Abdur-Rehman (1650 – 1715 A.D) widely known as Rehman Baba was a great Pushtu Sufi poet who is regarded as the most read and quoted Pushtu poet of the larger belt of Afghanistan and the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. There isn’t much known about his life due to the lack of eyewitness accounts yet a few legends portray him to be a reclusive poet, singing his poems near the Bara River while strumming a Rubab.
His poetry shows him to be a poet who had full command on fiqah (jurisprudence) and tasawwuf (Sufism). A powerful Sufi touch in his poetry notwithstanding, he was not inclined to a particular order of Sufism and it is more likely that Rehman Baba was a free soul, with an individualistic practice of Sufism similar to that of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai in Sindh. Thus he says:
“On the path which I travel to see my love, make holy Khizer and Ilyas my guidesâ€
His tomb is at Hazarkhwani, in the suburbs of Peshawar.
Why I’m not dying
Why I’m not dying,
Of the sorrow of separation,
Why I’m not dying,
Of this mourning intense.
Why I’m not dying,
Of the cruelty of this age,
Which snatches a lover from the lover.
Why I’m not dying
Of witnessing these mornings,
Which laugh at my sobs every rising day.
Why I’m not dying
Without my lover,
For it is a death, not to stare in the lover’s eyes.
Why I’m not dying,
To see these unfaithful drops of dew,
That leave the flower upon seeing a slight warmth.
Why I’m not dying,
Of this deadly miserable life,
That I’m carrying with myself,
O’Rehman from so long.II
Such have your sorrows overpowered me,
That I’ve lost every place in and out.My sobs have rendered people restless,
Like fire of a burning dry wood engulfing the moistured.In your pain, I’m weeping like a candle,
But you are smiling at me like a bright morn.My heart’s hanging in your path,
Like your black hair dangling in front of your face.Tis’ a norm for all the sorrows to be crushed under your feet,
When you are burdened with that single grief.They come towards you, leaving me behind,
All those who advisingly forbade me from your path.Such is the effect of yours over the face of Rehman,
Like a flame of fire over a thinly dry stalk.
Credits: This article was earlier posted at Pak Tea House.
Ahsan
Extremely well said. Your diagnosis is absolutely correct –
it is a shame ..
we need to find out why people commented less on literary posts. We see 60, 70 or even 100 comments against politics and social issues but what is wrong with literature? Or is there something wrong with us. We don’t love books and literature as much as we like other activities. Look above only 6 comments. Is the poem by the great poet not interesting enough? We need to find out reasons behind it. Owais Mughal can tell us about the trend to comment on literary posts. Is my observation right or wrong, dear editor? If wrong, then I am happy. If right, then we need to go back to libraries, book shops and book stalls to make Pakistan a literate Pakistan.
Thank you for a very informative post. But I think Rehman Baba is Pushto sooofi poet but never had the opportunity to read his poetry. And his poetry is very different to others poets. His poetry is massage to all people’s whose are muslims and thanks again for your’s ” the poems translated into English”.
I must say that reading the first poem it seemed like it was a commentary on everything happening in Pakistan today.
Yes sounds pretty much like todays pakistan .. which shows we r not going through some special crisis now a days, so chill guys …. world has been like this from the start.
We need more such informative posts on ATP. Nice to see GOP issue a commemorative stamp to honor his memory.