Those Who Never Cherished Passionate-Love, Bahoo
Rushdullah Shah | September 18, 2026
Those Who Never Cherished Passionate-Love, Bahoo
Author: Dr. Rushdullah Shah
Sufism belongs to no single language. In every language, it refines the innermost of the wayfarers (sālik) on the spiritual path with the colour and resonance of its own melody. All the hues of beauty and splendour descend upon it. Its subtlety becomes such that even the soft petals of a flower feel their own beauty grow pale before it. And why should this not be so? When the entire universe gathers itself inward and creates, within this earthen garment, its own distinct world, a world in which "He" Himself makes His own dwelling. The spiritual wayfarer, despite the hardship, suffering, toil, struggle, yearning, and bewilderment of the journey, reaches a new turning where the path becomes subtle and tender. At that point, the spiritual wayfarer no longer remains himself; he becomes reflection of "He." Reflection, and beyond reflection. Only the spiritual wayfarer can understand this, or the Master.
Sultan Bahoo stands at that station of Sufism where the colourful world has lost all value before him, where all fragrances and all beauty shrink within their limited compass and become subject to him. He himself becomes beauty. Within him, a world of boundless fragrances begins to live. He has become as delicate as a budding flower.
The spiritual wayfarer's journey toward this subtlety has no predetermined map. States, emotions, conditions, sensations, and time are all unfixed. The journey from self to self can be as astonishing as this; one may come to feel this only while on the journey itself. Perhaps the human being lives while pressing an entire world of states and emotions within himself. He does not know what lies inside him. Who is he? Why does he exist? What remains when he is gone? What lies between his being and his not-being? Is there anything at all, or nothing? If he is not there, he is still there in some sense. If he is there, in another sense he is not. The journey from self to self is what makes the spiritual wayfarer capable of understanding this very point. But what does it mean to be capable? What is capability? Is it familiarity with letters and words, command over thought, the claim of reason and understanding? Or is it humility, submission, love, sincerity, closeness, reverence, relinquishing the claim to exist, keeping such a distance from arrogance that one's very being begins to appear as its opposite? What is this capability? It is the very thing whose outward colour and form every Sufi poet from Sindh to Shah Husayn, Sultan Bahoo, Baba Bulleh Shah, and Khwajah Farid has rejected in favour of something deeper.
Hazrat Sultan Bahoo (R.A.) says:
پڑھ پڑھ عالم کرن تکبر حافظ کرن وڈیائی ھُو
گلیاں دے وچ پھرن نمانےوتن کتاباں چائی ھُو
جتھے ویکھن چنگا چوکھا اوتھے پڑھن کلام سوائی ھُو
دوہیں جہانیں سوئی مٹھے باھُوؒ جنہاں کھادھی ویچ کمائی ھُو
“With education scholars become arrogant and “Mulla” filled with pride - Hoo,
They are helpless and roam around streets with books in their armpits - Hoo,
Whenever they see good foods prolong their sermon and recite more - Hoo,
They would be deprived in both the worlds, Bahoo, who wasted their knowledge for earning - Hoo.”
This is one outward form of knowledge, and it is the form that prevents a person from meeting himself. Rather than making a person like the bowed branch of a fruit-laden tree, this kind of knowledge turns him into arrogance and takes him further from himself. Any journey in which the element of love is absent is a tiring journey, while difficulties encountered in a journey that contains love lose their quality of suffering.
Sultan Bahoo says:
پڑھ پڑھ علم ہزار کتاباں عالم ہوئے بھارے ھُو
اک حرف عشق دا پڑھن نہ جانن بھلے پھرن بچارے ھُو
اک نگاہ جے عاشق ویکھے لکھ ہزاراں تارے ھُو
لکھ نگاہ جے عالم ویکھے کسے نہ کدھی چاہڑے ھُو
عشق عقل وچ منزل بھاری سئیاں کوہاندے پاڑے ھُو
جنہاں عشق خرید نہ کیتا باھُوؒ اوہ دوہیں جہانیں مارے ھُو
“By studying thousand books, they become learned scholars - Hoo,
They couldn’t understand a word of “Ishq” because those naive are roaming without purpose and aim - Hoo,
Single glance of a passionate lover would take millions across Hoo,
With millions of glances by scholars, no one reached the shores any way Hoo,
“Ishq” and mere knowledge are thousands of miles apart - Hoo,
Those who have not adopted “Ishq” Bahoo, they are losers in both worlds - Hoo.”
