God tries to value a Pakistani Life

Some thoughts after the two bomb attacks today, and thousands more before them

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The other day, I heard God called up an actuary to discuss the value of a Pakistani life. The conversation went something like this-

God: Hi, I am looking for a valuation of a human life in Pakistan

Actuary: Assalam o Alaikum Wa Rehmatullah hi Barakaat

God: Wsalam

Actuary: Brother, it is narrated from the Holy Prophet PBUH that when somebody sends his blessings on you, you must respond in kind.

God: Walaikum Assalam

Actuary: Mashallah brother, but you must say the full form. These abbreviations are a deliberate attempt by the Zionist lobby to make Muslims forget the true Islam.

God: Walaikum Assalam Wa Rehmatullah hi barakat. Now as I was saying-

Actuary [cutting in]: Yes, a human life. Can you be more specific?

God: What do you mean specific?

Actuary: Would you like to value a Sindhi, Punjabi, Pathan or Muhajir?

God: I just want to value a Pakistani life

Actuary: Brother, it’s not that simple. You must specify a location and we will build our valuation based on geographical location. Therefore please choose from Sindhi, Punjabi, Pathan or Muhajir since all lives must be from within one of the said ethnicities?

God: I just want to know how much a life is- that is all I ask.

Actuary: It does not work like that- also, I should disclose that we do not value Balochi life at all. It is too trivial and would constitute wastage of resources.

God: So is there no way at all to value a life?

Actuary: Brother, we usually don’t do this but we will make an exception. Let’s forget geography- would you like to value a Sunni, Shia, Deobandi, Christian, Hindu, Sikh or Parsi? Again, I should disclose that the amendment of 1974 prevents us from valuing Ahmedis.

God: But what about the Quran which, as deduced from your opening greeting that you  are a Muslim, asks you to treat all humanity fairly?

Actuary: We can’t do that, I’m afraid. This is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and not the Human Rights Republic of Pakistan and we really have no obligation to protect minority rights

God: Ok- so all lives must be discriminated based on either ethnicity or religion?

Actuary: Yes

God: Well, this is a dilemma. I usually don’t prefer one life over the other- I’m simply a creator. I value all my creations equally

Actuary: In that case you are a fool

God: Perhaps I am. Can’t we just proceed with a simple valuation?

Actuary: Without the right geographical and religious parameters, no. However, we can project future cash flows which will effectively allow you to gauge how much a general life is worth anyways

God: Please continue

Actuary: Let’s say you have an X amount of rupees. To function effectively, you must pay half of that to different state entities like police, WAPDA, PTCL, etc

God: Of course! So the tax rate is 50%?

Actuary: No, those are just friendly gifts you will have to present to get various things done. Tax is different but you don’t have to worry about it since no body collects it anyways.

God: So that money is not tax?

Actuary: No

God: It’s just a friendly gift to state employees?

Actuary: Yes

God: Do I know those people?

Actuary: No

God: So it’s a bribe

Actuary: No, it’s a friendly gift to get things done. Please note that your quota for asking questions has now been breached. For every additional question, it will be billed separately.

God: Are you kidding me?

Actuary: No. Also, that counts as a question

God: Why didn’t you disclose that along with the rest of the disclosures?

Actuary: I did- you must not have been paying attention

God: What have I created?

Actuary: Moving on, you now have 0.5x left. We can allocate roughly forty percent of that for bills for electricity, phone lines, water and gas.

God: But then what good were the friendly gifts?

Actuary: You really are naïve. Gifts are needed to obtain access to a service, repair it etc. Bills are payments for using that service.

God: Is it like this in all the countries of the world?

Actuary: No, but it is like that in India and that is all that matters.

God: Continuing with our budget, I now have 0.3x left. What other expenditures are needed?

Actuary: We have barely started. We still need to account for gas, automobiles, insurance, education, food, mortgage and two domestic maids and a chauffeur.

God: But I only have 0.3x left!

Actuary: We also offer Islamic Financing so we can offer you a loan with very favourable conditions unlike the Jewish interest loans.

God: But that’s not the point- X is an imaginary number. What if my X was ten thousand rupees to one million rupees? Surely there must be differences in my expenditures? If I had one million rupees, surely I wouldn’t need a loan?

Actuary: You would. As a famous philosopher said, ‘Mo money, mo problems’

God: I believe that was Notorious B.I.G

Actuary: I don’t know what you are talking about. Western music is haram.

