The 125th birth anniversary of a prominent poet Shabbir Hassan Khan Josh Malih Abadi is being observed today (Dec 5). Born as Shabbir Hasan Khan on December 5, 1894 to an Urdu-speaking Muslim family of Afridi Pashtun origin in Malihabad, United Provinces, British India, he studied at St Peter’s College, Agra, and passed his Senior Cambridge examination in 1914.
Josh migrated to Pakistan in 1958 and settled in Karachi and rigorously worked for Anjuman-i-Tarraqi-i-Urdu with Maulvi Abdul Haq. He remained here until he died on February 22, 1982 in Islamabad. Josh is reputed to have had a masterful command over Urdu and was quite strict about respecting the grammar and rules of the language.
This is the reason he is also referred to as the King of Urdu language. The first collection of his poetry was published in 1921. Shola-o-Shabnam, Junoon-o-Hikmat, Fikr-o-Nishaat, Sunbal-o-Salaasal, Harf-o-Hikaayat, Sarod-o-Kharosh,Irfaniyat-e-Josh, Yaadon ki baraat (autobiography) are some of his famous works.
He wrote over 100,000 beautiful couplets and more than 1,000 rubaiyat in his lifetime. He was awarded several awards including Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour in 1954, Kamal-e-Sukhan Award and Hilal-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan on 23 March 2013.
