I wish there were more thinkers like Faiz to save us from this sinking ship of fundamentalism.
NIDDERAU, GERMANY: This is with reference to your editorial “Celebrating Faiz” (February 14). I think Faiz Ahmed Faiz was a great poet and translated a message of workers’ woes into his poetry. I was editor the editor of Ravi, the Government College magazine, and visited him once to ask for a contribution in the form of a poem. He and his wife gave me warmth and he gave me a new ghazal for Ravi. Two years ago, I met his daughter Salima Hashmi in Frankfurt where a function was held in Faiz’s honour. She gave a very lovely speech about her father.
I wish there were more thinkers like Faiz to save us from this sinking ship of fundamentalism. In my opinion, his poem Mujh seh pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang was one of his best works.
Sharif Lone
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2014.
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