Shāh 'Abd al-Laṭīf Bhiṭṭā'ī (R.A.) (1690-1752) says:
پڙھيو ٿا پڙھن، ڪڙھن ڪين قلوب سين،
پاڻان ڏوھ چڙھن، جئين ورق ورائن وترا
"They read, to be sure, yet they do not reach the meaning of words, which is the very essence. The more pages they turn, the heavier their burden of sin becomes."
The Sufi poet Sachal Sarmast (1739-1827) expresses a similar sentiment:
سڪ سچي کون ڪونڪو، سبق سور سکن
اکر لکن نھ دل تي، ٿا ڪاغذ ڪارا ڪن
مس ڪاري جان من کي، ٿا ڪاري ڪارو ڪن
مدعا جنھن مام جي، تنھن ويجھو ڪين وڃن
تاڏي ڪن نھ ڪن، جو فرمودو فائق جو
"They do not carry the pain of love in the fruits of their knowledge. They write letters without meaning, blackening their insides like ink. They do not go near the truth. They do not even look in the direction where the recognition of the original source begins."
Qāḍī Qādan (1445-1551 CE), considered the first Sufi poet of the Sindhi language, expressed the similar ideas approximately a century before Sultan Bahoo:
ڪنز قُدوري، ڪافيھ، جي پڙھي پروڙين سڀ
ڪَھ منڊي ماڪوڙي، کوھ مان ڪڇي اُڀ
"Apparently you have read the important works of jurisprudence, morphology, and syntax, yet your knowledge is as limited as a frog in a well trying to measure the vastness of the sky from within."
Sultan Bahoo himself writes in his treatise Risālah Rūḥī Sharīf:
گرچہ نیست مارا علم ظاہر
ز علم باطنی جاں گشتہ طاہر
"Although I have not acquired outward knowledge, by attaining inward knowledge I have become pure and purified, and thus all sciences have entered my heart through reflection."
Makhdūm Nūḥ (1505-1588 CE) of Hāla, Sindh, the first Persian translator and commentator of the Glorious Qur'an in the Indian Subcontinent, and a leading personality of the Awaysī spiritual order, writes in one of his Sindhi verses:
اُپٽيان ته انڌيون، پوريون پرين پسن،
آهي اکڙين، عجب پر پسڻ جي.
"When I open my eyes I see nothing, and when I close them I see my Beloved. I am in wonder at the strange sight of these eyes."
All the eminent Sufis have negated outward knowledge acquired without spiritual purification. In their view, knowledge has two dimensions or levels: the outward and the inward. The outward condition is one in which things appear as they visibly exist. The inward condition is one in which the causes and motivations behind those things become known, and one comes to understand the reasons, purposes, and significance of things existing or not existing.
According to the science of linguistics known as structuralism, words are meaningless in themselves. What gives them their lustre are the feelings and states concealed within them. In other words, the meanings of words are hidden inside them. Until those meanings are sought out and retrieved, those words mean nothing to their reader. This is why outward knowledge cannot make the spiritual wayfarer complete. Superficiality is a great obstacle to looking into depth. When we stop at the surface, we become not merely unaware of but actually indifferent to what lies within it. In our indifference, we begin to take what is visible as the totality of everything. Access to the essence of thought is important in every condition, for it is that essence which endures. The survival of a thought lies in its inward spirit, its depth, its essence.
Shāh 'Abd al-Laṭīf Bhiṭṭā'ī (R.A.) says:
اکر پڙھ الف جو، ٻيا ورق سڀ وسار،
اندر تون اجار،پنا پڙهندين ڪيترا
"Read the letter Alif and forget all other pages. Illuminate your within. How many pages will you read?"
Baba Bulleh Shah, a contemporary of Shāh 'Abd al-Laṭīf Bhiṭṭā'ī, says:
الف اللہ رتا دل میرامینوں 'ب' دی خبر نہ کائی
'ب' پڑھیا مینوں سمجھ نہ آوے لذت الف دی آئی
'ع' تے 'غ' نوں سمجھ نہ جاناں گل الف سمجھائی
'بلھیا' قول الف دے پورے جیہڑے دل دی کرن صفائی!
"My heart is saturated with letter alif Allah; I have no awareness of the letter 'B' (otheres). I read 'B' but cannot grasp it, for the sweetness of alif has reached me. I do not understand 'Ayn and Ghayn ' (the letters of Arabic); the matter of alif has been explained. O Bullhe Shah, only those sayings of alif are complete which purify the heart."
To read just this one alif, liberation is found. "Alif" is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. The Sufis see "alif" as the symbol of the One, the being that is singular and unique. In their view, alif is the beginning of letters and words. Without understanding and knowing it, no journey of knowledge is possible. The existence of alif is unique. It is singular, from beginning to end and from end to beginning; it remains alif. Sufi scholars connect the written form of alif to the concept of the Divine Dhāt: just as He is unique in His own essence, so the form of alif does not change. The spiritual wayfarer (sālik), too, must become like alif, unique in his own being, complete in himself, perfect in his word and deed, and a possessor of righteous action. Ethics is a vital branch of philosophy. All the eminent Sufis and friends of Allah have enjoined it alongside practice. The concept of a perfect human being is impossible without ethics. Social advancement is unattainable without respect for the human being. Social and religious tolerance, truthfulness, justice, and fairness are of particular importance across the domains of society, and without practising them neither can any society progress nor can peace be established on earth. For this, the loftiness of human character is the most essential prerequisite.
The human being is the most honoured and elevated creation of the Creator of the universe, whose rank among all the creatures of the universe is distinguished. This rank has been granted based on wisdom, insight, and intellect. In the view of Sultan Bahoo, nothing is attainable without passionate love ('ishq). In his view, everything granted to the human being is granted only through passionate love. He says:
جیں دل عشق خرید نہ کیتا سو دل درد نہ پھُٹی ھُو
اس دل تھیں سنگ پتھر چنگے جو دل غفلت اٹی ھُو
جیں دل عشق حضور نہ منگیا سو درگاہوں سُٹّی ھُو
ملیا دوست نہ انہاں باھُوؒ جنہاں چوڑ نہ کیتی ترٹی ھُو
“The heart that does not cherish love is devoid of longing - Hoo,
Stones are better than the heart that is lost in negligence - Hoo,
The heart that does not aspire to attain the presence, will be thrown out of the Court - Hoo,
Divine friendship will not be achieved Bahoo, if all is not sacrificed – Hoo”
Those who cannot purchase love stumble from door to door. They are deeply unfortunate. They cannot reach knowledge and recognition ('irfān). They remain distant from the station of divine recognition (ma'rifat). In the eyes of the ordinary world, they may be counted as educated people, but they cannot become truly learned. From their thoughts, no sense of freshness arises. They carry none of that fragrance that draws people toward them. They are, in truth, empty within. So empty that they fear even themselves. They fear solitude. They fear people. They fear the change that is coming. They fear their own selves. Such people are of no benefit whatsoever to social advancement. Sultan Bahoo says:
جیں دل عشق خرید نہ کیتا سوئی خسرے مرد زنانے ھُو
خنسے خسرے ہر کوئی آکھے کون آکھے مردانے ھُو
گلیاں دیوچ پھرن اربیلے جیوں جنگل ڈھور دیوانے ھُو
مرداں تے نمرداں دی کل تداں پوسی باھُوؒ جداں عاشق بنہسن گانے ھُو
The heart that does not cherish love is like a eunuch - Hoo,
Everyone calls such person as eunuch, no one can call as a man - Hoo,
They roam about in the streets like wild animals in the jungle - Hoo,
Reality of men and eunuchs would be evident on Day of Judgment Bahoo, when the lovers will be crowned at the end – Hoo”
Sultan Bahoo says that whoever wishes to learn the lesson of passionate love should present himself before a person who possesses passionate love, for the one who possesses passionate love is also the possessor of spiritual sanctity (wilāyat). The possessor of spiritual sanctity (wilāyat) is the perfect human being. Having risen to a distinguished station in the universe, he now occupies a rank that serves as the means of guidance for the creation.
He further says:
رات اندھیری کالی دے وچ عشق چراغ جلانْدا ھُو
جیندی سِک توں دل چانیوے توڑیں نہیں آواز سنانْدا ھُو
اوجھڑ جھل تے مارو بیلے اِتھے دم دم خوف شیہانْدا ھُو
تھل جل جنگل گئے جھگیندے باھُوؒ کامل نینہہ جنہانْدا ھُو
In the darkness of night, Love (Ishq) kindles light - Hoo,
In whose inspiration your heart pangs there are no sighs - Hoo,
There are bushes, jungle and rivers on this path with fears of lion’s attain on each step - Hoo,
They fearlessly cross jungles, deserts and rivers Bahoo, who have perfect ‘Ishq’ - Hoo.”
Shāh 'Ināyat Riẓwī (1620-1708), a classical Sindhi poet who was a contemporary of Sultan Bahoo, writes:
کامي کوري وچ ۾، پتنگ ويا پچي
اُني وٽ آتش جي، سڀڪا سُڌ سچي
موٽئو ڪو نه بچي، کامي سڀ خاڪ ڪيا
"They were consumed completely in the fire, for within them was the true and genuine desire to burn. They do not return; they burn and become ash, annihilated (fanā)."
