ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday said peace, love and brotherhood can only be promoted in Pakistan through the thoughts and messages of Sufi poets.
Speaking at an international Sachal conference, he said there was a need to spread the message of Sufis and promote the soft image of Pakistan in the world.
The conference was organised in connection with the 199th anniversary of Sufi poet Sachal Sarmast by Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL). It was presided over by politician Mehtab Akbar Rashdi.
The minister said Sachal spread the message of religious tolerance through his poetry and tolerance was needed in these days of the epidemic. Sufis poets created spiritual awakening through their poetry in the Indus Valley and spread awareness throughout the region. Sachal Sarmast’s name is prominent in Sindh after Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, he said.
The number of beneficiaries of the spiritual and intellectual blessings of Sachal Sarmast is unlimited. If we spread the message of Sufism, many problems can be overcome.
We need to spread message of Sufis to promote soft image of Pakistan in world, minister says
The era of Sachal Sarmast was the era of Kalhora and Talpur rulers of Sindh. There was extremism and religious hatred at a peak. In such a situation, Sachal Sarmast turned Sindh into a place of peace for the common man through his poetry.
“He felt the surrounding environment intensely and accepted its impact and there was softness in his temper and the colour of the welfare and wellness of humanity apparent in his poetry,” she said.
She said jurisprudential differences were on the rise during the Kalhora period and Sachal Sarmast was well aware that courtier scholars were involved in the background of the hatred. Accordingly, he started a movement against the scholars through his poetry. This subject was new in Sindhi poetry so this Idea gained popularity.
Dr Yousuf Khushk, the chairman PAL said Sufism was not just a theory for Sachal Sarmast rather it had emerged as an experience and attitude of life. He sees the universe through the eyes of a Sufi and whether the Sufi is from Delhi or Deccan or Darza Sindh, the feelings are the same. Sachal Sarmast, Khwaja Mir Dard, and Wali Deccani were contemporaries but not related to one language. It is the perfection of Sachal’s mysticism that a person has not gone out of his area all his life.
He said it was the perfection of Sachal’s scientific mysticism that a person has not gone out of his area all his life and is giving a universal message with great simplicity, cleanliness, elegance and enthusiasm, sitting in a remote town like Darza.
Jabbar Mirza from Islamabad said Sachal’s name was Mian Abdul Wahab Farooqi but being famous for telling the truth became Sachal, Sacho and Sachyoo. No one else was born in Sindh like him, he said.
Taj Joyo from Hyderabad said Sachal Sarmast is called Mansoor Sani and Attar-i-Sindh but if their intellectual sources are studied Hafiz Shirazi also has a profound effect on Sachal.
Nasr Malik from Denmark said poetry of Sachal Sarmast had been introduced in the circle of Danish Sufi since 1291 and was working as a beacon for seekers of unity, existence, spirituality and peace of mind.
Dr Abasin Yousafzai from Peshawar said Sachal Sarmast’s poetry did not believe in language, race, region and religious boundaries between human beings but advocates the formation and welfare of society according to his universal ideology.
Dr Fatima Hassan from Karachi said love for human beings is the belief of all Sufis but Sachal has the characteristic that he was familiar with all the languages spoken in the region.
Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2020