Life and death in Zahawi s poems

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International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences 2015 Available online at www.irjabs.

1 International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences 2015 Available online at ISSN X / Vol, 9 (5): Science Explorer Publications Life and death in Zahawi s poems *Dr. Mohammad Shayegan, Ramazan Mohammadi Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Kashmar branch, Islamic Azad University, Kashmar, Iran ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the Islamic thoughts and theories about life and death by referring to valid references and poems of Muslim poets such as Zahawi. Zahawi is a personality who had very deep Islamic knowledge and extensive information about modern sciences and philosophy and as a theorist poet, found a valuable position in contemporary literature history. In this paper, his most important poems about life and death are reviewed. He is one of the poets who was not afraid of death and hence stood against oppression of governors. He didn t sacrifice national interests for personal ones; instead, he was always stable in protecting nations right. He considered death as a wolf and human as a sheep which is surrendered in front of it. Keywords: Iraq contemporary poem, Zahawi, life and death INTRODUCTION Life is the incident of human and existence. Therefore, everyone deserves the life. This is one of the elementary rights of life. For this, I can be easily said that life is the pinnacle of a triangle one of whose sides is human; the other one is existence and the last one is death. In this regard, life can be considered as the resultant of human and existence; that is, each person lives in his existence (Jafari, 2003, 1). We mean by world the luggage of other world; that is, human is created simple and incomplete at the first, then, it is better for him to achieve perfection and kingdom manifests in his soul and spirit so that he can be qualified for god (Ghazali Tousi, 1975, 71). Quran says that: life is nothing but a pride commodity. It means that man must always take care of being deviated from god by real beauty that is god (Ghazali Tousi, 1966, 95). In speech 111 of Nahj-al-balagheh, Imam Ali says about world affection: after admiring my god, I warn you about a taboo world since it is favorable, sweet and colorful in your eyes. It is embedded in lusty passions and is in love with temporary gifts. It shows off with a little commodity and represents itself in the cloth of dreams. Its happiness doesn t last and no one is immune of its sadness. He says about recognizing the identity of the world: taboo world is so tricky and damaging, changing and unstable and a criminal deadly. According to such Islamic theories, Zahawi has written as well (Badawi, 1990, 126). Zahawi always tried to prove in his poems that life should not be wasted and he never denied death. Death is analogized to what in Zahawi poems? Is the death a natural and divine issue in Zahawi s opinion? Which factors ensure the happiness after death? Zahawi was contemporary of many Iranian poets such as Malek-al-Shoara and Parvin Etesami and he respected greatly Bahar, Iranian poet. He loved Ferdowsi too much so that a year before death, he came to Iran and attended a celebration for the 1000 th anniversary of Ferdowsi s death in hall of Dar-al-fonoun and recited poems which were in Persian (Heyrat Sajjadi, 1996, 198). Analysis Zahawi s origin is from Iran and Kurdish cities. He was born in 1863 in Iraq. His father was the great Mufti of Iraq, Mullah Mohammad Feiz Zahawi and from famous tribe of Baban. He learned old sciences from his father and other scholars of Baghdad and modern sciences through studying Arabic and Turkish books and using expert teachers. He started poet from Farsi and then Arabic. In Iraq, Egypt, Beirut, Syria and Turkey magazines and journals, a lot of his ballades and article of him were published (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, vol. 2, 219). When he was 30, he married to a woman named Zakyeh from a noble family of Turkey who was his best friend in elderly ages but they had no child. Jamil traveled to various countries and after a while, he moved to Istanbul and became a member of reform community. Then, he went to Yemen and became and advisor (same, 219). Zahawi spent his life

