Altaf Hussain Hali
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Altaf Hussain Hali ( – ; 1837 – 31 December 1914), also known as Maulana
Khawaja Khawaja () is an honorific title used across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, particularly towards Sufi teachers. It is also used by Kashmiri Muslims and Mizrahi Jews—particularly Kurdish Jews. The name or title ...
Hali, was an
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
poet and writer.


Early life

He was born in
Panipat Panipat () is an industrial , located 95 km north of Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on NH-44 in Panipat district, Haryana, India. It is famous for three major battles fought in 1526, 1556 and 1761. The city is also known as ...
to Khwaja Ezad Baksh and was a descendant of
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (, , died c. 674) — born Khalid ibn Zayd ibn Kulayb ibn Tha'laba () in Yathrib — was from the tribe of Banu Najjar, and a close companion (Arabic: الصحابه, ''sahaba'') and the standard-bearer of the Prophets and mes ...
, a close companion of the
Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, mos ...
Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
. Hali belonged to the Panipat Ansari clan, whose members included Lutfullah Khan Sadiq, the Diwan-i-Khalisa and governor of
Shahjahanabad Shahjahanabad colloquially known as Old Delhi( Hindustani: ''Purāni Dillī'') is an area in the Central Delhi district of Delhi, India. It was founded as a walled city and officially named Shahjahanabad in 1648, when Shah Jahan decided to shi ...
in the Mughal empire, and Sher Afgan Panipati, the governor of Multan. Hali's father died when he was nine years old and his mother suffered from dementia. He was in the care of his elder brother Khwaja Imdad Husain after the death of his parents and when he was fifteen, upon the forcing of the elder brother, married his cousin Islam-un-Nisa.Hameed, 'Introduction', p. 26. Hali studied, and memorized, the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
under Hafiz Mumtaz Husain,
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
under Haji Ibrahim Husain and
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
under Syed Jafar Ali. Resentful of hindreance to his studies by marriage, at age seventeen he travelled to
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
to study at the
madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...
opposite
Jama Masjid A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.See: * * * * ...
, which was called 'Husain Baksh ka Madrasa.'Hameed, 'Introduction', p. 27. Hali composed an essay in Arabic that supported the dialectics of
Siddiq Hasan Khan Sayyid Muḥammad Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān al-Qannawjī (14 October 1832 – 26 May 1890) was an Islamic scholar and leader of India's Muslim community in the 19th century, often considered to be the most important Muslim scholar of the Bhopal ...
, who was an adherent of
Wahhabism Wahhabism is an exonym for a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to oth ...
. His teacher, Maulvi Navazish Ali, belonged to the
Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...
school and when he saw the essay he tore it up. At this time Hali adopted the
takhallus In Persian language, Persian, Turkic languages, Turkic, Hindustani language, Hindustani and Punjabi language, Punjabi, the word ''takhallus'' (from Arabic , ; ; ; ; , ) means a pen name. Pen names were widely adopted by Persian, Turkic, Urdu and Pu ...
"Khasta", which means "the exhausted, the distressed, the heartbroken". He showed his work to the poet
Ghalib Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (27 December 179715 February 1869), commonly known as Mirza Ghalib, was an Indian poet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the Urdu language, he also produced a significant body of work in Persian. Ghali ...
, who advised him: "Young man, I never advise anyone to write poetry but to you I say, if you don't write poetry, you will be very harsh on your temperament". After a three-year stay in Delhi, 1852 to 1855, he returned to Panipat and his first son was born. In the following year he was employed at the Collector's office in Hissar.


