Wasif Ali Wasif

Wasif Ali Wasif is a writer, poet and Sufi intellectual from Pakistan. He is famous for his unique literary style. He used to write short pieces of prose on topics like love, life, fortune, fear, hope, expectation, promise, prayer, happiness, sorrow and so on. He did poetry in Urdu and Punjabi languages. Probably no contemporary Urdu writer is more cited in quotations than he is. Later years he used to answer questions in specially arranged gatherings at Lahore attended by the notable community. Some of these sessions were recorded in audio and were later published as Guftagoo (talk) series. His mehfils never had a set subject nor did he lecture on chosen topics. His way was to ask people if they had questions and then he responded to these in his highly original style. His thought was more on mysticism, spirituality and humanity. There are about 40 books to his credit including “Shab Chiragh”, “Kiran Kiran Sooraj”, and “Dil Darya Samandar”. It is self-evident that his books as well as recordings of talks are a treasure trove of wisdom.

As a Writer

Wasif Ali Wasif was given much to silence. He spent most part of the day in silent tranquility, but when he spoke there was nothing that was not quotable. His written and spoken words are quotable for their content as well as their construction. Master of aphorism, he has the miraculous ability to capture a rainbow of meaning in a few dewdrops of well chosen words. His newspaper writings secured him a permanent place in the gallery of stylist prose writers. Though his main claim to fame is his writings, a select circle knows that he was an equally great conversationalist. Ashfaq Ahmed, the conversationalist par excellence of our time has said, The sentences we concoct are our piece of craft, Wasif’s lines came from somewhere else. His prose is simpler, using figures of speech less frequently and thus sounds more natural but it has distinctive qualities of fine poetry. Renowned politician and connoisseur of art and literature, Hanif Ramay is of the view Wasif’s prose influences readers in the same manner as the poetry of Iqbal. Another interesting aspect of his literary masterpieces is that these originally appeared as columns in an Urdu daily defying the strongly held belief that journalism cannot produce pure literature which can have a long life. Siraj Muneer, a well-read scholar and critic, has written, We took them as columns but they were another aalam (world). A discussion of his peculiar style would be incomplete without mentioning that all his writings have a lot between the lines too. He believed that a thought can never be expressed fully in words, a reader should be alive to this fact and should try comprehending the portion that was impossible to be carried in words. The leading critic and scholar Professor Gilani Kamran comments on his book ‘Dil Darya Samundar’ that Wasif Ali Wasif’s collection of essays has a pleasant rhythm of an emotionally sustained prose. The sentence moves with grace and the words have the ring of sensation. These features are only rarely found in modern Urdu prose. But whether or not one succeeds in discovering himself, or in entering the field of a higher experience, the rhythm of Wasif’s prose certainly compensates for any loss of achievement. With this one book, it can be said with some assurance, our culture is seen to be moving out of a closed world and entering an age of self discovery where a single individual becomes the object of new orientation and also the locus of a new destiny.”

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