"True poetry is written at the hill of transfiguration", expresses Mrs. Mir, the professor of Urdu literature at the PAF Intermediate College, Lahore. She is surely not unique. There are many like her, who passes such comments to describe the mood of the poet in his verse. When you explain Sufism in the verse of Iqbal, it is acceptable. The Poet could have thought that a way. But when we describe "Javed Kay Naam", it should be taken as a letter. It is a temporal composition, and has nothing to do with the spiritual believes of the Poet. He is not an idol and thus should not be idolized. Everything he composes is not scrupulous and everything he thinks is not Islam. This is a fact that has to be learnt and taught.
While talking about poetry, most teachers and even the Punjab Text Book Board are of the opinion that "
it is a linkage between the heavens and the earth". The phrase has been mentioned in the poetry book of the intermediate to illustrate the works of William Butlyer Yeats. It is sad to see the young minds developing the same thoughts, deviating from the track of Islam. Qur’an says:"And the Poets it is those straying in Evil who follow them (Surah Ash-shu’araa, Aya: 224)"
When you talk about poetry being linked to the Divine, it certainly is a sin. Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was the last one to have a direct linkage with God through Gabriel. If this be so then how can you link the heavens and the earth to describe the romanticism of the modern poets!
Poetry though is indisputably not a wrongdoing. God does not forbid us to compose a verse. There is a Sahih Al-Bukhari hadith narrated by Masruq:
We went to Aisha while Hassan bin Thabit was with her reciting poetry to her from some of his poetic Verses, saying "A chaste wise lady about whom nobody can have suspicion. She gets up with an empty stomach because she never eats the flesh of indiscreet (ladies)." 'Aisha said to him, "But you are not like that." I said to her, "Why do you grant him admittance, though Allah said:-- 'and as for him among them, who had the greater share therein, his will be a severe torment. "
On that, Aisha said, "And what punishment is more than blinding?" She, added, "Hassan used to defend or say poetry on behalf of Allah's Apostle (against the infidels)."
However it has been so observed that the poetry is dealt in an entirely different way in the educational institutions. The poets are honored so, that they seem to illustrate heroism in the dictionary of the students. At the same time, the teachers generally associate many such thoughts with the verses, such as Sufism, as have not been described. Some measures must be taken to eliminate this discrepancy. Workshops should be frequently held in order to teach the teachers how they should be guiding their pupil. The Text Book Board should also work hard to improve the quality of its books.
