Fariduddin Ganjshakar
Life
Fariduddin Masud was born some time in 571 A.H. (1175 A.D.) at a village called Kothewal, 10 km from Multan in the Punjab region of what is now Pakistan, to Jamāl-ud-dīn Suleimān and Maryam Bībī (Qarsum Bībī), daughter of Sheikh Wajīh-ud-dīn Khojendī and he belongs to an Arain tribe.
He was a Sunni Muslim and was one of the founding fathers of the Chishti Sufi order.[1] Baba Farid received his early education at Multan, which had become a centre for Muslim education;
it was there that he met his teacher Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, a noted Sufi saint, who was passing through Multan on his way from Baghdad to Delhi.[5] Upon completing his education, Farīd left for Sistan and Kandahar and went to Makkah for the Hajj pilgrimage with his parents at the age of 16.
Once his education was over, he moved to Delhi, where he learned the Islamic doctrine from his master, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. He later moved to Hansi, Haryana. When Quṭbuddīn Bakhtiyār Kākī died in 1235, Farīd left Hansi and became his spiritual successor, and he settled in Ajodhan (the present Pakpattan, Pakistan) instead of Delhi.
On his way to Ajodhan, while passing through Faridkot, he met the 20-year-old Nizamuddin Auliya, who went on to become his disciple, and later his successor Sufi khalīfah. In Faridkot, while working as a labourer in building a fort of the Raja of Faridkot. The Raja received his blessings once the Raja realised who he was as he was able to carry bricks over head without the bricks touching him.
The Raja immediately saw the divinity in him and requested to become his follower. The Raja and his descendants dedicate many shrines in his memory. His nephew and disciple and successor Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari was amongst the greatest Sufi saints and from him Sabiriya branch under Chisty order started.
Baba Farid had three wives and eight children (five sons and three daughters). One of his wives, Hazabara, was the daughter of Sulṭān Nasīruddīn Maḥmūd.
The great Arab traveller Ibn Battuta once visited this Sufi saint. Ibn Battuta says that Fariduddin Ganjshakar was the spiritual guide of the Sultan of Delhi Sultanate, and that the Sultan had given him the village of Ajodhan. He also met Baba Farid's two sons.
Baba Farid's descendants, also known as Fareedi, Fareedies or Faridy, mostly carry the name Fārūqī, and can be found in Pakistan, India and the diaspora. Fariduddin Ganjshakar's descendants include the Sufi saint Salim Chishti, whose daughter was the Emperor Jehangir's foster mother.
Their descendants settled in Sheikhupur, Badaun and the remains of a fort they built can still be found. Baba Farid also visited Budaun during Iltutmish period to meet Sultan-ul-Aarfeen Khwaja Syed Hasan Sheikh Shahi Rehmatullah, Bade Sarkar.[citation needed] One of his descendants was the noted Sufi scholar Muhibbullah Allahabadi (1587–1648)
Fariduddin Ganjshakar's shrine darbār is located in Pakpattan, Punjab, Pakistan.
Poetry
Farīdā jo taīN mārani mukīāN tinhāN na mārē ghumm
Farīdā jā lab thā nēhu kiā lab ta kūṛhā nēhu Kālē maiḍē kapṛē, kālā maiḍā wais, GunahīN bhariyā maiN phirāN, Lōk kahaiN darvēsh GallīN cikkaṛ dūr ghar, nāḷ piyārē nīNh, ChallāN tē bhijjē kamblī, rahāN tāN ṭuṭṭē nīNh.[1] Roti meri kāṭh di, lawan meri bhukh Jina khaadi chopadi, ghane sehenge dukh |
Fareed, do not turn around and strike those who strike you with their fists.
Fareed, when there is greed, what love can there be? When there is greed, love is false. Laden with my load of misdeeds, I move about in the garb of black garments. And the people see me and call me a dervish. My promise to my love, a long way to go and a muddy lane ahead If I move I spoil my cloak; if I stay I break my word. My bread is of wood, which is enough to quench my hunger, But the one who feast on buttered breads, will eventually suffer |
(The folk legend is that when Baba Farid ji went into the jungle to meditate, he took a piece of wood with him. And he would often chew it whenever he felt hungry as not to get distracted from meditation. In the above verse, he is pointing to the fact that one should follow the path of enlightenment to free oneself from sufferings of this world).
