Ghazal 378x, Verse 7

{378x,7}*

:tilism-e minnat-e yak-;xalq se rihaa))ii dii
jahaa;N jahaa;N mire qaatil kaa mujh pah i;hsaa;N hai

1) from an enchantment of an 'all-creatures' entreaty/obligation/gratitude, it gave release
2) {wherever / world after world} is my slayer's kindness/favor to me

Notes:

minnat : 'Kindness or service done (to); favour, obligation; — grace, courtesy; — entreaty, humble and earnest supplication; — grateful thanks, praise'. (Platts p.1071)

 

i;hsaan : 'Doing that which is good; beneficence, benefaction, benevolent action, benefit, favour, kindness, good offices'. (Platts p.29)

Gyan Chand:

My slayer shows to me a whole world-ful of kindness/favor, since by causing me to pass out of life she gave me release from the entreaty/obligation to creatures. jahaa;N jahaa;N i;hsaan = extremely much kindness/favor.

== Gyan Chand, p. 436

FWP:

SETS
BONDAGE: {1,5}
INDEPENDENCE: {9,1}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.

On yak-;xalq and other such constructions, see {11,1}.

A :tilism is an enchanted world created and controlled by a powerful magician; these are the stock in trade of the dastan world, and especially of the Dastan-e Amir Hamzah. Once you have blundered into a :tilism , you cannot escape without some kind of special help, either from saintly personages or from the working-out of fate.

This verse belongs to a group that I call 'independence' verses; for discussion and examples, see {9,1}. These verses assume that one should always rely only on one's own resources; being indebted to others is a burden, a source of humiliation. Thus in this verse the slayer is said to confer a 'kindness, favor' on the speaker, presumably by slaying him. Through this help he is released from the :tilism or 'enchantment' of a (black-magic) world in which he was indebted to everyone, obliged to make humiliating entreaties and to be grateful for any and all favors (see the definition of minnat above).

Of course, by slaying him the beloved does him her own kind of 'kindness, favor' (see the definition above). So perhaps he hasn't escaped the deadly bondage of minnat after all. But then, being slain by the beloved must be , for the lover, an acceptable kind of indebtedness.

With regard to the two ways of reading jahaa;N jahaa;N , compare the similar uses of jahaa;N and ;xiyaabaa;N in {96,1}.