Bulleh Shah: A voice against religious bigotry
Introduction
“Not a believer inside the mosque,
am I nor a pagan disciple of false rites not the pure amongst the impure
Neither Moses, nor the pharaoh” ~ Bulleh Shah
Baba
Bulleh Shah is one poet who wrote in complete surrender of love. At times
singing, at times dancing and at times dressed as a woman, he also became the
voice of woman in Punjab.
A
Sufi saint, whose philosophy of life was beyond the boundaries of worldly
restrictions, his poetry is filled with praise for the stature of Baba Shah
Inayat (1643–1728)
In
an age of violence, materialism and the consequent anxiety Bulleh Shah`s works,
which carry the message of inner peace and spiritual salvation, are a guide to
a better state of mind. The Sufi saint is undoubtedly a matchless torchbearer
of harmony, love and, above all, humanity.
He
was condemned by contemporary religious leaders for his iconoclastic and
critical views regarding the prevalent culture of theocracy and fanaticism.
Bulleh
Shah’s couplets have layers of meanings. He slams the religious scholars and
intellectuals for their practices and what they in reality preach. He
criticizes those who worship to show off in front of others rather than worship
the Almighty in true essence. He was against religious clerics who he believed
were doing business in the name of religion. His poetry reflects adoration and
love for God and Prophet Muhammad. His poetry would definitely appeal to
today’s generation who too like him live in an age of transition where
corruption and falsehood is in abundant. Bulleh Shah lived at the time when the
Mughal Empire was collapsing and new political forces were trying to replace
it. The people were most to suffer in those trying times. In today’s world
extremism is on the rise and state fails to provide welfare to its citizens.
The poetry of Bulleh Shah has not lost its relevance in today’s world. In fact
people would find it more appealing.
A voice against religious
bigotry
Bulleh
Shah’s time was marked with communal strife between Muslims and Sikhs. But in
that age Baba Bulleh Shah was a beacon of hope and peace for the citizens of
Punjab.
Bulleh
Shah’s times were out-of-joint. The Punjab was particularly disturbed. There
were incursions from the northwest -whether by Nadir Shah or Ahmed Shah Abdali.
There were also fundamentalists like Sheikh Ahmed Sarhandi who infused much
communal hatred and disharmony inconsistent with the Sufi way of life and
ideology which laid emphasis on the unity of God, amity and communal
cohesiveness. They had little use for formal religion whether it was Islam or
Hinduism. They sneered at meaningless rituals and ceremonials and propagated
liberation of man from the stranglehold of blind faith.
What
seems to have irked Bulleh Shah, and for that matter his contemporary mystics
the most, was the widening gulf between the Hindus and the Muslims of the day.
The root cause of the misunderstanding was Sheikh Ahmed of Sarhand, an Islamic scholar who
believed:
“The glory of Islam lies in
ridiculing the non-Muslims. Those who give quarter to Kafirs disgrace Islam…”
Such
were the times when Bulleh Shah emerged as a protagonist of communal amity in
the Punjab. Bulleh Shah’s was a major voice against injustice. He called Guru
Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, who was beheaded by Aurangzeb, a Ghazi (Conqueror). He
hailed Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, as a protector of Hinduism:
I talk about neither yesterday nor
tomorrow;
I talk about today.
Had Gobind Singh not been there,
They would all be under Islamic
sway.
He
gave no quarter to hypocrisy. He was particularly hard on Mulla/Quazi and Mufti
in the Muslim social hierarchy. He accepted no discipline. Says he:
I am emancipated, emancipated I am,
I am no prisoner of being born a
Syed,
All the fourteen heavens are my
territory,
I am slave to none.
Only they shout loud while calling
others to prayer
Whose hearts are not pure?
Those who go to Mecca on pilgrimage
Have little else to occupy them
here.
Poetry Style & Popular Poetry
Collections
The
verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the Kafi, a style of
Punjabi, Sindhi and Siraiki poetry used not only by the Sufis of Sindh and Punjab,
but also by Sikh gurus. Bulleh Shah’s poetry and philosophy strongly criticizes
Islamic religious orthodoxy of his day.
Baba
Bulleh Shah wrote and narrated many poetic verses. Some of the most renowned
ones are: Makkeh Gaya, Gal Mukdee Naheen, Bulleya Ki Jana Main Kaun, Verhe Aa
Varh Mere, Main Jana Jogi De Naal, Aa Mil Yaar, Uth Gaye Gawandon Yaar, Bas
Karjee Hun Bas Karjee, Tere Ishq Nachaya, Ishq De Naween Naween Bahar, to name
a few.
Bulleh Shah was the rarest among rare to show immense moral courage to speak out the truth as he perceived it without considering consequences. He spared none; neither the political power, nor the religious authority and therein lies the appeal of his poetry, especially for those, who have been his devotees since childhood.
Bulleh
Shah personifies courage of conviction. He is a man of God, but a poet of the
people. The poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah has immense love and fraternity. Along
with poetry, Bulleh Shah also continued his hard work in mysticism and
spirituality, which is the symbol of saints.
Bulleh
Shah's electric spirit which chafed at the restriction of caste and sect
exposed him, during his life time, to the reproach of being unorthodox, but the
holiness of his life effectively silenced his critics.
There
is no doubt in saying that the version of Baba Bulleh Shah is not only for the
time it was written, but for the present and future too. More than 200 years
have been passed but Bulleh Shah is still alive by his poetry and spiritualism.
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