verses in praise of Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Ghalib states: Like many other Urdu poets, Ghalib was capable of writing profoundly religious poetry, yet was skeptical about some interpretations of the Islamic scriptures done by certain religious leaders. On the idea of paradise, he once wrote in a letter to a friend: He staunchly disdained the practices of certain Ulema, who in his poems represent narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy: In another verse directed towards certain maulavis (clerics), he criticized them for their ignorance and arrogant certitude: "Look deeper, it is you alone who cannot hear the music of his secrets". In his letters, Ghalib frequently contrasted the narrow legalism of the Ulema with "its pre-occupation with teaching the baniyas and the brats, and wallowing in the problems of menstruation and menstrual bleeding" and real spirituality for which you had to "study the works of the mystics and take into one's heart the essential truth of God's reality and his expression in all things". During the anti-British Rebellion in Delhi on 5 October 1857, three weeks after the British troops had entered through Kashmiri Gate, some soldiers climbed into Ghalib's neighbourhood and hauled him off to Colonel Brown () for questioning. He appeared in front of the colonel wearing a Central Asian Turkic style headdress. The colonel, bemused at his appearance, inquired in broken Urdu, "Well? You Muslim?", to which Ghalib replied sardonically, "Half?" The colonel asked, "What does that mean?" In response, Ghalib said, "I drink wine, but I don't eat pork." Naʽats of Ghalib A large part of Ghalib's poetry focuses on the Naʽat, poems in praise of Muhammad, which indicates that Ghalib was a devout Muslim. Ghalib wrote his Abr-i gauharbar () as a Naʽat poem. Ghalib also wrote a qasida of 101 verses in dedication to a Naʽat. Ghalib described himself as a sinner who should be silent before Muhammad as he was not worthy of addressing him, who was praised by God. Views on Hindustan In his poem Chiragh-i-Dair (, The Lamp of the Temple) which was composed during his trip to Benares during the spring of 1827, Ghalib mused about the land of Hindustan (India) and how Qiyamah (Doomsday) has failed to arrive, in spite of the numerous conflicts plaguing it. Persian works Ghalib held Persian in high regard, and his knowledge of the language was a point of pride for him. He believed his compositions