By Hina Kiyani
ISLAMABAD: Prominent Urdu poet, critic, essayist, lyricist, and scholar Muzaffar Warsi was remembered here on his death anniversary on Sunday.
Born on December 23, 1933, in Meerut his name was Mohammad Muzaffaruddin Siddiqui and he used the pen name ‘Warsi’. Muzaffar Warsi started his poetry by writing lyrics for songs of Pakistani movies but gradually changed direction and his style of poetry became more oriented towards writing Hamd and Naats. He was one of the few distinguished voices and one of the most prominent poets of Pakistan.
Sufi Warsi was the friend of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Akbar Warsi, Azeem Warsi, Hasrat Mohani, Josh Malihabadi, Ahsan Danish, Abul Kalam Azad and Mahindar Singh Bedi. His family raised him with deep religious grounding. He has one brother and two sisters. Muzaffar Warsi has three daughters and one son. One of his nephews is Usman Warsi, a singer, music composer and poet.
Warsi experimented with every genre of poetry including ghazal, nazam, naat, and hamd. Unique style and diversity of themes made Warsi prominent among the poets of his era. Warsi enlightened ‘Natia Poetry’ with a new style and Naats like “Ya Rahmatullah Al Alameen” would always be remembered among people having a literary taste.
He received the pride of performance award from the government of Pakistan in 1988. He died on January 28, 2011 in Lahore.
