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Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Qadiri (may Allah be pleased with him) was a true poet. Besides being a Mufti and a missionary, the Imam was a man of letters par excellence. His love for the Holy Prophet, his power of imagination, his vigorous vocabulary, his selection of words, use of similes and metaphors, rhythmic couplets, photographic phraseology and his lovely expression is matchless. The Haddaaiq-e-Bakhshish [Gardens of Bliss] consists of two volumes. The first volume consists of 103 pages and there are 80 poems of varying lengths in it. The second volume consists of 94 pages and there are 28 long and short poems in it.
Among his published outpourings, some are
critical, some are Sufistic, some are philosophical, some are discerning and
some are of best literary excellence. Not only in Urdu and Persian but even in
Arabic he had the same purist style. The Ulema of his time, before his
scholarship, his intellect, his resourcefulness, his perception and rhetoric's,
nobody could measure unto his rank. There was no subject of which he was not a
master; no art which he did not know. Even in literary pursuits, we have to
acknowledge his greatness. If his idioms, his usage and his proverbs are
selected from all his writings, a voluminous dictionary could be compiled.
Poetry is an art, music expressed in the beauty and harmony of words. No special person, however great, however pious and spiritually advanced, has ever been
able to give scripture to the world unless he was blessed with the gift of poetry.
When the soul begins to dance in all directions and to touch heaven and earth in its dance, expressing all the beauty and inspiration it has seen. The poet reads the mind of the Universe. The poet dives deep into himself, he touches the perfection which is the source and goal of all things, the innermost depths of his being has touched the Divine, and from there he derives wisdom, beauty and
power [Hazrat Inayat Khan Chishti (may Allah be pleased with him)]. The poets Jelaluddin
Rumi, Hafiz, Sa'adi, Fariduddin Attar and many more were great thinkers. Sufism is the wisdom of the poets.
Apart from Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Qadiri's (may Allah be pleased with him) rank in the Islamic world, his poetry was of the rank that could be considered the major poet of the 19th century. If we read his poetry with a little attention we get the impression that even if he were only to be only a poet, he would have been second to no major poet in Urdu. From his creations, it is clear that he was an accomplished artist and an established poet, for his natyiya ghazals are of innovative distinction.
Imam Ahmad Raza was a disciple of the Divine. He was not a disciple of anybody in the art of poetry, but still his writings are enough to find him a place in the rank of the masters. His younger brother Hasan Raza Khan [1371/1908] was a disciple of Mirza Dagh Dehlawi. Hazrat Mohani [1371/1951] wrote an article on the poetic greatness of Hasan Raza Khan and this article was published in Urdu-i Mualla. Imam Ahmad Raza had the honor of being the guide to such a great poet. Imam Ahmad Raza Khan was was very much impressed by Maulana Kifayath Ali Kafi in poetry. Maulana Kafi was martyred during the war of independence in 1858. Ghulam Rasul Mehar write:
He was fond of ghazals of Maulana Kifayath Ali Kafi. He used to consider Kafi to be the King of the Naat writers. In Imam Ahmad Raza's Diwan Hadaiq-i-Bakhshish [3rd section], we find this quatrain:
Mahka hay Miray Bu-i-Dahan Say Alam Yan Naghma-i-Shirin Nahin Talkhi Say Baham
Kafi Sultan-i-Naat Goyan Hain Raza Insha Allah Main Wazir-i-Azam
Expressing his views on the poetry of Maulana Kifayath Ali Kafi [1274/1858] and Hasan Raza Khan, Imam Ahmad Raza writes:
Except for the verses of the two, I don't want to listen to anybody. From beginning to end the poetry of Maulana Kifayath Ali Kafi and the late Hasan is within the limits of Shariah.