UMERKOT, April 30: Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai was a wandering Sufi poet and philosopher and his was the message of love, humanity, tolerance, peace and pluralism.

Shah Latif lives in the hearts of people of Tharparkar. Even common Tharis like peasants and shepherds can recite and sing Shah’s verses, said Syed Waqar Hussain Shah, general secretary of Latif Foundation and the son of Syed Nisar Hussain Shah, Sajjada Nashin of the shrine of Shah Latif, at Jashan-i-Latif in Umerkot fort on Monday.

The function was organised by the Latif Foundation to pay tribute to the great Sufi poet.

Columnist Mir Hassan Arisar and Arbab Nek Mohammad, intellectual Yaqoob Saqib, poets Jumman Darbadar and Haleem Baghi read papers on Shah’s poetry. Darbadar said Shah’s diction was simple yet it had multiple meanings. Most of his characters were women and he presented himself as a woman in his poetry.

He focused on soil, patriotism, plight of people and various other subjects. Even today Latif is alive in the hearts of people in villages and they remembered several of his verses by heart.

He said that he is so popular that when illiterate rural women are hurt by something they express their feelings through verses from Shah’s Sur Marvi.

Shah has mentioned flora and fauna, topography and landscape of Sindh in his poetry. He visited almost all of historical Sindh and parts of today’s India, made himself well versed in local lore and folk stories and used their characters in the poetry, Darbadar said.

He said that Marvi, who symbolised patriotism in Bhittai’s poetry, was detained in a fort in Umerkot. If Shah had not made her heroine of his poetry, she would have remained unknown, he said.

Yaqoob Saqib described Syed Ali Mir Shah as the only authority on Shah Latif and said that many verses of other poets had been attributed to Shah. Mysticism is the soul of his poetry and no one can understand him without understanding mysticism, he said.

He said the Jat community people were Shah’s true devotees because a Jat who did not remember 1,000 verses was not considered a true Jat. Shah was also an Islamic revolutionary poet, said Mr Saqib.

Mir Hassan Arisar said that Sindh and its neighbouring regions were facing political instability in Shah’s era and he introduced a new poetic approach which was surprising and against the values of the times.

He confronted powers of his time and because of that nobody could match his poetry till centuries to come.

Lal Singh Sodho appealed to academia to conduct research on Shah’s poetry and include it in syllabus in detail. He was an ambassador of peace and pluralism, he said.

Amjad Mangi, Dadlo Faqir, Mehran Memon and Allah Bachayo Bhatti also spoke at the function. Later, Karim Faqir, Ramzan Faqir and Allah Dino Junejo enthralled the audience by Sufi music.