Let’s talk about Ghani baba, today. A legend who died just days after i was born, unluckily. Ghani Khan : A poet, philosopher, engineer, sculptor, painter, writer and politician. But, neither am i here to write about what he did as a politician, nor to justify his inventions as an engineer. Today, i will talk about the face of Ghani baba that you all have seen or heard of, the poetic and philosophical face of Ghani Khan – lewani falsafey ( mad philosopher ) – who brought new ideas and novel thinking to pashto literature.
No doubt, Ghani introduced philosophy for the first time in Pashto literature. But, my story doesn’t begin here. Let’s go back in time, a bit. When i was a small child, my father used to listen to the poem – Da yu mollah na me tapus wokro ( I asked a molvi ) – of Ajmal khattak which was sung by a lady. I don’t know her name because i never tried to find it out ; but, believe me, her mellifluous voice played with my emotions. Honestly speaking, it was mind-soothing. The lyrical meanings were straight-forward. And the voice, it was melodious and tuneful. Time passed, and i grew up. I started scanning great philosophers, reading their quotes, and their perceptive ideologies. In grade 9, we had an urdu teacher. He used to narrate poetry of famous poets : Iqbal, Ghalib, Mir, Dard, Faraz etc. But, that was all related to the subject. So, like all of us, that subject-related material seemed boring and uninteresting. Hence, i remained aloof from urdu literature. Once, i was late for class. While entering, i heard my teacher saying, ‘Khaorey nade Ghani, senga ba she khaorey’. For the only reason that i will face humiliation, i zipped my mouth and didn’t even dare to ask anything. Now, the interesting thing was, that very thought of Ghani seemed too parallel to that of the great Socrates. When Socrates was offered hemlock, the guard told him to run away and escape from death. To this, Socrates smiled, saying, ‘They cannot kill Socrates because Socrates is an idea and this idea will live forever’. So, for a 9th grade student, having Socrates reply imbibed in mind, it was enough to find interest in Ghani khan. That day, when i came back home, i opened web to do a great deal of research on this Pukhtun Socrates that they called Ghani. In Aristotle’s view, all men by nature desire knowledge. So, I dedicated that whole day to Ghani baba. It was a rough, non-orderly, raw research (or mere data). Finally, that day, i called a relative of mine. Asked him about Ghani, and surprisingly, he offered me a book ‘Kulyat-e-Ghani’. It was bursting with philosophical ideas. My goodness, i still remember how hard it was for me to understand each line and thought of Ghani. Truly, it was a tiring task, sir.
The more i knew about Ghani, the more i started loving his Falsafa-philosophy. Ghani introduced me to the valley of ‘love’. Retrospectively speaking, it was a mere word for me. To me, Ghani khan elucidated the greatness of God. Moreover, he injected nationalism ; and, expounded what freedom basically meant. Also, no one can define ‘beauty’ more decently than Ghani. This crazy philosopher answered every single question my mind invented ; and hence, created some much substantial and multiplex questions. I was inculcated with the art of questioning. As a child, i was afraid of death ; Ghani forced me accept this bitter reality of life, with love. Before Ghani, spring was never spring to me. Craziness was solely a childhood phase which i believed ended once one transcended to maturity. Ghani proved me wrong. I have always heard, ‘The heaven is beneath mother’s feet’. But, i never knew what it meant, before Ghani’s influence. Moreover, i wasn’t able to visualise heaven, because the way it was being portrayed was vague. But, Ghani khan helped me do it, as well. Today, the only heaven i want to go to, is Ghani’s heaven. The heaven which Ghani imagined ; the heaven Ghani thought to exist.
‘No great genius has ever existed without a touch of madness’, noted aristotle. Yes, Ghani was a genius and for that reason, a mad philosopher. Actually, a person who is not one of us is termed insane – who don’t agree with our ways and our ideas, who criticises our thoughts, and who speak stuff our minds don’t understand.
