Bulleh Shah

Umair,
A most interesting article. Though I have read Rumi, my knowledge of Bullay Shah`s poetry is very poor. As you rightly mentioned, if it wasn`t for Abida Parveen and Junoon, his poetry would have remained unknown to many of us.
Thanks for the wake up call.

its so difficult to get out of a habit.
Especially if its of drinking sufi wine.
As bullah himself said:
``Ab lagan lagi ki kariye?
Na ji sakiye te na mariye. ``

#20 echooom
I am not sure how you took my email? I am not trying to portary myself anti-shariat person, since i dont know what shariat is? I have to read, and understand it before i can say anything about it. I simply wrote verses of Hazrat Sulatn Bahu, which i like. I think it has a very deeper meaning, and it has different meaning to different people. That is the beauty of poetry that it fits in multiplt situation. It is not solid like a brick. It is more like a fluid which changes its shape according to its container. It has no LITTERAL , and fixed meaning. There is another beatiful shair of Hazrat Moen-ud-din chisht, which he wrote about Hazrat Ali Hajveri.

Ganj bakhsh faiz-e-alam mazharey noor-e-khuda
naksan ra peer kamal, kamlan ra rehnama

Regards.

WELL DONE UMAIR!
I am afraid our beautiful `maan boli` Punjabi, the laguage of Bulle Shah, may not be drowned in the flood of Urdu brought about by `Matarruaism` which is ruling the roost these days in Pakistan. The Quran says ` Allah speaks only in the language of the people`. Only Punjabi touches the heart of the people as it is their `Maan boli`. It is perhaps why soofies prefer Punjabi, Sindhi, etc., and the Mulla, Arabic and urdu, treating one as God`s language and the other a `national` one.

As pointed out by nasah I also object to calling araeen a `low cast`. I may remind Umair that ther is no horizontal division in Islam on the basis of cast as is proved by Bulle Shah who says ` Araeen, Araeen aakho menu syed nah aakho koi`. In fact a syed is given respect only as a matter of courtesy due to his relationship to the Prophet (PBUH) and not as a matter of right. You will find syeds generally adopting the language and culture of the people to be one with them. So the mention of lower cast by Umair is unfortunate.

#27 by BruceLee on September 14, 2004 7:07am PT

``What is the meaning of the motif of the soil?``

sufis see divinity in all aspects of almighty`s manifestation- the soil motif is just about this commonality of substance between the so called polarities of high-low, rider-ridden, king-slave, musalmaan-kafir.

The essence of this world view is in the second line itself:
``Vaah vaah maati de gulzaar; ``

These diversities belong to the same gulzaar- and the sufi maintains this view when he beholds even the tiniest of the almighty`s creations!!

Try this-

Focus your vision on an ant and try to see it with this feeling that it is a manifestation of the almighty.
You would realize what the sufis feel after a few minutes!!!!

#27 by BruceLee on September 14, 2004 7:07am PT

``What is the meaning of the motif of the soil?``

sufis see divinity in all aspects of almighty`s manifestation- the soil motif is just about this commonality of substance between the so called polarities of high-low, rider-ridden, king-slave, musalmaan-kafir.

The essence of this world view is in the second line itself:
``Vaah vaah maati de gulzaar; ``

These diversities belong to the same gulzaar- and the sufi maintains this view when he beholds even the tiniest of the almighty`s creations!!

Try this-

Focus your vision on an ant and try to see it with this feeling that it is a manifestation of the almighty.
You would realize what the sufis feel after a few minutes!!!!

sameer #10

I think you are right, we shouldn`t be so quick in declaring so and so the greatest Punjabi poet. Waris Shah`s Heer, as you point out, is the Bible, Quran and Geeta of Punjabi culture. But I don`t think anyone can argue that Ghulam Farid has supplanted Bulleh Shah has the people`s favourite poet. Ghulam Farid is extremely popular with both classical and folk singers and this probably at least partly explains it, but I don`t think it`s the whole story.

ballukhan #25

That is really sad!

I am glad someone (who else but an Indian) picked up on what I found the funniest part of the article.

For others: Was Bulleh Shah really a Muslim? Does Sufism really have anything to do with Islam?

Or is this merely an association of convenience?

BaluKhan

I dont understand that poem you quoted by Bulle Shah. What is the meaning of the motif of the soil?

I dont think much of these sufi poets. All they do is praise the almighty. Not long before Bulle Shah was born Shakespeare was writing his eternal masterpieces. Yet all these Indian subcontinental poets only seem to have one thing to say....God is so wonderful, Mullah and Pandit are evil, tear down the walls to your heart...blah blah blah, over and over again. Like one trick ponies.

Wasnt there ever a secular poetry in the Punjab that spoke about the dirt of the soul, evil, sin, sex and love and hatred, without referring to God?

Somebody please enlighten me. I am congenitally wary of Holy Men and their poetry. In my experience Sufis anaesthetise you with ``All religions are the same, God is love, all men are equal, praise the almighty he lives in all faiths, he is inside you and is love`` but it somhow all ends up with ``Now convert to Islam or you will burn in hell and die you Kufr b@5tard!!``

Are there any Bhakti`s left? I met a few sadhus and one of them winked at me like he wanted to see my lingam, the other ones philosophy seemed to be, ``Drink bhang and the world will be at peace....``

I always hated hippies, and to think we had this stupid philosophy in India for 2000 years really depresses me.

Bulleh Shah believed in internal Islam -- not the external -- legalistic -- sado masochistic -- ritualistic -- barbaric Islam...

