By Staff Report

Daily Times: August 28, 2007

LAHORE: Famous Sufi poet and saint Bulleh Shah has conveyed message of secularism and to understand his message one needs to understand history, culture and civilisation of the time, said Academy of Adbiyat director Qazi Javed in a seminar organised by the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture on Monday.

The seminar titled ‘Bulleh Shah da Zehni Virsa’ (Bulleh Shah’s heritage) was held to celebrate Bulleh Shah’s 257th anniversary. Javed said Bulleh Shah belonged to the ultimate unity of Being (wahdat-ul-wajood) school of thought and that his objectives were to fight against sectarianism, introducing free expressions of mysticism and promoting interfaith harmony. He said his poetry emphasised to avoid sensitive religious issues that could cause disharmony.

Javed said the philosophy of ultimate unity of Being was rejected during Bulleh Shah’s time but he remained an ardent adherent of it. He said the cornerstone of his philosophy was self-recognition and the promotion of humanitarianism instead of praying and ceremonial rituals. “Knowledge is not the solution of the problem but it creates problem. Only ishq (love) can help find God and if any person, belonging to any religion, sincerely searches for God, he will find Him,” said Javed.

Javed said mysticism had no link with orthodoxy and that for this reason mystic saint Mansoor Hilaj had been killed in 980. He said Data Gunj Baksh had been born the year Hilaj had been killed. He said Data Gunj Baksh and Imam Ghazali had initiated moderate mysticism which had been acceptable to the orthodox rules of the time. He said Data Gunj Baksh had built dialectical relation between the orthodoxy and mysticism. He said after these mystic saints, the Chistian order had been introduced in the Punjab by Moinud Din Chishti and Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. In this sequence, he said, was saint Baba Farid Ganj Shakar who united all sects and religions. He said afterwards Shah Hussain and Sultan Bahu from the Qadri Sufi order had propagated mysticism in the Punjab.

Javed said Shah Aniyat Qadri had been the mentor of Bulleh Shah who adhered to three Sufi orders – Qadri, Malamti and Shattari – and that Bulleh Shah had also adhered to these three Sufi orders’ philosophy.

Javed said, “The history of the Punjab reveals rich Sufi heritage in this area and it is our duty to preserve the teachings and traditions of these Sufi saints.”

Sir Baghit Singh, who had come from India, said, the heritage of the Punjab was its Punjabi language which was written in India in two scripts – Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi.