From Practice to Poetry: Meditation, Anti-Materialism and Humanism in Early Hagiographical Literature on Bābā Farīd

Abstract

Shaykh Farīd al-Dīn Mas‘ūd Ganj i-Shakar popularly known as Bābā Farīd is one of the celebrated
Chishtī Ṣufīs of Indo-Pāk subcontinent. He was an erudite Ṣufī, who coupled with his fellow Chishti
Ṣufīs, and introduced numerous spectacular literary innovations in South Asia. Besides a great Ṣufī
master, Bābā Farīd was also a poet who did poetry in Punjābī, Persian and Arabic. One of the
paramount prowess of Bābā Farīd’s life was his arduous meditation, renunciation of the material
world, and great love for humanity which is vividly manifested in his poetry and his life and
teachings. This study is a unique endeavor to conceptualize and critically appraise the thematic
connection of Bābā Farīd’s poetry with his life, philosophy, and teachings preserved in earlier
hagiographical sources.