In the undivided Punjab, one could hear the Shlokas
(couplets) of Farid vibrating in the early dawn.
Everyone, irrespective of caste and religon would
recite his verses with equal passion.
Sheikh Farid
the earliest Sufi poet of Punjab was born in AD 1180
at a place called Khotwal, in district Multan of the
pre-partitioned Punjab. His ancestors belonged to
a noble family of Kabul and had migrated to India.
His grandfather Qazi Shoaib was offered a job as Qazi
of Khotwal by the Sultanate of Delhi which he accepted.
Farid has laid
a lot of stress on the impermanence of life, death
and the punishment to be meted out to the sinners.
One finds vivid depiction of spiritual experience
in his poetry, which he narrates in an easy manner
by using symbols and metaphors derived from life.
Being a scholar, he chooses his vocabulary very carefully
and uses words and objects from everyday life, which
are familiar to the reader.
As an intellectual,
Farid is superb. His account is brief but accurate.
His poetry is full of philosophical thought which
is always heavy and burdened with the Islamic terminology.
As one critic has said, Islam is the body and Mysticism
is the Soul. Thus we may conclude that Sufism of Baba
Farid is nothing but Shariat-Tariqat based
spiritualism. |