2 in confrontation and conflict and always suffered from his nation s problems. He was so adventurous and in any opportunity, he met people and noted the corruptions of the regime and said about himself: during childhood, I was called mad because my abnormal movements, in youth, reckless, in elderly, brave and in after that an atheist since I revealed my philosophic though clearly (same, 220). He has a lot of prose and poems including Aemal Alshryh Alkamelah, Aljazbyah, analyzes, Almajmal memma Ara, Aldma subscription, Alflsfh fi Shay, pass MetaPhysic Valflkyh Alam and al-zawahiri, Alklm Almnzvm, Alshzrat, the Arabic translation of Rubaiyat, Nazaat alshaytan, Allabab and poem collection (Badi Yaghoub, 2004, 274). Everyone can find his personality through reading his poems since his poem is an illustration of his internal emotions and tendencies (Alfakhuri, 1999, 738). Alzahawi is the first to defend women rights and stayed against tyranny (Badi Yaghoub, 2004, vol. 2, 274). Everyone who reads his poems will discover his personality since Zahawi s poetry is an illustration of his internal excitements and tendencies (Alfakhouri, 1999, 738). He was the first one who defended women s rights and stood against tyranny (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, vol. 2, 219). There is no research performed about Zahawi s opinion about death anf life. However, there are articles published in this field such as Zahawi and Persian literature by Mohseni Nia (2010) and Woman in Zahawi s poems by Niazi and Jahangir Esfahani (2007) and majority of works performed about his works are about woman from Zahawi s point of view since he became famous with an article he wrote about women. Life from Zahawi s point of view He illustrated his thoughts and beliefs about life and death as poem in an attractive way. He believes that in daily life, human must use his best efforts to live comfortably since living in comfort is not comparable to living in sadness and calamity and the purpose of human from effort is to achieve leisure and comfort. Live comfortably, Live comfortably Don t compare it to sad life (Zahawi, 1979, 95) He believes that problems and difficulties which get man away from goals must be disregarded since they are like dark clouds which overshadow the human soul and make the heart dark. Therefore, how much happiness comes to someone s heart, it will clean sadness from his soul and make him more hopeful in life. Live free from sadness Get them away from yourself Live in complete happiness As soon as they approach you (Zahawi, 1979, 95) If the life is accompanied with freedom and humanistic values, it is a gift which no one wants its elimination. That is, if the society is accompanied with humanistic values, living in it will please its members. If the life is full of freedom It is a gift no one wants its elimination (Zahawi, 1979, 345) He adds that life joy is to hope god satisfaction since real joy is in approaching him and here, real and virtual joy both lead to happiness and guidance of human: Life and seek joy Since it is your guidance (Zahawi, 1979, 95) He says that life is accompanied with happiness and difficulty and there are lots of cries and laughter for human and everyone who has a living heart, his heart will have less space for frustration and hope will have more space. In this way, hope will return to human: Life is both happiness and sadness In accompany as well as cry and laughter In every heart which has less space for fruatration Hope will have more space (Zahawi, 1979, 71) During life, human must attempt to be inventor; that is, he must use his brain in solving problems instead of waiting for someone to get works done. He must know that comfort is accompanied with labor and god has not sent it from sky. Be inventor for it Not an imitator (Zahawi, 1979, 95) Using every opportunity He states that since man doesn t know that when death gets him, he must act in such a way that he can be ready for dying all the time: And you don t know that when Death gets you (Zahawi, 1979, 96) 782

3 Man must appreciate every moment of his life, consider them as gift of god and bow in front of god: Appreciate every joy Given by world to you (Zahawi, 1979, 96) Life is not blamable except by those who didn t see any blessing from it and didn t taste its flavor: No one blames life except Those having nothing from its joys (Zahawi, 1979, 350) Confronting oppression in life He considers accepting oppression disagreeable by every nation and notes that it is equivalent to abjection except for those who reject it and don t surrender to abjection: A nation remains alive if it resists And it will die if it surrenders (Zahawi, 1979, 251) Zahawi was one of the poets who were not afraid of dying. Therefore, he stood against tyranny of governors while he had a great position so that after Malek Feysal s takeover, he could not achieve his goals. Hence, he was so regretful about his position in the regime of Turks and always said that where is my glory and greatness in Turks government? I am crying for what I ve given up. I was happy in my life yesterday while I complain today. Where is my glory in Turks government? I am crying for its losing Yesterday I was satisfied of my life And now I complain about my life (Zahawi, 1979, 319) Anway, Zahawi didn t sacrifice national interests for personal ones. Instead, h persisted for defending rights of the nation. Death and judgment in Zahawi s viewpoint Although discussing death demands a type of philosophy and talking about it requires a philosophic knowledge, according to evidences, Zahawi was a philosopher poet so that after announcing constitution, he went again to Istanbul and was appointed as the master of philosophy and Arabic literature in Astana University. Therefore, he is a great and valuable thinker and philosopher and he has contradicting theories and statements about life and death, creation problem and lots of scientific issues (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, 220). In every opportunity, he visited people and talked about corruptions of the regime. He said about himself: during childhood, I was called mad because my abnormal movements, in youth, reckless, in elderly, brave and in after that an atheist since I revealed my philosophic though clearly (Mardukh Rouhani, 221). In following lines, he called senses for judgment and rejected everything without thinking and referring to healthy morale: The corpse won t complain About his tights tomb And ask him whether after resurrection We will be alive and speak (Zahawi, 1979, 221) Death, a divine determinism He believes that death is the reason of separating young and old people; that is, death separates them from each other. Young is regretful for the old one who has died and the old person is regretful for not spending time with his young and didn t enjoy life. Young people cry for old people Who are in tombs And old people cry for those young people Who lived short and died (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, 69) Zahawi s poetry is an illustration of internal emotions and tendencies. He was a person who thought and researched and as a result of exaggeration in this regard, became pessimist about his contemporary people (Alfakhouri, 1999, 738). The death is the tradition of god which gets all the people and no one can escape it. Therefore, we must obey it since it has no change or revolution: And the death has no escapade It is the tradition of god which cannot be changed (Zahawi, 1979, 179) In the way of dying, man experiences a lot of events which surprise him because death can get the human in many ways. Death is the departure of human from materialistic ornaments. However, man neglects them: 783

