Published Articles

Essays on aesthetics, classical poetry, and the moral imagination — published in journals and anthologies.

Sort by

On the Moral Imagination in Literature

ArticlePhilosophy

Literature's highest function is not to entertain or even to instruct — it is to enlarge the moral imagination of its reader.

16 min

Tradition and Modernity in Urdu Prose

Article

Modernity has not replaced tradition in Urdu prose — it has simply lost touch with it.

14 min

The Spiritual Dimensions of Ghazal

ArticleAestheticsGhazal

The ghazal is not merely a form. It is a spiritual technology — a structured way of approaching the unspeakable.

13 min

Why We Have Forgotten How to Read

Article

Reading was once an act of surrender. The reader came to the text empty-handed, willing to be changed.

11 min

Iqbal and the Problem of the Self

ArticlePhilosophy

Iqbal's Khudi is misread as arrogance. In truth it is a call to responsibility — to recognise that the self is not a possession but a trust.

18 min

The Aesthetics of Grief in Classical Urdu Poetry

ArticleAestheticsUrdu Literature

Grief in Urdu poetry is not lamentation — it is transformation. The classical poets understood that sorrow, when surrendered to fully, becomes a form of worship.

15 min