Time passes and changes many things very quickly, what is good becomes bad and what is bad becomes worse. Perhaps this is the reason why every passing generation of humans seems to tell the next that we had a great time.
No sir! Your time was not good but ours is bad and those who are coming next will have to face worse time and conditions. This is a reality and the reason behind it is that, man from the day first is violating nature laws and this violation bring nothing but destruction.
Don’t need to go away! Look at the agony of global warming and climate change, the consequences of which Pakistanis are suffering today. Every other man says that such a flood has never been seen or heard before. Going back a bit, the 2010 flood and the 2005 earthquake, have you ever seen or heard of such a flood or earthquake before?
Go further back, in 2001, the World Trade Center was attacked and then Muslims were considered terrorists. Did the Muslim nation ever see or hear of this kind of situation before? We discussed the past a lot, now let’s come back to the present.
In the present, Russia attacked Ukraine. Apparently only two nations are involved in the conflict, but almost the whole world is suffering. Suffering from wheat crisis, petroleum crisis, and recession, shortage of essential commodities and storm of inflation. Has anyone ever seen or heard of all this before?
Mirza Ghalib is considered a very important name in Urdu poetry. The following poets disagreed with one of his famous verse and gave a new meaning to the same stanza, which shows how much difference there is in the thinking of the old and the present generations.
Ghalib says:
دیکھئے پاتے ہیں عشاق بتوں سے کیا فیض؟
اِک برہمن نے کہا ہے کہ یہ سال اچھا ہے
(Let see what benefit the lovers will have from idols?
A Pundit has said that this year is fruitful)
But, Qateel Shafai and Ahmad Faraz, the poets of current era, badly criticized this verse in their poetry as one says:
جس برہمن نے کہا ہے کہ یہ سال اچھا ہے
اس کو دفناؤ مرے ہاتھ کی ریکھاؤں میں
(The Pundit who has said that this year is good
Bury him in the lines of my hand)
The other poet said:
نہ شب و روز ہی بدلے ہیں نہ حال اچھا ہے
کس برہمن نے کہا تھا کہ یہ سال اچھا ہے؟
(Neither day and night have changed nor is the situation good
Which Pundit said that this year is good?)
Consider, Mirza Ghalib also had no hope of improvement from the situation, which is clear from his stanza that let’s see what benefit lovers have from idols? As if we have no hope, yet an Initiate said, so wait and see what happens.
The new comers said that why do they even look? Which Pundit told you? Just tell us his name. That is, for those who came next, the situation was so bad that even hoping for improvement was beyond comprehension. Something similar was said by Jon Elea too.
اک شخص کر رہا ہے ابھی تک وفا کا ذکر
کاش اس زباں دراز کا منہ نوچ لے کوئی
(A person is still talking about loyalty
I wish someone scratch mouth of this tongue twister)
Personally, I do not consider poetry as something that takes away hope, but as an art that shares hope, but the duty of the poet is also to interpret the facts, no matter how bitter those facts are. The poets of present era have done this duty very well.
The question is, who will going to fix the situation which is getting worse and worse? Will we stand against it ourselves or will wait for a Messiah? We ourselves have the answer of the question.
As long as we, as a nation, do not start a movement to solve our problems, do not give sacrifices for it and do not take decisions unitedly, our situation can never come under our control. As the poet of east Allama Iqbal says:
عمل سے زندگی بنتی ہے، جنت بھی جہنم بھی
یہ خاکی اپنی فطرت میں نہ نوری ہے نہ ناری ہے
(Your acts make your life heaven or hell
The earth made man is not naturally good or bad)
