Bulleh Shah

Syed Abdullah Shah Qadri, known popularly as Bulleh Shah (1680–1757), was a Punjabi Islamic philosopher and Sufi poet, regarded as the "Father of Punjabi Enlightenment". He was a reformist and spoke against powerful religious, political and social institutions. His first spiritual teacher was Shah Inayat Qadiri, a Sufi saint of Lahore.

He belonged to the Sayyid community, which is recognized as being the descendants of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

Quotes

Poetry

• True love has be-guided me, O friend!
  Reveal to me the land of my Beloved.
  At my parents' I was an innocent maid.
  With love to me He has robbed me of my heart.
  Logic, semantics and a store of knowledge—
  Such pedantry has left me devoid of Him.
  Of what use are fasts and prayers to them,
  Who have drunk deep from the front of love?
  Sitting in the company of the Spouse,
  Bullah is free from all rituals, O friend!
  • Bulleh Shah, The Love-Intoxicated Iconoclast, p. 129
• If I tell a lie, something is left out;
  If I speak out the truth, there is a blaze.
  My mind fears both the alternatives,
  But haltingly my tongue speaks out.
  Words that come to my tongue cannot be held back.
  If I were to unravel the mysteries,
  All would forget to discuss and debate.
  They would then kill our friend Bullah,
  For only the hidden truth befits here.
  • Bulleh Shah, The Love-Intoxicated Iconoclast, p. 130
• By going to Mecca the mystery is not obtained,
  so long as the ego is not annihilated.
  By going to the Ganga the mystery is not solved,
  though you may take a hundred dips in it.
  By going to Gaya the mystery is not solved,
  though you may offer many rice-cakes at funerals.
  O Bullah, salvation will be obtained
  only when the 'I' is completely eliminated.
  • quoted in Sarmad, Martyr to Love Divine, p. 11-12

Stanzas

• Accursed be prayers, to hell with fasts,
  and let confession of faith be damned.
  O Bullah, I have found the Lord within,
  and the world wanders in delusion!
  • Bulleh Shah, The Love-Intoxicated Iconoclast, p. 130

Couplets

• In shrines dwell robbers,
  in idol-houses, thugs.
  In mosques live vagabonds,
  the lovers of God remaind aloof.
  • Bulleh Shah, The Love-Intoxicated Iconoclast, p. 136

See also

• J. R. Puri & T. R. Shangari: Bulleh Shah, The Love-Intoxicated Iconoclast, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Amritsar, India, 1986
• Isaac A. Ezekiel: Sarmad, Martyr to Love Divine, Radha Soami Satsang Beas Publishers, Delhi, 1st edition, 2005