Allow me to narrate a story to illustrate his madness. During his youth, Ghani khan was working as an employee, in a factory and the interesting fact is, he was the only employee there. The factory was located far in the countryside with a small stream, passing near by. Consequently, at last, he got fed up of his loneliness. And, Ghani khan wrote a letter to his to-be father-in-law (Nawab Rustum Jang). In that letter, Ghani asked him to make his marriage to Roshan bibi as soon as possible. His father-in-law was a mighty nawab and a pragmatic man. He told Ghani to build a house first, and afterwards, he would be allowed to marry the young girl – Roshan bibi. Now, if it was a normal guy, he would have started working on building a house. But, it was Ghani. He built a palace instead of a house. Why ? Shocked ? Sir, he built an imaginary one. He wrote a ghazal – da seendh da speeno shago na me jor ko yu mahal ( I made a palace out of the white sand of sea ). In his ghazal, he furnished his palace with carpets. But, not the original ones. Ghani’s carpet was made of the red petals of roses – ‘Kaalen me paki khoor ko da sro panro da gulab’. After completing his imaginary palace, Ghani khan translated the poem to English and sent it to his father-in-law. Sir, will an ordinary man do that ? ‘Ghani please come down to Earth’, was his father-in-law’s reply.
He used to call himself mad and strangely, he loved it. He loved madness to a point that he wished everyone was mad like him. Ghani said, ‘Lewani zama pashan sha, che pa raaz da khuday poi she’ ( To understand the secret of God, you have to get insane, just like me ). In one of his poems, Ghani said to himself, ‘Ghani ta na sarey we, na sarey shwe, na ba she, be-thoka de khabarey, be-matlaba de nashey’ (Ghani you are not a man, you never were one and you never will become one, illogical are your sayings, and meaningless is your addiction to drugs).
All of you are aware of Ghani’s criticism on molvi. Ghani khan didn’t had any personal grudges with them. What he was criticising, were their wrongful ideas and dogmatic beliefs. He thought they focused on after-life unduly for their own selfish interests. His poetry expounded molvis lust for ‘Hoora’ ( In basic english a hoora is called goddess but, that’s not how we muslims buy the word, therefore i’ll keep it the way it is without translating it ). Ghani believed, molvis were lustily materialistic. They did not impart the true and right knowledge ; and, were unable to light up human conscience – as a matter of fact, they do it willingly. Like he said, ‘I asked a molvi if music was haraam or not, to which he replied ‘Yes’, it was. But, when i offered him hundred rupees cash, he agreed to bring a rabab’ ( Lines from Ghani’s poem). Regarding this molvi repugnance, he said in his usual candour, ‘The only difference between me and a molvi is that he thinks God is Jabbar and Qahhar (All-mighty and Dominator) where as for me, God is Rehman and Rahim (Merciful and Gracious)’. Ghani said frankly, ‘ I went to a mosque and offered my heart to the molvi but he refused it saying, ‘What is this?’ It’s neither ‘Halwa (a semi-liquid sweet)’ nor ‘firney (custord)’. This was how Ghani explained molvi’s love (lust, to make it more appropriate) for worldly things.
Moving on, let’s enter Ghani’s paradise : the heaven of his imaginations. In one of his poems, he questioned himself about heaven’s image. And then, he himself paints its image as ‘Na ba loga, thandha o gham, na ba alta ke nokar chrta da khan we’ ( No thirst, no hunger, no pain and no servants ). He proudly adds, ‘Har sarey sara ba sang ke khpal janan we’ ( Ahhh, how do i translate ‘Janaan’ without ruining the beauty of this word, skip ).
This brings us to something called ‘Love’ and ‘Beauty’. Ghani khan was a dire lover of beauty. And ‘love’ was the essence of his poetry. Ghani differentiates between beauty and love poetically and philosophically, ‘Meena haqeqath de, husan saaya da haqeqath, husan la zawaal shta, meena na larey zawaal’ ( Love is the ultimate reality, beauty the shadow of that reality, beauty is temporary while love immortal ). Ghani proves his point by referring to the stars and the moon, ‘Sthorey ta asmaan ke yawa rwaz owi hilal, khuday Adam la meena warkra o mung la thash jamaal’ (To a star, one day, the moon complained, God gifted love to Adam while in our share it is only beauty ). The moon didn’t stop there and continued, ‘Za ba pa khandha warkram da khpal da khaisht kamaal, mala ko yu saasky meena rakey suk pa swaal’ ( I will happily give this entire beauty in exchange of a single drop of love). Ghani spent his whole life seeking love and admiring beauty. Expressing his jealousy and envy at the love-making sight of sinless pigeons he said, ‘A da meene lewania, be-gunnah o be-azaara, da mehrab da pasa thaakh ke, kokay akhli da dildaara’. Such is the immortality of love described, ‘Ishq ba thal jwandey we, thar so che zmaka asmaanona de’ ( Alive will be love, as long as Earth and Sky exist ). The more Ghani aspired for love, the more God poured it in his lap.
