Baba Farid

Baba Farid (may God sanctify his innermost consciousness) has written these verses in Persian:

(1)
Ba-qadr ranj yaabi soruri raa
Ba-shab bidaar budan mehtari raa

You’ll experience bliss to the extent of the pains you undertake.
Greatness will come if in the night you keep awake.

(2)
Khaaham ke hamisha dar hawaaye to ziyam
Khaaki shawam o ba-zir paaye to ziyam
Maqsud-e-man banda ze kawnayn to’i
Az ba-har to miram ze baaraaye to ziyam

I wish that I’d always live in love with You.
I’d like to live as the dust under the feet of You.
You are my goal in both the worlds:
I die for You and I live for You.

(3)
Gar wesaal-e-shaah midaari tam’
Az wesaal-e-khishtan mahjur baash

If you desire to meet the king,
Then abandon the possibility of self-realization.

(4)
Baba Farid (q.s.) recited the following verses when meeting his murshid for the first time:

Maqbul-e-to joz moqbel-e-jaawid nashod
Waz lotf-e-to hich banda nawmid nashod
‘Awnat ba-kodaam zarra paywast dami
Kaan zarra beh az hazaar khurshid nashod

The one accepted by you, is eternally fortunate
And no one is disappointed of your kindness.
Your attention for some time to a speck of dust
Makes it better than a thousand suns.

(5)
The governor of Multan had no faith in Baba Farid (q.s.) and sometimes spoke ill about him. Baba Farid used to recite these verses:

Afsus ke az haal-e-manat nist khabr
Aanke khabrat shud ke afsus khuri

Alas, you don’t know anything about the state I am in.
What is the use of feeling sorry, when you will come to know?

(6)
Baba Farid (q.s.) advised his murids to recite the following lines in their intimate conversations with the Beloved:

Az hazrat-e-to seh chiz mikhaaham
Waqt-e-khush o aab-e-dida o raahat-e-del

From Your presence I ask for three things:
A happy time, tears and inward peace in my heart.

(7)
A qawwal (a Sufi troubadour) once sang some poetry when visiting Nizamuddin Awliya at a time when Nizamuddin Awliya had not yet been initiated into the Sufi path and had not yet found a shaykh. The singer first described the inner qualities of shaykh Bahauddin Zakariya of Multan . His words had no effect at all on the young listener, but when he paid attention in his songs to Baba Farid (q.s.), Nizamuddin Awliya, felt a great love entering his heart although he had never met Baba Farid. This psychological accident has been described by a poet in the following couplet:

Hadies-e hosn-e u naagaah firo khaandand dar gusham
Dar aamad ‘eshq o yakbare be-bord ‘aql az man o husham.

Suddenly the description of his beauty
Came to the ears of mine,
Love entered and at once took away
The reason and understanding of mine.

(8)
It so happened that Baba Farid (q.s.) fasted for three days continuously. On the third day a man brought him some bread. Without Baba Farid knowing it, this bread was unlawful food to him. Because of an unpleasant sight he vomitted everything he had eaten. Again he fasted for three days. Afterwards he picked up a few pebbles and put them into his mouth. These pebbles turned into sugar. Baba Farid came to be known as Ganj-e-Shakar, because his being changed into a treasure of sugar. Amir Khurd has quoted a verse from Hakim Sana’i when describing the anecdote:

Sang dar dast-e-to gohar gardad
Zahr dar kaam-e-to shakar gardad

Pebbles turn into pearls in your hand.
Poison turns into sugar in your mouth.

Baba Farid Ganj-e-Shakar changed people by means of his sweet and wise teachings.