Khwaja Ghulam Farid
Sufi poet of Kot Mithan and the Cholistan desert, whose kafis in Saraiki are sung across the western Punjab.
In their words
Famous linesਮੇਡਾ ਇਸ਼ਕ ਵੀ ਤੂੰ, ਮੇਡਾ ਯਾਰ ਵੀ ਤੂੰ, ਮੇਡਾ ਦੀਨ ਵੀ ਤੂੰ, ਈਮਾਨ ਵੀ ਤੂੰ।
میڈا عشق وی توں، میڈا یار وی توں، میڈا دین وی توں، ایمان وی توں۔
You are my love, and you are my friend; you are my religion and my faith.
Kafi, in Saraiki
Khwaja Ghulam Farid was born in 1845 at Chachran on the Indus, in the state of Bahawalpur, and lived much of his life at Kot Mithan. He was a Chishti Sufi, a scholar of Persian and Arabic, and the spiritual guide of the Nawab of Bahawalpur.
His kafis, in the Saraiki of the south-western Punjab, are full of the Rohi, the Cholistan desert: its sand dunes, monsoon clouds and herders. They are sung at shrines and by singers such as Abida Parveen and Pathanay Khan.
He died in 1901 and is buried at Mithankot, where his urs draws great crowds.
The Sufi lineages
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Teacher to disciple, simplified. Dashed lines skip generations: the Qadiri saints of the Punjab belonged to Abdul Qadir Jilani's order but lived centuries after him. Darker boxes are poets and saints of the Punjab with their own pages. Mian Mir was a friend of Guru Arjan; Sikh tradition says he laid the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib.