FIKR

Syed Wirasat Ali Rizvi *Fikr* Lucknowi)
1892 – 10 Sep 1959

Qitaey Tareekh’e Wafaat

Shambe ke roz dasvein Sitambar ko nau baje
Aaut aaye cancer se marz tha jo la-ilaj

Asghar* ko eesvien mein yeh Rizvan ne di khabar
Jannat mili Ali se Wirasat Ali ko aaj

Mirza Asghar Hussain Changezi

Syed Wirasat Ali Rizvi (Fikr*) Lucknowi

Syed Wirasat Ali Rizvi was born in 1892 in Lucknow, India where he lived all his life. He was from a long line of Hakims.

For a time he served as an assistant to a doctor and later went on to practice on his own.

In a preface to the 1955 edition of his bayaaz, Syed Wirasat Ali Saheb wrote:

“My life was full of so many worries and hardships that ‘biradaram’ Maulvi Syed Zafar Hussain Sahab Zafar* gave me the nickname ‘Fikr’ (worry).
Poetry requires mental peace and free time, which unfortunately has not been available to me. My pen-name has thus been limited to a bayaaz (Mehr-e-Fughaan) of a few nauhas.
If the much respected Nawab Jafar Ali Khan Saheb, Asr* Lucknowi, were not to have encouraged me after his critical review, I doubt if I would have the courage to publish this bayaaz.
I thank him from the bottom of my heart.”

In the early 1920’s he was posted at Basra, Iraq, with a medical team of British forces that were in control of Iraq post WWI. It was then that he had the opportunity to briefly visit the mausoleums of Imam Hussain and other martyrs of Karbala.

After his return to India, he always longed to return to Karbala and it was his ambition to be buried there. This yearning to return to Karbala is reflected in almost all his nauhas.

Alas, this was never to be. Syed Wirasat Ali Rizvi died of cancer of the larynx on the 10th of September 1959 leaving behind a son and eight daughters.

Though his mortal remains rest in Karbala Talkatora in Lucknow, we can be sure that in spirit he is in the service of the Shaheed’e Karbala.

Wirasat Ali Saheb’s Imambara in Lucknow

Nauhas by Fikr* Lucknowi

A unique collection of Nauhas for wafaats of all Masoomeen and all days of Muharram written by one poet, Syed Wirasat Ali Rizvi Saheb (Fikr* Lucknowi) of Lucknow.

For videos of all Nauhas with subtitles for reciting along with, check out Syed Wirasat Ali’s playlist on my youtube channel.

There is a complete bayaaz available to download in Urdu, Hindi & Roman Urdu.

We have seen that the current generation is not very familiar with khalis (chaste) Urdu that is used in these Nauhas and we have therefore included a small dictionary of some of the less common Urdu words on this site and also included translations of some nauhas in order that people are able to better understand them.
(Please note that we have NOT attempted to put the translations into rhyme and they simply convey the gist of the nauhas’ meanings).