Poets, scholars call for maintaining standard while writing naat

Parents urged to buy books for children in session on children’s literature

KARACHI: Poets who compose naat try to express their love and admiration for the Holy Prophet (pbuh). However, they should make sure that the verses they write in naat have literary standards.

Poet Iftikhar Arif said this while speaking at the session, ‘Hamd o Naat: Tehkiki aur Fikri Tanazur [Hamd and Naat in the perspectives of research and thought]’, at the first session of the second day of the 10^th International Urdu Conference.

Hamd and naat are two rich genres of poetry in which a poet praises God Almight and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) respectively. Urdu language had the greatest corpus of naat, Arif said. He added that any poet who writes a naat has to channel his entire soul to accomplish the task.



Scholar Jehan Ara Lutfi commented that many non-Muslim poets had also written naat and paid their respects to the Holy Prophet (pbuh). She added that naat helped promote religious tolerance among Muslims and non-Muslims.

Naat is a very privileged form of poetry, poet Firasat Rizvi said, adding that in order to write a naat, a poet should be highly knowledgeable. Naat is one of the most difficult poems to write, Rizvi said. He also referred to the tradition of naat in Persian, which according to him, had a profound effect on Urdu naat. Writing a naat brings wisdom to poet.

Dr Aziz Ahsan maintained that the genre of naat was first created in Arabic language from which it as borrowed by Persian. Later, Urdu acquired naat from Persian, he added. He named some of the outstanding naat poets of Urdu including Hali, Ahmed Raza Barelvi, Mohsin Kakoravi, Iqbal and Zafar Ali Khan. Dr Ahsan specifically praised Hali for writing profound naats in simple language.



The second session of the conference was titled ‘Bachon ka Adab [children literature]’. Presiding over the session, writer Raza Ali Abidi called for the need of paying attention to the children’s literature. It is important that children’s author receive due recognition so that they continue to write, Abidi said.

Another speaker at the session, Munir Ahmed Arshad, lamented lack of inclusion of children’s literature in the schools curriculum. If we do not teach literature to students, how we can expect them to develop a sound literary taste, Arshad said.

He also indicated that in the contemporary stories written for children, authors tend to be more didactic than they should be. In order to write for children, one should understand their psyche, said Arshad.



Rumana Hussain pointed out that children’s literature was not overlooked in the recent past. In 1980s, work was going on to translate and publish children’s literature written in Russia, China and India, she said.

Hussain urged parents to provide children quality books. Along with quality food and toys, parents must also buy books  for their children, she said. Ali Hasan Sajid played the role of moderator in the session.