Khawaja Ghulam Farid (also romanized as Fareed; c. 1841/1845 – 24 July 1901) was a 19th-century Sufi poet and mystic from Bahawalpur, Punjab, British India, belonging to the Chishti Order. Most of his work is in his mother tongue Multani, or what is now known as Saraiki. However, he also contributed to the Punjabi, Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi, Hindi and Persian literature.[1][2][3][4] His writing style is characterized by the integration of themes such as death, passionate worldly and spiritual love, and the grief associated with love.[4]
Life
He was born into a branch of the Koreja family who claimed descent from Umar (r. 634–644), the second Rashidun caliph through an early migrant to Sindh. The family was established as saints associated with the Suhrawardī Sufi order. Originally from Thatta, Sindh, the family seat later moved to Mithankot in the early 18th century on the invitation of a disciple and subsequently transferred their allegiance to the Chishtī order.[2][5] Khawaja Farid was born c. 1841/1845 at Chachran. Farid's father died when he was around eight years of age. He was then brought up by his elder brother, Khawaja Fakhr al-Dīn, and grew up to become a scholar and writer. He received a fine formal education at the royal palace of Ṣādiq Muḥammad IV, the Nawab of Bahawalpur. His brother Fakhr al-Dīn, who had brought him up after their parents' deaths, also died when Farid was 26 years old. Farid performed hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1875, and then retired to the Cholistan Desert (also known as Rohi) for chilla (retreat) where he spent a total of eighteen years. He died at Chachran on 24 July, 1901, and was buried at Mithankot.[2]
A literary award named after Farid – the Khwaja Ghulam Farid Award – is awarded yearly by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in literature, its recipients including Ismail Ahmedani (in 2013) and Irshad Taunsvi (in 2007) among others.[6]
Fareed Gate is the name of one of the historic gates surrounding the old city of Bahawalpur named in Farid's honour.
^Asghar, Muhammad (2016). The Sacred and the Secular: Aesthetics in Domestic Spaces of Pakistan/Punjab. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 92. ISBN978-3-643-90836-0. This saint originally belonged to Thatta (Sindh), and is buried in Mithankot, a small town on the right bank of the river Indus. Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1841-1901) is the most famous Chishti Sufi saint in Pakistan and particularly revered in Southern Punjab where Seraiki language is spoken. He composed many mystical lyrics in the Seraiki language.
This table only includes figures venerated traditionally by the majority of Muslims in the Subcontinent, whence persons honored exclusively by particular modern movements are not included.