After his nomination to the indian cabinet (Ghani was the sole representative of Pukhtoons in the 1945 indian cabinet), he quitted soon. According to him ‘Badhshahi da jahan sa k, zanla sala ziathay gham, da jahan thalal mushkil de, sa ba der ke sa ba kam’ ( What to do of Kingship, why to inflate one’s own sorrows, it’s hard to weigh justice, you’ll tilt the balance ). What he wanted was ‘a small house, a garden, a lover and a stream flowing near by the house’. Similarly, he wished for ‘Janaan, zwaaney o jaam, der gulona lag yaraan, yu ghamgen ghunthy makhaam’ ( Janaan, youth, alcohol, few friends, many flowers and a dusk filled with grief).
For Ghani, loneliness is a blessing. Wrapping his words in poetical clothing he eloquently said, ‘Har sarey yawaze de, da khpl khudh pa qillah ke bandh, suk da parun pa khiaal ke ruk aw suk khub da sba ke bandh ( Every person is lonely, imprisoned in his fort of self, some are lost in musings of yesterday, some are caged in dreams of tomorrow ). According to him loneliness is the only means to peace ‘Zanla zanla kha de, sarey zanla che we zan khwrey, khan che da jahan she zanawar she tol jahan khwrey ( It is good to be alone, when a person is alone he sucks his own blood, but when he becomes the master of universe, he transforms into an animal, thus sucking everyones blood ).
Sardar ali takar said, ‘When Ghani khan first heard his own ghazal in my voice, Ghani cried his heart out’. This line was specifically typed to divert your attention. Let’s get back to the original context of the write-up.
Ghani had an inbuilt capacity to raise questions, which he asked in poetic language. To God he said ‘Za khu na wayam che neshta, za khu wayama che e, khu jahan de dasi khkarey laka be-malika kur’ ( I don’t deny your existence, i agree you exist, but this universe of yours seems like it is ownerless ). Similarly, there are poems in which he questions himself and then fascinates the reader with some deep answers. He asked himself, ‘Aey da lewanyano neka, husan ka wafa kha da’ (O’ Grandfather of mad people, which one is superior : beauty or loyalty ? And then, he himself puts forward the answer ‘Da dilbar da khwley hava kha da, yakha narma la kha da, teeza garma la kha da’ ( Breeze of beloved’s mouth is good : cold & soft, or hot & strong ). He didn’t restrict the art of questioning to himself but went further to question his Janaan. For instance, he asked his beloved the meaning of love to which she asserted, ‘Meena yu gul de, us taaza we us fana she’ ( Love is a flower, one moment it’s fresh, the other moment it withers away ). Witty Ghani jumped in, saying ‘Yu gul che she mraawey, sal guluna te paida she’ ( When a flower withers, a hundred flowers are born out of it ). Ghani’s beloved intelligently remarked, ‘Meena dozakh de, mashuman paki jalliaa she’ ( Love is hell, children are burnt in it). Ghani calmly answered, ‘Kha de dozakh kha de, la gunnah wajoodh safa she’ ( Hell is good, one’s body washes off all the sins ).
Ghani’s mother died when he was only six. Bacha Khan ( Ghani’s father ) stated, ‘She prayed to God for transferring Ghani’s illness to her, while he laid on his death bed struggling for life’. Within a week, Ghani khan bought his health back which costed him his mother’s life (Ghani khan painfully expounded his illness in a poem and his mother’s mourning, which we’ll have to skip here ). ‘Za da haghe laal, za da haghey da stargo toor uma, za ba da haghey pa seena thal udha naskoor uma, us a za khkatha khkatha da mazaar kanro ta gorama, khaoro ke pratha da che a za da zraa hilal uma’ ( I was her gem, i was the black of her eyes, i always slept on her chest, and now i look to her grave’s stones, she is lying in mud for whom i was the moon ) , lines from his poem ‘Mor’ (Mother).
