Patt angrezi thaney: ‘Only Sufi poets can guarantee national unity’

World Punjabi Congress organises conference to pay tribute to Sufi poet Khwaja Farid.

LAHORE: "Only Sufi poets can guarantee national unity,” World Punjabi Congress chairman Fakhar Zaman said on Tuesday.

Zaman made the remarks at a conference on Khwaja Farid. He said only Sufi poets could guarantee national unity due to their emphasis on tolerance, brotherhood and love that could overcome the social and political degeneration.

Zaman said Farid lived in a time when the Punjab had been annexed by the British who were quickly establishing their paramountcy over the Indian subcontinent. He said the celebrated words of the poet “patt angrezi thaney” were an eloquent testimony to his anti-British leanings. Zaman said former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had also commenced his last speech before the Supreme Court with a famous line by the poet.

He said the profundity of pain, separation and ishq was the predominant theme of the poet. Zaman said his work had been inspired by the vastness of Rohi, its singular species of birds, deserts, oasis and rivers. He said Farid had employed these as metaphors to further his conception of love and separation, the unity of God and the oneness of humanity.

Zaman reiterated demands calling for the compulsory teaching of Punjabi at educational institutions, the establishment of a Punjabi university in the city and use of the language as a medium of instruction across primary schools in the province.

He said the first phase of a series of conferences on Sufi poets of Pakistan had concluded following the convening of symposiums on seven poets from the province. Zaman said similar functions would be arranged on poets hailing from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) in the following phase.

International Writers Council president Imrana Mushtaq shed light on Farid’s life and various aspects of his work.

She said the council would continue to support similar endeavours.

Writer Nabeel Shaad spoke on the various qualities and trends of the poet’s kaafis and elucidated the meaning of his poetry.

Imrana Baloch of the Khwaja Farid Sangat said Farid was renowned for his generosity and humility. She said he had preached the negation of the self and shunned avarice.

Writer Hakeem Salim Akhtar praised the convening of conferences on Sufi poets.

Writer Musarrat Kalanchvi read an article and expounded on the poet’s universal message.

Qasim Jalal spoke about the philosophy of Wahdatul Wajood and the different aspects of love in Farid’s work. Parveen Sajjal and Muhammad Fayyaz read poems on the poet.

The conference was organised by the Pakistan Academy of Letters, the World Punjabi Congress and the International Writers Council.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2015.