God: Why western music? Why not all music?

Actuary: Because Junaid Jamshed

God: What does that even mean?

Actuary: I don’t know. So how much loan would you like?

God: But I’m trying to understand why I need a loan!

Actuary: It is the will of Allah. You have no right to question it.

God: Bite me

Actuary: That would be considered sodomy and punishable by death

God: Why do you decide what is punishable and how?

Actuary: All blasphemy is death. So is being a Shia and an Ahmedi. However, preaching mass genocide against the Shias and Ahmedis is not.

God: I really need to get away from this conversation

Actuary: Ok. We will send the bill soon.

God: Ok, khudahafiz.

Actuary: Tsk, tsk, brother. I see you have been corrupted by the Zionists. The correct term is Allahhafiz.

God: I apologize, of course you would know better

Actuary: Allahhafiz brother

God’s whereabouts have been unknown since the said conversation. Apparently, when one of the angels asked him where he was headed, he said the world doesn’t need a god anymore because Pakistan is full of millions of people who can do a better job.

Analyzing Aziz Mian’s Itni saaqi nay piladi- Part 2

Part 1 can be found here

Ye saaqi ki karamat hai kay faiz e meh parasti hai

Ghata key bhes main meh khanay peh rehmat barasti hai

Ye jo kuch dehkta hai tu, fareb e khawab e hasti hai

Takhayul kay karash may hai, bulandi hai na pasti hai

Wahan hum hain jahan bay dang na veerana na basti hai

Na pabandi, na azadi, na hoshiari, na masti hai

Har aik zarray main hai, itni inallah ki sada saaqi

Ajab meh kash thay ka jin ki khak mein bhi josh e masti hai

It’s the companion’s magic and luck, supervision of these drinks

This thunder is but blessing disguised, on this tavern

Whatever you see here, it’s an illusion of dreams and reality

In this state of perpetual wait, there are no highs or lows

Where we are, there are is no solitude but neither is a crowd

No restrictions, No freedom, No cleverness, No fun

Every single atom, proclaims the unity of God, my companion

Strange were these addicts, even their dead bodies emit their passion

The literal translation of this verse is not quite so literal- after all, this is Aziz Mian and nothing is as it appears. Aziz Mian is narrating the many good qualities of his companion (Saaqi) and attributes all things good to him. In fact, this Saaqi changes Aziz Mian’s perspective on life- thunder becomes a blessing. Upon close inspection, Aziz Mian realizes nothing is what it seems like and invokes various analogies to get his point across. He ends his tale by wondering who these companions really are since, even after they die, their khak (Urdu, for clay, which Abrahamic texts state was used to make man) was alive with their passion.

The first thing that I would like to build upon is Aziz Mian not specifying a gender- in popular culture, it would have been very easy to associate saaqi with a masculine tag but I believe the absence of this gender attachment allows Aziz Mian to turn this singularity in the first line into a plurality to end the verse with. This is important for a number of reasons- it implies that while Aziz Mian only knew one saaqi, he acknowledges that there are more of them.

The second thing Aziz Mian does, and as most people with a passing interest can attest, is to leave out the drink. The word meh makes an appearance thrice- meh parasti, meh khana and meh kash. Literal translation would be supervising drinking, house of drinks and state of being drunk respectively. Yet there is no confirmation that this drink is alcohol- it could as easily be any liquid or it could be a metaphorical allegation. I am tempted to argue that we could use two possible meanings- the use of the word saaqi allows us to extend our parameters and bring in the river kausar from Islamic version of heaven (see here for the relationship between the two) or we could use the world as a stand in for meh.

For this interpretation, I would go with meh equating to the world but point out that Aziz Mian is playing off subtleties by inducing images of kausar but referring to this world.

The different analogies Aziz Mian makes lead one to question the place he is talking about- is it a Utopian concept? Perhaps not as Utopia would imply that all men are free in all aspects of life but Islamic theology dictates that men must eventually submit to a higher being. Aziz Mian goes on to describe his amazement at who this companion really was and where it came from and expresses wonderment at the powers the companion possessed.

Moving beyond literal translation allows us to explore two probable avenues of interpretation. We can analyze this in a context of romance or in a context of spirituality.

