Protesters of "Aab-e-Hayat""آبِ حیات" کے معترضین

Abstract

Maulana Muhammad Hussain Azad's book, "Aab-e-Hayat", is one of the few basic books in Urdu that remains a reference even in the era of clear changes in thought and outlook, new critical trends and new debates. This book falls into the category of memoirs. There is a general complaint about memoirs that they are short, garbled, and ambiguous and to a large extent rhymed, in which the brief description of the poets' life situations and a cursory and fleeting glance at their poetry are limited. These brief life situations and formal comments neither reflect the complete picture of their lives nor do they reveal the full colours of their poetry. Thus, this matter becomes a matter of personal likes and dislikes instead of literary criticism. A few lines of ghazals and poems are presented as samples and formal comments are made on them, such as (It is smooth, it is hot, it is bitter, etc.). This book, with its many virtues and few shortcomings, remains a necessity for Urdu speakers even today. This article mentions the researchers who objected to "Aab-e-Hayat".

Key Words: Maulana Muhammad Hussain Azad, "Aab-e-Hayat", critical trends, new debates, short, garbled, ambiguous, objected, literary criticism.