Iftikhar Arif wears his spirituality on his sleeve. There’s a reason for it: he thinks of spirituality in tangible terms. For him, the soul is as corporeal a thing as the body — you can touch it, see it, hear it. This happens largely because he sees the tragedy of Karbala as an episode in the history of mankind whose physicality — the martyrdom of Imam Hussain and his companions — is as much a part of his creative conscience as its spiritual ramifications.

Arif is one of the leading living poets of the Urdu language, and if diction alone is taken into account, his ability to meld classical phraseology with contemporary linguistic strands makes him unparalleled in the 21st century. This is where his subject matter, a significant chunk of which has Karbala as its main motif and chief metaphor, effortlessly complements his diction. Incredibly, the ghazals and nazms where his personal journey — romantic or socioeconomic — takes centre stage do not get eclipsed by the verses written with a religious inclination.

These aspects of Arif’s poetry and life have been discussed and dissected on various forums by eminent critics, poets and writers (some of whom are not with us today) ever since his first collection of poems, Mehr-i-Do Neem, hit the bookshelves. Unfortunately, those views hadn’t been collated or brought together in one place to give them a cohesive vibe. This feat has now been achieved by researcher Sheema Majeed who has compiled the book Javaz-i-Iftikhar — Iftikhar Arif: Fun-o-Shakhsiat published by Poorab Academy, Islamabad. It is a collection of essays penned by distinguished writers on Arif’s life and work, his interviews and rare photographs with literary luminaries from different phases of his career. The book is in Urdu, with a portion in English containing articles and an interview.

A pilgrimage to his soul made Karbala the voice of Iftikhar Arif’s expression

Jawaz-i-Iftikhar is dedicated to writer Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, and understandably so. Arif has shared a considerable time of his life with literary luminaries such as Yousufi, Saqi Farooqui and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, especially in London where he used to run the Urdu Markaz. No surprises then, that the first essay included in the book that succeeds Arif’s deeply moving hamd, na’at and salaam, is by Faiz titled ‘Jadeed Urdu Adab ka Mo’tabar Naam’. But the beginning hardly sets the tone for what’s to come. There are some astounding pieces that, although written about Arif’s work, stand alone as works of art. The foremost of them is by Mumtaz Mufti. The writer, in his trademark Urdu, writes Arif’s sketch in a way that peels off the layers of the poet’s personal journey that contributed substantially to his creative process. Mufti stresses that if one were to see the poet’s real self, one should try and find him when he is all alone, all by himself.

This facet of tanhaee [solitude] is also touched upon by poet Parveen Shakir, although she does it in poetic prose, by talking less and saying much.

That being said, it is virtually impossible to ignore how the potent and painful metaphor of Karbala effortlessly segues into Arif’s creative output, where the personal and the spiritual become one. Critic Gopi Chand Narang raises this point with erudition in his essay. He uses the phrase takhleeqi wijdaan [creative intuition] to describe the poet’s subject matter in which the past and the present meet with history as the source material for contemporary trends. He backs up his thesis by quoting many a verse: “Wohi pyaas hai, wohi dasht hai, wohi gharana hai/ Mashkeezey se teer ka rishta buhat purana hai/ Subh saveray runn parrhna hai aur ghamsaan ka runn/ Raaton raat chala jaey jis jis ko jana hai” [The thirst is the same, the desert is the same, and so is the family/ The relationship of water-skin to arrow goes a long way back/ There will be battle in the morning, and a fierce one at that/ Whoever wants to escape it, do so at night].

Another critic, Anwar Sadeed, touches upon the same dimension of his poetry with a slight difference: he suggests that it is when the poet went on a pilgrimage to his soul (rooh ki yatra) that the metaphor of Karbala became his voice of expression. He says that by doing so, Arif has drawn some everlasting conclusions: “Darya per qabza tha jis ka us ki pyaas azaab/ Jis ki dhaalein chamak rahi theen wohi nishana tha” [The one who held sway over the river was thirsty/ And the target was the one with the shiniest shield].

The interviews of the poet published in the book taken, among others, by writers of high merit Haseena Moin and Anwar Maqsood focus more on Arif’s life and his views on poetry in particular and literature in general. Here Arif doesn’t completely bare his soul on issues pertaining to his private life, but on literature he has firm opinions and doesn’t shy away from showering praise on the writers and poets he holds in great esteem. For example, answering a question put to him by Maqsood, he says Rasa Chughtai’s collection of poems Rekhta was not received by the literati the way it merited.

Finally, the pictures included in Jawaz-i-Iftikhar give away the kind of people Arif has had the chance to work and spend time with, and the various cities of the world he visited for professional or personal reasons.

“Ik kitaab aur naee aaee naey khwab ke saath/ Ik charagh aur jala hujra-i-darveshi mein” [A new book arrives with a new dream/ Another lamp is lit in the darvesh’s hut].

The reviewer is a member of staff

Javaz-i-Iftikhar — Iftikhar Arif:
Fun-o-Shakhsiat
By Sheema Majeed
Poorab Academy, Islamabad
430pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, October 1st, 2017