Fariduddin Ganjshakar or Shakarganj (lit. the treasure of sugar), was a member of Chishtīya, which gains its name from the village of Chisht in today’s Afghanistan, although the main teachings of Chishtīya are traced back to the Baghdadi Sufi, Abū Isḥāq al-Shāmī (3rd and 4th hijri), who had been appointed by his master to travel to Chisht, one of the villages of Herat, to teach people. Al-Shāmī founded Chishtīya and became famous as the Khwaja of Chisht. Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī brought the Chishtī teachings to Ajmer (in today’s Rajasthan) for the first time. His teacher was Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, whom he met when Khwaja was passing through Multan on his way from Baghdad to Delhi. He used the vernacular Punjabi as the language of poetry for the first time. 123 (or 134) hymns composed by Farid are incorporated into Guru Granth Sahib, and from this perspective, he is one of those 15 Bhagats (saints) whose names have come in the text.
Baba Farid in Guru Granth Sahib
Bhagat Sheikh Farid's Bani (and not just Baba Farid in its Islamic sense) is accessible in Guru Granth Sahib, pages 488, 794, 957-966 (here as Guru Arjan Dev, Bhagat Kabir, Sheikh Farid, Ramkali Ki Var), and from page 1377 to 1385 (as Sheikh Farid, Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Amar Das), which in all cases reflects the eclectic nature of Sikhism. Also, his hymns come when “One Universal Creator God” is discussed. In a dialectic style between two people, and in the first Bani (page 488), Baba Farid asks questions and it is through this dialogue that truth is revealed. The dialectic style is as old as Greek philosophy, particularly Platonic one in the book The Republic, and is infiltrated into Islamic philosophy when they encountered with Greek philosophy. The Republic discusses the importance of being just in the world, and how by being just one is happy, and how justice is achievable. For which Plato replies that it is only through the establishment of the Ideal City and the governance of the philosophers that justice (which is equal to happiness) is possible. The same pattern is repeated here, however the content is different. The content of the Bani is the question on happiness or saʿāda. The content is spirituality and the way happiness is accessible, which will be fulfilled by the truthful union with God: “They alone are true, whose love for God is deep and heart-felt. Those who have one thing in their heart, and something else in their mouth, are judged to be false” (p. 488).
It is to be mentioned that the pursuit of happiness and the conception of felicity (saʿāda) is as old as Islamic philosophy itself (from al-Fārābī onwards), and is the impact of Greek philosophy in an Islamic milieu. For Baba Farid happiness, both in this world and the hereafter, goes through tawḥīd, which is emphasized and elaborated in a Sufi style, however, it gets aphoristic colorings in the following and therefore becomes ethical. It becomes aphoristic when Farid recommends: “So speak the Truth, in righteousness, and do not speak falsehood. The disciple ought to travel the route, pointed out by the Guru” (p. 488), and from this perspective, Shaykh Farid’s bani can be an example of Sufi ethics too. Hence, saʿāda is accessible only through monotheism and walking on the pathways of gurus.
In the second place (page 794), Baba Farid keeps the dialectic style to discuss soul and body, using the metaphor of marriage, but there are two marriages: soul, symbolizing spirituality and body/world symbolizing the mundane, and it is only by divorcing this world/body (husband) that the soul can unite with the real one and real marriage happens, which is famous as ʿurs in Sufi terminology. The Husband Lord. Baba Farid uses the metaphor of “the black bird” to say that by separation from the Lord (or the beloved husband), the soul which has been clean, has now been turned into impurity and has become dark:
“O black bird, what qualities have made you black? “I have been burnt by separation from my Beloved.” Without her Husband Lord, how can the soul-bride ever find peace? When He becomes merciful, then God unites us with Himself” (p. 794).
One of the things Sikhism inherited from Islam is the notion of tawḥīd, particularly the way Baba Farid describes it with divine names and attributes. He Almighty being “inaccessible, unfathomable, endless, the farthest of the far”, (p. 957). Needless to remind that according to Islamic tradition, the Essence, dhāt, is not graspable by anyone, even prophets and angels, and that is why one theophany is needed to explain creation. Baba Farid lived during Ibn ʿArabī, and had the same ideas about tawḥīd as the first principle of Islam. However, it comes to gain a Sikh coloring, when Farid says: “He reveals Himself to the Gurmukh” (Ibid.).
