His Diction Appealed to All

By Syed I. R Kazimi - The Rising Nepal - Kathmandu, Nepal
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints.

Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher.

He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. The Shah is synonymous with Sindh.

He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh.

One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare' Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.

The Shah's poetry is his tool for preaching Islam - the religion of man's peace, within and without. That is the Sufi thought - divine love.

Love, driven by a surge in man's longing for return to his Creator, with qualifications to earn His bounties in the hereafter.

The modern West is familiar with Sindh's Sufi culture and history, largely from the enormous studies written by the late Prof. Dr. Annemarie Schimmel, but that is not the only German connection with our living Sufi heritage.

Shah Abdul Latif's poetic works were first compiled and published at Leipzig under the title "The Risalo" by Ernest Trumpp in 1866. Its second edition, of course, was published in Bombay by Kazi Ibrahim. Since then, the Risalo has been researched and republished by many admiring scholars - Muslims, Hindus and Christians.

The Culture Department of the Government of Sindh has made commendable contributions to making published materials available to an ever-widening readership.

The Shah's teachings, dressed in poetry and music, constitute the real soul of Pakistan.

The all-pervading theme of his poetry is divine love. That, of course, is common with all Sufi saints, but what singles out and perpetuates the Master's work is the allegorical presentations of his teachings.

His diction appealed to all - the literate and the illiterate, the rich and the poor - and he wrote in that Sindhi which was then the language of the commoners, while Persian was the language of the officials and elite. The commoners understood him readily, for he also employed, as characters in his poetry, the peasants, weavers, fishermen, sailors and iron smiths - all the professions prevalent then in this land.

Drawing from the different folklore and ballads popular in his times, the Shah used those stories and the teachings of Islam as warps and wefts, weaving them into exquisite fabrics of thoughts and delivering them in his own music, which attracted and engrossed those who converged around him.

He fascinated and captivated his generation, thus spreading Islam far and wide, from Sindh in its south to Punjab and beyond in its north. The large following, which the Shah's teaching command, can be gauged from the fact that The Risalo has been translated into several languages including English, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic and Bengali.

All his life he fought like a ghazi, as against being a martyr, urging his followers to work: against hatred with love; against self aggrandisement with benevolence; against lust with grace; against parochialism with pluralism; against violence with peace; against fanaticism with Quranic commands: present day thinkers recognise the Shah's message as that of pluralism and universalism and many scholars have researched - and continue to research - one or the other aspect of his poetry and music.

One of his translators, H.T. Sorely, has said that "No one can read his poetry without being conscious at once that here is something really great; here is beauty expressed with utter frankness of sincerity, without conceits, elaboration or pomposity. In Shah are set forth, in sheer simplicity, the feelings of reverence, adoration and humility - feelings that are the base of all religions and are essential to the highest qualities of poetry."

Shah Abdul Latif was born in a Syed family in 1690 AD. His childhood was spent in Soi-Qandar, a few miles east of Bhit. His adolescence was spent in the village Kotri Moghul where, historians say, his ascetic nature firmed up.

The Risalo contains the complete works of The Master. It is divided into 36 chapters called sur {which, in classical music of the subcontinent, means the mode of singing}. Five of these chapters are not his poetry.

For each of his baits and waiis, he specified the raags in which they have to be sung. His music and his poetry go hand in hand, both adding to the value of each other, thus driving home his teachings.

Music was his constant companion, and he was basking in it when he was breathing his last on the 14th day of Safar, the second month of the Muslim calendar in 1754 at the age of 63.

Of his last moments, the Shah was proceeding on a pilgrimage to Karbala when one of his devotees reminded him of his stated desire to be buried at Bhit, and he returned to his abode. Here he put on black clothes and sang from his Sur Kedaro for 20 days in his solitude.

Emerging thereafter, he took a bath and, covering himself with a white sheet of cloth, called upon the assembled fakirs to sing. This they did devotedly for three consecutive days until they found the Great Master had crossed the bridge.

His tomb, of a remarkable graceful architecture, ordered by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro, was the work of Eidan, the then most eminent artisan. Here, some of the Shah's relics are preserved for ardent devotees to venerate his turban, his long walking stick and the beggar bowl from which he used to eat and drink.

[picture: Kalri Lake, the burial place of Noori Jam Tamachi. Noori Jam Tamachi (Sindhi:نوري ڄام تماچي) is a mythical Sindhi folk tale. It is a tragic love story, similar to Romeo and Juliet, between King Jam Tamachi and a Noori, belonging to community of fishermen (Muhanas).
According to the legend, Noori was buried in the Kalri Lake. Today there is a mausoleum in the middle of the lake for Noori that is visited by hundreds of devotees daily.
The legend has been retold countless times, and is often presented as metaphor for divine love by Sufis. One of its most famous renderings is in Sindhi poetry by Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai in his Shah Jo Risalo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noori_Jam_Tamachi]