KARACHI: Friends, family members and colleagues of poet Rehan Azmi, who passed away on Jan 26, shared their views on his life and work at a condolence reference held to remember him by the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi on the council’s premises on Thursday evening.

The event was divided into two parts. The first one was conducted by Dr Huma Mir. Dr Fatema Hassan was the first speaker. She said Rehan Azmi was a notable literary figure of our times. He led a good life and left a worthy legacy [of his literary work]. Whatever he’s left for readers needs to be taken care of and transferred to the next generations for which the council is a good platform. Reading from her paper on him she pointed out he was a multifaceted and prolific poet. He attained extraordinary popularity through his devotional poetry (nohas and marsiyas).

Abbas Naqvi said the late poet was just as prolific a ghazal writer as he was a marsiya writer.

The late Azmi’s son Masoom said his father spent his entire life in zikr. He led a great life. The night before his passing he met his father who was writing something and kept on writing until morning. His other son Arsalan said he learned a great deal from the poet. He didn’t have to go to a university to learn the kind of things that he learned from him.

Javed Hasan was asked to recite a few stanzas from a marsiya penned by Azmi. Before doing that, Mr Hasan read the following verse by the late poet:

Dushmano ko merey Rehan qalaq to ho ga
Merey ahbaab ko muzhdah ho ke main zinda hun

[Rehan, your foes must be crestfallen
Friends, you should know that I’m alive]

President of the Arts Council Ahmed Shah became a bit emotional while talking about Azmi. He said the poet’s death is his personal loss. Their friendship went back more than 40 years. In the earlier phase of their friendship he didn’t know that Azmi would one day become such a towering figure. He joined PTV and wrote thousands of songs, many of which became popular. Then something spiritual happened and he turned towards marsiya and noha writing, deciding that he won’t charge a penny for it.

Mr Shah told the audience that once he went to Madagascar on a business trip. The people that he was to do business with belonged to the Shia Khoja community. They were an educated lot. They had big libraries and also had many cassettes, a majority of which had Rehan Azmi’s devotional poems. When he told them that he was a friend of Azmi’s they stood up and greeted him with great warmth and respect. They also requested him to bring Azmi to Madagascar.

The second part of the programme was conducted by Shuja Haider.

He first invited a friend of Azmi’s, Arif Shah, on stage. Mr Shah said one of the qualities of a great man is that each friend of his considers him his best friend — Azmi was like that. He added his friends used to call him ‘one-man army’.

Nadeem Naqvi paid tribute to Mr Azmi in verse:

Is gham ne ker diya mujhey beemar dosto
Mujh ko dilasa do merey ghamkhwar dosto

[The tragedy of his death has weakened me
Console me, comfort me, my dear friends]

Ali Raza said as long as the universe (aasmaan, sitarey) exists, Azmi’s name will not be forgotten.

Jahanzeb Rizvi recited the poet’s kalaam.

Aqeel Abbas Jafri said he had a long association with the poet. They travelled to many places together, and one of the most memorable trips for them was of Sindh. Wherever in the world azadari takes place, his poetry is recited.

Asif Haavi, a nephew of the poet, also lauded Azmi’s life and work.

Finally the young scholar Irtiza Abbas spoke. He said some people come into this world and some are sent.

Mr Azmi was sent to this world to do the kind of work that he did.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2021