Bilal Ahmad Shah
Research Scholar (Arabic)
University of Delhi
ABSTRACT
Indian Islamic history is filled with outstanding personalities who have a preference for the survival of Islam and its spread in this spot known as the Indian subcontinent; they raised the opinion of Islam on this continent and preserved the language of Islam and the Qur’an. It is well known that the civilization of any nation does not remain only in its own language, because Islam when it entered India but entered its language when it had paved the way for the linguistic link between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabs by Arabs who have been in southern India since the dawn of Islam. But who played an important role in the spread of the Arabic language and the popularity of its sciences in these countries is the Arab Islamic delegation that was led by Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi (died 96 AH). After its bases were established in Sindh and India from Dibel to the borders of Kashmir, its wave rose to all areas, and a scientific renaissance took place and its fruits appeared, and India produced men with a great share in consolidating the pillars of the Arabic language and spreading its Islamic etiquette in this region.
The scholars of this region and its virtues have cared for the etiquette of the Arabic language since the spread of Islam in it. Religious sciences, such as the Qur’an, hadith, jurisprudence, fundamentals, and others, were their primary focus. They dealt with authorship, classification, explanation, interpretation, and other sciences, such as grammar, exchange, rhetoric, poetry, literature, etc., which are essential to understanding and understanding legal sciences, and established religious institutes across the country that played a major role in spreading Islamic culture and Arabic language.
Among those geniuses who are credited with raising the banner of the Arabic language and spreading Islamic culture in the Indian subcontinent is Sheikh Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri (1875-1923). Sheikh Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri was one of the few geniuses produced by this region, and indeed the whole world. It was a genius in many aspects, as it was not limited to a special branch of Islamic sciences, so it was well known for its vision, the authenticity of its opinion, the depth of its thinking in the hadith, jurisprudence, interpretation and creative poetry. In view of his contribution, he deserves all respect and appreciation, and from his greatness, he should mention his remembrance in all of the world’s survival as a genius of Islam. In this article we will try to find his journey and his contribution towards Arabic poetry.
Key words:
Outstanding, Sub-Continent, Islam, Literature, Civilization, Sciences, Scholars, Poetry, Fundamentals, Popularity, Geniuses
Introduction:
Indian Islamic history is filled with outstanding personalities who have a credit for the survival of Islam and its spread in this spot known as the Indian subcontinent; they raised the banner of Islam on this continent and preserved the language of Islam and the Qur’an. It is well known that the civilization of any nation does not remain only in its own language, because Islam when it entered India but entered its language when it had paved the way for the linguistic link between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabs by Arabs who have been in southern India since the dawn of Islam. But who played an important role in the spread of the Arabic language and the popularity of its sciences in these countries is the invasion and an Arabian Islamists that was led by Muhammad bin Qasim
Al-Thaqafi (died 96 AH). After its bases were established in Sindh and India from Dibel to the borders of Kashmir, its wave raise to all areas, and a scientific renaissance took place and its fruits appeared, and India produced men with a great share in consolidating the pillars of the Arabic language and spreading its Islamic etiquette in this region.
The scholars of this region and its virtues have cared for the etiquette of the Arabic language since the spread of Islam in it. Religious sciences, such as the Qur’an, Hadith, jurisprudence, fundamentals, and others were their primary focus. They dealt with authorship, classification, explanation, interpretation, and other sciences, such as grammar, exchange, rhetoric, poetry, literature, etc. Which are essential to understanding and to understanding legal sciences and established religious institutes across the country that played a major role in spreading Islamic culture and Arabic language.
Among those geniuses who are credited with raising the banner of the Arabic language and spreading Islamic culture in the Indian subcontinent is Sheikh Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri (1875-1923). Sheikh Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri was one of the few geniuses produced by this region and indeed by the whole world. He was a genius in many aspects as was not limited to a special branch of Islamic sciences, so he was well known for its vision, the authenticity of his opinion, the depth of his thinking in the hadith, jurisprudence, interpretation and for his creative poetry. In view of his contribution he deserves all respect and appreciation and from his greatness he should mention his remembrance in all of the world’s survival as the genius of Islam and some authors have classified books on his great life and have taken care of them in the conditions of his public life and his good merits and have not given sufficient attention to his contribution in the field of the Arabic language as he wrote many books in the Arabic language and composite poetry in this language even though he was born and raised far from the Arab world. But with that he was born in a religious scientific family on the twenty-seventh Saturday of Shawwal in the year 1292 AH corresponding to 1875 AD in the village of “Dudwan” in the green valley called “Lolab” district of Kupwara in the northern part of Kashmir.
