Bedil — The great poet who fascinated Iqbal and Ghalib

Bedil, along with Saib Tabrezi, laid the foundation of a new style of Persian poetry called Sabk-e-Hindi. He inspired many great poets after him, including Iqbal and Ghalib, who openly professed their liking for Bedil.

Dr Ali Kumail Qazalbash, a literary scholar from Quetta, made these remarks as he spoke at an event held on Friday evening to commemorate the golden jubilee of the Bedil Library in Sharfabad.

The Bedil Library was founded in 1974 under the Sharfabad Trust. It is housed in the Sharfabad Club near Bahadurabad Char Minar Chowrangi. The library was named after Bedil presumably because the poet was born in Bihar and the library was founded by members of the Bihar Muslim Society.

Dr Qazalbash said Bedil was born in 1644 and died in 1720. His real name was Abdul Qadir. His father belonged to a Sufi tradition and named his son after the great Sufi saint Abdul Qadir Gilani.

The speaker said there were varying accounts regarding the poet’s birthplace, with some even calling Lahore his place of birth. However, he maintained that the correct version is that Bedil was born in Azeemabad (now Patna in Bihar).

On why Iranians referred to the poet as ‘Bedil Dehlvi’, the scholar said it was because the poet spent his last years in Delhi. By the same logic, he explained, Iranians call Iqbal ‘Iqbal Lahori’, although Iqbal was not born in Lahore.

Initially, Bedil chose ‘Ramzi’ as his Takhallus (poetic pen name), but then changed it to Bedil after being inspired by the word’s usage in Saadi’s ‘Gulistan’, the speaker said.

On the poetic corpus of Bedil, Dr Qazalbash said his ‘Diwan of Ghazal’ comprises around 50,000 couplets. He also penned around 2,000 Rubaiyat and several Mathnavis, such as ‘Tilism-e-Hairat’ and ‘Toor-e-Maarifat’.

The poet composed a total of 19 Qasidas (eulogies) but none in praise of any king or royal personality, Dr Qazalbash said, adding that ‘Chahar Unsar’ was the most important among the prose works by Bedil and it dealt with the Sufi world view.

According to the scholar, Bedil masterly used various symbols in his poetry to describe various ideas. He cited Aaina, Rang, Meena, Sharar, Ghubar and Aabla as some of the most significant symbols employed by Bedil.

Dr Qazalbash said Bedil’s poetry also has a dimension of resistance and his couplets were quoted at courts to remind the rulers that they must never resort to injustice. The speaker added that Bedil was not popular among the religious elite and also chose to remain clean-shaven.

The scholar recited some couplets written by Bedil to denounce the beard, which he used as a symbol to describe the superficiality of the religious elite who are often more interested in external appearances than the inward purification.

One of the couplets of Bedil that Dr Qazalbash recited started with “Boo-e-Gul, Nala-e-Dil, Dood-e-Charagh-e-Mehfil”. It was surprising for many in the audience who had read Ghalib’s Urdu poetry, as one couplet in ‘Diwan-e-Ghalib’ starts exactly like this.

The scholar then immediately explained that Ghalib was enamoured with Bedil to such an extent that around 150 couplets in his Urdu Diwan seem exact translations of Bedil’s Persian couplets.

Regarding Iqbal’s fascination for Bedil, he said Iqbal wrote a book comparing Bergson’s philosophy with Bedil’s poetry. Iqbal once also named Bedil among four great philosophers whom he found irresistible, Dr Qazalbash said. The other three philosophers were Ibn-e-Arabi, Shankar Acharya and Hegel.

Gosha-e-Sabih Mohsin

The Bedil Library also commemorated former Radio Pakistan programme director and author Sabih Mohsin, who remained a trustee of the library his entire life. The portion of the library keeping the record of newspapers and periodicals was named Gosha-e-Sabih Mohsin on the occasion.

The participants of the event were told that the Bedil Library is a historical library and many notable literary personalities have donated their books to it.

Sabih’s brother Jamal Mohsin, who came from the United States, also launched his book titled ‘Bedil Library Ke Aas Pass’, which documents the history, culture and personalities of Sharfabad when the area was considered to be in the vicinity of Karachi.

Jamal, who spent his childhood and teenage years in Sharfabad, said he took great pains in locating old residents of Sharfabad and their descendants who have now scattered all over the world, then made a WhatsApp group where they can share their memories. He said he compiled the book after collecting all such accounts.

The host, Mehmood Ahmed Laeeq, said Sharfabad was once one of the most educated areas of the city. He recalled academics like former University of Karachi vice chancellor Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi and former Urdu University VC Dr Iqbal Mohsin once living in Sharfabad.

The guests were also told that the Bedil Library was once widely used by script writers of the Pakistan Television (PTV) for literary programmes because it is situated near the PTV Karachi Centre.

Writer Aqeel Abbas Jafari praised valuable books and periodicals at the library. He said he used the library resources extensively while writing his book ‘Pakistan Chronicle’.

He called for philanthropists to fund the library so that more books can be purchased and staff hired, saying that the current working hours of the library are limited.

Many prominent literary personalities of the city, such as Sahar Ansari, Anwar Shaoor, Fatima Hassan and Rukhsana Saba, also attended the golden jubilee celebration of the library. The evening concluded with a mushaira.