Religious views,Views on Hindustan

Religious views

Ghalib was a very liberal mystic who believed that "the search for God within liberated the seeker from the narrowly Orthodox Islam, encouraging the devotee to look beyond the letter of the law to its narrow essence."^[18] His Sufi views and mysticism is greatly reflected in his poems and ghazals.^[18] As he once stated:

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The object of my worship lies beyond perception's reach; For men who see, the Ka'aba is a compass, nothing more."[18]

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Like many other Urdu poets, Ghalib was capable of writing profoundly religious poetry, yet was skeptical about the literalist interpretation of the Islamic scriptures.^[18] On the Islamic view and claims of paradise, he once wrote in a letter to a friend:

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In paradise it is true that I shall drink at dawn the pure wine mentioned in the Qu'ran, but where in paradise are the long walks with intoxicated friends in the night, or the drunken crowds shouting merrily? Where shall I find there the intoxication of Monsoon clouds? Where there is no autumn, how can spring exist? If the beautiful houris are always there, where will be the sadness of separation and the joy of union? Where shall we find there a girl who flees away when we would kiss her?.[18]

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He staunchly disdained the Orthodox Muslim Sheikhs of the Ulema, who in his poems always represent narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy:^[18]

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The Sheikh hovers by the tavern door, but believe me, Ghalib, I am sure I saw him slip in As I departed."[18]

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In another verse directed towards the Muslim maulavis (clerics), he criticized them for their ignorance and arrogant certitude: "Look deeper, it is you alone who cannot hear the music of his secrets".^[18] In his letters, Ghalib frequently contrasted the narrow legalism of the Ulema with "its pre-occupation with teaching the baniyas and the brats, and wallowing in the problems of menstruation and menstrual bleeding" and real spirituality for which you had to "study the works of the mystics and take into one's heart the essential truth of God's reality and his expression in all things".^[18]
Ghalib believed that if God laid within and could be reached less by ritual than by love, then he was as accessible to Hindus as to Muslims.^[18] As a testament to this, he would later playfully write in a letter that during a trip to Benares, he was half tempted to settle down there for good and that he wished he had renounced Islam, put a Hindu sectarian mark on his forehead, tied a sectarian thread around his waist and seated himself on the banks of the Ganges so that he could wash the contamination of his existence away from himself and like a drop be one with the river.^[18]
During the anti-British Rebellion in Delhi on 5 October 1857, three weeks after the British troops had entered through Kashmiri Gate, some soldiers climbed into Ghalib's neighbourhood and hauled him off to Colonel Burn for questioning.^[18] He appeared in front of the colonel wearing a Central Asian Turkic style headdress. The colonel, bemused at his appearance, inquired in broken Urdu, "Well? You Muslim?", to which Ghalib replied, "Half?" The colonel asked, "What does that mean?" In response, Ghalib said, "I drink wine, but I don't eat pork."^[19]

Views on Hindustan

In his poem "Chiragh-i-Dair" (Temple lamps) which was composed during his trip to Benaras during the spring of 1827, Ghalib mused about the land of Hindustan (the Indian subcontinent) and how Qiyamah (Doomsday) has failed to arrive, in spite of the numerous conflicts plaguing it.^[20]

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Said I one night to a pristine seer (Who knew the secrets of whirling time) "Sir, you well perceive That goodness and faith, Fidelity and love Have all departed from this sorry land Father and son are at each other's throat; Brother fights brother, Unity and federation are undermined Despite all these ominous signs, Why has not Doomsday come? Who holds the reins of the Final Catastrophe? The hoary old man of lucent ken Pointed towards Kashi and gently smiled "The Architect", he said, "is fond of this edifice Because of which there is color in life; He Would not like it to perish and fall."

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