Faiz Ahmed Faiz stands apart as extraordinary compared to other recollected artists of the nation. His verse not just tested the abusive systems of that time yet, in addition, spoke to solid political perspectives featuring the worries of the persecuted. Faiz Ahmad Faiz was destined to Sultan Mohammad Khan in the city of Sialkot in February 1911.
His Father Mohammad Khan was a mediator of the lord of Afghanistan. Faiz got his underlying education at the renowned Scotch Mission High School. Later he got enrolled in the Murray College Sialkot. Faiz had an uncommon scholastic life and gained a B.A and a B.A honors degree other than acquiring two Master’s degrees. Faiz started his first employment at Amritsar Anglo-Oriental College in 1935.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz attributable to his uncommonly significant verse developed as one of the most mainstream writers of the contemporary Urdu verse. His style of composing experienced progress in the 1930s as he moved his consideration from conventional sentimental to genuine subjects. The changing scene undertakings in the 30s had a huge bearing on his viewpoint and resultantly his verse encountered a change in perspective that bolstered professional communist thoughts.
Thus he bolstered professional communists and was hostile to extremist dynamic scholars of the 1930s. Besides he himself started the dynamic author’s development. During his stay at Amritsar Faiz met his future spouse Alys who was an individual from the British socialist gathering.
As a result of the parcel of India, Sub-landmass Faiz left the British Indian Army and joined Pakistan Times. Faiz’s unprecedented brightness caused Pakistan Times to rise as one of the most looked-for-after dailies of the country in a limited ability to focus time.
In 1951 Faiz was captured as a member of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case and was marked as a plotter and a socialist delegate. He was discharged in 1955 subsequent to going through four years in detainment. He was of the view that the nation had been offered to the neo-colonialist alliance. Faiz was an enthusiastic socialist and in this manner, his work turned out to be monstrously famous in Russia and was deciphered in Russian. Also, in 1963 he was granted the Lenin harmony prize.
A Short Biography of Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born on February 13th, 1911. His birthplace was Kala Qader in District Narowal, Punjab. It is present-day Faiz Nagar in Pakistan. His father was Sultan Muhammad Khan. He was a barrister. He served for the British Government. He also published the biography of Amir Abdur Rahman who was an Emir of Imperial Afghanistan.
He was born in the Tatla Jutt Family. His family was a very academic and literary family. It had widespread recognition in literary circles. His family home was a seat of local poets and their gatherings.
His family was a devoted Muslim family but his upbringing took place in a secular tradition of Islam. He was directed to attend the local mosque to be equipped with the basics of religious studies. He was taught basic Islamic knowledge by Maulana Hafiz Ibrahim Mir Sialkot. He was a renowned Ahl-i-Hadith scholar. In that mosque, he learned the Quran, Urdu Persian, and Arabic language.
He was soon removed from the madrassa because the other children who were poor and would come to attend the madrassa were not at ease with him. Faiz tried to make them comfortable but this was of no avail. He would attend the madrassa in neat and clean clothes. He would be dropped in the madrassa by a horse-drawn carriage. While at the same time, the other children belonging to poor backgrounds would not be able to afford such luxury so they would ridicule him.
Afterward, he entered the Scotch Mission School. This school was under the supervision of the local British government. After completion of school, he came to Murray College at Sialkot to do his intermediate studies. Then he joined the Department of Languages and Fine Arts of the Government College University, Lahore.
During his stay, he was under the influence of Professor Syed Mir Hassan. He taught him Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, the philosophy, politics, and poetry of South Asia. He completed his graduation in 1928. He then completed his MA in English Literature from Government College University, Lahore.
In 1932, he also completed his MA in Arabic from Oriental College affiliated with Punjab University. Later on, he came under the influence of Muzaffar Ahamed and M.N. Roy became an active member of the Communist Party.
Faiz got a job at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Amritsar in 1935. He served as a lecturer in English literature. In 1937, he was appointed as a professor at the Hailey College of Commerce. For this, he came back to Lahore and reunited with his family. At Hailey College of Commerce, he would teach courses in commerce and economics. In 1936, he became a member of the PWM literary movement. He became its first secretary.
