FWP:
SETS == DEFINITION
RELIGIONS verses: {14,2}; {38,7}; {60,2}; {60,8}; {91,8}; {92,7}; {93,3x}; {99,7}; {102,2}; {109,5x}; {111,14}; {112,1}; {115,2}; {118,1}; {120,8}; {145,7x}; {173,7}; {173,10}; {174,6}; {204,7}; {208,9}; {231,6}
In {59,5}, the lover accepted
the risk of having people abuse him with the general term 'infidel' because
of his 'worship' of an 'infidel idol'. Here, people call him a 'fire-worshipper',
as though he had abandoned Islam for the creed of the Parsis. Only the 'people
of the world' do this, of course, and we know their limitations all too well;
see {5,6} for a scathing indictment of them
that also turns on imagery of fire.
In general, Ghalib's references to other religions are very sympathetic; he establishes a kind of mystical parallelism that unites them all under the great banner of passion and faithfulness. And when he speaks more skeptically about religions, as in the unpublished {93,3x}, then too he sees them as a group with shared qualities and roles.
The verse is built on the wordplay of fire: 'fire-worshipper',
'hot-headed', 'spark-scattering'. But of course, if the lover's burning hot
sighs scatter sparks in all directions, the source of the fire must be an
inward one. And since the lover eagerly pursues his 'worship' of this inner
fire, he must be absorbed in cultivating the fiery wounds of passion in his
heart; in {19,1}, he actually uses his fingernails
to claw these wounds open and keep them from healing. So behind the wordplay
there's even a literal sense in which the lover can rightly be described as
a 'fire-worshipper'. For after all, the verse never claims that in this particular
case the 'people of the world' are wrong.
Nazm:
That is, the way in which people devote themselves to worshipping fire-- with that same relish and ardor I am always hot-headedly eager to make fiery laments. (56)
== Nazm page 56