The Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS), Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi, organised a session titled ‘Muslim Devotional Poetry of South Asia’, at the IBA Main Campus.
Paying tribute to the holy month of Ramzan, the event featured recitation of naats written in Urdu, Persian, Sindhi, and Punjabi. The IBA faculty and students recited devotional verses of renowned Sindhi poet Maulvi Ahmad Mallah and famous Urdu and Persian poets including Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.
The highlight of the event was a special guest appearance by naat-khwaan Zara Madani, who is well-known for her regular singing appearances in Coke Studio Pakistan and the film ‘Khuda Ke Liye’.
The audience was moved to hear Ms Madani’s qirat of Surah Rahman and appreciated her hauntingly beautiful original compositions and recitation of the famous Urdu devotional verses, ‘Lauh Bhi Tu Qalam Bhi Tu’ and ‘Taazim Se Leta Hai Khuda Naam-i Muhammad’ by Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Khwaja Muhammad Akbar Warsi respectively, and Punjabi verses ‘Main Lajpaalaan De Lar Lagiyaan’ by Abd us-Sattar Niyazi.
Some other Urdu poets whose naatiyah verses were recited at the event include ‘Nushur’ Wahidi, Kunwar Mahendra Singh Bedi ‘Sahar’, and Najmunnisa Munawwar Ali Bukhari ‘Najm’. IBA students Hamraj Singh, Muhammad Ahmad, and Syed Ghazi Haider Zaidi also recited naats in Sindhi, Arabic, Persian, Braj Bhasha, and Urdu.
Ms. Sabri, who teaches Indo-Islamic History and Urdu Literature at IBA, also discussed the importance of Muslim women poets in the domain of South Asian devotional poetry. She spoke about how the long-standing tradition of women’s milads inside private homes has historically offered a training ground for the recital and appreciation of devotional poetry, and how naats and hamds penned and composed by women in such settings form important material for literary research, forming some of the earliest examples of women’s contribution to the field of Urdu literature.
The literary session honoured the spirit of the holy month and concluded with iftar for the attendees
