From: anajam@athena.mit.edu (ADIL NAJAM)
Subject: The first feminists.........Sufi Poetry.......
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 00:32:15 GMT

A REQUEST:
==========
May I request all friends interested in, or currently discussing, issues relating
to women rights to carefully read Naveed Memon's post (No. 19206) under the
subject heading:  Re (was maindki ko zukam) (is: i have no clue)......I am
sure that you would not only uncover important new threats but may find a rich
and valuable source of clearing may controversies and debates.






While I intend to continue the thought chain that Naveed has initiated in some
detail but for the time being just a few thoughts......Naveed has very rightly
pointed out how the woman is real searcher of truth in most sufi poetry and all
great folk tales. May it be Heer-Ranjha, Sassi-Punoh, Sohni-Mahivall or Noori-Jam
Tamachi, it is the woman who emerges as the cutting edge in the search of truth.
............Naveed, do you think Laila-Mujno also fits the trend, I am not really
sure if it does, though it seems to me that Romeo Juliet does fit the bill.......

Given this view (as explained in detail by Naveed, and as is clear to most
followers of the intrinsic philosophy of these great messages), my long held
feeling that infact Bulleh Shah, Ghulam Farid, Waris Shah and Abdul Latif Bhitai
were amongst the first real feminists of the world (and I use the term feminist
in its most pristine and elevated meaning, not in the 'WAF Begums' meaning that
is has attained today..............AS minds greatly ahead of their times, and
philosophers with extremely profound and rich thought process these great poets
and thinkers were indeed spaceyears ahead of their time.....and maybe even ahead
of todays time.............

I realize that I am not saying anything novel.....otehrs before me have
understood this profundity of these sufis.......for example Amritra Pretam in
her great poem "Aurat" (I believe this was written in the 70s) wrote:

	meiN puchaaN Waris Shah nooN, tou qabraaN wichouN bool
	hun kitab-e-iishq thay puraanay parlay p(h)ooal
	ik roee see dhee Punjaab dee tou likh, likh maray wain
	hun laakhaaN dheeaaN rondeeyan, tainouN Waris Shah kiyoon ChayN

	{I ask Waris Shah to speak from his grave
	 and again leaf through his books of "iishq"
	 one daughter of Punjab (Heer) had cried, and you wrote
			treaty after treaty of her woes,
	 today millions of daughters are crying,
		 	O' Waris Shah why are you quiet}

 
The use of the "kitaab-e-iishq" in that verse reinforced Naveed's point.
Which in turn reinforce my belief, one which I have been trying
to point out in my last many posts, that the salvation of the world, and atleast 
of our society, lies in a renewed understanding of the true concept of "iishq"
and to again quote a great verse from Mohammad Bakhsh (of Saif-ul-Malook fame)
which I have quoted earlier:

	jinnaN iishq khareed na kitta, kanouN aan bhagottay
	iishq-oooN banjh Mohammad Bakhsha, ki Adam, ki kottay

	{they who have not bought the fruits of "iishq"
	 	O, why have they come on this earth
	 Without "iishq", O Mohammad Bakhsh,
		there is no difference between Man and beast (dogs)}



	----------------------------------------------------------------------
	ADIL [.......jaab say tou nay mujhay deewana bana rakha hai....] NAJAM
	----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan