Unless your heart is filled with love, you cannot expect a flowering garden around you, says one of the couplets of the Sufi poet.
ISLAMABAD:
Dissemination of Sufi poets’ message can guarantee perpetual peace and tolerance in society, said speakers.
They were speaking at a literary gathering to pay tribute to the 17th century Punjabi Sufi poet Sultan Bahu, at the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAC) on Monday. The event was organised by the Pakistan Intellectual Forum (PIF).
Unless your heart is filled with love, you cannot expect a flowering garden around you, says one of the couplets of the Sufi poet, however, the rising intolerance and violent extremism in Pakistan is antithesis of this message of love, they said.
Writer and researcher Dr Khadim Hussain Soomro said that Bahu’s poetry calls for a departure from egotistical actions and brings its readers towards a selfless appreciation of humanity and nature.
Bahu is believed to have lived in the Saun valley in Punjab between 1628 and 1691. Soomro said that through their khanqahs, the mystics of South Asia were able to create places where ideas were exchanged and class differences were disregarded.
“The khanqah was accessible to everyone including non-Muslims,” he said. “Where there is Sufism, the boundaries of caste and creed stop to exist.”
Hatred and prejudice cause conflict and war, said Saeed Ahmed Farani, who has translated the works of many Punjabi Sufi poets into Urdu.
Writer Kaneez Fatima said that Bahu and other Sufi saints taught the values of tolerance and forgiveness.
“These days, people have lost all manner of restraint,” she said, indicating that petty quarrels in markets and on roads have become a common occurrence. Chairman PIF Hashim Abro said that delivery of justice was necessary for any society to function.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2013.
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