Shah Abdul Latif’s philosophy of sorrows
Sorrows adorn joys-II

By Saleem Bhutto Lateefi

2. Unexpressed remains hidden, expressed none understands,
There golder words, they comprehend who seek spiritual gains.(21)

3. Vain are your prayers, if you are conscious of ’self’,
Give up all other props, then say, “God is great”.(22) 

4. Prostrate not in prayers, if you are conscious of ’self’,
Lore your own existence, then say, “God is great”.(23) 

5. In appearance Khalil (Prophet) in reality Azar (Idol maker)
You are still sick, spiritual health do not desire,
Where furious God is, not a trace of plurality exists,
In appearance a Muslim, in reality a narrow minded one,
If you desire God’s union, put away duality,
Lord! May you grant me this ability.(24) 

6. Disappointed they died, never being enlightened,
like a sparrow poking its beak, from piting of grass they departed,
In that valley, like buffles they were, when they were alive.(25)

7. If with inner eyes you rehold,
Doubt not blind scepteic! The secret of its beauty.(28)

8. Repeating Kalma alone, does not make you a Muslim,
While within you reside deceit, disbelief, and the evil one,
In appearance alone you are a Muslim, an idolater within.(29) 

9. You are true even to your disbelief, call yourself not so,
’Janio’ does not befit you being least a Hindu,
Put tilk on those who believe in duality.(30) 

His remarks about heavenly love and his Beloved show his truth of imanation and were made in the context of religious discussion. Thus it was interesting to study how he connected his ideas on conception of love are to various ethical and religious concepts.

1. Where drop of wine divine is beyond all price,
Only longing for it is martyrdom and sacrifices,
Ours to worship, Beloved’s to graces shower.(31) 

2. Divine Love’s sayings are not bitter but sweet,
Even His silence radiates peace.(32) 

3. What comes from Divine Beloved in all sweet,
There is nothing bitter if wisely perceived.(32) 

4. Those for whom we pine, we ourselves are,
Lore yourself in the secret, “He neither gives birth nor is born.”
Oh secker through those learn the Reality.(33) 

5. Berendless is Beloved’s beauty veilted,
If to me were He to show His face,
My arteries would be red, and my body feel the strength.(34) 

6. “Yes’ or ’No’ are still within human reach,
Loved one’s beauty is beyond what man can conceive.(35) 

7. Possess these eyes that can Beloved see,
Look no at others, for Beloved demands absolute fidelity. 

In order to enhance comprehension of connectivity between Shah Latif’s apparently religious speculations and the immediacy  of language in his sensuous poetry, three major areas can be noted. Firstly, it is the idea of poet’s notion of religious belief and linguistic concerns. Second, it is his ability to strive for sustained imagination and articulation. The linguistic richness of poet’s work may be attributed to his deeply ethical and moral values and essential good ness of character and soul. And third, it is to define linguistic dimensions in his sensuous poetry, a technical analysis of that remarkable capacity of the poet to give us a sense of fusion between his thought and poetic utterances. All love stories and mystic thought oriented verses support these statements.

1. I yearn, I roast, I writhe, I wriggle,
Drinking does not quench love’s thirst,
Were I to pour ocean in my mouth, It will hardly equate a rip.(36) 

2. Those with love in their souls, are thirsty beyond relief,
Drink a cup of longing, thus your longing incease,
Punhoo! (Beloved) yourself offer me the cup of love,
That with longing I may quench the thirst.(37)

3. She needs no shroud whom this gorgeos sight has killed,
Martyr’s robe she wears and is no thrilled.(39) 

Shah Latif’s poetry reflects the working of the his poetic mind, about his temperament, moods and inclination, about life in general, providing first-hand information, which is in evitally useful to give foundation to the argument put forward. Even though most of his stories have been taken into account, special emphasis has been placed on the ’soul awakening’ as Keat’s “Vale of soul making”, in fine mystial and musical tones.

