Adab for the Sake of Adab

When a government constructs a road, its quality is determined by its technical design, engineering principles, and construction standards. It is not evaluated according to whether people use it to travel to a mosque or a temple, a casino or a bar. Similarly, bridges, trains, buses, and other public amenities are judged by their own standards, not by the purposes for which they may eventually be used.

The same principle applies across all fields of knowledge and art. The value of mathematics is assessed through its logical and systematic structure, while the utility of physics and astronomy lies in their scientific principles. How they are used is a secondary consideration.

Literature and artistic autonomy

Art and literature are no exceptions to this rule. The essence of literature lies in its artistic composition, the elegance of its style, the loftiness of its thought, and the aesthetic expression of language. When literature is subordinated to an external purpose, ideology, or movement, it loses its creative autonomy and becomes little more than a vehicle for ideology.

The true standard of literature should be its artistic quality, stylistic beauty, and creative vitality, not any temporary political or social agenda. Just as science and philosophy are evaluated according to their own internal principles, so too should literature be assessed within the framework of its own literary qualities.

The Progressive Writers’ Movement

Unfortunately, in the twentieth century, Urdu literature was repeatedly employed as a tool for political and ideological movements. The Progressive Writers’ Movement, for instance, turned literature into an instrument for raising social awareness, protesting injustice, and advocating economic and class struggle. Although this movement gave Urdu literature a new semantic direction, its greatest cost was the erosion of the principle of adab barā-yi adab, “literature for the sake of literature”. Art, which ought to be synonymous with freedom, was reduced to the servant of ideology.

Renowned writers such as Saʿādat Ḥasan Mantō, Kr̥ṣhṇa Chandar, Rājindar Siṅgh Bēdī, Faiz Aḥmad Faiz, and Aḥmad Nadīm Qāsmī were among the movement’s leading representatives. Mantō explored human psychology and the trauma of Partition with remarkable boldness. Kr̥ṣhṇa Chandar portrayed poverty, love, and class struggle in a simple yet powerful style. Bēdī’s writings reflected profound observation and humanism. Faiz blended romance and revolution in his poetry, while Qāsmī depicted rural life and its challenges with artistic dignity.

These writers undoubtedly brought Urdu literature closer to the public sphere, but that intimacy came at the cost of creative freedom. Literature became increasingly bound by ideology, and the subtlety of artistic expression gradually diminished.

The Islamic literary movement

In response to the Progressive Movement, the Islamic literary movement emerged with the aim of using literature to promote religious and ethical values. This movement represented a genuine religious and intellectual need of its time. The credit for introducing it effectively on an international level belongs to the great Islamic thinker, Mawlānā Sayyid Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Nadwī (may Allāh have mercy on him).

Mawlānā Nadwī organised seminars throughout the Indian subcontinent, the Arab world, and the wider Muslim world. He launched journals and produced intellectual works to strengthen the voice of Islamic literature. Under his leadership, the movement gained academic credibility, intellectual depth, and firm institutional foundations.

However, over time, the Islamic literary movement also began to subordinate literature to a particular ideology. As a result, creative freedom suffered, and literature increasingly became a medium for preaching, moral instruction, and religious expression.

Literature beyond ideology

This is not to deny the interaction between literature and religion or politics. The essential question is whether reducing literature to the mouthpiece of an ideology or belief ultimately restricts its natural breadth and creative potential.

Islam appreciates the fine arts, but this does not mean that every artistic work must convey an explicitly religious message. The true function of literature is to give artistic expression to human experience, emotions, feelings, and imagination. Literature does not merely reflect life; it also offers the reader new insight and a fresh way of seeing the world.

Binding literature to ideology, whether religious or secular, imprisons the imagination of the creator and reduces literature to mere propaganda.

The freedom of the writer

The writer must have the freedom to observe life from any perspective and to express it accordingly. Whether that expression includes religion or politics, Sufism or philosophy, all are welcome, provided they remain within the domain of literature, rather than literature being confined by them.

The soul of literature lies in freedom. As long as the creator possesses that freedom, literature remains alive and dynamic. The moment literature becomes a prisoner of ideology, it loses both its aesthetic richness and its semantic expansiveness.