

means God).

Similarly, both Ghalib and Iqbal undertook experiments with the form and

content of poetry. Ghalib shunned old popular clichés and idioms and

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

revolted against the existing styles. He created his own original metaphors

taken from different sources which made him an incomprehensible poet.

The imagery that he used was uneven, irregular, abstruse, far-fetched and

mysterious. In comparison, Iqbal was exquisite and clear cut and he mostly

used conventional metaphors but put them in different and fresh contexts.

He was not vague and ambiguous like Ghalib but direct and candid and his

statements were like hammer strokes by means of which he made his point.

They also wrote about sorrow; Ghalib is through and through sorrowful in

his poetry whereas Iqbal’s poetry has sorrowful associations but much of it

is a complaint. Ghalib’s natural inclination was more towards the Persian

language, as he tells us himself:

ﯽﺳرﺎﻓ ﮟﯿﺑ ہﺑﺎﺗ ﯽﻨﯿﺑ ےﺎﮩﺸﻘﻧ ﮓﻧر ﮓﻧر

راﺰﮕﺑ زا ہﻋﻮﻤﺠﻣ ودرا ہﮐ ﮯﺑ ﮓ ﻧ ر ﻦﻣ ﺖﺳا

Look at my Persian; there you see the full range of my artistry

And leave aside my Urdu verse, for there is nothing there of me.

(Islam & Russell 1994, 82)

He seconds this in his letters in which he claims that the Persian language

and eloquence have been bestowed upon him in eternity. The variety of

Persian that he used in his poetry was pure classical Persian and not the

vernacular Persian like that of Iqbal. Likewise though, Iqbal also did not

imitate the traditional style of his predecessors. Having said that he did

briefly follow the Indo-Persian style (Sabke Hindi), but he was able in time

to break the barriers of this period. He also wrote much of his poetry in

Persian and his preference and first choice of Persian is mentioned in Asrar-

i-Khudi in the following way:

I am of India: Persia is not my native tongue

I am like the crescent moon: my cup is not full

Although the language of Hindi is sweet as sugar

Yet sweeter is the fashion of Persian speech.

Because of the loftiness of my thoughts

Persian alone is suitable to them

(Iqbal 1994, 33)

Iqbal achieved tremendous fame as an Urdu poet in India but his Persian

poetry made him famous across the world, particularly in Iran, Turkey and

Russia. Just as Ghalib stood for freedom and assertion of personality, Iqbal

also followed this tradition and took them to new heights in his poetry.

Ghalib’s features of poetry like revolt and rebellion, respect for the dignity

of man, and joy in life are equally shared by Iqbal too. Unfortunate for both

Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal: A Study in Comparison

of them is the fact their Persian poetry did not receive much attention in Iran

and other places where this language is a mother tongue.

Another common thing between Ghalib and Iqbal is that they lay bare their

inner selves through their letters which they wrote to their friends. Ghalib’s

letters are a huge legacy which display his wit, self-irony and acute

observation. He unveils himself in these letters by talking about his sorrows,

sufferings and joys in such a way as if he were talking to them face to face.

In short, his letters give us an important insight into his inner self. Similarly,

Iqbal is also famous for having left a heritage of letters which he wrote to

his friends like Atiya Fyzee and Emma Wegenast. They also give us an

insight into Iqbal as he pours his heart out by talking about his failed and

imposed marriage and other personal problems. Furthermore, he wrote

letters to Muhammad Ali Jinnah which, it is believed, gave rise to the idea

and creation of Pakistan.

Before rounding off the discussion about the two poets it is important to

look at what the most renowned critic on Iqbal and Ghalib Shamsur Rehman

Faruqi says about them in his famous book How to Read Iqbal: Essays on

Iqbal, Urdu Poetry and Literary Theory. In the chapter “Iqbal, the Riddle

of Lucretius, and Ghalib” he remarks:

For better or for worse, Iqbal is essentially a poet of hope; Ghalib is not.

Ghalib is a poet of Romantic revelation: Iqbal is not. Iqbal is a poet with a

message; Ghalib is not. For the sake of the message, Iqbal can sacrifice

poetry. Ghalib has no such problem. For Ghalib, words are the ultimate

reality; for Iqbal, they are the means to another end. Ghalib is the poet of

compression and introspection; Iqbal the poet of dilation and explication.

Both use metaphor, both use verbal skills, but in different ways. Iqbal’s

greatness is in his poetry, not in his ideas…We must remember, as A.A.

Suroor has said, that in Iqbal the philosopher was always engaged in a battle

with the poet. Suroor breaks down the components of Iqbal’s personality

into poet, philosopher and man of religion...Like Yeats, Iqbal too was a

practicing politician…Ghalib had no such conflicts to face, for Ghalib had

no desire to explain the world: he was content to reflect it through his

consciousness. Iqbal’s desire to explain and thus conquer the world

enmeshed him in many contradictions which Suroor has pointed out,

particularly with regard to Nietzsche and Bergson…Two poets can be

said

to work in the same tradition, or to be similar to one another, if their poetics

and poetic practice are largely similar; or if their vision of life is similar; or

then if either or both flow from the same compulsions of literary tradition

and ethnic environment as reflected in their poetry. For Ghalib and Iqbal,

none of these conditions obtain. Ghalib wrote within the essentially

Romantic tradition of Sabk-i Hindi (Indian Style). Iqbal at his best has been

Myriad Shades of Life in Mirza Ghalib

compared to Rumi, Hafiz, Sa‘di, even Firdausi. Nothing could be farther

from the Sabk-i Hindi. Iqbal was undoubtedly a serious poetic craftsman and

artist even in his weaker poems. But his poetics was different from Ghalib’s.

(Faruqi 2007, 79-81)

Iqbal had set ideas behind writing poetry while Ghalib did not subscribe to

any tenets or philosophy whatsoever. His poetry can be called a profound

reflection on life whereas Iqbal, particularly in his later poetry, writes with

a purpose and a definite agenda. Ghalib had an extraordinary sense of

humour and had many friends from all walks of life while Iqbal was reticent

and had few personal friends. Ghalib was an open book and Iqbal did not

reveal himself to everybody. Ghalib deals with the general concerns of life

which appeal to all and are sundry whereas Iqbal has particular concerns in

his poetry and therefore it does not appeal to all. The last phase of both

Ghalib and Iqbal was also similar as both were plagued by prolonged illness.

Ghalib suffered from various health issues including the loss of his eyesight.

Iqbal’s health was far worse than Ghalib’s and he also died due to his

illnesses. The last days of Ghalib were miserable and he would often lose

consciousness. Just a few days before his death, he dictated a letter to

Alauddin saying, “What do you want to know about my condition? You

may ask my neighbours in

a day or two” (Kumar 1988, 9). He remembered

God too much before his death often saying ‘there is no God but God’. As

for Iqbal, he quoted a Persian verse to his brother just some days before his

death which reads:

نﺎﺸﻧ دﺮﻣ ﻦﻣﻮﻣ ﻮﺗﺎﺑ ﻢﯾﻮﮔ

نﻮﭼ گﺮﻣ ﺪﻣآ ﻢﺴﺒﺗ ﺮﺑ ﺐﻟ ﺖﺳوا

You ask me a sign of the sign of the man of faith?

When death comes, he has a smile on his face

(Kumar 1988, 21)

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