Hazrat Khwaja Ghulam Fareed

Tomb of Ghulam Farid at Kot Mithan

Khawaja Ghulam Farid, the top most spiritual poet in Saraiki Language, was born in 1845 A.D. at Kot Mithan, in a family of Arab settlers who had come to this country along with the Arab forces.

Maulana Khuda Bux had two sons, Khawaja Farid-ud-Din & Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din. It is said that when Khawaja Ghulam Farid was a child, Maulana Muhammad gave him the first lesson of the first alphabet "ALIF" & asked him to say "ALIF". He repeated the same again & again till every-one present there was enveloped by a trance. Some qawali singers were invited & they too recited the same word on their musical instruments. The trance remained in sway for a considerable time.

Khawaja Farid's mother died when he was only four years of age.

He was looked after by his eider brother. At the age of eight, he had committed to memory the whole of the holy Quran. Thereafter Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan took the child to his palace at Ahmad Pur Sharqia for imparting him religious knowledge by some renowned scholar. At the age of thirteen, Khawaja Farid became the disciple of Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din, his elder brother. When he crossed 28 years of his age Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din died. He left for Ruhi where the remained for about eighteen years. It was a typical wilderness but suitable for a recluse saint. It was very beneficial for connection with Kot Mithan or Chachar. About this wilderness of Ruhi, we often read in his lyrics. He performed Hajj Baitullah in 1876.

Khawaja Farid was conversant with seven languages Viz, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Multani, Sindhi, Hindi & Sansakrat. He led a life of purity & was utterly devoted to the righteous path of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) of Islam. May his soul ever rest in peace.

The lyrics of Khawaja Farid speak of the sadness of his separation from God & Muhammad, the beloved of Allah. He never reckoned himself away from his goal. But at times he felt a great separation & so he cried, groaned & sang in his ecstacy of the love which united him to his creator but with a veil in between them. The body acts as a most obedient slave, the sould gives life to the body & the spirit infuses the mechanical power in man. All these faculties he utilised only for the sake of Allah to approach Him, the only Goal for the man to attain.

The spiritual yearing, purification & elevation depends on so many factors which have been explained by saints & spiritualists. The shortest way to the creator is Love & Khawaja used this Method of attaining sublimation. All the attributes of Allah, we know are the offshoots of Love. Khawaja Farid expressed this love in his fine verses.

Khawaja Ghulam Farid rendered numerous services for spreading Islam & left behind disciples in Lacs. His most notable disciples are noted below:

1. Nawab Qaisar Khan Magassi of Balochistan & his subjects.
2. Nawab Sadiq Khan 4th of Bahawalpur State & his subjects.
3. Mirza Ahmad Akhtar, the grand son of Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Khawaja Farid wrote the following books both in poetry & prose:

1. Dewan-e-Farid in 1882. (Saraiki Poetry)
2. Dewan-e-Farid in 1884. (Urdu Poetry)
3. Manaqab-e-Mehboobia (in Persian prose)
4. Fawaid Faridia (in Persian prose)

Khawaja Farid died on 24th July, 1901 & was laid to rest in Kot Mithan.