Shah Latif’s each and every story and almost all poems in each chapter reveal a complex and fully developed response to matters of the soul and body. It is fact that our great poet concerns himself with transcendent or higher reality. It is true that English Romantic poets and Shah Abdul Latif, imagination is an exclusively human agency serving human ends’. But Shah Latif’s ultimate aim seemed to be to strike a balance between reality in its diverse concreteness and profundity of the higher truth, illustrating the poet’s dominant concerns. These verses contain a profusion of imagery and delight the reader with shear enquistic poetry.

1. “Sahar, (Beloved), Suhani (loving) and the sea, are one and the same,
This in effable none can scan.(39) 

2. Those who Mehar (Beloved) seek, Mehar seeks them too,
Raft becomes a hindrance for those whose love is true.(41) 

3. Casting a glance within, I conversed with my soul, I found no mountains in the world nor yarning for Beloved,
All suffering was for Sasui, gone was it when Punhoo (Beloved) I became.(42) 

Disinterestness of the heart, the power to negate one’s own self in order to enter into the soul of the poetic subject, to remain in doubtless mysteries and to be not content with half truths, unlike romantic poets, Shah Latif defines an notion of negation that involves sympathetic identification with the subject, result in appropriateness of enpression.

1. May I always be in search of Beloved, never find, never meet,
Last langing withing my heart is eared.(39) 

2. What you gain from separation, union cannot give,
When He came to my resort, subdued was my yearing,
Come back sorrow, joy has taken away my zest,
The sounds that sored, joy has brought them rest.(4) 

’Sorrow is wisdom, according to Shah Latif like Keats and Shelly, and the system of sould making and awakening that the parents takes into account self-annihilation through a profound understanding of ultimate suffering. Thus there are possible unter-connections between religious conceptions of sympathy, submission of self and endurance in the wake of suffering and intensity of expression.

1. My sickness distressed my Lord,
On gallows board true health I got.(41) 

2. Let the knife be blunt not sharp,
May Beloved’s hands on me then longer last.(42) 

3. He kills, when cares, He cares when He kills fast,
Mother! Suffering comes from Him and He is souls solace. 

4. If given grieved, not given pleased,
So they mystic became, taking with selves not a creed.(44) 

5. Mystic is not limited by religious bounds,
He discloses not the war he wages in his mind,
Helps and assists those who whith him fight.(45) 

6. Physician give me no pills, lest I get well,
Remaining ill, some day Beloved may enquire my helath.(46) 

7. Those who suffered pain got health,
Suffering is sweet to th9ose who never Lord forsake.(47) 

8. Die while living that you may behold Beloved’s beauty,
You will be acceptable if you consider this as duty.(48) 

Shah Abdul Latif’s each and every love story inspite of having tragic end reaches the stage of transience and inner evolution of character after passing through the suffering and peering the pangs of separation. Starting with very first chapter of poetry, Kalyam which means peace, peace in understanding. Here in this chapter, lovers of God and seeker of the Divine path are put through may trials and tribulations symbolized in drinking poison, giving up one’s life on gallows and cutting of limbs, to which they cheerfully submit as coming from God. God becomes for them a surgeon, a butcher and even a hangman. When a seeker becomes restless under there reverse methods of purification. He (God) then becomes the physician who applies the soothing flam or the cup of bearer offering the Divine wine. Quoting the words of the Holy Quran, Shah Latif reminds us that those who remember God are remembered by Him also.

A great poet’s creative production is capable of more than interpretations as T.S Eliot says ’Every great poet in interpreted again and again’. Although our great poet is mainly referring to the mystics and soul who are the seekers of the path which leads them ultimately to the revelation of eternal truths, but it can be applied to any one who preaches an ideal and struggles for its achievement. This in fact is the under current of nearly all the chapters of the poetry of great poet. It should be noticed that God and Holy Prophet Muhammad (PPUH) is Shah Abdul Latif’s Beloved in all chapters. 

(Continued)