SABEEH Rahmani seemed a bit disappointed and perturbed at the Karachi Arts Council`s recently held International Urdu Conference and he had reasons to be so.

He was speaking during the session on naar and expressed his displeasure in overt terms that when naat poets and other scholars working on naar had such luminaries as Intizar Hussain, Kishwer Naheed and some others from India and Pakistan as audience, it was a wonderful opportunity for them to discuss naat as a literary genre purely on a scholarly basis and convince them of their point of view, but they engaged themselves in expressing emotions and excessive religiosity.

As a poet and editor, Sabeeh knows that the authors and even the scholars of Urdu are very fond of using adjectives and their superlative degrees. Repetitive and clichéd verbosity is yet another peculiaritythat ails many writers of Urdu and it was on its height on that day. So his disturbance was justified, but he very sensibly ended it on a positive note and expressed the hope that next year it would be better.

It was the second year in a row when naat took the centre stage at the Arts Council`s literary conference. It shows that the contribution of naat poets and researchers and critics working on naar as a literary genre is finally getting acceptance and recognition.

`About a quarter of a century ago, naar was considered just a religious phenomenon and its literary or aesthetic value was generally not given much importance, writes Mubeen Mirza, the guest editor of the 25th issue of Naat rang, the Karachibased literary magazines specialising on naar and edited by Sabeeh Rahmani.

In his editorial titled `Naat aur Urdu ki she`ari tehzeeb` Mirza sahib stresses that `in the past, in literary and critical discussions though naar did come under review, the trend was barely noticeable. Today,different literary, social, religious and cultural aspects of naar are talked about and naat is considered a literary genre.

This owes much to Sabeeh Rahmani` Sabeeh Rahmani is a well-l
Sabeeh Rahmani launched Naat rang, the centre`s journal, with a view to provide the lovers of literature and naat poetry with a platform to share their views, discuss the related issues and keep everyone informed about the arrival of new works on naat. The first issue cameout in April 1995 and it is still going strong. Naat rang`s 25th issue has been published and it coincides with the Rabiul-Awwal celebrations.

The 25th issue has different sections which, in addition to naars and book reviews, include research and critical papers on the genre of naat. But Dr Moinuddin Ageel`s paper titled `Tehgeeqi-naat: soorat-i-haal aur taqaaze` (the research on naat: present situation and exigencies) deserves some serious attention as it offers some insights and invites the lovers of naat poetry to some introspection. He has raised some serious questions about general research on naat and the research work so far carried out on naat as a genre of Urdu poetry. He says, for example, `a few dissertations written on naat for obtaining a PhD are truly thought-provoking, informative and comprehensive`. Dr Ageel adds that `at least eight theses have been written on Maulana Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi`s naat poetry. We must ask: was the topic sovast and deep that eight different scholars had to research it? And if yes, what was the outcome and what new aspects were discovered each time`? Similarly, according to Dr Ageel, many topics related to naat on which PhDs were awarded were not worth it, either the topic was too narrow or the dissertation was not up to the mark. What he has emphasised is the relevance, importance and utility of research topics and an avoidance of emotionality.

Other scholarly pieces included in Naat rang are by Dr Riaz Majeed, Dr Aziz Ahsan and Dr Afzaal Ahmed Anwer. So Sabeeh Rahmani`s ire on scholars` failure to come up with relevant, unemotional and scholarly papers was quite understandable. He has practically shown in the shape of Naat rang`s new issue what he was looking for: some serious, sterling and scholarly pieces on the great poetry l
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