In Celebration of Ramadan (Part 1): Ala Hazrat’s Poem About The Onset of Ramadan

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Ramadan (Ramazan) has once again arrived and to celebrate this momentous event in the Islamic calendar I would like to present to the Chowk readership two articles to celebrate this joyous occassion. The first, this one, is a poem by the great scholar, Sufi saint (wali), poet, translator of the Qur’an, jurist, mufti and mujaddid of the last Islamic century, Imam Ahmad Raza Khan of Bareilly Sharif, U.P., India who is affectionately known as "Ala Hazrat" by the Sunni Muslims of the Subcontinent who lived between 1856 and 1921 (may Allah perfume his resting place!). Ala Hazrat was acknowledged by both Arab and non-Arab scholars alike as being one of the pre-eminent scholars of his era, if not THE most eminent.

He was a genius and has left around 1000 works large and small on more than 50 subjects ranging from fatwas on fiqh issues to treatises on mathematics and astronomy! However he is most famous for his following masterpieces:

1. The Fatawa Rizviyyah--a massive compendium of legal edicts on all matters relating to Islam and specifically the Hanafi madhhab (school of thought) this is by both quality and quantity one of the greatest fiqh works of the 20th century and certainly the greatest to come out of the Subcontinent. In its current edition which is still being edited it is projected to run to around 20 volumes each of over 1000 pages! This includes many famous fatwas including the legendary "Husaam al Haramayn" which he wrote in the early 1900s in Makkah Sharif and which was a refutation of the Wahabis and certain scholars of the Deobandi school as well as the Qadianis? This was endorsed by over 500 scholars of the Subcontinent and over 40 scholars of Makkah and Madinah!

2. His unique and beautiful Urdu translation of the Qur’an which is entitled, Kanz ul Imam Fi Tarjumatul Qur’an (The Treasure of Iman in the Translation of the Koran) and is the most popular and widely read translation in Urdu. It is a tafsiri (explanatory) translation and thus works both as a translation and a tafsir!

3. His little divan of Urdu and Farsi poetry entitled Hadaiq e Bakhshish which is in two volumes (usually published together in a single book) and which is the greatest work of na’atiyyah poetry in the Urdu language bar none. Even those who disagree with some of Ala Hazrat’s legal positions accept that his na’ats in Urdu are unsurpassed. Even the famous Mohsin Kakoravi sahib acknowledged Ala Hazrat’s pre-eminence as a naatiyyah poet. Who in Indo-Pakistan has NOT heard his famous salaam on the Blessed Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam), "Mustafa Jaan e Rahmat Pe Laakhon Salam" which is sung with great joy and devotion all over the world? Furthermore as the critic of Urdu Waseem Barelvi has noted Ala Hazrat was aware of his poetic worth:

Yehi Kehti hai bulbul-e-baagh e jinaaN ke Raza ki tarah koi sihr-bayaaN
Nahin Hind mein waasif e Shah e Huda, mujhe shokhi e tiba’ e raza ki qasm!


Above all though Ala Hazrat rahmatullah alayhi was famous throughout the Muslim world and in India in particular for his extreme love of the Beloved Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam and he occupied the rare position of being spiritually in the Sufi station of "Fana fi Rasul" (annihilation in the Prophet); thus his every single action was in accordance with the Sunnah of Allah’s Darling Messenger sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

A short introduction like this cannot do justice to Ala Hazrat and the readers are pointed to the site www.sunnirazvi.org for a more in-depth look as well as the academic study of his role in India during the Raj by Usha Sanyal entitled, British Politics and Devotional Islam in India: Ahmed Riza Khan and His Movement (OUP).

One hopes that the poem below, certainly in the Urdu, will show a glimpse of his mastery over the language, his deep Islamic learning and, above all, his ardent love (ishq) for the Beloved Prophet of Islam sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam and help us all to come that little bit closer to Allah’s Messenger--and thus Allah Himself--during this holy month!

Ala Hazrat passed away in 1921 to his Beloved and his tomb now is a major centre of pilgrimage for Sunni Muslims all over the Subcontinent and beyond. It is known as Dargah Ala Hazrat. May Allah bless us for his sake and may He perfume his resting place. amen!