Moreover, Ghani khan was a blind nationalist. ‘Aey zama watana da lalono khazaney zama’ ( Land beloved above all others, treasure trove of priceless gems ), is a poem of Ghani khan dedicated to his mother land. Ignoring all his other writings, if this had been the only piece Ghani wrote during his entire lifetime, it would have elevated him to the same position which he acquires today. Ghani poured his love for Pukhtoons in his book ‘The Pathans’. This mad philosopher introduced the barbarous Pathans to the world in a way that one can’t resist falling in love with them. ‘Pashtun is not merely a race, but infact a state of mind ; there is a pashtun lying in every man who at times wakes up and overpowers him’, from Ghani’s book ‘The Pathans’. Ghani khan in his poetic style marks the bravery of Pukhtoons all the way in his wide collection of poems. I recall some lines, ‘Che jahan tyara tyara she, oor she thunder she azaab she, za pukhtoon da pukhto ghar sham, na yaregam na naregam’ ( When the clouds of misery are above, when there is fire, thunder and torture, I pukhtoon, become a mountain of pushto, i am neither frightened nor crumbling ).
And now, here comes my favourite topic – God. Ghani’s view of God is too deep to understand. He has his own way of loving God which rely not on rules but love and love alone. He was an omnist. In the same vein, he didn’t feel the need for religion to reach God. Ghani said, ‘Za warla warzam pa sehragaano aw pa ghrono ke’ ( My path to God is through deserts and mountains ). By most of religious scholars Ghani was criticised. Some passed fitwas ( Islamic legal pronouncements ) marking him a ‘Non-believer’. But, i can surely claim that this mad man was a sufi. Mostly, proponents of conservative and fundamentalist Islam rejects sufism for it’s fanaticism. Many say Ghani was a ‘wali’, who unconsciously uttered poems while he knew not what he was uttering. Sardar Ali Takkar claims, ‘It was God speaking through Ghani’s mouth’. And, Ghani wrote it on tissue papers, shoe boxes, cigarette packs, paper etc . Once a great saint came to visit Ghani khan. The saint told Ghani to raise his hands and make a duwa for him. Ghani was shocked, and told him how could he make a duwa for a saint. The saint came near-by and said, ‘I know who you are, no need to hide your identity, anymore’. The moment the saint said these words, Ghani raised his hands without a single word spoken. As he made the duwa, Ghani khan asked the saint to raise his hands and make a duwa for him too. When the saint inquired the reason, Ghani replied, ‘The process has been stopped from above, make a duwa to restart it’. Well guys, if these lines went just above your head, read them again. And, still if you don’t understand, better ignore it then. Because, you are not capable yet of realising the thin line between God and his creation. Similarly, he explains the greatness of God by referring to the greatness of universe. ‘Stargey bara ka ta portha, che pa shaan poi da jahan she’ ( Raise your eyes above, for understanding the greatness of universe ).
The only deduction Ghani couldn’t make was the dual-presence of mind and the heart in one body at the same time. ‘Khudaya aqal che o zra de wali rako, pa yu mulk ke dhwa khodhsara bachayan’ ( If brain was there, why did you give me a heart ? Two powerful independent kings in one country ? ). Here, Ghani murmured to God because he is always confused between heart and brain. And, that’s the case with each of us too. Certainly, we are always confused which way to go : the heart’s way, or the brain’s way. In another poem he made the same point, ‘My heart is fooling my brain that don’t worry about the thorns, soft flowers are ahead’.
Inebriation was in Ghani’s blood ; yet, he asked for more intoxication. ‘Ka pa saa ki masthy nawey, rabbah marg rawala de saa la’ ( If the breath wasn’t inebriated, kill it then ). In another poem, Ghani used words like, ‘da masthay da seend pa ghaara’ ( beside inebriation stream ) . Ghani was truly a mad seeker of inebriation.
Religion, love, lover, God, nationalism, madness, spring, life, death, beauty, inebriation, heaven, angels, molvis, motherhood, freedom, in short, you name it and you’ll find Ghani’s writing on it. Well, if you have come this far now so I don’t think so you can continue any longer, sir. I can write pages more on this mad philosopher but you won’t be able to catch up with me. Yes, Ghani was an ocean. And, this is just a drop of Ghani, or may be much lesser. Will continue some other day. I bid you GoodBye.
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