Literary icon Mumtaz Mufti being remembered on birth anniversary
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Mufti’s transformation from liberalism to Sufism was due to his inspiration from Qudratullah Shahab
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - Literary icon Mumtaz Mufti is being remembered by fans on his birth anniversary today (Monday).
Mumtaz Mufti was born on Sept 11, 1905 in Batala, East Punjab. He started his career as a schoolteacher.
At the time of partition, he migrated to Pakistan with his family. Mufti started writing Urdu short stories while working as a schoolteacher before 1947.
He was known as a liberal writer at the outset of his career by many critics. His transformation from liberalism to Sufism was due to his inspiration from fellow writer Qudratullah Shahab.
Throughout his literary career, Mufti touched the topics which challenged the orthodox thinking of society.
The two phases of his life were captured in his autobiographies, ‘Alipur Ka Aeeli’ and ‘Alakh Nagri’.
‘Alipur Ka Aeeli’ is an account of a lover who challenged the social taboos of his times, and ‘Alakh Nagri’ is an account of a devotee who is greatly influenced by mysticism.
In recognition of his literary contribution, he was given Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1986 and Munshi Premchand Award in 1989.
Besides ‘Alipur Ka Aeeli’ and ‘Alakh Nagri’, his works include ‘Un Kahi’, ‘Labbaik’, ‘Muftianey’, ‘Nizam-e- Sakaa’, ‘Samay Ka Bandhan’, ‘Piyaaz Ke Chilkay’, ‘Okhay Log’ and ‘Talash’.
His book ‘Labbaik’ is also considered his masterpiece as it was widely acclaimed by the critics. It is basically a travelogue which he wrote during his journey to the holy land of Makkah and Madina with Qudratullah Shahab.
Mumtaz Mufti died on Oct 27, 1995.
