Shah Abdul Karim Bulri (1538–1623) ( sd, شاه عبدالڪريم بلڙي) was a famous

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

of the

Sindhi language Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, withou ...

from

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Shah Abdul Karim Bulri was the great-great-grandfather of the famous poet

Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai ( sd, شاھ عبداللطيف ڀٽائي, ur, ; 1689/1690 – 21 December 1752), commonly known by the honorifics ''Lakhino Latif'', ''Latif Ghot'', ''Bhittai'', and ''Bhit Jo Shah'', was a Sindhi Sufi mystic, a ...

Early life

He was born in a Syed family in

Matiari Matyari or Matiari ( sd, مٽیاري, ur, ) is a city located in Sindh, Pakistan. It is north of Hyderabad on N-5 National Highway. Matiari is also the district headquarter of Matiari District. Matiari word is derived from two Sindhi words ...

, presently in eastern Sindh. Since he spent most of his life in Bulri, a village in the

Tando Muhammad Khan Tando Muhammad Khan ( sd, ٽنڊو محمد خان; ur, ) is a city and headquarter of the Tando Muhammad Khan District located in Sindh, Pakistan. Is is named after Mir Muhammad Khan Talpur Shahwani. It is the 95th largest city of Pakistan, ...

, the word Bulri is often appended to his name. As his father died when he was young, he was brought up by his mother and elder brother Syed Jalal. From childhood, he took a keen interest in matters related to God and spirituality and often didn't pay attention to the lessons taught in school and instead spent his time immersed in thoughts of God. He frequently went to mystical gatherings in where sermons accompanied by rural music were sung. This affected him so much that little by little he started to compose his own poetry. When he was of age, Shah Abdul Karim married as per the wish of his elder brother Syed Jalal Shah. He met a very devout individual in his local mosque named Sultan Ibrahim and, impressed by him, became his disciple. After the death of his elder brother, to take care of his family, he became a laborer as per the advice of Sultan Ibrahim. Shah Abdul Karim imposed a very stringent discipline on himself which few people around him knew of. He used to work in the day with interludes for prayer. In the night, he used to walk around the locality filling any earthen pots he found empty. As he grew older he wrote many spiritual poems in Sindhi and used them as a device to express his love for the Divine. During his old age, he was highly respected by the people and had a number of disciples. His poetry and ''malfuzat'' appeared for the first time in ''Bayan al-Arifin wa Tanbih al-Ghafilin'', a Persian work, written by a disciple he had later in his life named Mir Daryai Tharawi, in 1630, seven years after his death. One of the major poets of Sindhi, Shah Karim Bulri has been called the

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

Sindhi Literature Sindhi literature ( sd, سنڌي ادب), is the composition of oral and written scripts and texts in the Sindhi language in the form of prose: (romantic tales, and epic stores) and poetry: (Ghazal, Wai and Nazm). The Sindhi language of the provinc ...

Poetry and beliefs

Shah Abdul Latif gave a pantheistic meaning to many Quranic expressions such as, * He is the first, He is the last, The Apparent and the Hidden (57:3) * Wheresoever you may turn there is the face of God (2:115) * He is nearer to you than your jugular vein (50:16) * Every moment he discloses himself in fresh glory (55:29) Shah sang, ''Separation and union are one and the same, God, the best of proposers, will unite the lover and the loved one.'' Shah Abdul Latif knew of the works of

Ibn Arabi Ibn ʿArabī ( ar, ابن عربي, ; full name: , ; 1165–1240), nicknamed al-Qushayrī (, ) and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn (, , ' Sultan of the Knowers'), was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influen ...

and his doctrine of

Wahdat-ul-Wujood In Islamic philosophy, Sufi metaphysics is centered on the concept of ar, وحدة, waḥdah, unity, label=none or ar, توحيد, tawhid, label=none. Two main Sufi philosophies prevail on this topic. literally means "the Unity of Existenc ...

and based his life on those principles. He wrote 93

lines Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

of Sindhi poetry.

References

{{Sindhi Sufis Sufi poets Sindhi people Sindhi-language poets Sufis of Sindh Mughal Empire Sufis 1623 deaths 1538 births Hashemite people Pakistani people of Arab descent

Early life

Poetry and beliefs

See also

References