Najm Afandi

Who was Najm Afandi?

Najm Afandi نجم آفندی was an important Urdu poet of his time who had numerous budding poets as his disciples. He was born in Agra in 1893. His father Bazm Afandi was himself a well-known poet of Bazm's time. The following verses are from Bazm's ghazal :

Hijr voh Gham hai Khuda se bhi uuthaaya na gayaa

Najm Afandi moved to Hyderabad, Deccan at some point in his life. He started writing poetry early in his life and continued to do so for 65 years. His nazm durr-e-yateem was immensely popular, which he wrote while he was only 15 or 16 years of age. He experimented with various genres of Urdu poetry. Najm had in the later part of his life dedicated himself to writing marsiya, salaam, manqabat and qasida. Although he wrote numerous ghazals and nazms, because of the religious nature of his poetry and the issues he dealt, he was known as 'Shair-e-Ahle-bait.' An example of one of his religious verses is:

Long before Progressive Writers Movement came into existence his poetry dealt with the issues and themes which were the hallmark of the movement. 'Kisaan', 'Mazdoor ki Awaz', 'Hamari Id' are few poems of that era.

He died on a visit to Pakistan and is buried there. Josh Malihabadi who was his friend and associate from Hyderabad days wrote on his death "I held Najm's verses and poetry in great esteem which has no match, with his death Urdu is desolate." He influenced greatly the new generation of poets who adopted marsia, salam, qasida and other similar genres of poetry in Urdu.