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Altaf Hussain Haali

Maulana Khawaja Altaf Hussain Hali was an influential 19th century Urdu poet and scholar from India who played a key role in Islamic revivalism and social reform among South Asian Muslims. He wrote moving poetry and prose that criticized the decaying state of Muslim society and called for reforms in education, women's rights, and a revival of Islamic spirituality. Through his writings, he helped spark a cultural and intellectual awakening among Indian Muslims during a time of crisis following the 1857 rebellion against British rule. Hali is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Urdu literature and his works remain widely taught today.

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382 views

Altaf Hussain Haali

Maulana Khawaja Altaf Hussain Hali was an influential 19th century Urdu poet and scholar from India who played a key role in Islamic revivalism and social reform among South Asian Muslims. He wrote moving poetry and prose that criticized the decaying state of Muslim society and called for reforms in education, women's rights, and a revival of Islamic spirituality. Through his writings, he helped spark a cultural and intellectual awakening among Indian Muslims during a time of crisis following the 1857 rebellion against British rule. Hali is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Urdu literature and his works remain widely taught today.

Uploaded by

Syed Paras
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Maulana Khawaja Altaf Hussain Hali (1837-1914) was an Urdu poet, and the

last pupil of Mirza Ghalib. He is also one of the most well-regarded biographers
of Ghalib's life, and a commentator of his poetry. He also wrote the biography
of the Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College
(MAO) which later on became Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1920. To Hali
also goes the credit of being the first to introduce the genre of biography in
Urdu and all in total he authored three biographies, Heyat-e-Saadi, life of great
Persian scholar, Shaikh Saadi, Heyat-e-Javed, life of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan,
founder of AMU Aligarh, and his famous Yadgar-e-Ghalib. Hali also wrote one
of the earliest works of literary criticism in Urdu ''"Muqaddamah-i Shi'r-o-
Sha'iri".''

Khwaja Altaf Hussain Hali, one of the greatest social reformers of India was
born in Panipat in 1837, Altaf Hussain was educated in the same city and later
went to Delhi where he wished to gain further education in the Indo-Islamic
poetic tradition. It was here he chose the cognomen of "Khastah" (The Spent
One, or The Tired One). He was forced to return home, and pursued a
government job until displaced by the Mutiny of 1857. After this turning point
in his life, he drifted from job to job for several years, arriving eventually in
Lahore in the mid 1870s, where he began to compose his epic poem on the
request of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the Musaddas e-Madd o-Jazr e-Islam (An
elegaic poem on the Ebb and Tide of Islam) under the new poetic pseudonym
of "Hali" (The Contemporary). The Musaddas, or Musaddas-e-Hali, as it is often
known, was published in 1879 to critical acclaim, and considered to herald the
modern age of Urdu poetry. On request of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan he wrote the
famous Mussadas that was published in 1879. Halis' Mussadas was about the
rise and fall of the Muslims. Hali reviled “the rich for their selfishness, the
aristocracy for their degeneracy, religious leaders for their bigoted ignorance,
poets for their foolish triviality.” Mussadas took Muslim India by storm. Its
extracts are still being taught in Muslim schools and recited in religious and
educational functions. It created a wide spread awakening amongst the
Muslims of India. Apart from his poetic achievements, Hali was a pioneer in
Urdu literature. Hali was the first major poet to put forward “the theory that
literature should be harnessed into the service of the community, and made to
advance the cause of social welfare and betterment.” His poems brought back
to life the society of their time far better than any scholarly construction could.
Altaf Hussain Hali, until his death in 1914, served the Aligarh movement with
considerable dedication, validating Sir Syed Ahmad's call for change among
Muslims. Like Sir Syed Ahmad, Hali found the existing Muslim society to be
decadent and static, but he arrived at that view not by comparing it with the
modern western civilization, but with the history of Islam. Indeed, by
presenting Islam as a modern religion, in accord with science and rationalism.
Hali was for a new start in politics and society as much as in literature. He
believed in the irreversible movement of modern civilisation, arguing that only
by contact with the West could life and vigour flow back into India. His simple
and deeply moving poetry inspired millions and awakened a decadent people
to revive their lost glory and look to the future with renewed hope.

Hali’s construction of Islam, his understanding of himself as a Muslim, and as an


Indian living in British India, are crucial in tracing the historical development of
Islam in South Asia. He shared a political heritage and language, which helped
reconstruct Muslim identity in the 19th century. Hali came into prominence
during one of the darkest hours of Indian Muslim history. The Muslims had
taken lead in India's first war of independence against the British in 1857, and
after losing the war had to face the brunt of the victor's revenge. Muslim
mutineers and their supporters were murdered in the thousands by the British
and a policy of systematic discrimination was instituted against the Muslims.
Hali used his pen to bring about social and educational reforms among
Muslims. He heralded a new movement in Urdu prose and poetry free from
jargon and verbiage. He wrote the famous "Musaddas-e-Hali", a narrative on
the rise and fall of Muslims that was published in 1879. Hali reviled "the rich for
their selfishness, the aristocracy for their degeneracy, religious leaders for their
bigoted ignorance, and poets for their foolish triviality."
Extracts from Musaddas are still being taught to Indian Muslims in schools and
in religious and educational functions. Hali blazed a new trail and used the
poetic genre of the long Urdu nazm as an instrument of social and moral
reform. Maulana Hali's ghazals reflect his command over the form of poetry
but later on in life, he focused more on nazm as a means of expression. Hali
also used the nazm for interpreting the beauties of nature, a theme that was
more or less neglected, or treated marginally by the poets of classical ghazal. In
his prose treatise, "Muqaddam-e-Shair-o-Shairi", one of the earliest texts in
Urdu literary criticism, Hali underscored the limitations of the classical ghazal
and pointed out the hollowness of its hackneyed themes, thus putting the
nazm on a surer path of progress. The ghazal has been primarily used as an
instrument of aesthetic and intellectual pleasure, and a source of courtly
entertainment, while a nazm combines pleasure with purpose, in service of
society. It is a more earthbound form of poetry, with a moral and a message.
His patriotic nazm like Hubbe Watan went a long way in fostering Hindu-
Muslim unity that was being undermined by the British. In his novel, Majalis-un
Nisan (Assemblies of Women), Hali, emphasizes the need of educating women.
The heroine, Zubaida Khatun, is taught the Qur'an, Arabic, Persian and Urdu as
well as mathematics, geography and history by her father. This was at a time,
when studying "British" subjects such as geography and mathematics was a
taboo even for Indian Muslim men.

Hali passed away on 30th September 1914 in Panipat, but the movement for
reformation and renaissance he helped start continues to this day.

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