some couplets and a discussion!

Many of us would have heard the name of Abdur Raheem khane khana and also of his timeless dohas that were born out of a close observation of the human mind and human relationships. Some of the poets of the bhakti period, associated more with the oral tradition than the written one, have been seen as more than human by the indian mind that somehow seems to be too ready to give divine attributes to human genius. Iqbal is probably talking of the subcontinent when he says
"khu gar e paikar e mehsoos thi insaan ki nazar
poojta phir koi an dekhe khuda ko kyun kar?" (khu means habit and paikar means body, khugar e paikar e mehsoos means habituated to tangible bodies)

It is probably because of this tendency that most of us in the twenty first century know the poets like Kabir Das (which is an exact translation of Abdur Raheem) only as Kabir, Kabir or rather Kabeer in Arabic means 'Great' and is an appellation fit only for God. Kabeer Das would then mean the servant of God, which Kabeer Das always claimed to be.

To come out of the digression i would like you to recall the doha by Abdur Raheem

Rahimun dhaaga prem ka, mat todo chatkaye
toote to phir na jude, jude gaanth parh jaye!

i recently found a beautiful couplet in Shuja Khawar's Rashk e Farsi that alludes to and incorporates, adds and multiplies to khane khana's Doha

Badgumani aayi to le jayegi rishte tamaam
dekhna niklegi in sheeshon ki hasti baal bhar!

it gives me immense aesthetic pleasure when i compare the ganth in khane khana to the 'baal' in khawar's couplet. The best thing about Khawar's poetry is that things seem to have been so well blended in his expression that one can hardly know the parts in the whole. It is only in the fireworks of cerebral pleasure that something lights up on the horizon to give way to more meaning. This quality owes a lot to the deep knowledge of oriental and occidental thought.

dekhne walon ko saara hi samundar chahiye
sochne wala samundar soch le ik leher mein!