Sufism in Bulleh Shah's Sufi Poetry: Ranjha Ranjha Krdi ni main aape Ranjha Hoyi

Introduction

Bulleh Shah (1680 – 1757) was a great Punjabi poet of 18^th century. He is one of the most famous Muslim Sufi poets of the East. He was born in Uch Sharif near Bahawalpur in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. His real name was Sayyid Abdullah Shah Qadri but his family used to call him Bullah (derived from Abdullah) with affection. He got his spiritual education from Sufi-guide of Lahore ‘Shah Inayat Qadri’ who appointed his disciple (Bulleh Shah) in Kasur to spread the true light of Islam. Henceforth, he spent his life there and his shrine also stands in the same city. His poetry is a record of Divine love, spiritual magnetism, purification of soul, self-annihilation (Fana) and a voice against social class distinctions.

 

Baba Bulleh Shah: Radical Thoughts and Inspiration

Bulleh Shah was born in a highly reverend Sayyid family (descendants from the Holy Prophet (PBUH)) during the turbulent period in Punjab. Much importance was given to social hierarchy — status, privilege, caste and occupation. But Bulleh Shah was against false social status, ego and caste-based distinctions of his time. Particularly, he disliked the so-called mullahs who attached much importance to the outer dimensions of Islam but were devoid of the true spirit of religion.

Bulleh Shah's message was a call to move from the outward form to the inward truth, to a state of excellence where every moment is lived in the presence of the Divine.

 

Bulleh Shah’s Meeting with Murshid

Tormented by his family’s pressure to live a conventional life, young Bullah set out to seek truth and reached Lahore where he chanced to meet Shah Inayat Qadri (his future spiritual master) working in a kitchen garden. Bulleh Shah’s soul felt a surge of ecstatic frenzy when Shah Inayat, at the first go, addressed Bullah with a couplet in Punjabi language:

Bulleya, Rab da kee paana?

Idhron putna te odhar laana

(Bulleya, do you seek God? Put your soul from here (below) to there (on high))

Journey of Spiritualism

On the request of aspirant Bullah, the Sufi master (Murshid) allowed him to live with him as his disciple. Under the insightful guidance of his spiritual guide, devoted Bullah went through the spiritual journey all the way — Shariat (Outer religious laws and duties), Tariqat (Path to self-annihilation), Haqiqat (Direct vision of Divine Reality) and Marfat (Union with the Divine) with successfully fulfilled ‘Ihsan’ (Realization of God within one’s purified soul).

This is how beautifully Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) has defined Ihsan: (To worship God as if you see Him). The archangel ‘Gabriel’ (AS) once inquired and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) defined Ihsan as:

قَالَ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ، مَا الْإِحْسَانُ؟ قَالَ: الْإِحْسَانُ أَنْ تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ، فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ تَرَاهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاكَ (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Faith (Kitab al-Iman), Hadith 50)

 

Connotation: “Gabriel asked: O Messenger of God what is Ihsan? Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) replied: To worship God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, truly He sees you.”

Hence, Bulleh Shah had reached a stage, through self-annihilation (dissolution of self and death of I), where worship is not done out of fear of hell or hope of paradise, but out of pure love and awe, as if he were in a state of direct vision of God. This is what is called Ihsan (the final state of spiritual perfection) practiced and fulfilled at the final station (Marfat) in Sufi terminology. In a frenzy of his spiritual love, Bulleh Shah started making mystical claims which the common folk misinterpreted with their limited mental approach and grew offensive.

Bulleh Shah’s Mystical Insights

1-   God resides in human hearts, not in religious buildings

The people of 18^th century had very typical thinking. They were taught that mosques are the house of God. So, the Mullahs and clergymen were much ignited by Bulleh Shah’s most incendiary claim of demolishing the mosques and temples:

 

Masjid dha de, mandir dha de, dha de jo kujh dhainda,

Par kisi da dil na dhavin, Rabb dilaan vich rehnda.

(Break down the mosque, pull down the temple, break down everything that can be broken. But do not break a human heart, for that is where God resides.)

 

In fact, they considered it a direct threat to the physical structures of mosques and temples ignoring Bullah’s core message of truth that God does not need a house of stones rather He has already made His house — the human heart. The mosque and temple are merely reminders of that truth, external symbols pointing to an internal reality. He was not attacking their buildings; He was inviting them to look beyond them (buildings) to what they represent. The mosque is the shell and the heart is the pearl. If people are hard hearted and priests are arrogant, has God been honored?

