Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911 to 1984) was a Pakistani poet, and author in Urdu and Punjabi language. He was one of the most celebrated writers of the Urdu language in Pakistan. Outside literature, he has been described as a man of wide experience. He was a teacher, an army officer, a journalist, a trade unionist and a broadcaster. Faiz served in British Indian Army before 1947.
After Pakistan’s independence, Faiz became the editor of ‘The Pakistan Times’and a leading member of the Communist Party of Pakistan before being arrested in 1951 as an alleged part of conspiracy to overthrow the Liaquat Ali government and replace it with a left-wing government. Faiz was released after four years in prison and went on to become a notable member of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. He eventually became an aide to the Bhutto government, before being self-exiled to Beirut.
Faiz was an avowed Marxist, and he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize from USSR in 1962. His works remain influential in Pakistan literature and arts. Faiz’s literary work was posthumously publicly honoured when the Pakistan government conferred upon him the nation’s highest civil award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990.
Among many popular poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, “Hum Dekhenhe” stands apart for historical reason. The poem was originally written as “And the countenance of Allah will outlast all” (Va Yabqá Vajhu Rabbika). The poem was written in 1979, two years after Zia Ul Haq imposed his military dictatorship in Pakistan. The poem claimed to describe how one day people will destroy Zia’s military government to restore democracy. However, the entire description was made by using Islamic belief and history. It gained a rapid cult-following as a Leftist song of resistance and defiance, after a public rendition by famous Pakistani singer Iqbal Bano at Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore, on 13 February 1986, ignoring the ban on Faiz’s poetry. Later during 2018, Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza of Pakistan composed the music of the poem and released the song commercially.
During the 2019 ‘Citizenship Amendment Act’ protests in India, ‘Hum Dekhenge’ song was sung by student protesters of IIT Kanpur. A temporary faculty member of IIT Kanpur alleged that the song was “anti-Hindu”. The IIT Kanpur authority instituted a Committee to look into the issue. The student media body rejected the charges by labeling that charges were based on misinformation, which divorced the poem from its societal context. The committee set up by the IIT, Kanpur, had concluded that the said song of Faiz sung by the protesting students against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on campus was “unsuitable to the time and place”. The committee also found the role of five teachers and six students who participated in the protest to be “less than desirable” and recommended that the college counsel them.
However, the Indian Left-Islamist cabal kept on echoing that song in every forum to push their protest against CAA. Now, let us look at the contents of the song which are anti-Hindu. There are three sets of lines in the poem which are Islamic in content and anti-Hindu in essence. These are given below with English translation within brackets:
“Jab arz-e-khuda ke kaabe se
Sab boot uthwaaey jaayenge,
Hum ahl-e-safaa mardood-e-haram
Masnad pe bithaaey jaayenge.”
(When from the abode of Khuda’s Kaaba, all idols will be removed. Then we the faithful, who are debarred from sacred place, will be placed on the royal seat.)
“Bas naam rahega Allah kaa”
(And only Allah’s name will remain.)
“Aur raaj karegi Khalq-e-Khuda
Jo mai bhi hoon, aur tum bhi ho.”
(And then Khuda’s own people will rule. Which I am, and so are you.)
The questions which crop up are (1) why there is a need to remove idols? (2) why only the faithful (Muslim) will sit on royal seat? (3) why only Allah’s name will remain? And (4) why Khuda’s people will rule? Though one can understand the intention of Indian Muslims to paddle this Islamic song, the dirt-headed Indian Hindu Communists have no answer to these questions.
Indian Muslims, Communists or otherwise, refuse to sing our national song ‘Vande Mataram’ for being against the belief system of Islam. Even Hamid Ansari, the ex-Vice President of India did not sing country’s national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ for being un-Islamic. And Indian Hindu Communists lick posterior of those Islamist Indians to support them. Does that mean that Indian Hindu Communists have taken the ‘contract’ to promote Islamism in India? Faiz can remain a Marxist after writing this Islamic song, but Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay becomes Hindu communal by writing ‘Vande Mataram’! Why Indian Hindus should accept this nonsense logic of Indian Hindu Communists and Muslims?
If the said song of Faiz is allegorical, so does ‘Vande Mataram’. Will Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Rana Ayyub, Umar Khalid, Hamid Ansari and Shehla Rashid et al sing ‘Vande Mataram’ publicly? Sangjukta Basu, Kavita Krishnan and Kanhaiya Kumar et al should answer this question.
Islam and Communism, both are totalitarian. Both are mutually exclusive. But in secular democratic countries like India, they unite together to create anarchy. Indian Madrasa students do not sing the country’s national anthem for being against the Islamic belief and this stupid bunch of liar Hindu Communists sings ‘Hum Dekhenge’? No, we will not allow you to sing this Islamic song under any situation.
