Anthology of Great Sufi & Mystical Poets of Pakistan Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith CONTENTS: The Main Forms in the Sufi & Mystical Poetry of Pakistan... 7. Punjabi Sufi & Mystical Poets... 19. Baba Farid... 21, Guru Nanak... 49, Sultan Bahu... 69, Bulleh Shah... 85, Ali Haider... 115, Khwaja Farid... 125. Sindhi Sufi & Mystical Poets... 133. Shah Latif... 135, Sachal Sarmast... 157. Urdu Sufi & Mystical Poets...169. Iqbal... 171, Josh... 231, Faiz... 253. The correct rhyme-structure and meaning is in all these inspiring, beautiful, powerful poems. Pages 261. COMMENTS ON PAUL...

BELOVED & LOVER Ghazals by Paul Smith... inspired by Meher Baba From the 1920's into the late sixties the great Indian God-Realized Spiritual Master Meher Baba (1894-1969), who composed unique ghazals under the pen-name of Huma, occasionally gave to his disciples who were also poets the first couplet or line of ghazals he wished them to compose. Now after 40 years his disciple and poet from the mid-sixties, Paul Smith, carries on the tradition and completes the task of over 300 poems with love and dedication and the experience of writing hundreds of his own (the first in English) and...

AMIR KHUSRAU: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Amir Khusrau (1253-1324), the 'Parrot of India' was born at Patigali near the Ganges in India. At the age of thirty-six he was poet-laureate, serving many sultans. He was not only fluent in Persian, in which he composed the majority of his 92 books, but also in Arabic, Hindi and Sanskrit. He composed ten long masnavis, five Divans of ghazals and other poems and many prose works. He was a Master musician and invented the sitar. The Perfect Master Nizam ud-din took him as his disciple and eventually he became God-realized. He...

ANVARI Life & Poems Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Ahad-ud-din Anvari Abeverdi (1126-1189) was a court poet of the Seljuk sultans. Jami composed a ruba'i where he names him, along with Firdausi and Sadi as one of the 'three apostles' of Persian poetry. He was also a celebrated astronomer, mathematician and scientist who admitted he gave them up for the more lucrative occupation of a court poet, that he later rejected twenty years before his death for a life of seclusion and contemplation as a Sufi. He is renowned for his delightful wittiness that can be found in many of his ruba'is and...

ABU SA'ID Life & Poems Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Abu Sa'id ibn Abi 'l-Khair (968-1049) was a Perfect Master and a poet who lived in Nishapur and composed only ruba'is, over 400 of them. He was a founder of Sufi poetry and a major influence on the ruba'i and most poets that followed, especially Sana'i, Nizami, 'Attar, Rumi and Hafiz. Here are many of his poems translated into the correct form. Included in the Introduction are the Life of Abu Sa'id and a study of the ruba'i and a chapter on Sufi poets & poetry. Selected Bibliography. The rhyme-structure is kept as well as the beauty...

AL-MA'ARRI Life & Poems Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Abu'l- 'Ala al-Ma'arri was born in Ma'arra, south of Aleppo in Syria in 973 A.D. He achieved fame as one of greatest of Arab Sufi poets. Al-Ma'arri was stricken with smallpox when four and became blind. His early poems in ruba'i form gained great popularity. As he grew older, he was able to travel to Aleppo, Antioch and other Syrian cities. Al-Ma'arri spent 18 months at Baghdad, then the centre of learning and poetry, leaving to return to his native town. There he created the Luzumiyyat, a famous collection of 1592 poems. On...

'ATTAR: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Farid ad-din 'Attar is seen with Sana'i and Rumi (who he met and influenced) as one of the three most important Sufi Poet-Masters of the 13th century. He composed over forty books mainly in the epic masnavi form of rhyming couplets, his most famous being The Book of God and The Conference of the Birds. He also composed many powerful mystical poems in the ghazal form and in the ruba'i form. Here for the is a fine selection of his poems in all three forms in the correct-rhyme structure with the beauty and meaning of his immortal poems....

BABA AFZAL: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Baba Afzal (1186-1256) came from Maraq near Kashan. He is the author of many Persian works on philosophical and metaphysical subjects and translated the Arabic version of Aristotle's 'The Book of the Soul' into Persian. He was a Sufi and the author of about 500 mystical and at times controversial ruba'is some that have been mistakenly identified as Khayyam's. Some of the themes in these include warnings about the futility of involvement with the things of the world, correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm and self-knowledge...

BABA FARID: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith The father of Punjabi poetry Baba Farid (1173-1266) was born in the Punjab. Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki was Baba Farid's Spiritual Master. Kaki met Mu'in ud-din Chishti at Baghdad and became his disciple. The king at Delhi, Balban, welcomed Farid in Delhi. His daughter married Farid. Baba Farid, the Sufi Master poet laureate from Punjab is famous for his wise and spiritual couplets (slokas)... 112 of them are in the bible of the Sikhs (whom he influenced) the Guru Granth, and many are translated here with the correct rhyme-structure and...

BABA TAHIR: LIFE & POEMS Translations, Introduction Paul Smith Baba Tahir, or Oryan ('The Naked') of Hamadan... approx. 990-1065, was a great God-intoxicated, or God-mad soul (mast) and possibly a Qutub (Perfect Master) who composed about 120 known ruba'i in a simpler metre than the usual 'hazaj' metre. His simple, mystical poems that he would sing while wandering naked throughout the land had a profound influence on Sufis and dervishes and other ruba'i composers, especially Abu Sa'id, Ibn Sina and Omar Khayyam. Included in the Introduction... the life of Baba Tahir, an essay on the ruba'i...