Romance fits the verse perfectly. Many others, both before and after Aziz Mian, have referenced love as an illusion and agreed that it takes you to a place nothing else can. The singularity of companion means Aziz Mian loved one but his belief in this love allows him to acknowledge that there are others who have felt the same he has (plurality evident from the last sentence) and even though his beloved is gone and buried, the passion is still there.

Similarly, spirituality fits the verse perfectly. By being a true spiritual, one is able to see through different religions and beliefs to the one thing that matters- the supreme power that all religions and beliefs aspire to be close to. This devotion allows the devotee to fall in love with others like itself and such passion is rewarded by the supreme being by granting immortality to the passion of these devotees.

However, I would like to venture into slightly more adventurous territory by presenting a new hypothesis- that Aziz Mian’s reference is to the Imamate as acknowledged by the Shi’ite sect of Islam. If we assume the word saaqi allows us to bring kausar into play, we can show using hadiths from both the Sunni and Shia school of thoughts that kausar was repeatedly mentioned as the property of Ali and Fatima and their sons. The words mehparast and mehkhana then refer to caretakers of this rivers and owners of this river respectively which corroborate with the sayings accepted as strong by the two biggest schools of thoughts in Islam.

The physical place mentioned in the qawwali would be Karbala, the host to the battle of Hussain. Karabala was a desert but yet the tribe of Banu Asad lived nearby making it neither barren nor overly crowded. Similarly, there were no restrictions on any of the beings present but there wasn’t any freedom either- Hussain voluntarily set up camp at Karbala but at the same time was not allowed to leave. There was no cleverness as Hussain accepted his fate and it was an occasion of great sorrow. Karbala is widely accepted as a holy site and therefore an allegation of ‘every single atom proclaiming God’s unity’ sits perfectly under the Islamic context. However, it is the last line which reinforces this Shia interpretation- Aziz introduces plurality which could easily be said to refer to Husain’s companions. Further, Aziz uses ‘Ajab meh kash thay ka jin ki khak mein bhi josh e masti hai’ to devastating effect. He calls these mehkash, or in our context, those under the influence of kausar (and therefore the righteous ones by implication), so mystical that even their deaths could not stop their passion from flowing. This could be said to refer to many things- the stature of Karbala as a holy site; the beginnings of Shi’ism from this battle; the miraculous nature attributed to this land; and so forth.

Aziz Mian does it so brilliantly and subtly that it’s hard to ever decipher what he is talking about- I firmly believe that like most things, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and it’s never more true than for a qawwali like this.

Analyzing Aziz Mian’s Itni saaqi nay piladi- part 1

When Aziz Mian rose to fame with his Mein Sharabi in the 1970’s, he had already produced more than six albums. The uniqueness of his earlier work stems from his original prose- he used diverse themes that strung together the concept of love but as has been well document, alternated between love for God, a drink or woman. Wordplay, references and metaphorical substitutes only serve to confuse those who study him. A good example is his work Humein itni saaqi nay piladi which was (according to a rough estimate) produced in the late 1960’s and which manages to tie in a fledgling Shia influence which would later become more explicit in his later qawwali’s.

Summarily, this qawwali is a story of how Aziz Mian repented profusely [from his addiction] so much so that his companion could take no more and offered Aziz Mian more of the same. The ambiguity is prevalent from the very beginning and repeated throughout the chorus. Is Aziz Mian repenting his love? If so, is he offered more love in return? If he is repenting his intoxicated state, what is he intoxicated on? Is he repenting for being a disbeliever in God or is he repenting for being too strong a believer in God and thus disbelieving in other’s around him? These questions allow us to interpret this qawwali in plenty of different lights and Aziz Mian makes references to all the aspects in different parts of the qawwali to make the interpreter’s job harder.

The first verse goes,

Kitna mukhlis

Ay allah, kitna mukhlis gunahgar hoon mein

Teri rehmat kay geet gata hoon

Tauba karta hoon roz peenay say

Tauba kartay he bhool jata haoon

How sincere

Lord, how sincere of a sinner I am

Your kindness is the topic I sing about

I repent every day from drinking

Right after repenting, I forget

Literal translation simply admits that Aziz Mian acknowledges his wrong actions and indeed his wrong repentance. However, since God’s mercy is what Aziz Mian sings about, he expects God to be merciful nonetheless. So by calling out God as merciful, Aziz Mian is provoking God into overlooking his transgressions (implication that drinking refers to consumption of alcohol and thus a forbidden act in Islam which deserves punishment) and treating Aziz Mian with kindness.

