Mysticism seems to be the ultimate frame of mind. In the near future it may reign supreme, since the whole world has been disillusioned with communism, socialism and Mullaism.
Mysticism and pantheism were always popular in the ancient world. Greece, Iran and India were its centres before the advent of Islam. William Blake and William Wordsworth supported this theory in their poems. Among the Muslims, Sheik Akbar Ibn-e-Arabi was the pioneer in this field. The saints of the Chishtia Order set up monasteries in the subcontinent.
But pantheism reached its peak with Hazrat Khwaja Ghulam Fareed (1845-1901) Chachraan Sharif in Bahawalpur state. He had a multidimensional personality, a poet who had a heart of gold for which millions of people adored him. He worshipped every grain of sand and every peace of soil for they reflected his Lord, the ultimate glory, his only love.
Khwaja Ghulam Fareed was a well-versed poet and well-read scholar who expressed his mystic experiences with grace in seven languages. He knew all the aspects of each language and had acquired mastery over different rhyme patterns and metrical compositions. However, the major part of his poetry is in Saraiki. Hence Saraiki poetry, rooted in mysticism, is deeply indebted to him.
An arrow, eyes have cast thine
Moved have heaven and earth divine
Khwaja Ghulam Fareed never blew out the candle of his love of the Almighty in his soul throughout his life and like a saint kept on enlightening the people about the Almighty. As a mystic he went through all stages of pantheism, which we find in his preaching.
Leave aside the passion of all else
Except the Lord, is an illusion all else
He taught through his verse the process of purification of soul and groomed high moral values among the people by inculcating in them the real reason for God’s creation of man and the universe, and how to finally be one with Him.
Allured since this heart has been by thou thus
Left I have my wedding bed to wander in the deserts
His soul seems soaked in mysticism in these lines and out of self-renunciation he exalts human soul by identifying it with the divine spirit.
Fully doth He Himself manifest
The adored beloved in every object
To Khwaja Ghulam Fareed, pantheism is not an ideology but an experience, for every verse composed by him possesses purity of emotions with a blend of pain and pleasure when the sharp blade of pathos incises deep in his melancholic soul and out of the agony of solitude the soul of the mystic embraces its ultimate goal, the eternal beauty.
It appears that the Almighty reveals Himself to the mystic poet in all his poems. The sand of Cholistan, plants and small bushes of the desert and ponds of Rohi offer him the splendour of His grace.
Where ever are oases and green grounds, my friend
The fear of falling in love is always there, my friend
Fareed’s only love in his whole life was the Almighty.
My only love, my sole beloved thou are
My religion, my firm faith thou are
My sparking spirit, my imperative essence thou are
My flesh and frame, my sublime soul thou are
Is every where luminescence of love obvious
Is the lord glorious, is the Lord glorious
KAAFI 22
Fate-beaten here, I always in his love languish
But he in Arabia doth happily flourish
Wait I earnestly O’my sweetheart, always in thy love
In my forlorn heart pierced deeply down is the lance of thy love
My wretched heart has ardent longing only for thy love
Gathered in my heart are all kinds of agonies, O’my love
To find ye I’ve become a heavy-hearted hermit and do I wander
In every nook and comer of India, Sindh, Punjab and Marr do I wander
To search thee everywhere in ruins arid crowded towns do I wander
Somehow or the other to see my most venerated beloved do I wander
The day the lion of thy love has wounded my soul
Stab me griefs and find doth no peace my soul
Gone have the fervour of youth and grievous is my soul
End comforts and withered have flowers of mirth in my soul
Though I flounder madly everywhere and stumble helplessly here
Free of cost will I sell myself on thy name here
Wish I to be a humble slave of thy slaves in the world here
Are the mongrels of thy palace respectable for me here
The most lovely friend and beloved of mine are ye!
Great! the most enchantingly revered beloved of Hijaz are ye!
To witness Fareed’s mourning abode once visit ye! Since eternity, earnestly yearn I to see ye!
