Khwaja Mir Dard

Khwaja Mir Dard (Urdu: خواجہ میر درد‎) was born in 1721 and died in 1785. He is one of the three major poets of the Delhi School — the other two being Mir Taqi Mir and Sauda — who are considered the pillars of the classical Urdu ghazal.^{[citation needed]}

Philosophy

Dard was first and foremost a mystic, a prominent member of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi order, and the head of the Muhammadi path (tariqah muhammadiyah, a Mujaddidi offshoot) in Delhi. He regarded the phenomenal world as a veil of the eternal Reality, and this life as a term of exile from our real home. Dard inherited his mystical temperament from his father, Khwaja Muhammad Nasir Andalib, who was a mystic saint and a poet, and the founder of the Muhammadi path.

Education

Dard received his education in an informal way at home. He learned Arabic and Persian, as well as Sufi lore.^{[citation needed]} He also developed a deep love of music, possibly through his association with singers and qawaals who frequented his father's house.^{[citation needed]} He renounced earthly pleasures at the age of 28 and led a life of piety and humility.^{[citation needed]}

Poetry

The secret of Dard's appeal as a poet lies not in his mysticism, but in his ability to transmute this mysticism into poetry, and to present transcendental love in terms of human and earthly love. Although he has written ghazals which are unambiguously mystical in their intent, his best couplets can be read at both the secular and spiritual levels, and are, for this reason, acceptable to all and sundry. In addition, Dard had also written ghazals which deal with a patently sensuous and earthly love, and deserve to be classed with the best poetry of this kind. Dard generally excels in short ghazals of about seven to nine verses, written in comparatively short measures. His style is simple, natural and musical; his content, thoughtful and thought-provoking. His poetry includes a collection of Urdu ghazals and a divan in Persian.

Dard's Persian prose works are extensive, consisting of the Ilm ul Kitab, a 600+ page metaphysical work on the philosophy of the Muhammadi path, and the Chahar Risalat, collections of more than a thousand mystical aphorisms and sayings.

Example work:

دوستوں دیکھا تماشا یہاں کا بس

تُم رہو اب ہم تو اپنے گھر چلے ۔

Or as translated into English:

• Translation by David Matthews

References

• Homayra Ziad, "Poetry, Music and the MuHammadī Path: How Khvājah Mīr Dard Brought Three Worlds Together in Eighteenth-Century Delhi," Journal of Islamic Studies, 21,3 (2010), 345-376.

External links

• Khwaja Mir Dard at Kavita Kosh (Hindi)
• Khwaja Mir Dard: Life and Ghazals
• http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/20/10Ziad.pdf