May 19, 2002

Agha Saleem writes about the life of Shah Abdul Lateef Bhittai

SHAH Abdul Lateef Bhittai, the great mystic poet of Sindh, was born in Hala Haveli, a village in Hala Taluka of Hyderabad District. It is about 18 miles from Bhitt, his last resting place. Quite often, there is no consensus on the dates of birth and death of renowned personalities. There is a controversy on the date when Shah Abdul Lateef was born and when he died. Nevertheless, a majority of scholars now agree after intensive research that he was born in the year 1689 AD and died in 1752 AD at the age of 63.

Shah Lateef’s ancestors came from Herat (Afghanistan) with Tamerlane and settled in Sindh. His great grandfather, Shah Abdul Karim of Bulri, was a renowned poet and a saint. His father, Sayyed Habib Shah, was also a pious man. Habib Shah was in Hala Haveli, when Shah was born. After the birth of his son, Shah Habib shifted to Kotri, a place at a distance of about four miles from Bhitt and now in ruins. This is where Shah Lateef, in the prime of his youth, fell in love with the daughter of a powerful landlord, Mirza Mughal Beg. Shah Lateef wanted to marry her but Mughal Beg opposed the match and turned hostile to the family and Habib Shah was constrained to leave Kotri and settle in a small village on the outskirts.

Shah had discovered his ideal but could not win her. This shattered him completely and in a fit of despair he left home to wander in unknown places. Coming across a group of Hindu ascetics or jogis, he joined them in their travels to Hinglaj, Junagarh, Lahoot, Jassermere and Thar, the desert area of Sindh. During these wanderings he developed some differences with the ascetics and one night, when he was asleep, they left him.

After roaming around for three years, Shah Lateef felt an inner urge to go to Thatta, where he met Makhdoom Mohammad Mueen, the great religious scholar of his time and a Wahadatal Wajoodi sufi. Under his influence Shah Lateef also became a sufi, and on his mentor’s advice he abandoned his wanderings to return to his parents.

Meanwhile, the situation at home had changed. Some robbers had attacked Mughal Beg’s house and killed all the male members of his family. Taking this incident as a curse fallen on Mughal Beg’s family because he had annoyed his murshid, Habib Shah, the women came to him, sought his forgiveness and offered Mughal Beg’s daughter, Bibi Sayyeda, in marriage to Shah Lateef. Thus Shah Lateef was united with his beloved, whose loss had driven him to the wilderness for three years.

But physical union was no longer a cherished dream of Shah Lateef. He was a changed man after three years in the company of Hindu ascetics and his sojourn at Thatta with the sufi scholar. He had channelled his despair into mysticism to embark upon a spiritual voyage. His perception of love had also changed. He now believed in seeking out the object of love but not actually consummating his union. This belief he began to expound in his poetry.

In the period while he was away he had seen life in its true colours. He had observed people’s sufferings, miseries and deprivations. According to the sufi creed, man is a manifestation of God. Lateef saw God’s manifestation being humiliated and insulted when the hypocrite mullahs and clerics extracted money from ignorant people in the name of God and religion. The overall social scenario despaired him and he decided to retire in seclusion on a bhitt (dune) and this association with the bhitt gave him the name Shah Bhittai, meaning Shah of the Dune. It was on that dune that he composed great poetry.

In the year 1752 AD, when he was 63 years of age, he had a premonition of his death. He asked his disciples to play music and sing the poetry he had composed in raga Sohni. Wrapping himself in a white sheet, he retired to a hujra (ante chamber) and listened to the music for three days. When his disciples went in the hujra, they found him dead. He was buried on the bhitt.

 

Excerpts from

Melody of clouds: Shah Abdul Lateef Bhittai

By Agha Saleem

Available from Lareb Sound Corner, Shop # 2, Clifton Shopping Centre, Fl-1, Clifton, Karachi

120pp. Rs300

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