Urs celebrations: Magic of Khawaja Farid’s devotional songs lingers on

The three-day urs celebrations kicked off on Saturday and will end today

MULTAN:

The 118th urs celebration of Khawaja Ghulam Farid began in Mithan Kot, Rajanpur district, on Saturday. The urs will go on for three days and will end late on Monday (today).

Ghulam Farid Khawaja Mueenuddin Koreja, custodian of the shrine, distributed langar and sweets – halwa and gur – among devotees. Thousands gathered at the opening day of the urs to pay their respects to the saint.



The celebrations began with the traditional ghussal of the shrine. Rajanpur DCO Zahoor Hussain Gujar and Ghulam Farid Khawaja Mueenuddin Koreja washed the shrine area with rose water. The DCO also laid a wreath on the shrine. The Rasm-i-Charaghaan, the highlight of the urs, took place without any untoward incident late on Saturday.

A Mehfil-e-Sama took place after that. Scores of well-known orators participated and paid homage to the sufi poet. Other events at the urs included jhoomar dance performances at the Khawaja Fareed Amn Folk Mela and Rasm-i-Charaghan.

District police had devised special security cordons for the three days of urs. Devotees were asked to carry their national identity cards with them. Several visitors who failed to produce satisfactory identification papers were asked to leave. Some of them were taken into custody.



More than 800 police, civil defence, Rescue-1122 and elite police personnel performed security duties at the shrine. A spokesperson of the district government said that they had installed surveillance cameras at and around the shrine to monitor the law and order situation. He said all entrances and exits were being manned.

Khawaja Ghulam Farid was born in Chacharan Sharif near Mithan Kot. He was trained to write in seven languages including Persian, Urdu, Seraiki and Arabic. Dewaan-i-Farid is popular with devotees and scholars of Sufism all over the world. Thousands visit his shrine each year to pay their regards. Many also fulfil their mannats at the urs.

“I walked from Kohat to Mithan Kot to participate in the urs celebrations,” Asad Mehmood Chaudhary, a devotee, says. “This is a tradition I follow each year to pay tribute to my saint.”



The Khawaja Fareed Amn Conference also began on the first day of the death anniversary celebrations and will continue till Monday. Hundreds of religious scholars from the all over the country are participating in the conference to promote religious harmony.

The theme of the conference this year is to unite religious scholars on the platform of the true ideology of Islam as preached by scholars and Sufi saints.

The government has announced a public holiday on third day of the urs in Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2016.