Punjabi Folk & Sufi Songs

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Khwaja Ghulam Fareed Sahib (Urdu/Shahmukhi/Seraiki: خواجہ فرید, Punjabi Gurmukhi ਖ਼ਾਜਾ ਫ਼ਰੀਦ, Hindi ख़्वाजा फ़रीद) or Khawaja Farid (1845-1901) was a Seraiki poet, mystic and Sajjada nashin (Patron saint) of the Punjab region of the Indian subcont…

Khwaja Ghulam Fareed Sahib (Urdu/Shahmukhi/Seraiki: خواجہ فرید, Punjabi Gurmukhi ਖ਼ਾਜਾ ਫ਼ਰੀਦ, Hindi ख़्वाजा फ़रीद) or Khawaja Farid (1845-1901) was a Seraiki poet, mystic and Sajjada nashin (Patron saint) of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. He was born and died at Chacharan Shrif but buried at Kot Mithan.

He was the son of Khwaja Khuda Bakhsh. His mother died when he was five years old and he was orphaned at age twelve when his father died. He was educated by his elder brother, Fakhr Jahan Uhdi.

He was a scholar of that time and wrote several books. He knew Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, Panjabi, Braj Bhasha, and Seraiki. He was a poet of Seraiki and Urdu. He also wrote some poems in Sindhi, Persian, and Braj Bhasha. He was an imperialist poet. He opposed British rule in Bahawalpur. He said to ruler of Bahawalpur in his poem, “You rule yourself on your state and finish police station of British from your state.”

Life

Khawaja Ghulam Farid, the top most spiritual poet in Siraiki Language, was born in 1845 A.D. at Kot Mithan, in a family of Arab settlers who had come to this country along with the Arab forces.

Maulana Khuda Bux had two sons, Khawaja Farid-ud-Din and Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din. It is said that when Khawaja Ghulam Farid was a child, Maulana Muhammad gave him the first lesson of the first alphabet “ALIF” and asked him to say “ALIF”. He repeated the same again and again till every-one present there was enveloped by a trance. Some qawali singers were invited and they too recited the same word on their musical instruments. The trance remained in sway for a considerable time.

Khawaja Farid’s mother died when he was only four years of age. He was looked after by his eider brother. At the age of eight, he had committed to memory the whole of the holy Quran. Thereafter Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan took the child to his palace at Ahmad Pur Sharqia for imparting him religious knowledge by some renowned scholar. At the age of thirteen, Khawaja Farid became the disciple of Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din, his elder brother. When he crossed 28 years of his age Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din died. He left for Ruhi where the remained for about eighteen years. It was a typical wilderness but suitable for a recluse saint. It was very beneficial for connection with Kot Mithan or Chachar. About this wilderness of Ruhi, we often read in his lyrics. He performed Haj Baitullah in 1876.

Khawaja Farid was conversant with seven languages Viz, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Multani, Sindhi, Hindi and Sansakrat. He led a life of purity and was utterly devoted to the righteous path of the Holy Prophet of Islam. May his soul ever rest in peace.

The lyrics of Khawaja Farid speak of the sadness of his separation from God and Muhammad, the beloved of Allah. He never reckoned himself away from his goal. But at times he felt a great separation and so he cried, groaned and sang in his ecstacy of the love which united him to his creator but with a veil in between them. The body acts as a most obedient slave, the sould gives life to the body and the spirit infuses the mechanical power in man. All these faculties he utilised only for the sake of Allah to approach Him, the only Goal for the man to attain.

The spiritual yearing, purification and elevation depends on so many factors which have been explained by saints and spiritualists. The shortest way to the creator is Love and Khawaja used this Method of attaining sublimation. All the attributes of Allah, we know are the off- shoots of Love. Khawaja Farid expressed this love in his fine verses.

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