Faiz Ahmad Faiz once said that great people did not grow like cereals. It takes generations to produce one. Most probably, he was alluding to himself or, perhaps, to Ahmad Faraz, who was one of the few poets in the country who achieved pro-minence in his lifetime. After legends like Faiz, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi and Habib Jalib, Ahmad Faraz enjoyed a rare distinction of being popular among the masses as well as earning admiration of the initiated.

Ahmad Shah was born into a learned Syed family of Nowshera, NWFP, on Jan 14, 1931. He had his early schooling at the Islamia High School, Kohat. His parents wanted him to take up mathematics, but he judged himself to be too poor at it and instead, opted for the humanities. He graduated from Edward College, Peshawar, and took Master`s degrees in Urdu and Persian from Peshawar University. He started composing verses when he was a high school student.

This was an age when the Progressive Writers` Movement had taken the subcontinent by storm. He chose poetry for giving vent to his passion. Giants like Josh Maleehabadi, Jigar Muradabadi, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ali Sardar Jafri reigned supreme. Ahmad Faraz had ventured into an arena where shortcuts would not work.

But his obsession with poetry and erudition brought immediate rewards. Even his early verse had a flamboyance of its own. A grasp of Persian helped him coin his own similes and metaphors. It was not long before he won recognition as an accomplished Urdu poet. He began his professional career with Radio Pakistan as a producer.

Here he got ample opportunity to explore his talent. He made the best use of it. However, he could not suppress his yearning for a more fulfilling vocation.

This induced him to take up teaching. Islamia College, Peshawar, offered him a lectureship in Urdu. He gladly accepted it. Later he was appointed lecturer in Persian. This afforded him a unique experience to meet prominent literary figures, try out new forms of literature and keep abreast of contemporary movements.

His serene nature and a flair for descriptive writing soon enabled him to carve a niche for himself in poetry. He held different government positions in the days to ahead. First he was appointed the director of the Pakistan National Centre, which had a network all over the country. He worked in this position for some time, but did not find it satisfying. In fact he was nothing but a figurehead, giving most of his time to versification and other literary activities.
He was later appointed the head of the Folk Heritage Foundation and the National Book Foundation. The government of Z.A. Bhutto honoured him by making him the founding director-general of the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 1976.

Faraz was a bold voice among his contemporaries. Since he had honed his skills when the Progressive Movement ruled the roost, he began venting his feelings against injustice, oppression and using the medium to advocate a change in the social order. Although he was fearless in his censure of the exploiting classes, he did so with characteristic tenderness. In one of his poems he says

(Someone else would have hogged the limelight, if not me/ City crowds need ramonaces to sing of/This was the heart that longed for a liason/ Now excuses it seeks to end it all)His diction was forceful. The school of thought he belonged to demanded abandoning the old ethos of aesthetic creativity and replacing it with the courage to speak out against morbid, traditional values.

His iconoclastic nature lent acerbity to his poetry, turning it into a vehicle for espousal of touchy subjects. Like most poets of this genre, he was a personification of dignity and probity. Sometimes, he bemoaned the social order, pleading for the poor.

(Such ruins we set up in our cities/ they attracted folks from deserts) When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979, he became a dejected man and in many of his poems he expressed his pain.

(These tears are no blood money, friends/ he paid the our loans back with his blood) He incurred the wrath of the Zia government for such outspokenness. Gen Ziaul Haq decided to arrest him for reciting a `seditious` poem at a mushaira. This forced him to leave Pakistan, spending three years in exile in Canada, Britain and Europe. Most of his poetry in exile reflects the anguish and grief a son of the soil goes through in an alien environment.

(All blamed us, including this silly heart/We left the city of disgrace, even if much loved) But as an optimist and a student of history, he had a piece of advice for strongmen who used their might as a tool for repression. In his inimitable style he said

(Blow not the lamp out in every home/ From behind one of these shall rise the sun of judgement)

Faraz`s ghazals became so popular that the film world also sought them. Some of these were sung by prominent vocalists such as Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum, Madam Noor Jehan and Iqbal Bano. Like Faiz, a number of his ghazals attained undying popularity. Typical examples are `Teri baatein hi sunane aaye` and `Ranjish hi sahi`. He also received the Adamjee Award, Abaseen Award, the Firaq Gorakhpuri Award, Tata Award and the Academy of Urdu Literature Award from Canada.

He was awarded Hilal-i-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan in 2004, but he returned it in protest against Gen Musharraf`s policies two years later. He had about a dozen anthologies to his credit. Among them are Dard ashub, Nayaft, Janaan janaan, Shab khoon, Tanha tanha, Beawaz gali kochoon mein, Mere khwab reza reza, Nabeena shahr mein aaina, Paiman and Pasandaz.