Written by: Nida Qasim
Posted on: February 07, 2022 | 
| 中文
Students of architecture with Taimoor Khan Mumtaz on a trip to Wazir Khan Mosque
Hast-o-Neest is a private, not-for-profit educational trust based in Lahore, that provides a deep understanding of traditional thought, language, art, history and culture in the context of Pakistan. It’s a collective founded and primarily financed by a Board of Trustees and is a volunteer-managed collective. The name ‘Hast-o-Neest’ is inspired by a couplet of Maulana Rumi demonstrating the Islamic metaphysical principle that is seen to underlie all creation, including art, whereby an ephemeral medium, ‘non-being’, becomes the locus reflecting or manifesting true ‘Being’/Haq.
I was able to exchange some words with the founder of the institute, Taimur Khan Mumtaz, who is an architect by profession with a specialization in Mughal architecture. He shared that the focus of this institute is to understand our own lost intellectual, artistic, historical, and linguistic heritage. Mumtaz offered, “In some ways, our offerings fill the gap which our education does not provide. Our mainstream education is extremely functional. It doesn't have any real content for the mind or provides any meaning. Secondly, our education seems to be totally disconnected from our own ground realities and our culture, languages, history, and worldview. It's a terrible situation, which all of us are aware of, or at least thinking people are aware of. No country, no nation, and no people can really flower or achieve anything if they don't have a vision, and this can only come from being aware of one’s own roots, history, and philosophy.”
Classical music program at Ibn Muqla Center of the Arts at Hast-o-Neest.
Hast-o-Neest’s objective is to create an environment of learning with teachers who can provide traditional knowledge in its authentic form and spirit. It aims to engage, research and explore intellectual and cultural traditions, that are becoming forgotten or marginalized in the modern world. They do this through talks, lectures, events, reading circles and courses both long and short in nature.
Hast-o-Neest has five main centers centered on arts, architecture, metaphysics and philosophy, languages, history and cultural studies. Each of the five centers provides study programs that focus on various traditional studies that engage with the modern world. The courses are a blend of online and in-person, and have different time durations, ranging from 2-3 months to a year.
Online class of geometric patterns of sketch making at Hast-o-Neest
The first center, Ibn Muqla Center of the Arts, named after famous calligrapher and inventor of the Thuluth style, Ibn Muqla, offers courses on the principles, philosophy and practice of classical calligraphy, Quranic illumination (tahzib), classical music, vocal and instrumental, as well as Quranic recitation. In this center, you can learn traditional art forms such as miniature painting, Islamic geometry, Fresco Mughal, Persian Tahzib Illumination, and learn to play the classical art forms of sitar, tabla, rabab, sarangi, bansuri, classical singing etc.
Students of architecture and 1 year of wisdom course visit Wazir Khan Mosque
The second center, Ahmed Mimar Center of Architecture, named after one of the greatest architects of the seventeenth century, Ustad Ahmed Lahori, offers a one-year course on an “Introduction to Traditional Islamic Architecture” for architecture, interior design, and fine arts students and professionals. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the design principles, philosophy and methods of traditional design that successfully create harmonious buildings and structures that are not divorced from the historical, communicative, social, material and climatic contexts that they were created in.
The third center, Ibn Arabi Center of Metaphysics and Philosophy, named after the influential Andalusian Muslim scholar Ibn ‘Arabi, offers study and research programs on traditional Islamic spirituality (Sufism/Tasawwuf), metaphysics, Sufi poetry, symbolism, and comparative mysticism. This center offers a year-long course called, “In Search of Wisdom in the Modern Age”, which spreads across 6 topics, namely, “The Islamic Intellectual Tradition”, “Art and Contemplation”, “Forgotten Aspects of Islam”, “Approaches to Reality”, “From the Divine to the Human”, and “Tales of Wisdom”. The center has also previously offered a 2-month course titled, “Quran Majeed Program”.
Eid Milad-un-Nabi mehfil-e-sama at the Hast-o-Neest garden.
Mumtaz had a strong case to make for the importance of being acquainted with the local languages that produced literature and art for centuries in our region. He said, “We are situated in one of the richest regions of the world in terms of literature, philosophy, arts, sciences, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, but we have lost this unparalleled knowledge, partly because of language being taken away from mainstream education. Otherwise, the intellectual output precolonial, even at least of a thousand years in the subcontinent produced more Farsi literature than Iran itself. It is really tragic that we are not even aware of any of that, and our education is to blame for it the most, as well as the lack of vision of our people who have been running the country for 70, 75 years.” Acting as the bridge to provide access to this rich linguistic tradition and history, is the fourth center, Panini Center of Languages, named after the Sanskrit linguist Rishi Panini, which offers courses in Classical Arabic and Classical Persian, as well as Urdu poetry and poetics.
Finally, the fifth center, Al-Biruni Center of History and Cultural Studies, named after an Iranian polymath of the Golden Age, offers courses on the history and culture of Pakistan and the surrounding regions. The last course offered was a four-month course named, “Peoples, Cultures & Languages of Pakistan”, which aimed to introduce the multilingual, multicultural, and multireligious facets of Pakistan, that are not represented in mainstream education.
Calligraphy class at Hast-o-Neest
Hast-o-Neest regularly posts lectures, seminars and events which you can gain access to by following their pages:
Email: hast.o.neest@gmail.com
Tel: 92 300 8493170, 92 321 4847091
Website: https://www.hastoneest.com/
Twitter: @Hast-o-Neest
Facebook: Hast-o-Neest
Instagram: hast.o.neest
YouTube: Hast o Neest
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