Akbar Ahmed: a poet of great vision

by Ishtiaq Ahmed

Surely the God Akbar Ahmed believes in is the God all good human beings would need to repair this world. Even rationalists, agnostics and atheists would not mind inventing such a God.

Professor Akbar Ahmed is widely recognised as a proud Muslim and Pakistani, always willing to take up cudgels on behalf of his faith and country. While such concerns have remained constant for him, he has intellectually travelled a great distance in the correct direction: towards the recognition of common humankind.

Since many years now he has been on a personal spiritual and intellectual journey. That journey has helped him blossom as a Muslim, a humanist, a distinguished scholar and a talented poet. His fascination for Suleh-e-Qul (peace for all) now informs his writing as well as his social and cultural activism. That is a great asset in this world torn and traumatised by intolerance, extremism and war. Poetry is arguably a far more liberating medium to express feelings and emotions.

The poet Akbar Ahmed has shown great intellectual honesty and integrity by not editing or self-censoring the poems he shares with us in his Suspended: Somewhere Between (Washington DC: Busboys and Poets Press, 2011). It includes verses that could appeal to militant Islamists as well as verses that are in the best Sufi tradition of tolerance and embrace of others. Suspended: Somewhere Between is organised into five themes: Pakistan, Love, Islam, Echoes of History and Pensées.

The poems on Pakistan bring forth the profound emotions and pride the author felt when his family made the journey to Pakistan. Son of a civil servant — UP origin father of Arab extraction and Pukhtun mother — Akbar Ahmed arrived in Pakistan in a train from Delhi that luckily escaped an armed raid during the partition riots. The experiences in Pakistan have been multifaceted; deeply moving visits to Sufi shrines as well as exposure to the stark reality of the policeman’s baton — something that Allama Iqbal failed to appreciate in his famous celebration of the master and slave becoming equals when standing together during prayers. He pays tribute to his mother, to the caliphs Umar (RA) and Ali (RA), to his friend Major Sabir Kamal who was witness to the blood dance that took place in Dhaka in March 1971. The social and cultural code of the Pakhtuns, Pakhtunwali, and the Khyber Pass are portrayed with tender insight. His poem “They are taking them away” on the 1971 civil war in the former East Pakistan is an outpouring of grief for all those who suffered: Bengali, Bihari; East Pakistani, West Pakistani. The last verse captures his agony pithily:
“there is no shame like the shame of taking them away to the slaughter houses.”

The poems grouped under Love include exquisite imagery fired by passion as well as homage to his mother and love for his wife and children. This section can be of great help to poets looking for inspiration to capture love in different contexts.

The third section of verses deals with the poet’s love for Islam. Intellectually, this is the most daring section as he battles with the narratives about an Islam whose glory rests on conquest and expansion and the period of celebrated caliph Umar bin Khattab (RA) as well as the grandeur of God expressed through architecture, poetry and high culture created by distinguished men such as Jalaluddin Rumi, Ibn Khaldun, Omar Khayyam, Ghalib and others. He is elated by a visit to a mosque in Paris frequented by the Berbers — a North African group who converted to Islam at a very early stage. For him it proves that Islam appeals to all ethnicities and nationalities. His affiliation to Sunni Islam does not prejudice him towards the followers of other religions or sects. This is how he understands the message of the Quran and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

In the Echoes of History, Akbar Ahmed provides us with glimpses of his understanding of civilisation. He raises a voice of protest against those intoxicated by the power and might at their disposal. While he condemns the 9/11 terrorist outrage, he pours out his heart-felt grievances over how the high and mighty in the US turned that into a war against Muslims. He cautions that all empires ultimately slip into oblivion. Some verses dwell on the Mughals who conquered and built a fabled empire. A poem deals with his father’s legacy of serving the British while retaining a lively interest in Ghalib and Iqbal. All such influences have left an impression on him and impacted on his understanding of the world as a citizen of the world.

Pensées was a new term for me. I now know it means pithy ‘thoughts’ or aphorisms about what people understand as truth. Pensées was given posthumously as the title for a defence of the Christian religion by the 17th century French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal. Akbar Ahmed ascribes a wider and more interesting meaning to his Pensées. For him nature, the universe, God — are objects of wonderment and awe. They dazzle him, they make him ponder the ultimate existentialist question: what is life all about? I present the last poem entitled in his book:

“What is that I seek?”

“A force of such might
It sets me free
A light so bright
It blinds me
I heard it in the voice of the nightingale
I know it was in the hearts of the wise
I sensed it in the lover’s tale
I saw it in your eyes
I saw it in Rumi’s poetry
I know it was in Gandhi’s gaze
I sensed it in Mandela’s oratory
I saw it in Jesus’ ways…
What is this riddle and what is its parts?
What is this enigma and mystery?
What can reveal the secrets of the heart?
What has the power to change me?
It is God’s greatest gift
It raises us high above
It is the bridge over the rift
It is love, love, love
Give it in generous measure
Give it as if there’s no tomorrow
Give to all you meet this treasure
Give it and banish sorrow.”

Surely the God Akbar Ahmed believes in is the God all good human beings would need to repair this world. Even rationalists, agnostics and atheists would not mind inventing such a God. The problem is of course the God of history in whose name so much blood has been spilled down the ages. I hope one day he reflects on the dialectical movement in the history of God and proposes a way out of this dilemma.

Source 

Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University. He is also Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)