(c. AD 1628–91; c. AH 1037–1102)
Sultan Bahu ranks amongst the greatest Sufi poets of Punjab. Together with Bulleh Shah and the eighteenth-century poet Varis Shah (fl. 1766), Sultan Bahu is a household name wherever Punjabi is spoken.
Greatly influenced by the ideas of Mohyuddin Ibn ‘Arabi and Mansur Hallaj, his poetry constantly questions orthodoxy and literal, legalistic interpretations of Islam. Regarded as a saint, he was a Sufi in the Qadria order and a prolific writer on Sufism.
Sultan Bahu’s verses are sung all over Pakistan and India by qawwali and kafi singers, and his shrine in Garh Maharaja in Punjab, Pakistan, is a place of pilgrimage where an annual festi val is held with great fervour.
I am no accomplished scholar,
Nor a judge, nor doctor of law;
My heart neither hell desires,
Nor my soul to heaven aspires.
I do not fast as required,
Nor am I the pure, praying kind.
All I want is union with God,
I care not for the false or true.
They’re not Hindu or Muslim.
They do not pray in mosque or temple.
Yet they receive the Light of God
And are immersed in beautiful visions.
These madmen are truly sane.
They are lost in God’s domain.
I would give my life for these
Who are blessed with Love’s disease!
God is not up there, my friends,
Nor in the Kaaba does He reside;
He is not in learned books,
Nor inside the minaret He hides.
He is not in Ganga, Jamuna,
Nor He in Benaras abides.1
Don’t get lost in searching for Him.
Find yourself a truthful guide!
The heart’s a river deeper than the sea.
Who can within its deepest secret see?
In the heart are storms and waves
And ships that have sunk without trace;
In the heart are lit the lamps
That rival the heavenly stars!
He who dwells in the heart’s domain
Will for ever with the Lord remain!
That heart is special amongst hearts
Who is free of suspicion and doubt,
Free of plenty and free of drought,
Indifferent to the good and great.
The heart is a miracle of body and soul,
Free of all impure thoughts;
In the company of the Friend,
It’s full of light where darkness ends!
Belief and worldly desire, twin sisters, Bahu;
Sharia forbids it: you cannot marry the two.
Think about it, O you wise,
How can fire and water compromise?
That scholar is indeed dishonest
Who tries to have both of these.
The heart’s river is deeper than the sea.
Dive in searcher, find the pearl!
That soul which has not drunk of this
Is in constant thirst, alas!
With reflection and absorption,
Hope for union stays alive.
That guide is worse than a fallen woman
Who is full of falsity and lies!
The sigh of the afflicted turns mountain stones
To fall like autumn leaves.
The sigh of the afflicted makes the poisonous snakes
Shudder and hide.
The sigh of the afflicted makes stars
Rain down from the skies.
But the sigh of the afflicted
Is the Lover’s friend and He knows.
Anyone can have the Kalimah on his tongue,
But no one has it in his heart!
The Lovers read the word of Love
And soar in the heavens above.
When my Friend made me recite
The words of faith,
I was forever saved!