The beauty arises when we look at the first three lines separately. Since drinking has not been introduced, it can be deduced that Aziz Mian is referring to the very act of singing as a sin! While qawwalis are predominantly religious and philosophical in nature, they enjoy a somewhat controversial spot- singing is explicitly forbidden according the extremist Islamic interpretation. Aziz Mian, however, is pleading to God to overlook this as well since the  only topic Aziz Mian sings about is God’s mercy anyways.

When we are looking at this verse separately, we can isolate the last two lines as well. Here they become simply a statement of Aziz Mian’s actions- there is no remorse, plea or any other emotion involved. Aziz Mian acknowledges his actions and refuses to justify them. This, again, is a theme that greatly appears in many of Aziz Mian’s works and in fact Aziz Mian was considered rather blunt in comparison to his contemporaries, The Sabri Brothers.

In the next analysis, I will look at the body of the qawwali.

Itni saaqi nay piladi lyrics

Kitna mukhlis
Ay allah, kitna mukhlis gunahgar hoon mein x2
Teri rehmat kay geet gata hoon
Tauba karta hoon roz peenay say
Tauba kartay he bhool jata haoon
Shor tha
Botal uthay, meena uthay, sagar uthay x4

Shor tha, yeh shor tha, haan shor tha
Mehkaday ka mehkada behosh tha

Chorus

Itni tauba kar uthay
Haan itni saqi nay piladi

Chorus

Aray jhoom jhoom kay la, muskara kay la
Phoolon kay rasm e chand ki kirnay mila kay la
Kehtay hain umr e rafta kabhi laut tee nahi
Ja mehkaday say meri jawani utha ka la

Chorus

Bas, pee aya koi bhes badal kar shayad
Warna waiz say hai saqi ka taqaza kaisa

Chorus

Ye saaqi ki karamat hai kay faiz e meh parasti hai
Ghata key bhes main meh khanay peh rehmat barasti hai
Ye jo kuch dehkta hai tu, fareb e khawab e hasti hai
Takhayul kay karash may hai, bulandi hai na pasti hai
Wahan hum hain jahan bay dang na veerana na basti hai
Na pabandi, na azadi, na hoshiari, na masti hai
Har aik zarray main hai, itni inallah ki sada saaqi
Ajab meh kash thay ka jin ki khak mein bhi josh e masti hai

Chorus

Meh khanay mein mazar hamara agar bana
Dunya yeh hi kahay gi kay jannat mein ghar bana

Chorus

Meri sharaab ki tu qadr jaanay kia waiz
Jisay mein pee kay dua doon woh jannati ho jaye

Chorus

Zameen bhi gulabi, zaman bhi gulabi
Fiza bhi gulabi, hawa bhi gulabi
Aaj mausam bara gulabi hai
Aaj peenay mein kiya kharabi hai

Chorus

Who shokh apnay hathon say mujhko pila gaya
Iman kho gaya magr aik lutf agaya
Tauba kay baad bhi meri niyat wohi rahi
Peeta raha koi, nasha mujh ko agaya

Chorus

Sad sala daur e chargh tha sagar ka aik daur
Niklay jo meh kaday say tau dunya badal gayi

Chorus

Ajab nigah say saaqi nay bandobast kia
Sharab baad mein di, pehlay sab ko mast kia

Chorus

Saaqiya, mehz hai mein tauba karoon, tauba tauba
Mein nay, dunya ka dikhanay ko qasam khai hay

Chorus

Yeh khat nahi, saada e dil e dard mand hai
Aik bay watan ka piyar lifafay meh band hai
Saaqi, botal ka kagh khol kay jhat jayen zulmatein
Suraj ki roshni teri botal mein band hai
Chorus

Yeh surkh surkh botlain jo hain sharab ki
Raatain hain band in may hamaray shabab ki
Lasha hai mera ya koi botal bhari hui
Turbat hai meri ya koi bhatti sharab ki

Chorus

Aray yeh ghalat hai sharaab ki tareef
Is ka zehnon pay raaj hota hai
Sirf hiddat sharaab deti hai
Baqi apna mizaj hota hai

Chorus

Hasrat e ishq nahi, shauq junoon posh nahi
Bay hijaba na chalay ayo mujhay hosh nahi
Kabhi unmat bhari aankhon say piya tha aik jaam
Aaj tak hosh nahi, hosh nahi, hosh nahi

