DARD, KHWAJA MEER : The Sufi Poet

Sayyed Khawaja:

(1721-1785)

Khawaja Mir Dard's poetry allows readers to express their inner feelings with the help of beautiful words, rhymes and expressions. Dard's shayari and ghazals is popular among people who love to read good poems. Dard  was born Syed Khawaja in Delhi, his date of birth is not confirmed. His ancestors had migrated from Persia to India as soldiers, but his father who worked as a royal mansabdar renounced his position to lead the life of a Sufi. Dard received his comprehensive religious education under the supervision of his father. He spent all his life in Delhi and observed the invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, as also the Maratha conquest of North-west India. He was, keenly interested in music, both vocal and instrumental and he held soirees of music, and mastered the art to perfection. As a Sufi, he was respected equally by the royalty and the nobility. This Sufi poet and theologian of the 18th Century Delhi is an important representative of the Naqshbandi, Mujaddidi lineage of Sufism. He is also known as the leader and theoretician of the Muhammadi path because he fashioned himself in the image of the Muhammad (صَلَّى ٱللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ‎), the last prophet of Islam.

Dard had mastery over the Arabic, Persian, and Urdu languages. His close reading of the holy Qur’an, Traditions of the prophet, jurisprudence, and religious literature, made their mark on his poetry. His expertise in music further defined the tone and tenor of poetic expression. Effortless in his expression and direct in his addresses, he emerged as a renowned mystic poet, both in Persian and in Urdu. He was, by turn, an impassioned advocate for poetry and humble apologist for art. He considered poetry merely as one talent among the many talents of mankind. Poetry, to him, was inspired speech addressed to both the human and the divine. He differentiated between two types of speech, or kalaam, one of them being internal, or 'Nafsi', and the other being verbal, or 'Lafzi'. 

He believed that a poet negotiates between two types of speech: the external, or 'Zaahiri'; and the internal, or 'Batini'. This reflection on language, speech, and expression underline the modes of Dard’s poetic apprehension and expression. He has to his credit a collection of Urdu ghazals, a Persian Divaan, a prose discourse called Ilm-ul Kitaab, a compilation of mystical sayings called Chahaar Risaala, and a book on the Muhammadi path. 

 Dard's couplet on this illusory life, from 'Ilm-ul-Kitab':

دوستو، دیکها تماشا یاں کا بس

تُم رہو خوش ہم تو اپنے گھر چلے

Translation: 

My friends, we have seen enough of this play.

We are going home, you can stay.

When he died in 1785, he was buried in a Mazar, which is now known as Khawaja Mir Dard’s tomb. which is located in Khawaja Mir Dard’s basti, in Central Delhi, India

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