This movement soon spread in the East and Western part and the public supported it. Urdu magazine ‘Adab-e-Latif’ appointed him as editor-in-chief in 1938. He served in that post till 1946. Faiz Ahmad Faiz published his first book ‘Naqsh-e-Faryadi’ in 1941.
Faiz fell in love with Alys Faiz in 1941. She was a student at the Government College University Lahore. She was also a member of the Communist Party of the United Kingdom as she was a British National. Faiz was a lecturer at Government College University at that time. He was teaching poetry to their class. Alys then applied for Pakistani citizenship. She also played a vital role in Rawalpindi’s Conspiracy. The couple had two daughters Moneeza Hashmi and Salima.
Faiz was given a commission in the British Indian Army in 1942. He was ranked as the second lieutenant in the 18th Royal Garhwal Rifles. His initial duty as a public relations officer in the General Staff Branch. He then served as acting captain, temporary captain, acting major, temporary major, and then war-substantive captain. In 1944, he was given a desk assignment. He became an assistant director of public relations on the staff of the North-Western Army.
He was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He also served with a unit that was led by Akbar Khan. Akbar Khan later became the Army General of Pakistan. He also took part in the war. In 1947, he decided to join the new state of Pakistan. But he decided to leave the army when he witnessed the 1947 Kashmir War with India. He resigned from the army in 1947.
He was a staunch believer of Internationalism and was centered on the philosophy of Global Village. In 1947, Faiz was elected as the editor of the ‘Pakistan Times.’ He also became the vice president of the Pakistan Trade Union Federation in 1948. He also became a member of the World Peace Council in 1948.
He was a communist and became a member of the Communist Party of Pakistan. He was honored for these thoughts in many countries of the world. The Russians called him ‘our Poet.’ But this popularity was not very well received in Pakistan.
He was a supporter of military personnel like Major General Akbar Khan. For this very reason, he was imprisoned as well.
Liaqat Ali Khan did not succeed in capturing the issue of Kashmir with India. Later on when Akbar Khan came back to Pakistan from the United States so he banned the Communist Party Pakistan.
He was imprisoned for four years. Later on, he was deported so he went to London. In 1958, he came back to Pakistan but he was detained again. He then departed to Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He was allowed to go to Moscow on the requests of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Later on, he settled in the United Kingdom.
He came back to Pakistan in 1964. He then started living in Karachi. He was appointed as the Rector of Abdullah Haroon College. Due to the efforts of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Faiz was given a post at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to mobilize the people of West Pakistan. His main job was to make the people oppose the separation of Bangladesh.
In 1972, he was appointed as Culture Advisor at the Ministry of Culture by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. In 1974, he took retirement for government assignments. After Bhutto was removed, he was deeply saddened. With the news of Bhutto’s execution, he left Pakistan and went to Beirut, Lebanon.
He became the editor of ‘Lotus’ magazine. It was sponsored by the Soviet Union. He also became a close friend of Edward Said and Yasser Arafat. In 1982, his health started to deteriorate and he came back to Pakistan.
Faiz died in 1984. He died in Lahore. At that time, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Writing Style
Natural Symbolism
Faiz Ahmed Faiz depends on natural symbolism, non-literal language, imagery, and tone movements to show his perspective on war, government, and darling relating to his nation. Using natural symbolism, Faiz can reliably depict the sensitive and delightful items in life to represent the world’s likely excellence with expectations of the world getting joined together. These minutes are used to stress the light and expectation inside the dim encounters of his life.
The primary tone of his poems for the most part uncovers his offered view or input on a theme. Later the tone shifts demonstrate that expectation and disobedience help adapt to the current issues. In the midst of the movements of tone in the poems, his utilization of metaphorical language pushes his subjects and conflicting thoughts by permitting us understanding to the more profound implying that is covered up inside the poems.
Faiz utilizes his recollections and individual encounters in life to advocate for the harmony he wishes to find on the planet. He portrays these recollections through illustrative symbolism to incite a similar feeling he feels towards these common issues.
Social Call
Faiz’s poems issue a social and aggregate call through their utilization of a general murmur. His trademark style of free stanza is alluded to as ‘nazm’ inside the Urdu idyllic convention. It is expected to be a progressive stylish, opening for his reader’s opportunities for turning out to be on-screen characters in the world.
‘Nazm’ leaves from the proper kind of ‘ghazal,’ traditional love verse that either celebrates or grieves love. In the melodious enthusiasm of ‘nazm,’ Faiz changed feeling into movement, with the end goal that sensual verse and progressive verse obscured.
Customary tropes like dedication and detachment, and harmony and franticness, became assembling powers for investigating state persecution and for maintaining an ethos that enabled the misused to ascend. This is the reason we should take him up again in our present, paroxysmal second.
Religious Imagery
Faiz’s work is packed with religious imagery. However, his comprehension of religion was more in accordance with Sufi ideas, and not the traditionalist translations progressed by strict researchers. References to the cherished are generally imperative. He once stated that the genuine subject of the verse is the loss of the cherished.
His way of thinking was one of inclusivity, aggregation, love for all creatures, and no resentment or hostility. He didn’t despise even the individuals who detained him, censured him, and needed him dead or quiet. These are impressions of Sufi convictions.
Tone Variation
One of the interesting aspects of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poetry is his variation of tone. Inside a poem, his tone varies from one dimension to another. He not only uses the variation of tone for artistic beauty but his variation of tone gives variation in meanings as well. His tone differs from stanza to verse for instance in ‘Dawn`s Freedom.’ The first verse’s bleak tone has been found as it helps us to remember bleak and dull circumstances.
In the second refrain, a profound and intelligent tone has been discovered that breaks down the substance of the autonomous war. His third verse is humorous and practical. He has educated us regarding the cruel real factors yet at long last, he offers confidence to Muslims that fate isn’t much far. In the last refrain, the artist embraces a brutal tone and he is by all accounts in mocking mode.
He proclaims that extravagant has become the truth however it has not brought the natural product that all the fights have been battled yet he stresses that the primary focus on which the battle was determined to be yet unfulfilled. He represents this autonomy as a false dawn. He doesn’t consider this autonomy as genuine freedom and the powers that this craving stayed unfulfilled.
The entire poem can be summarized in one line where he asks when did it come and where has it gone. He is stating that we have overlooked our genuine point and embraced a bogus one. The genuine point is the foundation of a quiet society in a cordon with this point where no political agitation prospers yet the result has been inverted to what it ought to have been.
The last four lines mirror Faiz’s in the association of mankind when he discredits the snapshot of our opportunity. He directs us to the exercise of fellowship and solidarity. He says that we can possibly reach our opportunity and goal when we have faith in harmony.
Major Themes in Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Writings
Faiz was a dedicated artist who saw verse as a vehicle of the genuine idea, and not an insignificant pleasurable leisure activity. Faiz was regarded by Soviet Russia with the renowned Lenin Award for Peace and his works have been converted into the Russian language.
As a writer, Faiz started composing on the traditional subjects of adoration and magnificence, yet soon these ordinary topics got lowered in the bigger social and policy-centered issues of the day. The customary laments of affection get melded with the travails of the tormented humankind, and Faiz utilizes his verse to support the reason for communist humanism.
Thus, the natural symbolism of an affection artist gets new implications in the possession of Faiz. This got some distance from sentiment to authenticity, from Eros to Agape is perfectly proposed in his poem, “mujh se pehli si mohabbat merey mahboob na maang”, “Do Not Ask”.
Faiz is an artist of humankind so there was definitely not a solitary topic in his verse yet his verse incorporates all the human feelings, he imparts it to all classes of readers. There we discover love with every one of its delights, the raptures of blood other than this. He doesn’t miss the anguish, breaking down, torment, bad form, brutalities that he sees in his life. There is likewise the significant topic of Revolution copiously found in Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s verse.