Jaun Elia

मैं जो हूँ ‘जौन-एलिया’ हूँ जनाब

इस का बेहद लिहाज़ कीजिएगा

-जौन एलिया

INTRODUCTION

Sayyed Hussain Jaun Asghar Naqvi was a Pakistani poet and philosopher known for his unique style of writing and reciting. He was born on 14 December 1931 in Amroha, India. His father, Shafiq Hasan Elia was a scholar of literature and astronomy and was very skilled in Arabic, English, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit. Under the guidance of his father, Jaun received his early education. He obtained knowledge of philosophy, logic, Islamic history, the Muslim Shia tradition, Muslim religious sciences, Western literature, and Kabbala. He also acquired the degrees of Adeeb Kamil(Urdu), Kamil(Persian) and Fazil(Arabic).

As a communist Jaun was against the Partition. On the creation of Pakistan, he once said, “This was the mischief of boys from Aligarh”. Jaun also wrote in the only published book in his lifetime, ‘Shayad’ “If Pakistan were formed in the name of Islam, then at least the  Communist Party would never have supported its demand”. However, He went to Pakistan in 1957 at the age of 26 with a heavy heart and quoted-

अंजुमन की उदास आंखों से, आंसुओ का पेैयाम कह देना,

मुझको पहुँचाकर लौटने वालो, सबको मेरा सलाम कह देना।

-जॉन एलिया

IMPACT OF LIFE ON POETRY

As the great poets of this era like Dr.Kumar Vishwas and Ali Zaryoun(son of Jaun Elia) say, Jaun Elia is a sad poet. His poetry is full of pain, suffering and confusion. His poetries have a glimpse of the truth, the restrictions and the deep sorrow of life. As he writes-

जो गुज़ारी न जा सकी हम से

हम ने वो ज़िंदगी गुज़ारी है

-जॉन एलिया

मैं भी बहुत अजीब हूँ इतना अजीब हूँ कि बस

ख़ुद को तबाह कर लिया और मलाल भी नहीं

-जॉन एलिया

And many couplets like this of him show that Jaun was very disrupted and disturbed with his life. You can feel the pain and sorrow inside him by reading this Ghazal-

ये ग़म क्या दिल की आदत है? नहीं तो
किसी से कुछ शिकायत है? नहीं तो

-जॉन एलिया

From where did all this Pain and sorrow come? It comes from his first and last love ‘Fareha’. It’s said that Jaun once loved a girl named Fareha from the core of his heart, and that was the first and last time Jaun loved someone. After coming to Karachi Jaun got the news that Fareha died because of TB. Because of this Jaun went into a huge depression and began to destroy himself and got addicted to alcohol and cigarettes.

But soon, he met Zahida Hina and found a new meaning in life. Zahida was a writer too, when Jaun was editing an Urdu magazine ‘Insha’, he met Zahida and fell for her and in 1970 they got married. They had 3 children named ‘Fainaana Farnaam’, ‘Sohaina Elia’ and the famous Pakistani poet ‘Zeryoun Elia’.

As soon as Jaun started getting fame, he was lost in his poetries which ruined his relationship. He forgot about his family and his relationship, which led him to divorce from Zahida in 1992.

But after the divorce, Jaun was more depressed than before. He badly got into alcohol, smoking and cigarettes which destroyed him.

On 8 November 2002, Jaun died because of TB.

WORKS AND LEGACY

काम की बात मैं ने की ही नहीं

ये मिरा तौर-ए-ज़िंदगी ही नहीं

-जौन एलिया

Jaun was awarded ‘Pride of Performance’ in the year 2002 for his contribution and service to Urdu literature. In his career, Jaun introduced several new words to Urdu Literature that were never heard before.

Jaun gave his whole life to Urdu Literature, he was not just a poet but an editor and translator too. He translated many ancient works by Sufis, Mutazilis, and Ismailis. In which some of his translations are from Arabic and Persian.

In 1991, at the age of 60, Jaun published his first poetry collection ‘Shayad’ which added his name to the Urdu Literary canon forever. After that, his other works like, ‘Lekin’, ‘Gumaan’ and ‘Yaani’ were published posthumously.

Here are some of the notable works of him.