Thread by @AdilNajam

My 10th grade Urdu teacher insisted that this sheyr/ghazal written by Siraj Aurangabadi 270 years ago, was possibly amongst the best ever written. I have now listened to it for 40+ yrs; am just beginning to understand what he meant; why it just may be so.

وہ عجب گھڑی تھی میں جس گھڑی لیا درس نسخۂ عشق کا
کہ کتاب عقل کی طاق پر جوں دھری تھی تیوں ہی دھری رہی

Some may actually remember that this is the ghazal that propelled #ShaukatAli to national PTV fame.

چلی سمت غیب سیں کیا ہوا کہ چمن سرور کا جل گیا
مگر ایک شاخ نہال غم، جسے دل کہو سو ہری رہی

This by #AliSethi is not only the latest but the most different; a powerful new sensibility (though I think the word in the first misra is 'saroor', not 'zahoor').

ترے جوش حیرت حسن کا اثر اس قدر تو یہاں ہوا
کہ نہ آئینے میں رہی جلا نہ پری کی جلوہ گری رہی

The forceful rendition from #AbidaParveen

The original classic Qawalli from #MunshiRiazuddin
کیا خاک آتش عشق نے دل بے نوائے سراجؔ کوں
نہ خطر رہا نہ حذر رہا مگر ایک بے خطری رہی
They render the last line as "be-khatari", which I think is correct; others have used "be-khabari" in this verse.

For those asking, the teacher was ‘Sir’ Zafar Sheikh sb at ICB, who first nurtured my interest in poetry; later in FSc my Urdu teacher and sb believed the same.

Am blessed to have always had so many great teachers who believed more in me than I did myself.