UNCONSCIOUS DISCOVERY

Mahir ul Qadri  (1906-1978) was the editor of the Urdu magazine Faran (Karachi) and also a famous poet. One of his verses:

Pehle har shay ko hum awaaz kiya jata hai

Phir kahin naghma ka aaghaz kiya jata hai

First, everything is harmonized;

only then does the melody start.

This verse conveys an important truth about life: preparation is necessary before any action. Without creating favourable conditions, no effective action can be taken. In social life, to bring about any event, it is essential to first align various social factors in its favour. A melody initiated without harmonizing the environment will practically be meaningless noise, failing to become a song that captivates hearts.

However, it seems that for Mahir ul Qadri, this was just a poetic point and not a deliberate discovery. This is clear from the fact that he went against this principle in his own life. After Pakistan was created, Maulana Abul A’la Maududi launched an unsuccessful campaign for the “Demand for Islamic System” without establishing the necessary social conditions. It was as if he started the melody without matching the elements. Yet, Mahir ul Qadri fully supported Maulana Maududi in this pointless campaign, even though his earlier verse suggested he should have criticized Maududi’s approach.

Most people say nice things like they do in “poetry recitals,” but they can’t turn them into real actions. This is because those statements aren’t their intellectual discoveries. They say these words appropriately for the situation, but they aren’t part of their thought process. These aren’t their well-thought-out opinions that they can’t easily change.

Getting an idea as a conscious thought is one thing, but verbally expressing it in speech or writing is a completely different matter. A truth becomes part of a person’s mind only when they consciously understand it. And a truth is reflected in a person’s actions only when they have consciously grasped it.