How do people develop? Dialectically, or so suggest ghazals of Ghalib, one of the witnesses to the Great Uprising.
<http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ghalib/010/index_010.html?urdu>
ستایشگر ہے زاہد اس قدر جس باغِ رضواں کا وہ اک گلدستہ ہے ہم بے خودوں کے طاقِ نسیاں کا
کیا آئینہ خانے کا وہ نقشہ تیرے جلوے نے کرے جو پرتوِ خورشید عالم شبنمستاں کا
مری تعمیر میں مضمر ہے اک صورت خرابی کی ہیولیٰ برقِ خرمن کا ہے خونِ گرم دہقاں کا
خموشی میں نہاں خوں گشتہ لاکھوں آرزوئیں ہیں چراغِ مردہ ہوں میں بے زباں گورِ غریباں کا
نظر میں ہے ہماری جادۂ راۂ فنا غالب کہ یہ شیرازہ ہے عالم کے اجزاۓ پریشاں کا
"Let the ascetics sing of the garden of Paradise -- Who dwell in the true ecstasy can forget their vase-tamed bouquet.
In our hall of mirrors, the map of the one Face appears As the sun's splendor would spangle a world made of dew.
Hidden in this image is also its end, As peasants' lives harbor revolt and unthreshed corn sparks with fire.
Hidden in my silence are a thousand abandoned longings: My words the darkened oil lamp on a stranger's unspeaking grave.
Ghalib, the road of change is before you always: The only line stitching this world's scattered parts." -- Jane Hirshfield, The Enlightened Heart, Ed. Stephen Mitchell, Harper Perennial, 1989
<http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ghalib/111/111_14.html?urdu> <http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ghalib/111/trans111_1970.html>
ہم موحّد ہیں ہمارا کیش ہے ترکِ رسوم ملّتیں جب مٹ گئیں اجزاۓ ایماں ہو گئیں
"We who believe that God is one / will have no use for various creeds and must all ritual renounce. / Indeed, when all the creeds are merged in the knowledge of the One, / 'tis then that we can find true faith." -- J. L. Kaul, Interpretations of Ghalib (Delhi: Atma Ram & Sons, 1957)
"A believer am I, / I wish all shapes and forms be gone; For shorn of them, all / Faiths and beliefs turn into one." -- P. L. Lakhanpal, Ghalib: the Man and His Verse (Delhi: International Books, 1960)
Faruqi:
In the verse it has been said, we are a monotheist, and our path is that we renounce customs (that is, outward sectarian [مذہبی] behavior). It's obvious that here 'monotheist' has been used in its technical meaning -- that is, a person who believes in the oneness of the Lord, but doesn't believe in any sect [مذہب]. In the light of this interpretation the second line, instead of expressing some principle or point, expresses a personal belief and action: that in our capacity as monotheist we know that the only true religion [مذہب] is not to have a religion [مذہب]. In this way this verse too displays Ghalib's special style of paradox, and the second line has the rank of personal inquiry, more than that of some historical truth. Another interesting point is that the condition for erasing or abandoning a religion [مذہب] is that it first be acquired; otherwise, a thing that's not in the heart at all -- what meaning can it have to erase it? (183) -- Yoshie