Chicago’s Baba-e-Urdu Hasan Chishti Departs
By Dr A. Khan
Chicago, IL
Prominent Urdu poet and writer Hasan Chishti aka Chicago’s Baba-e-Urdu passed away on December 24, 2020, in Chicago. He was a popular community leader, and the former President of Urdu Academy of America. He was a true representative of Hyderabad’s “Chaar Minar” culture. He worked zealously for the propagation and promotion of Urdu in North America.
Hasan Chishti was born on October 15, 1930, in the state of Hyderabad, Deccan. He received his early education at Hyderabad’s prestigious seat of learning Anwar-ul-Uloom, and in 1950 received his BA from Osmania University. In 1952, he joined Osmania University as an administrative officer, and after serving for 26 years, he retired as deputy registrar in 1978. Chishti Sahib married Zeenath in 1957; the couple had two daughters and two sons.
In1978 he went to Saudi Arabia and joined King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, where he worked for one year. For the next seven years he held an executive post at a Saudi company. During his eight-year stay in Saudi Arabia, he founded Bazm e Urdu and Hyderabadi Association and served as the president for both organizations. In 1985, Chishti Sahib played a key role in starting Air India’s direct flight from Jeddah to Hyderabad, Deccan. He also initiated and participated in many philanthropic activities; he arranged for collecting and sending clothes from Jeddah to help the needy in Hyderabad; he arranged literary functions and Mushairas to provide financial help for ailing poets and writers in Hyderabad; he advised Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, on preventing spoilage and wastage of sacrificial meat during Hajj, he suggested that the extra meat should be collected, packed, and shared with needy people around the globe.
In 1986, he migrated to Chicago, and joined the real estate company Khan & Associates, and later worked for Pentagon Industries for a couple of years before starting his own business with his sons in 1991. Chishti Sahib travelled all over the globe to participate in international mushairas. He also contributed articles and news items from Chicago for daily Siasat, Hyderabad (Deccan), and served for more than eight years as Chicago Bureau Chief for Pakistan Link. He also worked with Chicago Public Library to get funding worth $100,000 for the acquisition of books related to South Asian languages.
After the fall of Hyderabad in September 1948, the intellectual capital and literary activities started to attenuate. Chishti Sahib tried to jump-start literary activities in Hyderabad; he served as the editor of Akash, Pasban, Munsif (English) and several other Urdu journals.
As a poet he was well known for his ghazals. Chishti Sahib had compiled and published four volumes of “Mujtaba Hussain key Behtareen TahreraiN.” In 2002 Delhi Urdu Academy acknowledged this contribution by presenting him with an award of recognition. In 2003, he was the recipient of Urdu Writers Society’s (USA) Annual Literary award, and in 2001 he was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by the same organization. He is the recipient of numerous other awards including Israrul Haq Majaz Aalami Urdu Award (New Delhi), Recognition Award from Chicago Department of Human Services, and Dr Zaheer Ahmed Humanitarian Award (Seattle).
Once Chishti Sahib asked Mujtaba Hussain for some advice and recommendations for the promotion of Urdu. Mujtaba Hussain said, “ …we are doing Urdu’s promotion work in such a manner that in the process our individual promotion takes place…for this reason Urdu’s writers, poets, and professors are getting promoted at the cost of their language which is living a life of below poverty…”
Commenting on the promotion and propagation of Urdu, Chishti Sahib once stated: “Once upon a time Britons used to say that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Now we can proudly say the same thing about the Urdu language. It does not belong to a village, a city, a country, a nation, or a religion, but it has become an international language now. Urdu is not only a language, but it is the name of a culture and it is our duty to preserve it.”
Hasan Chishti Sahib was a simple and humble person who silently kept busy serving humanity and Urdu. He never said “No” to any request of any kind. He was an accomplished poet, in one of his couplets he had expressed his longing for serving humanity:
Parai dard koo Aapna he dard Jana hai
Hum Ahlay dard ka rishtaa bhoo’haat purana hai
I have felt the pain of others like mine
We the suffering people have old companionship
May Allah SWT bless his soul and award him a high station in Janet ul Firdous for his services to humanity! Ameen!
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