Writing

The
Indian rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...
was an armed uprising in
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
against the oppressive and destructive British colonial rule and was also popularly remembered as the 'First War of Independence'. This was a turning point in Hali's life because he was an eyewitness to the catastrophe. His family took in a widowed girl who lived with them for the rest of her life. Her plight left a deep impression on Hali and he composed two poems on the condition of women: ''Munajaat-e-Beva'' (Supplication of the Widow) and ''Chup ki Daad'' (Homage to the Silent).Hameed, 'Introduction', p. 28.
Syeda Saiyidain Hameed Syeda Saiyidain Hameed (born 1943) is an Indian social and women's rights activist, educationist, writer and a former member of the Planning Commission of India. She is the president of the National Federation of Indian Women and the founder ...
called Hali "Urdu's first feminist poet". In 1863, in Delhi, he was appointed tutor to the children of
Nawab Mustafa Khan Shefta Nawab Mustafa Khan Shefta (1809–1869) was an Urdu poet and critic, and a contemporary of Mirza Ghalib. Shefta and Hasrati was his Takhallus. Born in Delhi, he belonged to a prominent landowning family of Bangash Hindustani Pathans. His kinsmen i ...
of
Jahangirabad Jahangirabad is a town in Bulandshahr district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The town is named after mughal emperor Jahangir, who is said to have stayed here for a couple of days. It has various holy places like Binner Devi, Dhaka Dev ...
, a position he held for eight years. In 1871, he moved to
Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
, where he was employed at the Government Book Depot from 1871 to 1874, where his task was to correct Urdu translations of English books. This brought him into contact with a wide range of literature and led to him writing the first book of
literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
in Urdu, ''Muqaddama-e-Shair-o-Shairi''. This was published as an introduction to his collected poems, ''Divan'' (1890) and then on its own (1893).
Annemarie Schimmel Annemarie Schimmel SI HI TCLN (7 April 1922 – 26 January 2003) was an influential German Orientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam, especially Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992. Early life a ...
called Hali the "founder of literary tradition in Urdu". He had by this time changed his takhallus from "Khasta" to "Hali", which means "contemporary" or "modern".Hameed, 'Introduction', p 30. While in Lahore Hali saw a new form of
Mushaira ''Mushaira'' () is a poetic symposium. It is an event (called '' mehfil'', mushairi) where poets gather to perform their works. A mushaira is part of the Culture of North India, Pakistan and the Deccan, particularly among the Hyderabadi Muslim ...
, where instead of reciting poetry at will, poets were given a subject to write about. This was begun by
Muhammad Husain Azad Muhammad Husain Azad ( — ; 5 May 1830 – 22 January 1910) was an Urdu writer and scholar who wrote both prose and poetry, but is mostly remembered for his prose. His best known work is Aab-e-Hayat ("Elixir of Life").
and the Director of Public Education, W. R. M. Holroyd. Hali composed four poems for this purpose: ''Nishat-e-Umeed'' (Delight of Hope), ''Manazra-a-Rahm-o-Insaaf'' (Dialogue between Mercy and Justice), ''Barkha Rut'' (Rainy Season) and ''Hubb-e-Watan'' (Patriotism). From 1874 until 1889 Hali taught at the Anglo Arabic School in Delhi. He was granted a stipend by the Chief Minister of Hyderabad in 1887 after which he immediately took retirement from the school to be able to devote himself full-time to creative writing. While at the Anglo Arabic School, he came into contact with
Syed Ahmad Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898), also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim Islamic modernist, reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British Raj, British India. Though initially esp ...
. He advised Hali to "write something like '' Marsiya-e-Andalus'' (dirge for Spain)" on the condition of the Muslims of India. Later Urdu writers called this moment: "This is the place where the Quom got a poet and the poet got a Quom". Hali therefore began to compose his epic poem, the ''Musaddas e-Madd o-Jazr e-Islam'' ("An elegiac poem on the Ebb and Tide of Islam"). Khan acclaimed it upon its publication in 1879 in a letter to Hali:
It will be entirely correct if the modern age of Urdu poetry is dated from the date inscribed in ''Musaddas''. I do not have the power of expression to describe the elegance, beauty and flow of this poem. ... I am undoubtedly its inspiration. I consider this poem among those finest deeds of mine that when God asks me what did you bring with you, I will say “Nothing but that I got Hali to write the ''Musaddas''!”Hameed, 'Introduction', p. 31.
He also called it the "mirror of the nation's condition and an elegy expressive of its grief". In the ''Musaddas'' Hali condemned what he saw as dogmatism,
obscurantism In philosophy, obscurantism or obscurationism is the Anti-intellectualism, anti-intellectual practice of deliberately presenting information in an wikt:abstruse, abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subj ...
and bigotry, and he attributed the decline of India's Muslims to the discouragement of dissent and the placing of religious rituals above the spirit of religion. He concluded the poem by warning Muslims to repair their ship before it is ship-wrecked in a storm. The poem was very popular and apart from the first couple of editions, Hali dedicated the poem to the nation and took no royalties. Some scholars of Pakistani nationalism also consider the ''Mussadas'' an important text for the articulation of a future Muslim nation,
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
, which eventually was created in 1947. During an international seminar on Hali held in Delhi on 29 November 2001, scholars concluded that Hali could not have written the ''Musaddas'' without reading at least 5,000 pages of Islamic history. After Khan's death Hali wrote his biography, ''Hayat-e-Javed'', which was published in 1901. He was awarded the title Shamsul Ulema ("Sun among Scholars") by the government. Hali's Mussadas-e-Hali also contains 'Mehnat ki Barkaat', which is an extract intended to spread awareness in Muslims.


