KARACHI, Nov 7: Speakers at a function observing the 83rd death anniversary of Dr Abdur Rehman Bijnori on Wednesday threw light on the various aspects of his personality and his works, especially his critical appraisal of Ghalib’s poetry which was fondly titled Mahasin-i-Kalam-i-Ghalib and which was posthumously published in 1921.

Compering the function, held under the aegis of the Dr Abdur Rehman Bijnori Trust, poet Saher Ansari said that in a lifetime as brief as 33 years Bijnori had worked wonders in the seemingly disparate fields of law, literature, critical analysis, and education.

“Apart from Urdu, Bijnori was conversant with at least four languages, Arabic, Persian, English and German. His doctoral thesis, ‘Sources of Islamic Jurisprudence’, was written in the German language. His magnum opus, Mahasin-i-Kalam-i- Ghalib, was interestingly as laconic as Diwan-i- Ghalib itself,” Mr Ansari observed, adding that Mahasin had been established in 1921 both in Maulavi Abdul Haq’s magazine, Sehmahi Urdu, and as a preface to Nuskha-i-Hamdeediya.

He said Allama Iqbal had been so much saddened by Bijnori’s untimely death that, in a private letter to Shoaib Qureshi, he had written that “if he (Bijnori) had lived for 10 more years, the entire world would have been bedazzled by his genius”. “Allama Iqbal had also composed an evocative quatrain in Persian for the epitaph of Bijnori’s grave.”

Quoting the oft-cited opening lines of Mahasin-i-Kalam- i-Ghalib — that “Hindustan has two sacred books: Vedas and Diwan-i-Ghalib” — Mr Ansari said that Bijnori had intelligently used a Persian quatrain composed by Ghalib himself to escape accusations of flippancy.

The president of the Dr Abdur Rehman Bijnori Trust, Ashraf Rasheed Siddiqi, said that few people knew that Bijnori had received early education in Balochistan. He had passed his matric examination in Quetta. “He then moved on to do his BA and LLB from Aligarh University, his Bar-at-Law from the world-renowned Licoln’s Inn and his PhD from Freiburg University in Germany,” he said.

Mr Siddiqi, a scion of the Bijnori family, said he had hit upon the idea of establishing a trust named after Bijnori when in January 1988 he was looking through the archives of the Balochistan government.

He informed the audience that three theses — two doctoral and one pre-doctoral — had been written on Bijnori. “Bhopal University and Aligarh University have conferred doctorates upon two students for writing papers on Bijnori.”

He added that in addition to Mahasin-i-Kalam-i- Ghalib, two books — Baqiyat-i-Bijnori and Yadgaar-i-Bijnori — had also been published. He said that it was known that Bijnori had translated the Quran but the Trust had not managed to lay its hand on the manuscript so far.

Dr Pirzada Qasim said that, as his name indicated, Bijnori had hailed from a small town, Seohara, in Bijnor in the Indian state of Utter Pradesh. He presented a litany of other prominent figures who came from Bijnor. The list included the names of Deputy Nazir Ahmed, Sajjad Haider Yaldrum, Barrister Asif Ali, Qurratulain Haider, Maqbool Ahmed, Siddiqa Ahmed, Dr Khursheedul Islam, and Dr Riazul Islam.

“I often wondered why so many Muslims did Bar-at-Law in the undivided India. The other day I found the answer in a book written by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who was once asked by a callow youth proceeding to England for higher studies what he should study. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan advised him to study law because in this way he would not have to work as a subordinate to anybody,” Dr Qasim said.

“When Aligarh University was being set up, people decided to copy the act of another famous university, Allahabad University. Bijnori not only opposed the idea of copying another university’s act but also drafted the act of Aligarh University in two volumes,” said Dr Qasim, adding that Bijnori had drafted a law on compulsory education in his capacity as the education adviser in the state of Bhopal.

“Bijnori was instrumental in establishing the Sultaniya College in Dehra Dun,” he said.

Reading out his paper, Dr Abul Khair Kashfi, said by writing an insightful appraisal of Ghalib’s poetry, Bijnori would share Ghalib’s immortality for all times to come. “Bijnori was aware of the role played by languages in nation-building. He also knew that English as a medium of instruction would divide the nation. He wanted to revive the educational assets bequeathed to us by our ancestors,” he said.

He added that so far as Bijnori was concerned, education was a source of revolution.

Prof Dr Riazul Islam said: “Bijnori, like Alexander, Keats and Shelley, had died young but not before leading an extremely active and fruitful life. He left an indelible mark on the fields of literature, education planning, and law.”

He suggested that all works of Bijnori, including his letters, should be found and published.

Dr Farman Fatehpuri, who presided over the function, said that despite the fact that Mahasin-i-Kalam-i-Ghalib had been published in 1921 in Maulavi Abdul Haq’s magazine, Sehmahi Urdu and Nusha-i-Hameediya, the former that at least six more pages. “Students of Urdu literature should explore this discrepancy,” he observed.

He said: “Bijnori was famous for two references: 19th- century poet Ghalib and 20th-century poet Iqbal. Bijnori’s criticism had prompted Iqbal to compose Asrar-i- Bekhudi.”