By Ahsan ul Haq Magray, New Age Islam
14 December 2020
Prison has always
been spaces for total constraint, restrictions, and dislocations from the
comfort zones of prisoners. And the body of literature written by a writer
during incarceration is called Prison Literature. Imprisonment includes jail,
prison, or even house arrest.
From across the
world, many Muslim writers have been incarcerated due to different social,
political and religious discord. Nonetheless, a great number of Muslims
writers, philosopher, and poets when imprisoned have produced a large body of
literature.
A large number of
Muslim writers when incarcerated were kept in a solitary cell, to cut them off
from family, friend and society at large even in sometimes deprived of reading
and writing materials. Their window panes were smeared so that even the
daylight will not enter their cells. They were tortured, harassed, humiliated
and beaten. Some of the worst sentences include hanged upside down, bathed in
subzero degree, an electorate with high velocity etc. Outside communication was
strictly prohibited. All the techniques were applied to mum them and have
stopped their thinking power-- a blockade of ‘thought control’ in the words of
Michael Foucault.
Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad (1888-1958) was arrested by British Raj and sent to Ahmed Nagar fort.
Azad, a man gigantic intellectuality, who remained the main figure in freeing
India from British Colonialism. Being treated as a threat to colonialist, the
Britishers wanted him to silence him behind the high impregnable fortress-like
walls. But for Azad this proved only physical restriction, his high ideals and
morale never bowed in front of the oppressive regimes. He started writing in
wee hours of morning letters to his family, friends and colleagues. These
letters were addressed to one of his friends Habib -ur -Rehman Sherwani which
was never posted. When freed, he took this twenty-three letters with himself
and were later published as ‘Ghubar-e-Khatir’ published in 1946. The collection
is one of the great letters written in world history. The collection was
translated in English as “Sallies of Mind”. This is one of important document
in world Urdu literature. Azad tried to kill the loneliness and seclusion of
prison cells while penning down something which letter proved an immense storehouse
of knowledge. Azad discusses different issues ranging from personal, social,
political, religious and philosophical.
Shoresh Kashmiri
(1917-1975) jailed by Britishers tried to defeat these opponents by writing an
important tract of Urdu titled ‘Pas Deewar-e Zindnan’. Scholars in Urdu Prison
literature documented Mirza Ghalib imprisoned for some time. Ghalib was
incarcerated for not paying his debts. He wrote down a Persian poem of
eighty-four lines inside the four walls of the prison.
From Egypt, several Muslim leaders known as the Muslim
Brotherhood (Ikhwan-ul-Muslimoon of Egypt) were imprisoned by the different
Egyptian presidents. Syed Quatab Shahid, one of the leading figures of the
Muslim Brotherhood spent several years behind the prison bars. His imprisonment
was one of the most heart-wrenching episodes in world prison literature. He was
tortured, beaten humiliated up to the worst of conditions, but no power could
break his commitment to the cause. Despite all the worst conditions he managed
to compose some of the best works in prison-like the “Jadwa-e Manzil.
Zainab Ghazali
(1917-2005) the Egyptian women leader of Muslim brotherhood composed his memoir
‘Zindan ki shub 0-Rooz’ based on his prison experiences. This is one of the
most heart-wrenching prison experiences one has faced in the world. She was
tortured while upside down, his clothes were torn out, were bather in subzero
degree water, electorated, dogs were set to bite her. All the techniques were
used to surrender her strong will and ideology. However, she remained stood to
her cause and defeated the opponents.
Prominent
progressive Urdu poet Ali Sardar Jafari (1913-2000) was jailed twice: by the
British during 1940-41 for sedition charges against them. He was expelled from
Aligarh Muslim University in 1936 and imprisoned in Lucknow for opposing the
war in 1940. Secondly in 1949 by govt of Independent India for advocating the
cause of socialism and sentenced six months hard labour in jail in Banaras. But
neither British nor Indian govt could make him feeble in his commitment.
Renowned Turkish
poet, novelist, playwright Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) is often called ‘Romantic
Communist’. He was arrested and imprisoned many times for his poetry. The last
charges against him resulted in 28 years of long imprisonment in 1938 for
inciting mutiny in navy. However, he was
released in 1950 with the passing of general amnesty. Human Landscaped from my
Country: An Epic Novel in Verse (1938) is written by Hikmet during world war
second while a thirteen years imprisonment as a political prisoner.
Izetbegovic Alija
(1625-2003), Bosnian politician, lawyer and author and who in 1992 became the
first president of presidency of the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In 1946 just twenty-one-year-old time he was arrested the first
time. Alija was sentenced to jail for
several cases for membership in an organization fighting for human and
religious rights. Originally he was sentenced to fourteen years than reduced to
twelve years and finally was released after five to eight years. The book he
composed during incarceration is a valuable contribution to Muslim Prison
Literature. He wished to have a physical escape from prison as he writes in his
Notes from Prison 1983-1988. He writes as “What the reader is about to embark
upon (and perhaps read) is my escape to freedom. To my regret, this, of course,
was not a real escape, but I wish it were. This was the only possible escape
from the Foca prison, with its high walls and iron bars — an escape of mind and
thought. Had I been able to escape, I would have given preference to the real,
physical escape.”
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
(1911-1984), the famous Urdu poet was arrested and imprisoned by Pakistani
government twice for four years and six months respectively. He tried to kill
his loneliness while composing some of the best poetry in prison. He wrote
prison poem collections viz Dast-e-Saba and Zindnan Nama. He was deprived of
pen and paper and put in solitary confinement. He famously proclaimed:
What if my pen and paper have
been snatched away from me?
I have dipped my fingers into my
heart’s blood
What if my lips are sealed?
I have lent my tongue to each
link in the chain.
Another famous
Egyptian Muslim Poet Ahmed Fouad Negm (1929-2013) was imprisoned multiple times
for his outspoken and criticizing powerful Egyptian Presidents He in total
spent eighteen years of his life behind the different Egyptian prison. A poor
and orphaned boy at the age of six hardly went to school beyond informal
Madrasa. It was in prison which made him a poet. He had composed a large body
of prison poetry. He was called A Rebel, the people poet, Uncle Fouad and many
other famous names. One of his famous prison poems was sung of millions of
protesters in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution in a famous Tahrir Square:
The brave men are brave
The cowards are cowardly
Come with the brave
Together with the square
There is a long history of Muslims imprisoned by regimes in
different corners of the world. These are only a few literary gems briefly
exemplified here, nonetheless, the list goes on. The present write-up has tried to documents
some of the great literary persons jailed in different socio-political and
religious reasons. Moreover, there is a large body of non-literary texts
produced by muslins in different world prisons, thereby making it an
interesting site for research and study. To imprison is colonize the body when
the body is colonized language and everything is colonized. To write is resist
subvert this design.
----
Ahsan ul Haq is pursuing PhD from Deptt: of the English
University of Kashmir Srinagar. His research area/interest is Prison
Literature.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-human-rights/muslim-prison-writers/d/123752
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