e are witnessing yet another spate of terrorism at the northwestern borders. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has proven quite a nuisance for the country in the past. Ominous signs indicate that this nuisance has entered our precinct once again to disrupt whatever peace is left in the country.

A debate on the literalist version of Islam has been broached once again. I intend today to focus on a multi-faceted intellectual of yore. He represented the people of the margin: Jhang and Shorkot. He is the little-studied Sultan Bahu.

Given that the literalist interpretation of religion is rife once again and the exclusionary tendencies are in ascendancy, religious discourse is in need of a fresh exegesis that is inclusive. Hence, Sultan Bahu is very relevant to this day and age.

The protagonist of this article was a sufi thinker and poet. His message is important because his poetic expression helps us identify the lost connections between the medieval discursive tradition and the modern/ post-modern Islamic epistemology.

Bahu is also significant because of the classical ingenuity of his poetic genius. Worryingly, in the current Pakistani weltanschauung, classical knowledge is conspicuously missing. This has created a gulf between the practical life and the values engendered by the prevalent knowledge system that has profound resonance of the British education system.

By reviving the lost connection with the epistemic past, the Muslim intellectual tradition of this region can re-orient and enrich itself to deal with the challenges posed by the contemporary intellectual trends.

Sultan Bahu (January 17, 1630 –March 1, 1691), was a 17^th Century multi-faceted intellectual. He was at once a Punjabi sufi mystic, poet, scholar and historian of the southeastern Punjab. He was a contemporary of the Mughal emperors Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb.

The hagiographical account entitled, Manaqib-i Sultani, is the principal source of information about his life. Shah Jehan’s reign is mostly considered as a golden era, characterised by intellectual plurality. However, Aurangzeb’s strictness in imposing religious laws persuaded many people seeking spiritual salvation to become jogis among Hindus, ascetics in Christians and sufis in Muslims. This was a rebellious attitude. It drew Bahu into introversion. He rejected extremism and violent tendencies.

Sultan Bahu’s first teacher was his mother, Mai Raasti. She encouraged him to seek spiritual guidance from Shah Habib Gilani. Around 1668, Sultan Bahu moved to Delhi for further training under the guidance of Syed Abdul Rehman Jilani Dehlvi, a notable sufi adept of the Qadiriyya order. Thereafter, he returned to the Punjab where he spent the rest of his life. Sultan Bahu is the founder of Sarwari Qadiri order.

His father, Bazeed, also guided him in the way of the gnosis of Allah. Sultan Bahu started his journey from Jhang district. He went preaching in the mountains and deserts. Despite once calling on Aurangzeb, he preferred teaching privately. He stayed mostly in the region that now constitutes southern Punjab. Bahu was neither a fanatic darwesh nor extraordinarily ‘intoxicated’. He considered the pursuit of various stages of gnosis and faqr as permissible only through strict compliance of shariah.

Dr Hassan Farooqi’s Metaphysics of Sultan Bahu is among the very few works in which the depth of his thoughts has been captured. The following lines encapsulate what Dr Farooqi has extracted from Bahu’s mystic articulations. The metaphysics of Ibn-i-Arabi influenced Sultan Bahu indirectly with special reference to his doctrine of the unity of being.

Ibn-i-Arabi’s doctrine of the unity of being comprises tanazzulat-i-khamsa (five descendants – wahdat (singularity), la-hut (being within being), al-jabroot (unity emanating from soul), ’aalam-i-misal (malkoot), ’aalam-i-nasoot (being and beyond being), ’aayan-i-sabita (pure reality) and dhat-o-sifaat.

Five hundred years have passed since Ibn-i-Arabi and Sultan Bahu spread their teachings. Most of the sufis that followed have directly or indirectly accepted their ideas.

Sultan Bahu had studied the works of ancient sufis to develop his concept of knowledge. He too believed in real and esoteric knowledge. Sultan Bahu has used the term sentiment of love (’ishq), instead of the consciousness of self which Ibn-i-Arabi believed to be the cause of creation of the universe.

Bahu believes that the plurality is the fruit of unity’s evident sentiment of love. It became the cause of creation or manifestation. Since Absolute Being wished to manifest the glories of His beauty and elegance, the inner love of Being Himself inclined to manifest His elegance and majesty.

Sultan Bahu’s concept of tawheed: There is no God except Allah and he is without partners. Theologians and philosophers react in various ways to this basic concept. Sufis and philosophers propound three postulates: theism, pantheism and seism. The sufi ways of thinking; unity of being and unity of manifestation have direct relation to two well-known concepts of tawheed, i.e., theism and pantheism. The unity of being is derived from the unity of manifestation from theism; the former is nourished by Mohiuddin Al-Arabai and the latter by Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi Mujaddid Alf-i-Sani.

The shrine of Sultan Bahu is located in Garh Maharaja in Jhang district. It was originally built on the burial site. Later River Chenab changed its course and it was relocated twice. It is claimed that his body was intact at the time.

Today it is a popular sufi shrine. The annual ’urs festival commemorating his passing is celebrated with great fervour on the first Thursday of Jumada al-Thani month. People come from far-off places to join the celebrations. Sultan Bahu used to organise an annual ’urs to commemorate the martyrs of Karbala from the 1st to the 10th day of the month of Muharram.

The exact number of books written by Sultan Bahu is not known. It is assumed to be at least one hundred. More than forty books on sufism are currently attributed to him (mostly written in Persian). These largely deal with specialised aspects of Islam and Islamic mysticism. His Punjabi poetry has a popular appeal and has earned him lasting fame. His verses are sung in many genres of sufi music, including qawwali and kafi. The tradition has established a unique style of singing his couplets.

One hopes that some serious scholarship is produced on that multi-faceted genius.

The writer is Professor in the faculty of Liberal Arts at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore