Jalalo Mohabbat ki - Poem Hindustani - जला / جلا
Channel: owais sarvasukhsevaka
Date: 15/10/2012

This is an old Hindustani poem that the publisher found 'inappropriate', so was never published earlier.  I had written it on 15th of October 1991.  I am publishing it here for the first time and only in video format.

The references to Sarmad-Abhay and Mahmud-Ayaz may be surprising to some.  So, a few words are in order here.  

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SARMAD-ABHAY...
( from: http://zoya-thewayofasufi.blogspot.in/2011/05/sarmad-heretic-sufi-apostate.html )

One of the strangest men that has ever walked on the earth, Sarmad. He was a Sufi, and was beheaded on the steps of Delhi's Jama Masjid by the order of Aurangzeb, for the victimless crime of heresy and apostacy.  Sarmad's story and his eventual martyrdom reflect his rebellion against the Shariah and his imposing stand on the simple message of love that he represented.  His stature as a poet is often mentioned along with Ferdosi, Nizami, Saadi, Hafez, Jami and Omar Khayyam. Yet we know so little of this great Armenian who became a Sufi saint, and walked stark naked initially in the streets of Lahore, and then moved to Delhi, where he taunted the Emperor Aurangzeb for his "murderous acts in the name of religion."

Very little is known about his early life. Some say that he was an Armenian while some claim that he was a Jew who later converted to Islam.  According to the eminent Persian scholar and historian Henry George Keene, Sarmad was the poetical name of an Armenian merchant who came to India in the reign of the Emperor Shah Jehan. In one of his journeys towards Thatta, he fell so passionately in love with a Hindu boy that he became 'distracted and would go about the stress naked'.

At Thatta in a musical concert, Sarmad happened to see the youthful Abhay Chand, who was the son of a rich Hindu trader. It was love at first sight for Sarmad and Abhay. Abhay Chand's melodious voice in which he rendered a ghazal pierced the tender heart of Sarmad so much that he never recovered from the feeling of love. Sarmad began to attend the concert daily not caring that the ship on which he came had sailed away.

Abhay Chand also responded to his love with equal devotion and soon, the two began to live together at Sarmad's place. Soon gossips started to abound in Thatta about the two men living in 'unnatural' conditions. When this gossips spread, Abhay Chand's parents took him away and confined him in his house. The pain of separation was too much for Sarmad who tore of his cloths and began to roam the streets of Thatta in a state of frenzy seeking his beloved Abhay Chand. 

Meanwhile, Abhay Chand's conditions was no better and at last, his parents gave in to their sons wish and let him reunite with Sarmad. But they were ostracized by the people of Thatta and so they moved to Lahore. Here they stayed for 13 years where Sarmad composed some of his most moving verses on love and God. Abhay Chand would sing these verses in his melodious voice and Sarmad would break into a dance of ecstasy. For Sarmad, his love for Abhay Chand was a means to realize God, for Sarmad believed that God manifested in all his living beings and so he could not be separated from his beloved.

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MAHMUD-AYAZ...
( Incidents from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Ayaz )
Mahmud was clearly a bigot and a plunderer.  However, a loving heart did beat in his breast.  He was in love with his slave, Malik Ayaz.  Their love is the stuff of which legends are made; and anyway, who knows if Mahmud was not consumed by the love of Ayaz, how much more of a bigot and plunderer he might have been? 

A few anecdotes from their life together...

One day sultan Mahmud asks Ayaz whether he knows a king greater and more powerful than he. Ayaz answers, "Yes, I am a greater king than you." When the king asks for proof, he says, "Because even though you are king, your heart rules you, and this slave is the king of your heart."

One day the Sultan and Ayaz were sitting together eating lunch. The sultan cut a slice of cucumber and gave it to Ayaz, who ate it with relish. A little later he gave another slice of cucumber to Ayaz and took one himself. But when Mahmud bit into the cucumber, he immediately spat it out as it tasted terrible — chalky and bitter. He glared at Ayaz and accused him of tricking him into eating the foul vegetable by pretending it was delicious.  Ayaz answered, 'No, my Sultan. It was delicious to me. I have received so many wonderful things from your hand, that whatever comes from you is sweet to me.' 

One day Sultan Mahmud offered his crown to his favourite slave, Ayaz. All the courtiers were consumed with jealousy. Poor Ayaz began to weep. When he was asked the reason, he said, "I have nothing to do with anything but the King. I want him alone, whereas by giving me the crown, he wants to keep me engaged in the affairs of the State and withdraws himself from me. This makes my heart bleed with the thought of separation."