Sayings of Imam Ali:--" "

Poets of Ahlul Baith ( A.S )

I would like to dedicate this site to Poets o Ahlul Baith (A.S)

Urdu is a word of Turkish origin which means "horde." In fact, the word "horde" has same origin and hence sounds similar and even has same meaning. The word "Urdu" symbolizes its origin, it developed by the interaction of foreign army, merchants and immigrants with the local population of India.

As somebody said that Urdu was tailor made for literature, so what we have now is a Urdu literature which very honestly mirrors the society it lives in. For generations Urdu was closely associated with the man on the street and his emotions, that's why Urdu is now more popular than ever.

Urdu, is a language full of beauty and grace, a language that seems to have been custom-built for literature, a language that adds meaning to prose and charm to poetry, a language of elegance and polish, a language that marked the dignified from the unlearned, the noble from the ordinary, a language that belonged in the courts of the powerful, in the schools of the wise and the homes of the erudite, a language that might have past the zenith of its splendour, but is still spoken by a many and sold to a many under many a different name.

Literature in Urdu grew at three different centres: Deccan, Delhi and Lucknow. As it happened, the Deccan emerged as the earliest centre, even though the language had first developed in northern India, as a result of an interesting linguistic interaction between the natives and the Muslim conquerors from Central Asia, who settled there in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the period stretching roughly from the middle of the fourteenth centuries to the middle of the eighteenth produce a number of poets. They are claimed both by Urdu and Hindi literary historians, but Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1611) is generally acknowledged as the first notable poet, like file of  Chaucer is English, with a volume of significant poetry in a language later named Urdu. He was followed by several others, among whom Wali Deccani (1635-1707) and Siraj Aurangabadi ( 1715-1763) deserves special mention. Delhi emerged as another significant centre with Mirza Mohammad Rafi Sauda (1713-80), Khwaja Mir Dard (1721-85), Mir Taqi Mir (1722-1810), Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869) and Nawab Mirza Khan Dagh (1831-1905). It reached its height of excellence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lucknow made its way as the third important centre with Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi (1725-1824), Inshallah Khan Insha (1757-1817), Khwaja Haidar Ali Atish (1778-1846), Iman Baksh Nasikh (1787-1838), Mir Babar Ali Anis (1802-74) and Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir (1803-1875). These literary capitals, where the classical tradition developed, had their individual stylistic and thematic identities, but broadly it may be said that the ghazal  (love lyric) reached its zenith with Mir and Ghalib, qasida (panegyric) with Sauda, mathnawi (romance) with Mir Hasan and marthiya (elegy) with Anis and Dabir. Urdu poetry mainly consists of the ghazal, the qasida, the marsia, the masnavi, the qita and the rubai.

On this site I would like to write about poets who dedicated their life to Ahlul Baith (A.S). No doubt Mir Babar Ali Anis and Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir (much is said and written about them) are the foremost in this line of poetry but there are some who also dedicated their life to this cause. I would like to mention the poets who are popular only in few cities. The trend these days is only to do amal,  recite Duas etc. So the name of Kumail Ibn Ziyad (Sahabi-e Ali(AS)) is well known in Shia circles but the name of Mesum-E-Tammar another Sahabi of our Moula Ali (AS) is not very popular. He was the one who was martyred reciting qasidas (Praising) of Moula Ali (AS).  So by collecting these poetry and life histories of some of the poets, I feel that I am doing justice in the cause of Mesum-E-Tammar.

Here is the story of Janabe Mesum -E-Tammar

Janab Mesum-E-Tammar was a sahabi of Imam Ali (A.S). His Kunniyath was Abu Salem. He use to sell dates and on this account he was known as Mesum-e-Tammar (tammar means dates). He was a great disciple of Imam Ali (A.S). Imam Ali (A.S.) educated him with  many secrets of the faith. At times , Mesum used to tell the people the deep secrets learnt by him.

Mesum then went to perform Hajj and there after returned to Koofa. One-day lbn Ziad, the Governor of the place, called him and asked him in the Court, "Oh Mesum! I've heard that you're a companion of Ali! when Mesum replied in affirmative then Ubaidullah bin Ziyad said to Mesum to disown Imam Ali (A.S). Ibn Ziad then asked him. "Did your master tell you anything about your end?" Mesum replied, "Yes. He informed me that I would be hanged and that my tongue would be cut. lbn Ziad sent a roar of laughter and said, "I will see that your master did not tell you the truth. I will see that his prophecy is belied. Mesum said, "My master's words are true because he got that information from God. The Prophet was informed by Jibrael and Jibrael came with the message of Allah." Ibn Ziad ordered Mesum to be jailed. Mesum escaped from jail and joined Mukhtar. Mukhtar had risen in revolt to avenge the massacre of Karbala. Discussions took place between Mukhtar and Mesum. Revenge was planned. But Mesum was caught by the order of Ibn Ziad and was ordered to be hanged.

Mesum was brought to the same tree to be hanged as pointed out by Hazrat Ali (A.S.). Ibn Ziyad ordered the police to tie Mesum to the date-palm trunk near the house of Amru bin Huraith. He ordered them to cut off his hands and legs. Mesum began singing the praises of his master, and about a thousand people gathered to see Mesum being hanged. Even after being hanged, the tongue of Mesum went on singing the praises of Hazrat Ali (A.S.). Ibn Ziad was informed about this and the tyrant ordered to cut off Mesum's tongue. Mesum said: "Amirul Mu'mineen has told me about that". They cut off his  tongue. and another man stabbed him with a sword. Thus, this mujahid's life was put out like a candle! and thus the prophecy of Hazrat Ali (A.S.) came true and Mesum died after his tongue was cut out.

Here are some of the verses in Janab Mesum's Shaan

Kanon me ras ghol rahi hai

Please pray for my  success. And I will be grateful to you all if you could help me in my cause. My first poet in this series is Azam Rizvi Sahib a great poet from Hyderabad, India.

List of the poets

• Azam Rizvi (Hyd,India)

• Mohammad Ali Wafa (Hyd, India)

• Rehan Azmi  (Karachi Pakistan)

• Rasheed Shaheedi (Hyd, India)

• Mesum Gopalpuri (Bihar, India )