2-   He is neither Muslim nor infidel

When the so-called Mullahs heard from a Sayyid saying that he is not a Muslim, they turned red and issued fatwas against him.

Na main momin vich maseetaan,

Na main vich kufar diyan reetaan

Na main andar ved kitaabaan,

Na main vich bhang na sharaabaan

(I am not a believer inside the mosque, nor am I in the rituals of the unbelievers... I am not in the Vedas or holy books, nor am I in intoxication or wine)

 

They thought, Bullah has forged his new religion by claiming himself neither Muslim nor Kafir (Non-Muslim). They turned even more furious when he replied them in a more radical but spiritual way:

 

Tainu kafir kafir kehnde ne, Tu aaho aaho aakh.

(They call you infidel, you retort: "Yes, I am, I am!")

 

In fact, Self is a collection of labels e.g., I am human, Muslim, Sayyid, Bullah. Removal of any of the labels is to be devoid of the passport of living among the fellows of same label. But, in Sufism, the self is beneath all labels (aka self-annihilation). Labels are the outfits a man wears to make a show off. They are not what a man is. The real self—the soul—is pure, formless, and beyond all labels. The ultimate goal of the spiritual path is to strip away every label until only the naked soul remains, face to face with God. Bulleh Shah had removed all labels and moved beyond belief into direct union with One Reality appearing in countless forms, called by countless names (God).

3-   Caste and Lineage are meaningless before God

One thing which was quite undigestible for the common folk, particularly Bullah’s family, was his choice of spiritual guide. The 18^th century Punjabi mind set did not allow the allegiance of a person (Bullah) from a highly reverend Sayyid family (descendants from the Holy Prophet) to a man (Shah Inayat) of low family (Arain = the vegetable growers). His family, entangled in social hierarchy, took it a curse on their caste when Bulleh Shah responded their confrontation in the following spiritual terms:

Jo mainu sayyid sajjan aakhe, dozakh milay sazaavan nu

Jo mainu arain aakhe, behisht phiran visaavan nu

(Those who call me a Sayyid—may they be punished with the torments of hell. Those who label me an Arain—may they revel in the pleasures of heaven.)

 

In fact, the ordinary people thought that Bulleh Shah has gone disrespectful to the Sayyids. But it was Bulleh Shah who knew that honor and shame are the secret agents of the ego. The ego loves honor because honor feeds it. The ego fears shame because shame threatens it. But the soul—the real self—is beyond both. The soul knows no caste or lineage. The soul cares only for God. God may bless Ihsan, regardless of any caste or lineage, to anyone whoever chooses the path of spiritualism.

Add to this, when Bullah swore allegiance to Shah Inayat, he was not humiliating his family. He was liberating himself from the illusion of shame. When he said, “Those who call me Sayyid, may hell consume them” he was not cursing. He was saying: “The ego that clings to ‘Sayyid’ is the obstacle. May that obstacle be destroyed.”

4-   He is a Dancing Girl in love with God

A man from Sayyid family dressed in women’s clothing (particularly red bridal attire), dancing like a eunuch in streets and claiming that this was the highest form of worship — was perhaps the most undesirable thing for the ordinary sensibilities of Bulleh Shah’s time. They had an unshakeable belief in that God has created men and women and to blur this division means to disregard it.

In fact, Sufism holds a belief that soul is limbless and pure and does not know any gender distinction. It is neither male nor female. Gender is the dress of self which Sufism struggles to annihilate. With the realization of self-annihilation, all dresses remove and soul becomes pure.

Add to this, when the final station of Sufism Marfat culminates in the mergence of the drop (soul) into the Ocean (Divine Reality), the body feels the manifestation of Divine love and in response sways and spins. This act of whirling and spinning of dervishes is known as Sama (spiritual listening) in Sufi terms.

Tere ishq nachaya, kar thaiyya thaiyya

Mainu apna Yaar nachaya, kar thaiyya thaiyya
(Your love has set me dancing, clap along! My Beloved has made me dance, clap along!)

The notable point is that Bulleh Shah does not say ‘I dance’. Rather he says ‘Your love has set me dancing’. In such a state of ecstasy (complete surrender), the dancer does not know that he is dancing. The dancer does not move. He is moved. Therefore, Bulleh Shah said:

Kanjri baniyaan meri ijjat na ghat di

Mainu nach ke Yaar manaavan de
(Though I become a dancing girl, I lose no honor—let me win Him over with my dance.)

