Dr.Ebadat Brelvi

Dr.Ebadat Brelvi is considered to be one of the greatest Urdu critics of the twentieth century. A revolutionary in his own time,Ebadat led an extraordinary lifestyle. Rarely has there been such a radical, yet brilliant, man.The man who lived and had his being in criticism. Whether it was Ghalib with a sophisticated theme, Meer with wistfully romantic word content or Faiz with height of devotion , Dr.Ebadat Brelvi could always put his heart and soul into the situation.

Among his many contributions to Urdu literature, the outstanding one is that he opened the eyes of contemporary literary critics
and Urdu literature lovers to the prime importance of word culture and word modulation, and the supreme value of emotion in
his description.

Dr. Ebadat was a good prose writer. His character sketches and travelogues make impressive reading and create a picturesque
view of man, events and people belonging to different countries. He had the talent of writing an emotionally warm prose, which revealed the sincerity of his personal relations.Criticism was always a passion for Ebadat as it is evident from the fact that he made excellence in his work. At times his criticism had the power to advance the concepts of poets. This helped a lot to understand the poet through the criticism or in other words Ebadat’s criticism became a helping step. His reviews were always based on authentic observations,as it was the most important point of his style. Eventually Ebadat’s work earned him a magnificent repute. Ebadat’s fascination with Urdu was partly due to his teacher’s unlimited interest in subject. He was also influenced by their expressions.

As mentioned in “Yaad-e-Ehd-e-Rafta”

“I always admired Professor Hamid Ullah who kindled my heart with the real passion of Urdu literature. He
highlighted the main concept and importance of the language and introduced various well-known poets of
Urdu.He taught me the basic principles of criticism .My love for literary criticism was actually a blessing fromProf.Hamid Ullah”.

This was the initial time of Ebadat’s career which had a immense impact on his character for being a critic.Dr.Ebadat took his role as a critic quite seriously, and some of his best works include Tanqeedi Zaviyay, Momin Aur Mutalay Momin,Kuliat-e-Meer, Urdu Tanqeed Ka Irtiqa, Ghalib Aur Mutalay Ghalib and many more.

As mentioned by Dr.Sahib in an interview

“Urdu Tanqeed Ka Irtiqa is a complete piece of my research as I received my Ph.D. form Lucknow University on behalf of this research .In this I have tried to depict the tradition of Urdu criticism and the way different critics proceeded in their own circles”

Another book titled Kuliat-e-Meer, contains an account of Dr.Ebadat’s view on Meer’s realism. The preface as a whole almost covers a big part of the book with the major highlights. The entire essence of the whole book is in preface, which is a result of the critic’s intelligent observations and vast knowledge.

Although Ghalib Aur Mutalay Ghalib is more conventional, his originality really begins to surface in Ghalib Aur Mutalay Ghalib.In this work, he critiques different works of Ghalib according to his own aesthetic ideas. He firmly believed that a poetry review should be entirely personal, and that a critic should write exactly what he feels about a work , even if it be intense hatred. He mentioned that a critic should not only reflect the beauty and experience expressed by the poet, but that he should also
understand the artist’s intentions, and essentially transform pleasure into knowledge.