A Man of Vision, Ever Transmuting It into Action

A Man of Vision, Ever Transmuting It into Action

Written by

DR. SYED KHALID IQUBAL HAIDER

Published on

August 13, 2022

Dubai based Abu Alla Imteyaz Seen Muslim was born in April 1922 in a small village, Lohgarh of the district Jalendhar, Punjab, India. He migrated to Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947. He spent his early childhood in Lohgarh. The village those days was denuded even of a primary school. He had to walk three miles away to the adjacent village, Khaira Fuju Singh for his primary education. In 1938 he passed Middle School Examination from another adjacent village, Haripur which was seven miles away from his own native village. In 1942, he passed Secondary School Examination from D. B. High School, Nakodar, twelve miles away from LohgarhLohgarh was acutely an epitome of penury and undergrowth and he himself came from a very middle class family. Travelling for the sake of gaining knowledge and attaining self-satisfaction has been innate in him from the very start of his life.

In 1960 he graduated from Karachi University in Economics. Reading, reflecting and writing is his passion, his fervour, his purpose of life. Literature, religion, philosophy and issues pertaining to social welfare stir him and once the topic related to these spheres is initiated, the ocean of knowledge within him surges up. His keenness for poetry seems to have been inherited from his ancestors. His interest in Punjabi classical music had initiated in him since his middle school days but shortly switched over to Urdu poetry and he began to read Meer, Dagh and Ghalib.

His first book Tehni Ke Phool, a collection of short stories appeared in 1958. He then specialised himself in writing hymn and eulogy. Wagan Men Wal More is the sole book of Punjabi classical poetry which Seen Muslim wrote in 1970.

Seen Muslim is by now the author of forty-four books. They consist of all the facets of   learning –literature, poetry, prose, articles, criticism, lyrical songs including autobiography – lamha-be lamha zindagi – life turns a new leaf every moment.

The scholars of Punjabi classics have considered him a representative of Classical Punjabi Poetry.

In India, Vinobha Bhavey University, Jharkhand has awarded Ph. D degree to one Dr. Ghazala Younus for her undaunted effort in researching on Seen Muslim’s life and his contribution to learning.

Cairo University, Egypt has recently awarded Magister Degree (commensurate to Ph.D) to one Mrs. Eiman ShuKiri who translated his book, Karvaney Haram into Arabic, entitled Qafla-e Haram. Her translation has much been acclaimed by Arab scholars. Then the author himself took the task of translating the book into English poetry entitled Road to Haram which was published from Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2009.

It was this occasion of its releasing ceremony that I had the privilege of meeting Abu Alla Imtiyaz Seen Muslim. It was perhaps, as far as I recollect, the month of November 2009. Great people have remarkable temperament – temperament of simplicity, temperament of evoking intense feeling and utter curiosity. Among the crowd, while the ceremony of the book release was being observed at Expo Centre, Sharjah, his glance happened to cast on me. I was sitting on a chair in a corner; he instantly beckoned me towards him, and asked me to sit along him. I was quite a stranger and had arrived only on a telephonic invitation by the publisher. He asked my name, my occupation and when he came to know that I belong to teaching class, he virtually burst into joys; he pulled me to his sole self, asked me to drag my chair next to his, took my hands in those of him and spread them over my head. I found him much fond of education and anything which stood for transmitting learning. Since that time I’m in touch with him. He gave me the book and permitted me to be in contact.

I read The Road to Haram, once and twice and realised that each time I read the book, my temptation to read it once again was doubly increasing. What is most captivating about the book is its poetic flow which runs through the book like a rivulet of honey, free and fresh. The book has multi layers; it’s both a travelogue of Hajj and a spiritual journey; it’s at the same time a book of philosophy invigorating ritual practice of Hajj, and above all, it is a portrayal of the Prophet’s life. The theme is highly sublime and there is hardly a place where its seriousness is halted. This is, in other words, a book on journey, both on physical and spiritual planes.

Journey, as far as, I have understood him and his message, is indelibly the common theme he inevitably hammers out in his books. He himself is the most mobile person; aged about 90 but no sign of lethargy in him; he talks fluently and vivaciously, and authoritatively too; and his memory is superb. He alludes to Qur’ānic verses very frequently. He has the habit of invigorating the talk with historical quotes and references.

Once I asked him about his infatuation for touring, he instantly stood up from the chair as if I had put my finger on his palpitating pulse, and moved on towards his book-shelf, brought the book, Safarnama-e-Mahboobia, which was recently published from Lahore, placed the book in my hand and asked me to read the first page. I read the book which started with the lines on the first page:

“Travelling or roaming around the world – the nature is innate in man from the very start. Everything of the universe – be it’s the moon or a planet is in motion. Movement is the symptom of life. A moment’s stillness may stop the whole system. Same is the case with the human heart. A moment’s lapse may lay man asleep in the lap of mortality never to wake up again.”

What I read in his book, was itself his reply to my question, more detailed, more convincing than he would himself give. And what I find in his writing, I find them followed in his life – hardly there is a month that he doesn’t go abroad. He keeps on travelling. Hardly there is a moment that he is sitting idle. He keeps on writing or doing some work. Dubai based Abu Alla Imteyaz Seen Muslim is a man of thought and vision ever asserting them to transmute into action.