God has deposited in his personality strange talents of the mind, the power of memory and burning intelligence. He would only hear a word and memorize it, and would not read an opinion or a hadith except to restrict it in his mind. It was one of the greatest joys of his time in the power of preservation and the ability to see the books of the applicants and the knowledge of jurisprudence, origins and firmness in the religious sciences, Arabic and mental sciences. He had a great ability to compose poetry. He used to organize poetry on the spot in Arabic and his style of poetry is the style of stallions of poets from the pre-Islamic and Islamic era and preserved from the poems of Arab poets more than fifty thousand verses. We find in his poetry good foundations, weaving, admirable harmony, wordy expression, and eloquence of words, devoid of verbal and moral retirement. To navigate and deepen the Islamic sciences we find precise meanings and philosophical concepts and sometimes he uses words that are of little use but they are not weak.
Purposes of his poetry: The Anwar shah Kashmiri was raised in a house of knowledge and poetry. His father was a glorious poet in Persian. He grew up in the cradle of poetry then watered with his tongue, so it is not surprising that the poetic talent is rooted in him. He had an excellent ability to poetizing in Arabic. He used to organize poetry on the spot in Arabic.
The topics he covered in his poems are praise (most of which are the prophetic praises, perhaps due to the intense care he had in the hadiths of the Prophet), preaching, welcoming, congratulations, and lamentations, as well as organizing some verses in some provisions of the Hanafi jurisprudence in the form of arguments. He also composes poems in some of the hadith’s knowledge and in various mental sciences issues. As for spinning in its well-known meaning, it is a fascination between it and the Sheikh, and we do not find in his poetry the colors of the insane and the moral decay. And when his poems begin to rejuvenate, he is meant to follow advanced poets and improve speech only. And he has a wonderful poem in proving the occurrence of the universe, which includes four hundred verses and that is sufficient to prove his superior ability to write poetry in Arabic.
Sheikh Muhammad Azaz established a literary association in Dar Al Uloom Dewband in 1307 AH. This association met every week on Thursday and was attended by several professors from Dar Al Uloom and set a specific verses in order to organize all who had a poetic talent of poems in the same line and rhyme and the reserve, Anwar shah Kashmiri was the head of this association and in his sessions he sought/sings his verses in his own style.
He wrote many poems in Arabic, with a number of 155 verses that in delightfulness, delicacy and eloquence and the reader smells of pre-Islamic literature.
Here we present examples of his poems on various topics.
Poems of Sheikh Kashmiri in the prophetic praise, (PBUH). :
He says in praising the Messenger and begins his poem with graying like the pre-ignorant poets and seasoned poets from Bahr al-Kamil:
A sparkling light shining on the valley
So my heart used to be a bit of a loon
Unfortunately, the era of the protection and his reign took over the telegraphy, radioing and alienation
The ointment is permanent until the days are like feasts
This poem is a brilliant evidence of his ability to speak the Arabic language and his taste of fine Arabic literature and the use of words and structures for the meanings and sensations that he wanted to disclose.
The poem came as a vivid picture of love and loyalty to the seal of the prophets. (Peace and blessings be upon him). The expression in praise and ancestry is accurate poetry. Sweet fungus outperforms the poem in a string of words, sweetness of speech and durability of style.
After these verses in recitation and kinship, he goes to praise of the Companions and the memory of the virtues of the Prophet, (peace and blessings be upon him) and his generous qualities. He tried to describe his names and cast them into the form of poetry with ingenuity and beauty and says:
I am safe from my puzzles and I am guided by the guiding Prophet
Shams Al-Duha, Badr Al-Duja Sadr Al-Hoda is a role model for the Leaders
Maula Al-Wara and their patron saint
and fiancée in the scene of the testimony
And he mentioned the characteristics of the Prophet, (May God’s prayers and peace be upon him) including:
A loving intercessor, a generous prophet
A particle and a handsome particle
A morning, good perfection, full of forehead, as full moon shown
And his Lord enthroned him in sky/ heaven as a light, which was revealed by a night
His poems praising eminent personalities:
He has some poems praising prominent personalities from his elders, including men of sciences and arts. Here are some verses that I chose from his poem in the praise of
Mawlana Muhammad Qasim al-Nanotwe (1833-1879 AD), the founder of the Islamic University, Dar Al Uloom in Deoband, which is from Bahr Al-Wafir, and we mention some of the verses briefly.
