Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch, Bahawalpur, Punjab, in present day Pakistan.[2] His father, Shah Muhammad Darwaish, was a teacher and preacher in a village mosque. Little is known about Bulleh Shah's ancestry except that his family claimed direct descent from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.[1]
When he was six months old, his parents relocated to Malakwal. His father later got a job in Pandoke, about 50 miles southeast of Kasur.
Bulleh Shah received his early schooling in Pandoke and moved to Kasur
for higher education. He also received education from Maulana
Mohiyuddin. His spiritual teacher was the QadiriSufiShah Inayat Qadiri, who was a member of the Arain tribe of Lahore.
Life
A large amount of what is believed to be known about Bulleh Shah
comes through legends, and is subjective; to the point that there isn’t
even agreement among historians concerning his precise date and place of
birth. Some "facts" about his life have been pieced together from his
own writings. Other "facts" seem to have been passed down through oral
traditions.
Bulleh Shah practiced the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain (1538–1599), Sultan Bahu (1629–1691), and Shah Sharaf (1640–1724).
Bulleh Shah lived in the same period as the Sindhi Sufi poet, Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai (1689–1752). His lifespan also overlapped with the Punjabi poet Waris Shah (1722–1798), of Heer Ranjha fame, and the Sindhi Sufi poet Abdul Wahab (1739–1829), better known by his pen-name, Sachal Sarmast (“truth seeking leader of the intoxicated ones”). Amongst Urdu poets, Bulleh Shah lived 400 miles away from Mir Taqi Mir (1723–1810) of Agra.
Poetry Style
The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is called the Kafi, a style of Punjabi, Sindhi and Saraiki poetry used not only by the Sufis of Sindh and Punjab, but also by Sikh gurus.
Bulleh Shah’s poetry and philosophy questioned the Islamic religious orthodoxy of his day.[citation needed]
A Beacon of Peace
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. While Bulleh Shah was in Pandoke,
Muslims killed a young Sikh man who was riding through their village in
retaliation for murder of some Muslims by Sikhs. Baba Bulleh Shah
denounced the murder of an innocent Sikh and was censured by the mullas
and muftis of Pandoke. Bulleh Shah maintained that violence was not the
answer to violence. Bulleh Shah also hailed the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur as a Ghazi, or "religious warrior", which caused controversy among Muslims of that time.[citation needed]
Humanist
Bulleh Shah’s writings represent him as a humanist, someone providing
solutions to the sociological problems of the world around him as he
lives through it, describing the turbulence his motherland of Punjab is
passing through, while concurrently searching for God. His poetry
highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of
Sufism: Shariat (Path), Tariqat (Observance), Haqiqat (Truth) and Marfat
(Union). The simplicity with which Bulleh Shah has been able to address
the complex fundamental issues of life and humanity is a large part of
his appeal. Thus, many people have put his kafis to music, from humble
street-singers to renowned Sufi singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pathanay Khan, Abida Parveen, the Waddali Brothers and Sain Zahoor, from the synthesized techno qawwali remixes of UK-based Asian artists to the Pakistani rock band Junoon.
