bulleh shah is known to be an apostle of peace and a humanist .From the brief biography given above, illustrate how he is both a pacifist and a humanist
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Somewhere nearer to the local vernacular, 30 miles away from Lahore, in the tiny unknown city of Kasur lived an unknown man, named Abdullah Shah, a man whose writings are barely understood even by those who speak his language and which contain amongst them, such enlightening philosophies that even Smith and Kant would have been proud to claim them as their own. Mysterious is the turn of time. The man who had been refused by Mullahs to be buried after his death in the community graveyard because of his unorthodox views, today enjoys worldwide reverence and recognition. Bulleh Shah is universally admitted to have been the greatest of the Punjabi mystics. No Punjabi mystic poet enjoys a wider celebrity and a greater reputation. His poetry has gained immense popularity. He is in fact, the greatest Sufi of the world.
A large amount of what is known about Bulleh Shah comes through legends and is subjective to the point that there isn’t even an agreement among historians concerning his precise date and place of birth. Some facts about his life have been pieced together from his own writings and other facts seem to have been paved down through oral traditions. Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680 in the small village of Uch, Bahawalpur, Punjab, now Pakistan. When he was six years old his parents relocated to Malakwal, where his father, Shah Muhammed Darwaish, was a preacher in the village mosque and a teacher. Bulleh Shah received his earlier education in Pandoke and then moved to Kasur for higher education. He gained knowledge of Arabic, Persian and the Quran through his traditional teachers. After that, in an effort to move to the next level, he searched for a spiritual guide and eventually he found his Murshid in the form of Inayat Shah Qadri. Although Bulleh Shah was of a much higher Syed caste, yet he accepted Shah Inayat as his spiritual master and subordinated his life to his lower caste Murshid. Much of Bulleh Shah’s verses about love are actually written directly for his spiritual guide, Shah Inayat.
Although much of what is known today about Bulleh Shah comes through folklore and is anecdotal, however, what is neither anecdotal nor folklore, are the Punjabi verses that have been authored by Bulleh Shah. His style of writing is called Kafi – an established style of Punjabi poetry used by Punjabi Sufis and Sikh gurus. Though the number is disputed, Bulleh Shah is credited with authoring from fifty to one hundred and fifty Kafi. His life span overlapped with many legendary Punjabi poets like Waris Shah, Shah Abdul Latif Bhattai and Sachal Sarmast.
His writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him, describing the turbulence his motherland is passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of Sufism: Shariat (path), Tariqat (observance) , Haqiqat (truth)and Marfat ( union).This simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of his appeal.
His time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs, but in that age Bulleh Shah was a beacon of hope and peace for the citizens of Punjab. As a poet, he is different from the other Sufi poets and represents that strong and living pious nature of Punjabi character which is more reasonable than emotional or passionate. He practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain and Shah Sharaf. He thus pleaded to reach to Allah through the love of humanity and tameness of inner self.
Bulleh Shah was an evolved soul, a perfect faqir and a true lover. Through the love of his master, he realized the Lord. His life and writings are replete with subtle secrets of the path. They not only strengthen the love of a true lover but also encourage him to undergo the hardships for reaching the spiritual goal. His life and writings will serve as a lighthouse from times immemorial to true seekers of spiritual