Medium: Poetry<\/p>\n
Week 9 Response: Sufi Piety II – The Ghazal and Mathnawi<\/p>\n
Title: Submitting To God’s Will<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Abhi Toh Niyyat-e-Safar Hai Ae Nafs<\/p>\n
Aaghaz-e-Safar Abhi Baaqi Hai<\/p>\n
O my mind, we\u2019ve decided to go on a journey<\/em><\/p>\n But the actual journey is yet to start<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Abhi Toh Asbaab-e-Taharat Tak Hain Pohanche<\/p>\n Ghusal-e-Taharat Abhi Baaqi Hai<\/p>\n We have only reached the means to purity<\/em><\/p>\n But the purification is yet to start<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karaar Ki Manzil Hai Abhi Dur Bohat<\/p>\n Ikraar Ki Charhai Abhi Baaqi Hai<\/p>\n The destination of tranquility is far away<\/em><\/p>\n And the ascent towards submission is yet to start<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kuch Bhi Bayaan Na Ker Paaey Yeh Zubaan<\/p>\n Bohat Kuch Seekhna Abhi Baaqi Hai<\/p>\n This tongue is not able to express anything<\/em><\/p>\n It still has a lot yet to learn<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Saahil Pey Laaker Khara Ker Dia Ae Nafs<\/p>\n Saamne Samandar Hai, Doobna Abhi Baaqi Hai<\/p>\n O my mind, you have brought me towards the shore<\/em><\/p>\n The sea is in front of me but I have yet to drown<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the 8th and 9th weeks of the course we learned about a topic that has always captured my interest: Sufism. We read through several different artforms commonly used to convey Sufi ideas, including the Ghazal and Mathnawi.<\/p>\n In this blogpost, I have tried to write a short poem that is something similar to a Ghazal. Though this poem does not strictly obey all the conventions that were mentioned during our Week 9 reading, \u201cthe conventions of the Urdu Ghazal,\u201d I have used an end rhyme consistently throughout the poem.<\/p>\n Fatima Keshavarz describes perhaps Rumi as someone who \u201cunderstood the searching and restlessness as a kind of arrival.\u201d This searching and restlessness is very common in most of the Sufi works that we have read in this course and is something that I have tried to incorporate in this poem.<\/p>\n The ideas that I have tried to convey through this poem are a juxtaposition of several themes that have come up in relation to Sufism, either in lecture or during the weekly readings. For example, this poem is basically one\u2019s dialogue with his\/her own consciousness. It has a sense of longing for the divine and conveys a struggle to reach the divine and therefore fulfill that longing.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the \u201cjourney\u201d that I have mentioned in this poem echoes the journey that was portrayed in one of my favorite readings from this course, Attar\u2019s the conference of the birds. The journey of the birds is basically one of stripping away of one\u2019s ego. This is seen as a prerequisite to the birds finally reaching a state of enlightenment.<\/p>\n It was also very wonderfully conveyed in the dance performance of the conference of the birds where all the dancers underwent a painful process where they stripped away their old selves and were born anew. A similar journey is mentioned in this poem as well. The struggle against one\u2019s own ego\/mind is conveyed. Even though the destination of fulfillment is nearby, there is a further effort that needs to be made. An effort against the ego that is necessary to connect with the divine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Medium: Poetry Week 9 Response: Sufi Piety II – The Ghazal and Mathnawi Title: Submitting To God’s Will Abhi Toh Niyyat-e-Safar Hai Ae Nafs Aaghaz-e-Safar Abhi Baaqi Hai O my mind, we\u2019ve decided to go on a journey But the actual journey is yet to start Abhi Toh Asbaab-e-Taharat Tak Hain Pohanche Ghusal-e-Taharat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hamidaesthint54\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}