4 There is no escapade In the way of dying Separating the human From the world (Zahawi, 1979, 273) He considers death as a wolf and the human as a sheep which is surrendered to it and believes that death is a comparison which allows no complaint. But it is a reality. And the death is a wolf And we are like sheep And the death is not a comparison which can be complained (Zahawi, 1979, 298) Death is a divine gift He emphasizes that death is a gift by which man can be far from life dishonors; that is, during life, some dishonors are encountered by human and the only way for escaping from them is death since freemen see nothing but an ugly face from the life and this world is only a passage: And the death is better than living And the freeman sees only the bad face (Zahawi, 1979, 273) Death is a gift which wall not cause sadness and pain if it is understood well. Since sometimes human will be painful from his beloveds death: And by the death, human will be gifted And there are worse issues (Zahawi, 1979, 273) Another issues is that all of our ancestors are died and we accept the fact that they were a group which were in conflict about death like us; that is, some of them agreed it and some did not. Ancestors died in fact But descendants live (Zahawi, 1979, 298) In his philosophic viewpoint, he asks human that whether he knows his first and last house and considers world as his palace and the last house for him is tomb which is a dark and tight place: In earlier days, your house is palace And in later days, your house is tomb (Zahawi, 1979, 69) He notes worshipping and prayer before death as a way for happiness after death and hopes that the happiness after death can be revealed for him so that he can see that happiness since observing the result of good actions will persuade human toward doing good: They announced me about happiness after death For my prayer before death I hope I could see in my life Whatever I have been announced for after death (Zahawi, 1979, 76) Death is the sweetest way for escaping life bitters. Thou death you are sweet come to me Cause the life is full of bitters (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, 47) If the human accepts, death will bring him to the place of testing, so that he can see whatever he has done there. However, for those who didn t expect it, tomb will have nothing but darkness: Death will get us to the place of testing And it is the tomb of nobles (Zahawi, 1979, 298) Death, the reason of mortality and eternity If the life ends, wishes will be ended with it since human has some wishes which cannot be achieved and by the end of death, these wishes will remain like a heavy load on his back. Therefore, if a nation wants to achieve perfection, it will be possible through effort and labor and no change, force or revolution is necessary: If the life ends Wishes will remain heavily And if a nation wants Growth will need no revolution (Zahawi, 1979, 350) Zahawi has a lot in common with our constitution poets such as Bahar, Adib0-al-Mamalek and Parvin Etesami. In his beliefs about life, he states that someone who tried in his life and provided innovations serving nation, his name will remain for several centuries since such person could keep his and people s name alive and he will not die for his nation and his memory will remain alive in hearts. Someone who lives with his works won t die 784

