Faiz Ahmad Faiz Introduction
Faiz Ahmad Faiz MBE NI, a poet, and writer of Urdu and Punjabi literature from Pakistan, lived from 13 February 1911 to 20 November 1984. Faiz was one of the most renowned, well-liked, and significant Urdu writers of his time, and his writings and concepts continue to have a significant impact in Pakistan and beyond. He has been referred to be “a man of wide experience” outside of writing due to his work as a teacher, army officer, journalist, trade unionist, and broadcaster.
Early Life
On February 13, 1911, in Kala Qader (now Faiz Nagar), Sialkot District, Punjab, British India, Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born into a Jat family. Faiz came from a renowned academic family in the literary world. Local poets and authors frequently gathered at his house to support the literacy drive in his home region. Sultan Muhammad Khan, the father of Faiz, was a well-known lawyer who served the British government. An autodidact, he also penned and published the history of Amir Abdur Rahman, an emir of Imperial Afghanistan. The peasant whose family immigrated to British India from Afghanistan was Khan’s father. Khan was a shepherd when he was younger, but he eventually was able to study law at Cambridge University.
Education
Following the South Asian Muslim tradition, Faiz’s family directed him to study Islamic studies at the local mosque to be oriented to the basics of religious studies by Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Ibrahim Mir Sialkoti, an Ahl-i Hadith scholar. Faiz studied in the intermediate program at Murray College in Sialkot in the 11th and 12th grades. Faiz enrolled at the Languages and Fine Arts Department of the Government College, Lahore, in 1926.
Marriage
Alys Faiz, a British citizen and Communist Party of the United Kingdom member was a student at the Government College University in 1941 when Faiz started teaching poetry there. They became close friends. The nikah ceremony was held in Pari Maha, while the wedding occurred in Srinagar.
Career
In 1935, Faiz became a lecturer in English and British literature at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Amritsar. After accepting the position at the Hailey College of Business and beginning to teach basic economics and business courses there, Faiz later went to Lahore to rejoin his family.
Faiz received his commission as a second lieutenant in the 18th Royal Garhwal Rifles on May 11, 1942, in the British Indian Army.Faiz was initially assigned to the General Staff Branch as a public relations officer. Over the course of a short period of time, he was swiftly promoted to acting captain on 18 July 1942, war-substantive lieutenant and temporary captain on 1 November 1942, acting major on 19 November 1943, and temporary major and war-substantive captain on 19 February 1944. His desk assignment as an assistant director of public relations on the staff of the North-Western Army, with the local rank of lieutenant colonel, came on December 30, 1944. In 1945, he received the honorary title of Member of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division (MBE) in recognition of his service.
Return to Pakistan
Faiz ultimately made his way back to his native Pakistan in 1964, when he settled down in Karachi and was named the college’s rector. From 1959 to 1962, he was the Pakistan Arts Council’s secretary; the following year, he was named the organization’s vice president. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a prominent democratic socialist who served as foreign minister under the administration of Ayub Khan, first introduced Faiz to power in 1965.
When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto hired Faiz as a cultural consultant for the Ministries of Culture (MoCul) and Education (MoEd) in 1972, Bhutto brought him back to Pakistan. Faiz remained a government employee under Bhutto’s leadership until 1974 when he decided to resign.
Death
Shortly after being named a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984, Faiz passed away in Lahore, Punjab, following complications of lung and heart sickness.
The Soviet Union gave Faiz the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962 and nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first Asian poet to receive such an honor. In 1990, the Pakistani government gave him the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the country’s highest civil honor, as a posthumous tribute.
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