Legacy
One of Farīd's most important contributions to Punjabi literature was his development of the language for literary purposeWhereas Sanskrit, Arabic, Turkish and Persian had historically been considered the languages of the learned and the elite, and used in monastic centres, Punjabi was generally considered a less refined folk language. Although earlier poets had written in a primitive Punjabi,
before Farīd there was little in Punjabi literature apart from traditional and anonymous ballads By using Punjabi as the language of poetry, Farīd laid the basis for a vernacular Punjabi literature that would be developed later.
The city of Faridkot bears his name. According to legend, Farīd stopped by the city, then named Mokhalpūr, and sat in seclusion for forty days near the fort of King Mokhal. The king was said to be so impressed by his presence that he named the city after Baba Farid, which today is known as Tilla Baba Farid.
The festival Bābā Sheikh Farād Āgman Purb Melā' is celebrated in September each year from (21–23 Sep, for 3 days), commemorating his arrival in the city Ajodhan was also renamed as Farīd's 'Pāk Pattan', meaning 'Holy Ferry'; today it is generally called Pāk Pattan Sharīf.
Faridia Islamic University, a religious madrassa in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan, is named after him, and in July 1998, the Punjab Government in India established the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences at Faridkot, the city which itself was named after him.
There are various explanations of why Baba Farid was given the title Shakar Ganj ('Treasure of Sugar'). One legend says his mother used to encourage the young Farīd to pray by placing sugar under his prayer mat. Once, when she forgot, the young Farīd found the sugar anyway, an experience that gave him more spiritual fervour and led to his being given the name
Shrine
The small Shrine of Baba Farid is made of white marble with two doors, one facing east and called the Nūrī Darwāza or 'Gate of Light', and the second facing north called Bahishtī Darwāza, or 'Gate of Paradise'. There is also a long covered corridor. Inside the tomb are two white marbled graves. One is Baba Farid's, and the other is his elder son's. These graves are always covered by sheets of cloth called Chaddars' (the green coloured chaddars are covered with Islamic verses), and flowers that are brought by visitors. The space inside the tomb is limited; not more than ten people can be inside at one time. Ladies are not allowed inside the tomb, but the late Benazir Bhutto, then Prime Minister of Pakistan, was permitted to enter inside by the shrine guardians, when she visited the shrine. Another rare exceptional case was the late Hajjah Kainz Hussain of Jhelum, wife of the late Haji Manzoor Hussain, who was allowed inside the tomb and was given a Chaddar,.
Charity food called Langar is distributed all day to visitors here and the Auqaf Department, which administers the shrine.The shrine is open all day and night for visitors. The shrine has its own huge electricity generator that is used whenever there is power cut or loadshedding, so the shrine remains bright all night, all year round There is no separation of male and female areas but a small female area is also available. There is a big new mosque in the shrine. Thousands of people daily visit the shrine for their wishes and unresolvable matters; for this they vow to give to some charity when their wishes or problems are resolved. When their matters are solved they bring charity food for visitors and the poor, and drop money in big money boxes that are kept for this purposeThis money is collected by the Auqaf Department of the Government of Pakistan that looks after the shrine.
On 25 October 2010, a bomb exploded outside the gates of the shrine, killing six people.Since then, the shrine surroundings and compound area has been renovated.
Baba Farid's Serai in Jerusalem
In great old holy city of Jerusalem, there is a place called Al-Hindi Serai or Indian hospice (Indian lodge or shrine), where it is claimed Baba Farid lived for many years in the early 13th century, almost 800 years ago.
Baba Farid walked into Jerusalem around the year 1200, little more than a decade after the armies of Saladin had forced the Crusaders out of Jerusalem. The place is now a pilgrim lodge for people of the Indian sub-continent.
It is claimed that this building is currently cared for by the 86-year-old caretaker, Muhammad Munir Ansari, in 2014 "No one knows how long Baba Farid stayed in the city. But long after he had returned to the Punjab, where he eventually became head of the Chishti order, Indian Muslims passing through Jerusalem on their way to Mecca wanted to pray where he had prayed, to sleep where he had slept. Slowly, a shrine and pilgrim lodge, the Indian Hospice, formed around the memory of Baba Farid.Later accounts of his life said that he spent his days sweeping the stone floors around al-Aqsa mosque, or fasting in the silence of a cave inside the city walls."
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