By Saeed Ahmad

 April 01, 2017

The first edition of “Saiful Malook” reprinted after 150 years Saiful Malook is the most famous and the best piece of versified work in the Punjabi language written by well-known Sufi poet Hazrat Mian Muhammad Bakhsh (1830-1907). “Saiful Malook” has reprinted again on 23rd March, 2017 after almost one and half century by Prof. Saeed Ahmad, one of the devotees of Hazrat Mian Muhammad Bakhsh & author of Great Sufi Wisdom Series of books.

Well-known Sufi poet Hazrat Mian Muhammad Bakhsh wrote 18 books, 17 in Punjabi and one in Persian. The most famous out of these books is “Saiful Maluk” (Safrul Ishq or the journey of Divine Love) is a magnum opus of the writer.

Hazrat Mian Muhammad Bakhsh wrote this book in the age of 33 years (according to the Hijra Calendar in 1279 (1863 AD) but it took him almost six years to bring it in its printable condition. It was not easy to print books in those days as he was residing in Khari Sharif, Mirpur, (the remotest area of the Punjab). Khari Sharif was the part of Punjab in those days, later on it was annexed with Kashmir territory during the British rule. Before writing the best versified piece of literature he had already written six books in his mother tongue Punjabi. Interestingly when he got printed Saiful Malook from Mustafai Printing Press, Kashmiri Bazar (old name of Urdu Bazar, Lahore) he had written ten books including Saiful Malook, all in Punjabi. Whilst he was writing this book, his spiritual brilliance was unmatchable which lead him to string saintly pearls of the Divine Love in the form of the book.

When the book was ready, he decided to go to Lahore himself for its proof reading and to get it printed. He stayed in Lahore for three months in the house of one of the saints of the Punjab, Molvi Abdullah Ji who wrote “baaraaN anwaa” in 18th century, a famous Punjabi book on Fiqaa.

The house was inside the Lohari Gate, within the wall city of Lahore. The book contains 373 pages (with addition of two more pages), on each page 25 couplets. The first edition of the book was printed in 1286 Hijra (1869 AD). www.indusviz.com The book is available at INDUS WISDOM, LOK VIRSA, ISLAMABAD