Khwaja Ghulam Fareed: Sufi poet’s urs ceremonies conclude

Sufiana Conference attended by custodian of Ajmer Sharif.

RAJANPUR:

The 113th urs ceremonies of Sufi poet Khawaja Ghulam Fareed ended with a prayer led by Khawaja Moinuddin Koreja, his successor, in Kot Mithan on Thursday.

The three-day ceremonies were attended by devotees from Pakistan and India.  The urs began with a bath of the mausoleum. More than a thousand litres of rose water were used to wash the premises.

A Sufiana Conference was held on the second day. The conference was attended by heir apparent of several Sufi saints in the region. Khawaja Bilal Chisti, custodian of Ajmer Shareef shrine, was the chief guest at the conference. The conference was followed by recitation of famous kaafis by the poet.

Rajanpur DPO Rana Ahmed Hassan said more than 100 policemen were assigned security duties at and around the shrine. He said  no untoward incident had been reported during the three day event.

Biography

Khwaja Ghulam Fareed was born in Chacharan Sharif in 1845 and died in the same area in 1901. He was however buried at the current location in Kot Mithan. Fareed was associated with Chishti-Nizami silsila.

Although he is famous for his Seraiki poetry, Fareed knew Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Braj Bhasha as well. Some of his poems in Sindhi, Urdu, Persian, and Braj Bhasha also gained fame.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2012.