Waheed Akhtar

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Waheed Akhtar: (1934-1996) Waheed Akhtar a poet, literary critic and scholar was born 12th of august, 1934, in the city of Aurangabad (Deccan) of erstwhile Hyderabad State of Nizam (present day Maharashtra), in a family which migrated from [Nasirabad]-Jais (Jais-birth place of poet Malik Muhammad Jaisi), boroughs of sa'adat inhabitants in Raebareily (or Raebareli) district of Uttar Pradesh. He wrote prolifically in Urdu from very early age. He was educated at Osmania University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and received his masters and Ph. D degrees in Philosophy. He was appointed lecturer of philosophy at Aligarh Muslim University and went on to settle in Aligarh for the rest of his life, where he retired in 1995.

Works

His published collections of poetry comprise mainly ghazals (Ghazal) and nazms (Nazm), but his mastery on other forms of poetry, like Marsia- elegy in the musaddas format; [Hajv] (lampoon), [Manqibat], Salaam, Rubai (quatrain)- is exemplary. His poetry is classical as well as modern. It has elements of islamic mysticism or Tasawwuf, existentialism, contemporary issues related to the problems of man, politics etc. Waheed Akhtar is considered to be the only successful among modern urdu poets who took Marsia to new heights and gave new directions to it in this age. His collections of poetry are Shab Ka Razmiyah, Paththaron ka Mughanni, and Zanjeer ka Naghma. He has published a collection of Elegies (Marsia /Marsiyah-sing; Marasih-plural) on the martyrs of Karbala by the name of “Karbala Ta Karbala.” His books in Urdu prose include: Khwaja Mir Dard-Tasawwuf aur Shairi; Falsafa Aur Adabi Tanqeed. Several of his books are awaiting publication on varied subjects of philosophy, literature and Islamic thought. Ham Asr Adab, Iqbal aur fikr-e-jadid, Shahr-e-Hawas (epic poem) and another collection of elegies are some of the works ready for publication. Waheed Akhtar contributed immensely and regularly to the reputed urdu literary journals of the subcontinent. Books published in English: The Early Shiite Imamiyyah Thinkers; Iqbal In Modern Perspective [1][2][3][4] [5] [6] [7] [8][9][10] [11] [12] [13] [14]