My Favourite Punjabi Poet

Essay: My Favourite Punjabi Poet

Outlines:
1. Introduction: 

My favourite Punjabi Poet: Bulleh Shah.
2. Early life and background.
3. Career.
4. Poetry.
5. A beacon of peace.
6. The Humanist.
7. Conclusion: a perfect faqir and a true lover.
Of course, there are many top class Punjabi poets in the classic and modern times. But I like most Syed Abdullah Shah Qadri (1680-1757) popularly known as Bulleh Shah, who was a Mughal-era Punjabi Muslim sufi poet, a humanist and philosopher. His first spiritual teacher was Shah Inaybt Qadri, a sufi murshid of Lahore. Bulleh Shah gathered spiritual treasures under the guidance , of his murshid and was known for the karamat (miraculous powers) he had.
Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch, Bahawalpur, Punjab, in Pakistan. His ancestors had migrated from Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan. When he was Six months old, his parents relocated to Malakwal. There his father, Shah Muhammad Darwaish, was a preacher in the village mosque and a teacher. His father later got a job in Pandoke, about 50 miles southeast of Kasur. Bulleh Shah received his early schooling in Pandoke, and moved to Kasur for higher education. He also, received education from
Maulana Mohiyuddin. His spiritual teacher was the eminent sufi saint, Shah Inayat Qadri.
A large amount of what is known about Bulleh Shah comes through legends, and is subjective; to the point that there isn't even agreement among historians concerning his precise date and place of birth. Some "facts” about his life have been pieced together from his own writings. Other “facts" seem to have been passed down through oral traditions. Bulleh Shah practised the sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shari Hussain, Sultan Bahu, and Shah Sharaf. Bulleh Shah lived in the same period as the famous Sindhi sufi poet, Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai. His life-span also overlapped . with the legendary Punjabi poet Waris Shah, of Heer Ranjha fame, and the famous Sindhi sufi poet Abdul Wahad, better known by his pen-name, Sacha! Sarmast.
His verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is the kafi, popular in Punjabi (Saraiki) and Sindhi poetry. Bulleh Shah's writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions io the sociological problems of the world around him as he lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of sufism: Shariat (Path), Tariqat (Observance), Haqiqat (Truth) and Ma’arfat (Union). The simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of his appeal. 

The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the kafi, a style of Punjabi, Sindhi and Siraiki poetry used not only by the sufis of Sindh and Punjab, but also by Sikh gurus. Bulleh Shah’s poetry and philosophy, strongly criticizes Islamic religious orthodoxy of his day.
Bulleh Shah’s time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs. But in that age, Baba Bulleh Shah was a beacon of hope and peace for the citizens of Punjab. While Bulleh Shah was in Pandoke, Muslims killed a young Sikh man who was riding through their village in retaliation for murder of some Muslims by Sikhs. Baba Bulleh Shah denounced the murder of an innocent Sikh and was censured by the Mullas and Muftis of Pandoke. Bulleh Shah maintained  that violence which was not the answer to violence. Bulleh Shah also hailed Guru Tegh Bahadur as a ghazi and incurred the wrath of the fanatic Muslims at the time. Banda Singh Bairagi was a contemporary of Bulleh Shah. In retaliation for the murder of Guru Gobind Sinigh’s two sons by Aurangzeb, he sought revenge by killing common Muslims. Baba Bulleh Shah tried to convince Banda Singh Bairagi to renounce his campaign of revenge. 

Bulleh Shah told him that the same sword which fell upon Guru Gobind Singh's sons and innocent Sikhs also fell upon innocent Muslims. Hence killing innocent Muslims was not the answer to Aurangzeb's reign of oppression.
Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him as he lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. Thus, many people have put his kafis to music, from humble street-singers to renowned sufi singers. Bulleh Shah's popularity stretches uniformly across Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, to the point that much of the written material about this philosopher is from Hindu and Sikh authors.
Bulleh Shah was an evolved soul, a perfect faqir and a true lover. Through the love for his Master, he realized the Lord. In his love, one finds sincerity, sacrifice and renunciation. His writings, as also his life, manifest transcendence of physical love to divine love. Indeed, this is the path of all true mystics, all true lovers of God.