Romantic and Revolutionary

Today marks the 24th death anniversary of Sheikh Ayaz the second most illustrious poet of Sindh after Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai who rejigged Sindhi literature and became a prominent name in Sindhi literature during the 20th century. The prolific poet, prose writer, academician, and ideologist Mubarak Ali Sheikh aka Sheikh Ayaz was born in the historically rich city Shikarpur in 1923. Lawyer by profession, Ayaz had never thought of being a towering literary figure who would keep inspiring generations through his poetry and stories even decades after his death.

Shaikh Ayaz lived his whole life in pursuit of a vision and he turned restless whenever anything contrary to his vision occurred. Both his poetry and prose aligned with his vision which has a cultural and civilizational continuity of its own. He invented fresh diction for old symbols.

The poetry of Ayaz carried multiple dimensions but romance and revolution were the central notions of his poetry and his modern ideas that he tried to put forward established his authority as an innovative poet of Sindhi as well as Urdu language.

His influence as a poet was so wide and robust that distinguished literates of that era Faiz, Ahmed Faraz, and Habib Jalib were among the staunch admirers of his literary work. Following his thorough study of socialism, he was considered an eminent leftist and always revolted against dictatorial regimes consequently he was sent behind the bars multiple times for his audacious move against totalitarianism.

Another bright aspect of his poetry was raising his voice for the due rights of women; he always presented women as a necessary component for a developed society. Ayaz was a bitter opponent of gusty norms and all those tactics used to confine women.

He was a successful legal practitioner specializing in criminal law. In addition to his legal practice in criminal law, he took upon himself to serve as the Vice-Chancellor of the Sindh University on the insistence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who considered him to be a genuine intellectual and a rich cultural voice of modern Sindhi literature. He was a renowned criminal lawyer in the legal fraternity of Sukkur where he chose to establish his legal practice.

Besides translating the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai the Legendary Poet authored around 50 books of his poetry along with it he also wrote novels and short stories in the Sindhi Language Notable Sindhi Singers Sang his Poetry, prominent among those were Sadiq Faqeer, Sajan Sindhi, Mumtaz Lashari, Ustad Mohammad Yousif, and Waheed Ali. Sadiq Faqeer was the one whom he liked most and called Sadiq's voice the most suited to his words. Ayaz was bestowed with Sitara-e-Imtiaz for his remarkable literary work by the government of Pakistan The towering literary figure left this world on 28 December 1997 and was buried next to the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. He will be remembered for his eminent work in the field of literature.