.....for him Koran was a vehicle for an intellectual journey that took him to that quantum level of spirituality -- where the creator and the created became ONE -- All in One -- and One in All.............NOT a manual for beheadings and hostage taking.......

Romair:-

``To the point that much of the written material about this great Muslim thinker is from Hindu and Sikh authors. ``

That is really sad! THe problem is that the mullahs have always tried to come in between the almighty and his mortals through their discourses (some of which are absolute nonsense and goes in the name of ijtehad). These mullahs have denounced the ruhaniyat of Bulleh Shah and other sufis because they encourage the ordinary mortals to ``deviate`` from the ``true`` path that mullahs claim to show. The mullahs would lose everything if muslims were to set themselves on the path of Bulley Shah:

``Maati kudam karendee yaar,
Vaah vaah maati de gulzaar;
Maati ghora maati jora, maati daa aswaar,
Maati maati nu (n) dorave, maati daa chankaar.

Maati maati nu(n) maaran lag-gee, maati de hathiyaar.
Jis maati par bahutee maati, so maati hankaar;
Maati baagh bagheechaa maati, maati dee gulzaar.
Maati maati nu (n) vekhan aayee, maati dee a bahar;

Hus khed phir maati hove, paindee pau pasaar.
Bullah ja(n) eh bujhaarat buj-jhe,
Taa(n) lah bhau siro(n) maar.``



``The soil is in ferment, O friend
Behold the diversity.
The soil is the horse, so is the rider
The soil chases the soil, and we hear the clanging of soil
The soil kills the soil, with weapons of the soil.
That soil with more on it, is arrogance
The soil is the garden so is its beauty
The soil admires the soil in all its wondrous forms
After the circle of life is done it returns to the soil
Answer the riddle O Bulleh, and take this burden off my head.``


So welcome to the path of the heretic sufis!!

Saminashah #15: You are welcome. Can you speak and/or understand Punjabi?

garam_chai #16: You are welcome. Punjabi poetry of the past few centuries is indeed quite interesting. Especially the verses with a Sufiana background. I think someone should do a piece on Sikh Punjabi poetry also.

nasab #17: Pakistan does have a caste system. Though it is a much milder version of most caste systems. It is more of a khnadan system with a basis in the financial position of one`s ancestors.

syke #18: It is definintely important to study anything that origianted from the areas one belongs to. Bulleh Shah spoke and wrote in my first language. He belonged to my religion. He walked around and grew up in areas, around Lahore, where I grew up also. Stretching it to the extreme, had he been around today, more than likely, he would be a Pakistani. As am I. Hence I have much more in common with him than with, say, Kant and Aristotle. Interestingly, so many educated Punjabis know of Aristotle`s ideas, and not of Bulleh Shah`s.

I am afraid I cannot share your enthusiasm for the survival of Punjabi in Pakistan. I think it is dying a slow death. It will survive amongst Sikhs for religious reasons. But in Pakistan, if Pakistan advances and gets more literate, Punjabi will disappear, eventually, or morph into something else. There is absolutely nothing of scientific and economic value (other than movies and pop songs) being written in it. And each generation of post-partition Punjabi children speaks it less and less. This makes it even more important to translate Bulleh Shah and others.

Pushto will survive, because it is a national langauge of a country, i.e. Afghanistan. Sindhi and Baluchi will die off quicker than Punjabi, in Pakistan. Baluchi is almost already completely dead.

jayraj1 #21: You are welcome. To the best of my knowledge, Bulleh Shah was bi-lingual and maybe even quadra-lingual, in Punjabi, Saraiki, Persian, and Arabic. Don`t know if he spoke Urdu. Punjabi and Sariaki and Persian being so similar to Urdu, maybe he did.

Urstruly #22: I don`t think one can understand any religion without being a spiritual person. My guess is that the founders of most religions, if not all religions, were very spiritual people. Specifically Muhammad, who used to meditate in a cave, even before he laid the foundations of Islam.

qambar #23: You are welcome.....

Umair,

This is a great article! Thanks a ton!

`Qambar`

Sometimes it bothers me (when I compare myself to others) that I am not a very spiritual person. I have no interest in sufi-ism or spirituality. I do not know the meaning of either. I am not even convinced that it can imrove the quality of my life in any shape or form. Are there any other people like me, out there?

i think this was a great peice about a great poet..it is times like these when u can actually link ureself to your culture..i think it is imp. for us to know about the great poets of our own time rather than just relate to shakespeare!!!..i think punjabi will never die...so v should stop worrying about it..because not all of us are punjabis bur v still apprecaite the language..i think it may be called the third language in Pakistan....which is sayin alot..where is pashtu..sindhi..n pahari ranked???

garam-chai:[ & others] 16

Just to throw cold water on your enthusiastic gloat about shariat. The context here is about intellectualism , bookishness, legal hair-splitting, social-sciencism, spin doctoring, analysis by Harvard harlots , anthropology-for-oil & minerals, `litterature` littorism, and such kind of moderatism.

Shariat and tareequat are an integral part of evey sage The word SUFI has become a polluted word, and I seldom use it now that it has been adopted by westernised vultures. They think it is a kind of gay-soul-, where sword is an alien concept: they forget Ali--the ultimate and unanimous source of all such sages

These sages whose reputation has survived the vagaries of Time & Space of whatever belief system were never sharabis, chursees, bhungees, haraamkaars, or haraam khores.

Ironically the ``muslims`` who try to glean some lustre off from these sages are exactly the opposite in character , creed, and deed than that of these sages.