What made this scenario worse were his personal tragedies including his failed love affair; this mix, reflected all through his poetry, made him the greatest Urdu poet - a fact acknowledged even by the great Mirza Ghalib. Mir too knew his place in Urdu poetry, and had very rightly forecast his lasting status as a poet par excellence when he composed the following couplets:
-- Janey ka nahien shor sukhan ka mere hargiz
-- Ta hashr jahan mein mera dewan rahe ga
-- Bulbul ghazal sarayee aagay humarey mut kar
-- Sub hum se seekhthay hain andaz guftagoo ka
By descent, Mir was an Arab whose family migrated to India from Hejaz (now Saudi Arabia) and settled down, at first, in Akbar Abad and then Agra. Mir's father was a Sufi saint respected by everyone; after his death, at a very young age (11 years), Mir had to shift to Delhi, but after Nadir Shah's invasion and rampaging of Delhi, he had to come back to Agra. However, not long thereafter, he had to move back to Delhi to explore the prospects of earning a living. During that period, he stayed with his maternal uncle Sirajuddin Ali Khan Arzoo, which turned into a tragedy because Mir fell in love with his uncle's daughter, but never disclosed it to anyone - a secret he kept to himself until the end of his life. This tragedy turned Mir into a lunatic.
Several historians have written about this long tragedy that led to Mir being put in chains for days at a stretch to prevent him hurting himself. Although Mir gradually overcame his lunacy (the after effect of his failed love affair), that experience gave him a mindset that made him the master describer of love and the insurmountable and ever-lasting pain it inflicts.
His following couplets portray his pain as well as the fate he suffered:
-- Dikhaai diye yun ke bekhud kiya
-- Hamein aap se bhi juda kar chale
-- Bohat aarzoo thi gali ki teri
-- To yan se lahoo mein naha kar chalay
Mir's command over language, his choice of intricate but highly expressive terminology, and composing it with absolutely amazing expertise, makes him the Shahenshah-e-Taghazzul. It is impossible to pay him the tribute he deserves in this brief script; all the author can do is to quote a few examples of Mir's mastery over language, and its use in expressing the most intricate and delicate of human feelings. Take, for instance, the following two couplets that reflect the epitome of composition; they are enough to prove Mir's supremacy as a poet:
-- Hasrat-e-wasl-o-gham-e-hijr-o-khayal-e-rukh-e-dost
-- Mar gaya mein par mere saath raha keya keya kuch
-- Dard-e-dil, zakhm-e-jigar, kulfat-e-gham, dagh-e-firaq
-- Aah alam se merey sath chala keya keya kuch
Despite the passage of two centuries after Mir's demise, he remains the poet whose poetry is admired for its unparalled beauty and power of expression. Mirza Ghalib and his close friend and contemporary Imam Buksh Nasikh - another remarkable poet of that era - were convinced, as were all others that Mir was the god of Urdu poetry, and Ghalib unambiguously recognised and saluted the absolute superiority of Mir's poetry when he composed the following remarkable couplets in praise of Mir:
-- Apna to hai yeh aqeeda ke ba-qaul-e-Nasikh
-- Aap bebehra hai to motaqid-e-Mir nahien
-- Reekhtay ke tum he ustad nahien ho Ghalib
-- Kehtay hain agley zamaney mein koi Mir bhi tha
Mir's poetry remains unparalled in its uniqueness because of the way it describes the virtually un-describable human feelings; his mastery in doing so touches the heart of every reader. It is this uniqueness that poets consider the epitome of expression, and for over two centuries, have been trying to scale its height because this effort and the level of success they achieve in coming closer to Mir is the yardstick they measures themselves on. An example of how Mir truly deserves this exalted status is proved by the absolute beauty of expression reflected in his following couplets:
-- Gul dekh kar chaman mein, tujh ko khila hee jaye
-- Yani harza jee se qurban ho raha hai
-- Dil woh nagar nahien ke phir aabad ho sakey
-- Puchtaogay, suno ho? yeh basti ujar kar
-- Deedani hai shakistgi dil ki
-- Kya imaarat ghamon ne dhaai hai
The fact that Mir and his poetry remain favourite subjects of authors and critics proves what a wealth of wisdom Mir has left behind as his legacy - one that imbibes civilised values, no matter how strong the resistance thereto, and epitomises love and the unique pleasure of making sacrifices for the beloved. Mir was a practising Muslim according to his family's Sufi traditions, but in spreading this thinking far and wide, and the fact that values can't be labelled as religious, sectarian or ethnic, Mir wasn't bothered about how the conservatives belittled him. Obviously, the extremely difficult circumstance that he lived through all his life, courtesy the gradual collapse of the Mogul empire, led him to compose some couplets, which portray the pervasive state of helplessness, though it defies the religious philosophy.
Mir was also a class by himself when it came to writing prose; his masterpieces include Tazkara-e-Nukat-ush-Shuara, and Zikr-e-Mir. While Tazkara-e-Nukat-ush-Shuara deals purely with poetic issues, Zikr-e-Mir is a unique autobiography because it is no less a book of history that very vividly describes the chaos that portrayed India of the 18th century. This chaos, which was the outcome of prolonged power-intoxication of the Mogul rulers and eventually led to British colonisation of India, forced Mir (much against his desire) to settle down in Lucknow. The following couplets portray his perception of that chaos and its consequences:
-- Jis sar ko ghuroor aaj hai yan tajwari ka
-- Kal ispe yahein shor hai phir nauhagari ka
Chor uchakkay, Sikh, marhatay, shah-o-gada zar khuwahan hain
Chain mein hain jo kuch nahien rakhtay, fuqur hi ek daulat hai ub
Mein woh ronay wala, jahan se chala houn
Jisay abr her saal rota rahega
In many ways, Mir followed the Sufi philosophy, the tradition of his family, which is often reflected in his poetry - another aspect of his poetry that places him above the rest in spite of his frequent ridicule of the 'Zahid', that symbolise the class that practices faith without including therein humane feelings and conduct as the top priority, as mandated by Creator and practiced by His prophets and their committed followers. In the following couplets, Mir defines change as the ever-lasting reality of the universe in the true Sufi style - a pointer to the will of its Creator - and also inequality as the harsh but lasting reality of this world:
-- Lay saans bhi aahista ke nazuk hai bahut kaam
-- Aafaq ki is kargahe-e-shishagari ka
-- Faqeerana aaye sada kar chaley
-- Miyan khush raho hum dua kar chalay
-- Yan ke sapayed-o-siyah mein hum ko dakhl jo hai so itna hai
-- Raat ko ro ro subha kiya aur din ko joun toun sham kiya
No human is blessed with perfection; Mir was no exception to this rule. It is unfortunate that some of his critics spent too much of their energies on accusing him of hiding the details of his unsuccessful love affair, which Mir did not write about in his biography Zikr-e-Mir. Surely, his reason for doing so was to avoid any scars on his beloved, proving his sincerity for his beloved. For, what should matter more is to learn how words can be used to compose mesmerizingly expressive poetry that impacts the hearts and minds of the masses.
Human race is rapidly drifting into a state of animalism that is symbolised by greed and defiance of basic human values - consideration, compassion, equality, and secularism that doesn't interfere in the way with the way an individual chooses to connect himself with the Creator. The greatest contribution intellectuals make to human thinking, and thus human conduct, is to accept these civilised values. Mir's poetry calls for appreciating and genuinely practising these very human values; that's what makes him the "Shahenshah-e-Taghazzul". It proves that the Creator rewards those who do His bidding.