Sindh is blessed with many assets but the most prominent of those are three: 1) 5000 years old Indus Valley Civilization, 2) the Indus (Sindhu) River that flows since times Immemorial on whose banks Vedas were written, and 3) the greatest Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai. Bhitai's Poetry has been relevant in all times since 18th century. In the words of Dada J.P. Vaswani, "it is the fragrance of a man, who saw, over three centuries ago, that what man needed was not rites and writ duties but wisdom of the heart."
So the wisdom of the heart of Sindh's greatest Sufi poet is in your hands...
Poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai has been his forte since his early childhood. A sufi by his heart and human rights activist by lifelong cause, Sufi Munawar Laghari had been best known as a disciple of Bhitai and student of his poetry. Besides, Sufi Laghari is a familiar voice and face in Washington DC, to make American public and policy makers aware of Sindh, Sindhi culture, it's people, and their human rights: Author of two books on his exile and human rights in his native language Sindhi, Sufi lives in Washington DC with his wife Fatima Gul.
Music rises in our recall of him: fragrance clings to his name. It is the fragrance and music of one who saw, over three centuries ago, that what man needed was not rites and writ duties, but the wisdom of the heart.
We live in an age of science and technology. Both are marching on. Man has set foot on the moon. His rockets go past the distant planets. He has been able to station satellites in space.
But his heart is not at peace because he has not learnt the lesson of the four-letter word: love. He does not know that to love is to rise above the ego and enter into communion with the face divine.
Shah Latif was a singer who sang of love. He was once asked whether he was Shia ог Sunni. "Between both" he replied. "Between both is nothing," they said to him. "I am that nothing," he said. He was one of those few human beings who had realized "nothingness".
Sufi Laghari and Hasan Mujtaba, in giving us this precious glimpse of the Beloved have indeed rendered yeoman service to all lovers of Sindh, to all lovers of poetry. For, in the immortal poems of Shah jo Risalo, many silent centuries of Sindh find voice. A seer, a singer, a devout worshipper of the One Infinite Mystery whom the sages call by many names-Shah Abdul Latif was a peerless poet of Sindh. Himself an Awakened One, he became an Awakener of Millions, the entire mass of the people of Sindh.
This was in the 1970s, when my father was employed as a bus conductor. On his way back home, he brought along one book or the other from the city. The biggest of these books he brought home was the collection of the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, popularly known as Shah Jo Risalo.
While leaving home for work the next morning, he would lock me up in a room with Shah Jo Risalo in my hands, of which I would memorize a couple or more of the verses I recited to him at night. Although I had no idea of the meaning of many words in those verses I would yet recite them to my mother who used to tell me in Seraiki (our mother tongue) "aba, iho wadi kitab tedi wadi madad karesi" ("my son, this great book will help you greatly").
I memorized many of the epic verses, preserved them in my heart forever, comprehended, practised and experienced them in real life: and I came to the conclusion that this was an epic that had greatly helped me in trying times, at every turn of my life. And that, whatever I had learned and gained as guidance came from the epic. I must, hence, bring it to the attention of lost souls like me and many others.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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