Stand up my friend on the circuit, so whoever does the slander is a disgrace
And crooked by the quadruple, a human being in the view everything is like a patient.
And that is the denominator of blessings, a way that enlightens him by means of continental
His poems in Lamentations:
Anwar Shah Kashmiri wrote many lamentations due to the death of scholars. And his style in it approximates the method of the Arab poet’s applicants in mastering the statement and influencing without exaggerating the praise and description. And he has a long lament on the death of his teacher, Mahmud Al-Hassan Al-Deobandi (1851-1920), which includes 47 verses and they are from Bahr Al-Taweel. We mention some verses here:
Stop from the memory of a shrine, so we shed tears
Summer and winter, then seen and heard
The gentle people showed him compassion and kindness and blessed him in a square then a square
And it was eternity, and then eternity. The two methods were the first, then the first, and they fell
He has a lament on the death of Abdul Baqir Khan, which contains 24 verses from Bahr Al-Taweel and some of its verses:
Turn around call them and lay down
And keep tears still raging
A strong month does not respond to a Muslim and it was time, then visible and hearing
He has another elegy that contains 39 verses that he organized on the death of Abdul Rahim Al-Rai Buri, one of the well-known sheikhs of Maulana (from Bahr Al-Taweel).
However, this matter is wasted and tearful
Are you crying in horror for you terrified?
The passions was sick and the onyx was dead
If he misses a memories who longs and is alarmed
His poems on other topics:
In addition to the poems in praise and lamentations, Allama Kashmiri organized many poems on various topics. He has a long poem called “Striking the Ring on the Occurrence of the World” and it is the longest poem he organized and includes 400 verses in which he dealt with delicate philosophical issues such as the occurrence of the world and the existence of the God and so on. And he said in it, which is from Bahr Al-Taweel:
(Some verses as a model)
An old past comes without a present
And a future, of course did not stop and ended
From it the impossibility of irrigation is eternal, and after an occurrence the permanence has been desired
He has a famous poem, “The Crack of Unveiling of Punjab”. This poem includes seventy verses, in which he mentioned the evidence of the lie of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiani. Thus a model:
Otherwise, O servants of God, rise up and make speeches two hands are hurt
They called everything and were righteous
The imposition of the people returned to the visible
He wrote a poem in Bahr al-Kamil on the occasion of the Assembly of the Ulema, which were held in the city of “Goa” in 1922. And he says:
God owns everything High-ranking Of length and summoning in times
King of the high-ranking, high-minded and long-standing God
How far away his gifts approached him and others begged us not to be condemned.
Conclusion: We have examined some examples of the poems of Sheikh Allama Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri and with careful consideration of his poetry; it appears that his poetry approximates pre-Islamic poetry as a method and a style, and Islamic poetry in meaning and its content. Although the era experienced by the Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri coincided with the modern literary era in the Arab world, but we find that he did not borrow anything from the contemporary tendencies prevailing in the Arab countries and his style was not affected by the prevailing style in modern Arab poetry. The reason for this is that poetry was not the main subject of his care and chooses to write the poetry as an outlet for its multi-faceted genius and was never interested in knowing what was happening on the modern literary stage in the Arab countries. And the curriculum in the Dar Al Uloom Deoband contained selections of pre-Islamic poetry such as Odes (Mu’allaqat) and models of Umayyad and Abbasid poetry, and it was in front of him only these poetic models, so it was natural for him to follow the style of advanced poets.
His style of poetry is the style of stallions of poets from the pre-Islamic and Islamic era. We find in his poetry that he arranged poems in different ways such as Bahr al-Taweel, al-Wafir, al-Kamil and what is in it. Allama Kashmiri often begins his poems in the pre-Islamic style with the words “the nave of your prophet” and describing the ruins and describing the kindness of the horses and their propaganda, but his description is not obscene. It does not describe the weight of the tributaries Etc.
References:
- Monthly Al-Maairif, Azam Garh, U.P, India, June, 1976.
- Monthly Magazine Darul Uloom Deoband, June 1974.
- Magazine Dawat ul Haq, Deoband, Feb. 1975.
- Monthly Al-Daiee, Deoband, March, 1980.
- Koondo, Ab Rehman, Al- Anwar, Delhi, 1976.
Bibliography:
- Al-Binoori, M. Yusuf, Nafhat ul Anbar fi Hayat e Anwar, Deoband, 1414.
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