Iftikhar Quṭb writes in his book Majrūḥ Afkār:
"Movement in human life is driven by fear. It is fear that makes a person recognise his own personality, and it is fear that shapes and refines it."
This means the entire striving of the human being rests upon fear. The Sufi, at a fundamental level, seeks to know the reason for his coming into this world. He comes to know his place and function in the universe. He journeys in search of an answer to this basic question. As a result of this journey, remarkable things are revealed to him. He makes many discoveries on this journey. He passes through various states and arrives at the conclusion that the answer to the question he has been seeking outside is hidden within him. As Sultan Bahoo says:
ایہہ تن رب سچے دا حجرا وچ پا فقیرا جھاتی ھُو
ناں کر منت خواج خضر دی تیرے اندر آب حیاتی ھُو
شوق دا دیوا بال ہنیرے متاں لبھی وست کھڑاتی ھُو
مرن تھیں اگے مر رہے باھُوؒ جنہاں حق دی رمز پچھاتی ھُو
“This body of yours is the dwelling of Lord so Mystic (Faqeer) look inside - Hoo,
Do not ask favors from Khawaja Khidhr, the water of immortality is within you - Hoo,
Do illuminate the lamp of longing, perhaps you might find what you have lost – Hoo
Dying before death ‘O’ Bahoo, would give you the cognition of Divine signs – Hoo.”
This secret is revealed to the spiritual wayfarer when he burns himself in the fire of passionate love. When he is consumed and extinguished in that fire, only then does he recognise the reality, which transforms him from dust into refined gold. The fire of this passionate love and the moths who are absorbed by it are remarkable in their own way. Their madness creates within them a state of fear, and when they emerge from this state of fear, they descend fearlessly into their innermost and discover the vastness of the universe.
The subjects found abundantly in the Punjabi Poetry (Abyāt) of Sultan Bahoo revolve around a central point, which is human reformation. He urges the human being to guard against misguidance, heedlessness, and evil, and to walk upon the straight path. He encourages adopting the condition of passionate love, that is, surrender and submission. He calls for seeking the company of a spiritual guide (murshid), the person who possesses passionate love, the perfect human being (insān-e-kāmil), to walk this path of passionate love. This world, through the effect of a person's own deeds, can become a garden of flowers, and that same world can also turn into degradation and bring a person to shame and ruin. Sultan Bahoo presents the concept of the "perfect human being" who can become the means of social advancement. He says:
سبق صفاتی سوئی پڑھدے جو وت ہینے ذاتی ھُو
علموں علم انہاں نوں ہویا جیڑھے اصلی تے اثباتی ھُو
نال محبت نفس کٹھو نے کڈھ قضا دی کاتی ھُو
بہرہ خاص انہاں نوں باھُوؒ جنہاں لدھا آب حیاتی ھُو
“Those learn attributes who fall short of the Essence - Hoo,
Those have true knowledge who attain immortality after immersing in truth - Hoo,
They crush all desires of their self in eternal love (of Allah) - Hoo,
Special share is for those Bahoo, who find water of life (Eternal life) - Hoo.”
This article was originally published in Urdu in the Monthly Mirrat ul Arifeen International Magazine.
To cite the original article:
Shah, Rushdullah. “Those Who Never Purchased Love: Bahoo.” Monthly Mirrat-ul-Arifeen International Magazine, December 2024. https://www.mirrat.com/article/91/1543
References:
Iftikhar Quṭb, Majrūḥ Afkār, March 1998.
- R. Pūrī and T. R. Shangārī, Sā'in Bullhe Shāh, Fiction House Lahore, 1999.
Hazrat Sultan Bahoo, Shams al-'Ārifīn, Sayyid Amīr Khān Niyāzī (trans.), Al-Arifeen Publications Lahore, 2002.
Dr. Nabī Bakhsh Khān Baloch, Mīen Shāh 'Ināt Jo Kalām, Sindhi Adabi Board, 1963.
Dr. Nabī Bakhsh Khān Baloch, Qāḍī Qādan Jo Risālo, Institute of Sindhology, 1999.
'Uthmān 'Alī Anṣārī (ed.), Risālo Sachal Sarmast, ed. Dr. Makhūm Bukhārī, Sindhi Adabi Board, 2012.
Kalyān Aḍwānī (ed.), Shāh Jo Risālo, Department of Culture, Government of Sindh, 2012.
Dr. Z. A. Awan, Heart Deeper Than Ocean, Al-Arifeen Publications, Lahore, 2017.