 

5-   He has achieved Union with The Divine

The most blasphemous for the people of 18^th century Punjab was Bulleh Shah’s claim of soul’s union with the Divine. Particularly, when they heard him saying ‘I have become Ranjha’, they mistook him as if he were claiming to be God (نعوذ بالله). The mullahs of the time blew up at once and issued fatwas accusing him of shirk. They declared him Kafir (non-believer) and disallowed his burial in the cemetery of Muslims at his death.

In fact, Sufism is not a sect, it is a path (Tariqa) focused on the purification of soul (Tazkiyah) from spiritual diseases through self-annihilation (Fana). Its ultimate goal is to achieve a state of communion with the Divine (Baqa) through profound love. Bulleh Shah goes to promulgate the process and the actual state of this communion through his most-misinterpreted poem:

Ranjha Ranjha kardi ni mein aapay Ranjha hoyi
(I keep chanting 'Ranjha, Ranjha,' and I myself have become Ranjha.)

Through a Punjabi tragic romance ‘Heer Ranjha’, the poet has uncovered the true spirit of self-annihilation. Through constant remembrance (Zikar) of the Divine (Ranjha), the individual ego (Heer) dissolves (Fana) and the two become one in that the drop (Heer) does not become the Ocean (The Divine) rather merges into the Ocean and loses its identity. Only Ocean (Ranjha) remains. In fact, this union is a state of consciousness. It is the removal of the veils that make us feel separate. The soul does not become God; it realizes it never was separate from God. The separation was an illusion caused by the ego. When the ego dies, the illusions disappear, and the soul becomes conscious of the eternal truth: there is no reality but God.

The Sufi path is precisely about dying before death. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “Die before you die”. This is not physical death. It is the death of the ego (self). Hence, Bulleh Shah remained human. But his consciousness had become oceanic. However, the experience of this union cannot be expressed through language. It is like trying to describe color to someone born blind, or honey to someone who has never tasted it before.

The Quran itself says: "And they ask you about the soul. Say: The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And you have been given of knowledge only a little" (17:85). If the soul itself is a divine mystery, how much more the union of that soul with its Creator?

The 18^th century people could not grasp that he was making the best use of limited human language to point at something unlimited. But they took his words literally and ostracized him. This is how Bulleh Shah warns the seeker of love of the cruelties of people living with their pet egos:

 

“O Heer, don't chant the name of Ranjha because it would lead to infamy in the world. The petals of the flowers wither away, but the fragrance doesn't become silent and is still there in withered petals.”

 

The Sufi Doctrine

One thing must be kept in mind that union with the Divine is not abandoning the Shariat but a matter of fulfillment of religion. This is Ihsan, the highest level of faith, which Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) explained: “Worship God as if you see Him”. In a similar context, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, “Allah says”:

“My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

 

This does not mean God becomes the servant's body parts. It means the servant's actions become exactly aligned with God's will. This is what Allama Iqbal has portrayed in his verse:

Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqdir se pehle,

Khuda bande se khud poochhe, bata teri raza kya hai.
(Raise your selfhood so high that before every destiny, God Himself asks His servant, “Tell me, what is your will?”)

Conclusion

Bulleh Shah himself concluded the whole discussion on the Sufi path by saying that it is the ego that is a hinderance in the way to union with the Divine (Ihsan). This is not pantheism, this is panentheism.

Bullah! ki jaana mein kaun?

Na main momin vich maseetaan

na main vich kufar diyan reetaan

Na main paak na main paleed aan

na main andar ved kitaab aan

Na main aabi na main khaki na main aatish na main baad

Bullah! hor na kujh sochna—jo main aakheya so saar

(Bulleh! I know not who I am—not a believer in the mosque, not in the rituals of unbelievers. Not pure, not impure, not in the Vedas or scriptures. Not water, not earth, not fire, not wind. Bulleh! Think no further—what I have spoken is the essence.)

 

Aao sakhi! ik gall kahaan, suno dhyan naal veera.

Bullah! ishq diyan galan hor ne, hor ne udeera.

(Come, friend! Let me tell you something—listen carefully, O brother. Bulleh! The matters of love are different, entirely different from the world's affairs.)