One
of the most important Sufi poets in Punjabi, Ali Haider
belongs to later Mughal period. He was born in the
year 1690 AD at a place called Kazian in District
Multan. Unlike other Sufis, who discarded their religious
dogmas, Ali Haider stuck to his faith and traced the
mysticism through the Islamic philosophy of Wahdaniyat
( Monotheism) . According to him
all worldly possesions are perishable and have to
be left behind when the call from the Almighty comes.
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The
death is destined to take its toll under all circumstances
and one is required to give account of the deeds done
during the lifetime in the court of the Almighty.
Therefore, the worldly possesions are of no avail.
These are short lived and as such false. The real
thing is the name of God which alone is true.
The poet goes
on enumerating various articles of pomp and show and
discards all of them one by one. In the end, he makes
an endeavour at emotional integration of the two communities
- Hindus and Muslims. With a rational approach he
talks of Hindus and says, true is the name of Kartar.
While talking of Muslims he tells that true is the
name of prophet and true are his friends. Thus he
makes an effort to bring about rapprochment between
the two communities.
Though Ali
Haider has also used other characters from folk romances
of Punjab, like Sassi-Punnu, Mirza-Sahiban, Sohni-Mahiwal,
he obtained his zenith as a mystic only through his
interpretation of Heer. As compared to other characters
from Persian literature, he was more at home with
characters from Punjabi folklore. Like many other
Sufi poets of the Punjab, Ali Haider also tried his
pen on the famous romances of Laila Majnu, Yusuf Zulaikha.
His last account was left incomplete, due to his demise
in AD 1785 at the age of ninety five.
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