Gurmukh, (i.e., the Perfect Guru), who is the first one revealing or manifesting God’s hidden face in, is equated to kalamah (Word), which is a central notion is Christianity:
“John 1:1–3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
And Word is Jesus. Pertinent to this is the eclectic nature of Sikhism: the True Guru, the Primal Being, which in Islamic philosophy is the First Intellect or عقل اول. Starting with al-Kindī (d. 873), when he theorizes that there was a separate, incorporeal and universal intellect (known as the "First Intellect"). It was the first of God's creation and the intermediary through which all other things came into creation. Also the First Emanated or صادر اول. In the Sufi tradition the First Intellect is equivalent of al-ḥaqīqat al-muḥammadīyah / حقیقت محمدیه.
Chinvat Bridge /پل صراط
“The path upon which I must walk is very depressing. It is sharper than a two-edged sword, and very narrow. That is where my path lies. O Shaykh Fareed, think of that path early on” (p. 794). The allegory of Ṣirāṭ Bridge, which is more cutting than sword and narrower than a strand of hair, for the hardship of closeness to God.
Aphorisms and Aphoristic Literature
Pages: 1377-1385: The ethical and literal genre of andarz nāmah (advice literature), which has a rich heritage in India, which can trace back to Panchatantra, along with other texts. A rich heritage in Iranian culture as well, which goes back to Pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian ethical instructions, written in Middle Persian or Pahlavi. I mentioned Iran briefly because I am discussing Sufism here. Many of these aphoristic literature not only survived, but also shaped the moral framework of medieval cultures, both in India and Iran. Their content is religious advises or practical and sensible wisdoms (ḥikmat), which are expressed in the literary style of irony, metaphor and allegory, such as the metaphor of husband for the death. Or world (دنیا) for marriage, which is typical in Sufi discourse. But according to the teachings of Baba Farid, one should be always married to his Lord by detaching himself or herself from this world. Sufi wisdom, both in India and Iran, cannot be detached from such a cultural context, which is much older than Islamic heritage. Here (and in the last part), Baba Farid’s status as a Sufi is as important as his literary status as a Punjabi poet (the first one indeed).
Dēnkard VI and Its Wisdom
The language is Sant Bhāṣā (language of saints), but the content is advisory literature, and that is why one can categorize it under aphoristic literature, with poverty (faqr), dervishhood and contentment, at its center. Dervishhood alone is an example of the continuity of Dēnkard VI’s teachings in Islamic era. Dēnkard VI, The Wisdom of the Sassanid Sages contains a lengthy discussion of the status of dervishhood درویشی and poverty as the first ethical text in which such a discussion is mentioned. One can find virtue ethics of the Sassanid era in pages 1384, and 125-130 of Dēnkard VI.
A considerable section of Dēnkard VI is the appreciation of poverty, as “a special privilege, which not everyone can undertake” (Ibid., XXXIX, sections 141-148). Direct quote from Shaul Shaked, the translator of the text into English:
“these associations of the term “poor” which imply a certain sanctity and spiritual force are connected with a tradition which invested such a meaning on the term already in the language of the Avesta, and which continued down into the Islamic period under the form darvish; in the Islamic period this became part of the Judaeo-Christian tradition which also provided antecedents in the same sense” (Ibid.).
Guru Granth Sahib is loaded with Sufi ethical teachings, which are done through the conversation of Baba Farid with himself. Things such as advises to being in love with the Lord, which renew the color of dervish (p. 1378), to being the dust of the path and the grass on the path, and become so humble until you rise, which is reminiscent of this famous Persian idiom saying that: “learn to be humble, because a land which is located on a high elevated place, will not receive water and remain dry forever”.
افتادگی آموز اگر طالب فیضی هرگز نخورد آب زمینی که بلند است
Other than Sufi ethics, it seems that Baba Farid’s teachings are being generated from other sources such as Buddhism as well. For instance, this part: “Let patience be your purpose in life; implant this within your being. In this way, you will grow into a great river; you will not break off into a tiny stream” (p. 1383). Or the word “Lord” referring to God, which sounds Christian.
To conclude, Baba Farid’s bani, which is consisting of some nineteen pages out of the outrageous 1430 pages of Guru Granth Sahib is a successful union between Indic spirituality (revolving around themes such as “the Righteous Judge of Dharma” and alike), and Persianate Sufi imaginaries and ethical instructions, with notions such as meditation, austerities, self-discipline, compassion at its center. Pertinent to this is the Islamic tawḥīd, which is running through the bani like its spirit. The result of which is a polytheistic tradition, which matches the eclectic nature of Sikhism. It also indicates how the message of Sufism is intertwined into the cultural fabric of Punjab.
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