The tradition of writing Naat under high literary standards reached Lucknow late in comparison to Delhi. At that time, many poets of Naat belonged to Khanqahs who had limited understanding of literary merits of poetry.
At that time, Mohsin Kakorvi was the poet of the Lucknavi school who ensured high literary standards while writing Naat. As such he can be called the Imam (chief) of the Lucknow school’s Naat poets.
These views were expressed by literary scholar Ahmad Javaid sb as he discussed Mohsin Kakorvi’s Naat poetry at a podcast with Najam Soharwadi, Rana Asif and SM Ali Jafri.
Najam Sahab asked Javaid Sahab how Mohsin’s Naat poetry can be appreciated today as his diction and imagery seem alien when compared with the diction and imagery of the current style of Naat. He said this problem of finding Mohsin’s poetry old-fashioned was not new as decades ago, literary critic Muhammad Hasan Askari also pointed it out in his critical essay on Mohsin’s poetry.
Responding to this, Javaid Sahab said that as writing Naat was considered a virtue that would please God, the Indian tradition produced many Naat poets who did not have command over the art of poetry. He added that another issue in this tradition was the employment of imagery that was not suitable for the genre of Naat such as calling oneself a dog in order to express humility.
According to Javaid Sahab, such imagery cannot portray the real essence of the relationship a Muslim has with Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He explained that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) taught his followers to maintain their self-respect in his company.
The scholar said that parallel to this trend, the Naat written in Deccan focused on literary merits. When this Deccani tradition came to Delhi, poets like Sauda and Zauq made sure that their Naat had the elements of serious literature. However, Lucknow embraced this serious tradition of Naat late. Mohsin and Mir Anis, Javaid Sahab said, were representative poets of the serious Naat of the Lucknavi school.
The podcast also discussed the use of motifs associated with the Indian culture in the Naat of Mohsin. Javaid Sahab said this was intentionally done by poets like Mohsin to show the universality of the personality of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and to express that any culture could incorporate his teachings without losing its essential features.
Javaid Sahab explained that Mohsin’s poetry was strictly Lucknavi in its character and it comes across that he attempts to incorporate the entire Lucknavi Muhavra in his verses. He then explained the genius of Mohsin by explaining some of his verses.