Poetry Chaikhana Blog

Ivan M. Granger April 16th, 2008

I knew God well when love flashed before me.
by Sultan Bahu

English version by Jamal Elias

I knew God well when love flashed before me.
It gives me strength by night and day, and shows what lies ahead.
In me are flames, in me is fuel, in me is smoke.
I only found my Beloved, Bahu, when love made me aware.

— from Death Before Dying: Sufi Poetry of Sultan Bahu, by Sultan Bahu / Translated by Jamal Elias

I knew God well when love flashed before me.

I don’t know that I have much to add to today’s poem. The lines themselves, repeated, become kindling in the mind…

In me are flames, in me is fuel, in me is smoke.

Hazrat Faqir Sultan Bahu Awan was the founder of the Sarwari Qadiri Sufi order and is one of the most beloved Sufi poet saints of the Punjab region in what is today Pakistan. He lived during the period of Mughal rule in India.

He wrote more than forty books on Sufi philosophy and Islamic mysticism in Persian and Punjabi, but he is best known for his poetry, which is often performed as qawaals (devotional songs).

Sultan Bahu’s tomb is an popular pilgrimage spot today in Pakistan.

More poetry by Sultan Bahu

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