Chorus

Badal ko dekh kar meri niyat badal gayi

Chorus

Bach kay janay na payengay waiz
Aaj rindon nay dala hai ghera

Chorus

Bari haseen hai zulfon ki sham pee lee jeay
Hamaray haath say do char jaam pee lee jeay
Pilayey jab koi mashooq apnay hathon say
Sharab phir nahi rehti haram pee lee jeay

Chorus

Saghar ko meray haath say lena kay mein chala

Chorus

Jisay dekhni hai jannat meray saath saath aye

Chorus

Saaqi tujhay qasam hai, janab e ameer ki
Behti phiray sharaab mein kishti faqeer ki

Chorus

Saaqi ghati hui hai khara badion ki saf
Phela hua hai abr e gohar bar har taraf
Botal ka kah khol utha, kaif bar e daf
La abad e madina oh paimana e najaf
Tatheer ki rida hai falak par dhani hui
Deh daman e rasul e khuda mein chani hui

Chorus

Nuskha bayaz e saaqi e kausar say mil gaya
Ghar bethay ab sharab e tahura banaoonga

Chorus

Leh wo najaf ki samt say anay lagi sada
Ay muthrib e haseen meri anjuman mein aa
Aa, aa, jhoom kar zara naghmat e noh suna
Saaqi mera salaam e adab lay kay mein chala
Maula e kainat aur awaaz deh mujhay
Ay jibrael, taqat e parvaz deh mujhay

Chorus

Aziz Mian and his wilayat ki sharaab

Desi na piyoon ga

Meray daata,

Teray qurban waliyon kay

tasadduq mein

wilayat ki pila day

I won’t drink this local [alcohol]

My Lord

Those that sacrificed their lives for you

In respecting them

Pour me the good stuff

The above lines appear in Aziz Mian’s Mein Sharabi. They do not appear in all versions and are often left out from the more mainstream productions of Mein Sharabi. A pity really because it’s lines like these that make Aziz Mian much more than simply a qawwal- it makes him a philosopher, historian, linguist and a mystic all in one.

As has been frequently documented, Mein Sharabi continues to baffle qawwali lovers to this day. The literal translation and summary means ‘I’m drunk’ and can be seen as the lamentations of an addict who refuses to give up his love for a drink despite acknowledging the harmful effects of his habit. It’s a stereotypical story really- starts off with a lost love and gradual dissolution into nothingness.

On a more spiritual level, this has been equated with a love for God mainly due to the rampant ambiguity in the lyrics. Proponents of this interpretation argue that there is no gender mentioned in the qawwali; there are no names; nowhere is alcohol mentioned by name but simply by association. Therefore, Aziz Mian is talking on a whole different level about falling so much in love with God that he is paying no heed to anything else around him.

The verses quoted above, like most of Aziz Mian’s work, are a double entendre. Let’s take a look at the literal translation first- the two words that require our attention are desi and wilayat. The former means local while the latter means abroad. Therefore, it’s just a plea to God, invoking other deities as a reference, to send some of the ‘good stuff from abroad’ (assumption that imports are of a better quality than that produced locally).

Moving on to a more holistic interpretation, wilayat is a concept in the Shi’i school of thought which refers to Ali’s claim to the caliphate after the death of Mohammed. Given that the latter part of the this qawwali makes explicit references to the scenes at the battle of Karabala and Aziz Mian states his love for the Panjatan, it could be argued that Aziz Mian was denouncing the desi version of religion, i.e, the more prevalent one in his home country (Pakistan), in favor of the one out of his reach, i.e, wilayat. Therefore, he claims that the version of Islam practiced by the majority in the country is incorrect and that the right path has been lost and forgotten.

Critics of this interpretation argue that while the basic theme of a qawwali often stays the same, the comparisons made differ greatly within the qawwali. Therefore, using Aziz Mian’s references to historical facts in the latter part of the qawwali do not allow us to extrapolate and apply that set of rules to an earlier part of the qawwali.

Regardless, I’m amazed how Aziz Mian incorporates Islamic history, manages to philosophize by only mentioning the word drunk without every mentioning alcohol, uses a play on words to throw the reader into a conundrum while maintaining his continues reference to God ongoing. It’s a pity his life is not as well documented as it deserves to be.

Sonnet 138, William Shakespeare

When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor’d youth,
Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress’d.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.