5 And with his artefacts Someone who is valued by history after centuries won t die as well (Zahawi, 1979, 350) Poet of the movement era recited these poems when situations of Islamic states specially Arabic ones was changed as a result of three main devastating factors; i.e. crusaders, Mongolian attacks and Teimur wars and science and art was declined (Tarjani Zadeh, 275). Human life is accompanied with problems and calamities and human will never let him surrender since he believes that problems make him experienced and failure is the bridge to victory. By such belief, he will never surrender except if he wants to escape problems and for him the best option is death: Life is full of problems But death is one time (Zahawi, 1979, 515) Zahawi in his poems studied the problems and laws of nature and human and in his thoughts; he was always surrounded by doubt and uncertainty and could not have a constant view toward life and moved toward left and right so that he wrote a poem entitled doubt won t guide which was published before his death in Alresalat magazine (Zeif Shoughi, 1993, 72). Other analogies of death He believes that death for human is nothing but moving to another place and is in fact transferring from a life full of trouble to a predetermined dealing: Death is nothing but moving And life is coming descendants after ancestors (Zahawi, 1979, 298) Scape from death is impossible and everyone should surrender to it since everything dies and end except death which will remain all the times and in all of the places. Thou death we can t escape from you We are all mortal and you persist (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, 311) The last stage of the life is death. It means that the last share of the life is death since it ends life and in other words, it is the last stage. One can use every opportunity well: Thou death you are the last share Before life ends (Mardukh Rouhani, 2003, 311) Death is like a wolf which steals all the people one by one and separates them from each other. Like a wolf which attacks a herd, it separates sheep from each other. Thou death you steal like a wolf One by one of my friends (Zahawi, 1979, 311) And believes that death turns off everything which illuminates life and after it darkness comes and those who are died are like asleep people which are away from every movement. Death turns off everything which illuminates life And after that darkness comes For those who go to toms is sleep That ends all movements (Zahawi, 1979, 71) He believes that one must leave all gardens and palaces and is forced to stay in tomb. After gardens and palaces One must reside in tomb (Zahawi, 1979, 3) Somewhere he states that I am asked about the end of existence. They ask someone who knows nothing about it. Know that existence is like a circle whose end is its start as well. It means that life has no star or end. From everywhere it starts, it will be its end as well and following lines are a type of philosophy which includes life and death as well: You ask me about the end of existence I know nothing Know that its start Is its end as well (Zahawi, 1979, 233) CONCLUSION Zahawi is one of the poets who stood against governors and was threatened to death several times. However, the important issue is that both he and Islamic Sharia believe that life is the flowing water from which life originates and existence flows in it. As much as human is wonderful and as much as existence is floating in myths, greatness and latency, life is full of unknown and untold elements. The issue that in each period, vision 785

6 toward life is reviewed by scientists, philosophers, artists and thinkers, is a natural matter and has roots in life nature. Sometimes, Zahawi considered death as a divine tradition against which one has no way but surrender and sometimes like a wolf which attacks humans suddenly and kills him. for this, we noted that Zahawi was a poet who was always surrounded by doubt and uncertainty and had no independent idea. The purpose of Zahawi from life and death is that there are problems and sadness in life which causes human fails to achieve his goals. They must be disregarded since they are like dark clouds which overshadow the human s heart and make it dark. He adds that joy of life is being hopeful in god s satisfaction. One must attempt in his life as if he is an inventor and believes that life originates from nature and return is to it as well. The verse implies to the creation of human from soil and his return to it. In his opinion, death is the factor of separating youth and elderlies. It is a divine tradition which gets everyone and no one can escape it. Therefore, all must surrender to it. He emphasizes that death is a blessing by which one can get far from life dishonors. Life is a gift which if it is understood well, won t lead to one s grief and sadness since death of beloved people makes someone injured. REFERENCES Alfakhouri H Arabic literature history, trans. by Ayati, A., Tehran, Tous pub. Badavi M a collection of contemporary Arabic poems, trans. by Yousefi, G., Tehran pub., Esparak, 1 st ed. Ghazali Tousi E Kimiaye Saadat, 1 st ed., Tehran Heyrat Sajjadi A Kurdish speaking poets, ehsan pub., 1 st ed. Jafari M life philosophy and purpose, Tehran, Allameh Jafari pub. Mardukh Rouhani B Kurd celebrities, Soroush, broadcasting pub. Quran Osman Taha trans. by Elahi Qomshei, shabestan Danesh pub. Razi S Nahj-al-balagheh, trans. by Dashti, M., Qom, Besat pub. Sedghi Zahawi J Beirut, Alawshal Sedghi Zahawi J Divan Dar-al-Audeh, Beirut, 2 nd ed. Sedghi Zahawi J description of Antavan al Ghoul, Beirut, Dar-al-fekr Arabi Shafiei Kadkani M Arab contemporary poetry, Sokhan pub. Tarjani Zadeh A. Arab literature history, Tabriz IA university pub. Zeif Shoughi Derasat fi Sher al Arabi al Moaser (Poems in contemporary Arabic poetry), Cairo, Dar-al-maaref 786

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a. Explain the difference between an ethnic group and a religious group. Ethnic vs. Religious Group Station An ethnic group is a group of people who share cultural ideas and beliefs that have been a part