Ahmad Faraz: Life and Poetry
احمد فراز
Updated
Ahmad Faraz (احمد فراز, 1931–2008) was one of the most widely read Urdu poets of his time, a romantic ghazal poet whose lines passed into everyday speech, and a political poet who paid for his outspokenness with exile.
Life
Faraz was born Syed Ahmad Shah in Kohat, in what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in 1931, and studied Urdu and Persian at Peshawar. He taught at Peshawar University, worked in radio, and later headed the Pakistan Academy of Letters and the National Book Foundation. His criticism of military rule under Zia-ul-Haq led to arrest and years of self-exile abroad. In 2006 he returned the state honour Hilal-e-Imtiaz in protest against the government of the day. He died in Islamabad in August 2008.
Poetry
Faraz wrote in the classical ghazal tradition with a direct, modern voice. His ghazal Ranjish hii sahii, sung by Mehdi Hassan, is among the best-known songs in Urdu, and many of his couplets are quoted as proverbs. His collections include Tanha Tanha, Dard-e-Ashob and Janan Janan. His poems are still under copyright, so we describe rather than quote them here.
Questions and answers
Who wrote Ranjish Hi Sahi?
Ahmad Faraz. The ghazal is best known in the voice of Mehdi Hassan.
When did Ahmad Faraz die?
In August 2008, in Islamabad.
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- What Is a Ghazal? The Urdu Ghazal Explained · How a ghazal is built, what it is about, and who wrote and sang the greatest ones.
- The Great Urdu Poets: From Wali and Mir to Faiz and Faraz · Three centuries of Urdu poetry in one list, with where to read each poet.