The Message of Diwan-i-Farid | Shahzad Qaisar

Banishing the essential dimension of spirituality from the province of religion has led to a decadence of religious life, making traditional societies increasingly sectarian, ritualistic, moralistic and militant; displacing love with hate, increasingly constricting the already restricted human space. It is at this critical juncture of history that the contemporary man needs to carefully listen to the lofty voices of the Men of Universal Love like Khawaja Ghulam Farid.

Diwan-i-Farid is one of the outstanding masterpieces of Saraiki mystical poetry and belongs to the rich and illustrious tradition of wisdom poetry, or contemplative poetry in the Islamic civilization. It reaches hights of poetic excellence. It has expanded the Kafi genre in both its vertical and horizontal dimensions. It has revealed the essence of poetry, which is a passionate openness on to the Transcendent. It is a committed passion: a passion initmately linked with knowledge. It is a sentiment that participates in Truth, Beauty and Love. Dr. Shahzad Qaiser has translated the Diwan with Introductions to every Kafi that provide indispensable keys for those who would like to open up their hearts to this vas panorama of spiritual instruction. In this compelling and insightful volume, the translator takes us to the spiritual core of the Islamic tradition, as we come to see the heart as the meeting ground between the Divine and that which is most human in all of us, wedding the discovery of ones own true self to the intimate knowing of God.

This work is the fruit of a remarkable synthesis between scholarly erudition and a fundamental orientation towards the spiritual import of Sufi teachings, engaging both the academic and the mystic, the scholar and the seeker.