Death and legacy

At the age of 52 in 1889, Hali finally returned to Panipat, where he shared home with his wife for the remaining twenty-five years of his life. Altaf Hussain Hali died in 1914.
Pakistan Post Pakistan Post () is a state enterprise which functions as Pakistan's primary and largest postal operator. 49,502 employees through a vehicle fleet of 5,000 operate traditional "to the door" service from more than 13,419 post offices across the ...
issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor on 23 March 1979 in its 'Pioneers of Freedom' series. "His great 'Musaddas' is one of the most inspiring poems in
Urdu literature Urdu literature (, ) comprises the literary works, written in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal'' () and '' nazm'' (), it has expanded into other styles of writing, includin ...
and had a lasting influence on the minds and attitudes of the Muslims in the sub-continent and continues to inspire them to this day." According to a major Pakistani English-language newspaper, Altaf Hussain Hali and Maulana
Shibli Nomani Shibli Nomani (4 June 1857 – 18 November 1914) was an Indian Islamic scholar, poet, philosopher, historian, educational thinker, author, orator, reformer and critic of orientalists during the British Raj. He is regarded as the father of Urdu ...
played key roles in rescuing Urdu language poetry in the 19th century, "Hali and Shibli rescued Urdu poetry. They re-conceived Urdu poetry and took it towards a transformation that was the need of the hour." In the same above-mentioned newspaper article, Baba-e-Urdu (Father of Urdu)
Maulvi Abdul Haq Maulvi Abdul Haq () (20 April 1870 – 16 August 1961) was a scholar and a linguist of the Urdu language, who some call ''Baba-e-Urdu'' (, ''Father of Urdu''). The main credit for the development and promotion of Urdu language in 20th centu ...
is quoted as saying, "Outstanding poetry happens when there is poetic departure and a poet is able to take universal meaning out of immediate events."


Works

* A biography of
Ghalib Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (27 December 179715 February 1869), commonly known as Mirza Ghalib, was an Indian poet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the Urdu language, he also produced a significant body of work in Persian. Ghali ...
, ''
Yadgar-e-Ghalib ''Yadgar-e-Ghalib'' (English: ''In Memory of Ghalib''), also spelled ''Yadgare Ghalib'' or ''Yadgar-i-Ghalib'', is an 1897 biography of Urdu poet Ghalib, written by his disciple and writer/poet Altaf Hussain Hali (1837–1914). It is considered ...
'' – life and works of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869), a legendary
Urdu language Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
poet of the 19th-century * A biography of
Saadi Shirazi Abu Mohammad Moshrefoldin Mosleh ebn Abdollah ebn Mosharraf, better known by his pen name Saadi (; , ), also known as Saadi of Shiraz (, ''Saʿdī Shīrāzī''; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval p ...
, ''Hayat-e-Saadi'' – life and works of celebrated
Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...
scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...
and poet 'Saadi Shirazi' (1210–1292) of the 13th-century * A biography of
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898), also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim Islamic modernist, reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British Raj, British India. Though initially esp ...
, ''Hayat-e-Javed'' – life and works of a renowned
educationist Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...
,
scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...
and
social reformer Reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements which reject t ...
'Sir Syed Ahmed Khan' (1817–1898) of the 19th-century''Hayat-e-Javed''
by Altaf Hussain Hali, digitized on Academy of the Punjab in North America (APNA) website. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
''Hayat-e-Javed'' and other e-books by Altaf Hussain Hali first published in the year 1900, digitized on rekhta.org website
Retrieved 15 August 2018.
* Hali also wrote a poem "Barkha Rut" * "Woh Nabiyon Mein Rahmat Laqab Paanaywala", a
naat A nucleic acid test (NAT) is a technique used to detect a particular nucleic acid sequence and thus usually to detect and identify a particular species or subspecies of organism, often a virus or bacterium that acts as a pathogen in blood, Tissue ...
written by Altaf Hussain Hali"Woh Nabiyon Mein Rahmat Laqab Paanaywala"
a Naat written by Altaf Hussain Hali, recited by
Junaid Jamshed Junaid Jamshed Khan (3 September 1964 – 7 December 2016) was a Pakistani Islamic preacher, singer-songwriter and television personality. Jamshed first gained nationwide and international recognition as the vocalist of Vital Signs. Their ...
on YouTube. Retrieved 15 August 2018.


References


External links


Hayat-e-Javed Vol 1 & 2 by HaliMajor Works by HaliMaulana Altaf Hussain Hali – Karwaan-e-Aligarh
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hali, Maulana 1837 births 1914 deaths Muslim poets Urdu-language poets Poets from British India 19th-century Indian Muslims People from Panipat Writers from Lahore Academic staff of Aitchison College Indian male poets Epic poets Poets from Haryana 19th-century Indian male writers