Mīān Muhammad Bakhsh was a
Sufi saint and a
Punjabi/
Pahari poet of great
repute. He is especially renowned as the writer of a book of poetry
called
Saiful Malūk.
He was born in a village called khanqa
peir-E-shah Gazi Khari Sharif, situated
near Mirpur District of Azad Jammu &
Kashmir
).
His Lineage
He belonged to the Gujjar caste and he was a fourth generation
descendant of
Pīr-e
Shāh Ghāzī Qalandar Damriyan Wali Sarkar, who was buried in
Khari Sharif. Pīr-e Shāh Ghāzī's
khalīfah was Khwājah Dīn
Muhammad; and his
khalīfah was Mīān Shamsuddīn, who had
three sons: Mīān Bahāval Bakhsh, Mīān Muhammad Bakhsh - the subject
of this article -, and Mīān 'Alī Bakhsh.
Mīān Muhammad Bakhsh's
ancestors originated in Gujrat
, but had
later settled in the Mirpur District
of Azad Jammu &
Kashmir. He was poet of Phari language (widely
spoken in different parts of Kashmir.
Dispute About His Date of Birth
There is much disagreement about his year of birth. Mahbūb 'Alī
Faqīr Qādirī, in a biography printed as an appendix to the text of
Saiful Malūk gives the
date as 1246 AH (1826 AD), a date also followed by the
Shāhkār
Islāmī Encyclopedia; 1830 and 1843 are suggested in other
works but are almost cetainly erroneous. Mīān Muhammad Bakhsh
himself states in his magnum opus -
Saiful Malūk - that he completed the
work during the spring in the month of
Ramadan, 1279 AH (1863 AD), and that he was then
thirty-three years of age- hence he must have been born in
1830.
His Upbringing
He was brought up in a very religious environment, and received his
early education at home. He was later sent with his elder brother,
Mīān Bahāval, to the nearby village of Samwal Sharīf to study
religious sciences, especially the science of
Hadith in the madrassah of Hāfiz Muhammad 'Alī.
Hāfiz Muhammad 'Alī had a brother, Hāfiz Nāsir, who was a
majzub, and had renounced worldly
matters; this dervish resided at that time in the mosque at Samwal
Sharīf. From childhood Mīān Muhammad had exhibited a penchant for
poetry, and was especially fond of reading
Yūsuf ō Zulaikhā by
Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami. During his time
at the madrassah, Hāfiz Nāsir would often beg him to sing some
lines from Jami's poetry, and upon hearing it so expertly rendered
would invariably fall into a state of spiritual intoxication.
Mīān Muhammad was still only fifteen years old when his father,
falling seriously ill, and realizing that he was on his deathbed,
called all his students and local notaries to see him. Mīān
Shamsuddīn told his visitors that it was his duty to pass on the
spiritual lineage that he had received through his family from
Pīr-e Shāh
Ghāzī Qalandar Damriyan Wali Sarkar; he pointed to his own son,
Mīān Muhammad, and told those assembled that he could find nobody
more suitable than he to whom he might award this privilege.
Everybody agreed, the young man's reputation had already spread far
and wide. Mīān Muhammad, however, spoke up and disagreed, saying
that he could not bear to stand by and allow his elder brother
Bahāvul to be deprived of the honour.
The old man was filled
with so much love for his son that he stood up and leaving his bed
grasped his son by the arms; he led him to one corner and made him
face the approximate direction of Baghdad
, and then he
addressed the founder of their Sufi Order, Shaikh 'Abdul-Qādir Jīlānī,
presenting his son to him as his spiritual successor.
Shortly after this incident his father died. Mīān Muhammad
continued to reside in his family home for a further four years,
then at the age of nineteen he moved into the
khānqāh, where he remained for the rest of
his life. Both his brothers combined both religion and worldly
affairs in their lives, but he was only interested in spirituality,
and never married - unlike them.
His Formal Pledge of Allegiance
Despite the fact that he had essentially been made a
khalīfah of his father, he realized that
he still needed to make a formal pledge of allegiance or
bay'ah to a Sufi master. Having
completed his formal education he began to travel, seeking out
deserted locations where he would busy himself in prayer and
spiritual practices, shunning the company of his fellow-men.
He took
the Sufi pledge of allegiance or bay'ah with Hazrat Ghulām Muhammad, who was the
khalīfah of Bābā Badūh Shāh Abdāl, the khalīfah of Hājī Bagāsher
(of Darkālī Mamuri Sharīf, near Kallar Syedan District Rawalpindi),
the khalīfah again of Pīr-e Shāh Ghāzī
Qalandar Dumriyan Wali Sarkar.He is also said to have travelled for
a while to Srinagar
, where he
benefitted greatly from Shaikh Ahmad Valī.
His Poetic Talents and Works
Once he had advanced a little along the
Sufi
way he became more and more interested in composing poetry, and one
of the first things he penned was a
qasidah (
quatrain) in
praise of his spiritual guide. Initially he preferred to write
siharfis and
duhras, but then he advanced to composing stories
in verse. His poetry is essentially written in the
Pothohari dialect of
Panjabi, and utilizes a rich vocabulary of
Persian and
Arabic words.
His works include:
Siharfi,
Sohni Meheinval,
Tuhfah-e Miran,
Tuhfah-e- Rasuliyah,
Shireen Farhad,
Mirza Sahiban, Sakhi Khavass
Khan,
Shah Mansur,
Gulzar-e Faqir,
Hidayatul Muslimin,
Panj Ganj,
Masnavi-e
Nīrang-e ‘Ishq. He also wrote a commentary on the
Arabic Qasidat-ul-Burda of al-
Busiri and his most famous work, entitled
Safarul
‘Ishq (Journey of Love), but better known as
Saiful Maluk.
His Death
He died on the 7th of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah 1324 AH
(1907 AD), and was buried in
Khari
Sharif, not far from his illustrious great great grandfather
Pier-e-Shah Ghazi Qalandar
Damriyan Wali Sarkar. To this day many people visit his tomb with
the intention of receiving spiritual blessings which is allowed in
Islam.
References
Shahkar Islami Encyclopedia: Syed Qasim Mahmood. (Lahore,
n.d.) [In Urdu.]
Sharh-e Kalam-e Mian Muhammad Bakhsh Saiful Maluk O Badi’ul
Jamal: Abul Kashif Qadiri. (Lahore, n.d.) [In Urdu.]
See also
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