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The poem:
This poem celebrates the most important and central theme in Ala Hazrat’s life and that is the ardent love of the Holy Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam; also being a great Sufi master too and pir in the Qadiri Tariqa (as well as having permission to initiate murids into 13 other tariqahs!) Ala Hazrat has used Sufi imagery of wine (i.e. the wine of divine gnosis-ma’arifat) in this naat too. I have transliterated this and also attempted a translation.


Transliterated and translated by Asif Naqshbandi-Jama’ati

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1.Shor-e-mah-e-nau sun kar tujh tak main dawaaN aaya
Saqi main tere sadqay, mai day, Ramazan aaya!

2.Is gul kay siwa har phool baagosh giraaN aaya
Dekhe hi gee ay bulbul jab waqt-e-faghaaN aaya

3.Jab baam-e-tajjali par woh naiyyar-e-jaaN aaya
sar thaa jo gira jhuk kar, dil thaa jo tapaaN aaya

4.Jannat ko Haram samjha aatay to yahaaN aaya
Ab tak kay har aik ka munH kehta hoon kahaaN aaya?

5.Taiyyiba ke siwa sab baagh paamaal-e-fanaa hongay
Dekho gay chaman walo jab ahd-e-khizaaN aaya!

6.Sar aur woh sang-e-dar, aankh aur woh bazm-e-noor
Zaalim ko watan ka dhyaan aaya to kahaaN aaya

7.kuchh naat ke tabqay ka aalam hi niraala hai
sakta mein paRee hai ’aql,chakkar mein gumaaN aaya!

8.jalti thi zameen kaisee thi, dhoop kaRee kaisee
lo, woh qad-e-bay-saaya ab saaya-kinaaN aaya!

9.Taiyyiba se hum aatay hain kehiye to jinaaN waalo
Kya dekh kar jeeta hai jo waaN se yahaN aaya!

10.lay tawq-e-alam say ab aazaad ho ay qumri
chiTThee liye bakhshish ki woh Sarwar rawaaN aaya

11.Naama say Raza kay ab miT buray kaamo
dekh meray pallah par woh Acchay Mian aaya

12.Badkaar Raza khush ho bad kaam bhalay hongay
Woh Acchay Mian pyaara acchoN ka miyaaN aaya!



1. Hearing the clamour about the new moon, I, rushing to you have
come!
O’ Saqi, I will forever be yours, bring me some wine, Ramadan has
come!

2. With the exception of this one rose, every flower with deafening
silence will come!
This the nightingale shall see, when the time of sorrow does come!

3. When that darling of my life did reveal his Divine Light’s peak!
Every head fell down, bowed, every heart did feverish become!

4. Having mistaken Paradise for Madina, here I have come!
Now looking at every face, I ask "whither have I come?!"

5. Except for Madina all gardens will become annihilated, trampled!
You will see this O’ denizens of the garden, when winter does come!

6. The head and the stones of that abode, the eyes and that place of
light!
The ingrate is thinking of his homeland after here having come!

7. The art of writing poetry in the Prophet’s honour is unique indeed!
The intellect has become dazed, dizzy has the imagination become!

8. How the ground beneath did burn, how fierce was the heat!
Here! That Shadowless Prophet has a cool shadow for us become!

9. I have just come from Madina O’ dwellers of Paradise
How does one survive, who from there to here does come?!

10. There! Be freed now from the ring of pain O’ carrier-pigeon!
With a letter of forgiveness in his hand, that Chieftain has come!
(sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam)

11. Be erased from Raza’s Tablet of Deeds o’ bad works!
Look! Here to my aid my Acchay Mian has come!

12. Be happy Raza all bad things will be transformed into good!
That beloved Acchay Mian, master of all good people has come!

Note to verses 11/12. Acchay Mian was the nick name of Ala Hazrat’s Sufi Shaykh. It means ’Good Sir’. In verse 12 there is a play on the words so that it can mean either that Acchay Mian came or the ’Sir of all good sires’ –i.e. Sayyedina wa Mawlana Muhammad al Mustafa sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam has come!

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