Farīd al-DīnMasʿūdGanj-i-Shakar (c. 4 April 1179 – 7 May 1266), known reverentially as BābāFarīd or Shaikh Farīd by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus of the Punjab Region, or simply as FarīduddīnGanjshakar, was a 12th-century Punjabi Muslim preacher and mystic who went on to become "one of the most revered and distinguished ... Muslim mystics" of the medieval period.
FariduddinMasud was a great Sufi master who was born in 1179 at a village called Kothewal, 10 km from Multan in the Punjab region of what is now Pakistan, to Jamāl-ud-dīnSuleimān and Maryam Bībī (QarsumBībī), daughter of Sheikh Wajīh-ud-dīnKhojendī. He was one of the founding fathers of the Chishti Sufi order.[1] Baba Farid received his early education at Multan, which had become a centre for Muslim education; it was there that he met his teacher QutbuddinBakhtiar Kaki, a noted Sufi saint, who was passing through Multan on his way from Baghdad to Delhi. Upon completing his education, Farīd left for Sistan and Kandahar and went to Makkah for the Hajj pilgrimage with his parents at the age of 16.
Once his education was over, he moved to Delhi, where he learned the Islamic doctrine from his master, QutbuddinBakhtiar Kaki. He later moved to Hansi, Haryana. When QuṭbuddīnBakhtiyārKākī died in 1235, Farīd left Hansi and became his spiritual successor, and he settled in Ajodhan (the present Pakpattan, Pakistan) instead of Delhi. On his way to Ajodhan, while passing through Faridkot, he met the 20-year-old NizamuddinAuliya, who went on to become his disciple, and later his successor Sufi khalīfah. His nephew and disciple and successor Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari was amongst the greatest Sufi saints and from him Sabiriya branch under Chisty order started.
Baba Farid had three wives and eight children (five sons and three daughters). One of his wives, Hazabara, was the daughter of SulṭānNasīruddīnMaḥmūd.
The great Arab traveller Ibn Battuta once visited this Sufi saint. Ibn Battuta says that FariduddinGanjshakar was the spiritual guide of the Sultan of Delhi Sultanate, and that the Sultan had given him the village of Ajodhan. He also met Baba Farid's two sons.
Baba Farid's descendants, also known as Fareedi, Fareedies or Faridy, mostly carry the name Fārūqī, and can be found in Pakistan, India and the diaspora. FariduddinGanjshakar's descendants include the Sufi saint Salim Chishti, whose daughter was the Emperor Jehangir's foster mother. Their descendants settled in Sheikhupur, Badaun and the remains of a fort they built can still be found. Baba Farid also visited Budaun during Iltutmish period to meet Sultan-ul-AarfeenKhwaja Syed Hasan Sheikh ShahiRehmatullah, Bade Sarkar. One of his descendants was the noted Sufi scholar MuhibbullahAllahabadi (1587–1648).
FariduddinGanjshakar's shrine Darbār is located in Pakpattan, Punjab, Pakistan.
One of Farīd's most important contributions to Punjabi literature was his development of the language for literary purposes. Whereas Sanskrit, Arabic, Turkish and Persian had historically been considered the languages of the learned and the elite, and used in monastic centres, Punjabi was generally considered a less refined folk language. Although earlier poets had written in a primitive Punjabi, before Farīd there was little in Punjabi literature apart from traditional and anonymous ballads. By using Punjabi as the language of poetry, Farīd laid the basis for a vernacular Punjabi literature that would be developed later.
The city of Faridkot bears his name. According to legend, Farīd stopped by the city, then named Mokhalpūr, and sat in seclusion for forty days near the fort of King Mokhal. The king was said to be so impressed by his presence that he named the city after Baba Farid, which today is known as Tilla Baba Farid. The festival Bābā Sheikh FarādĀgmanPurbMelā' is celebrated in September each year from (21–23 Sep, for 3 days), commemorating his arrival in the city. Ajodhan was also renamed as Farīd's 'PākPattan', meaning 'Holy Ferry'; today it is generally called PākPattanSharīf.
Faridia Islamic University, a religious madrassa in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan, is named after him, and in July 1998, the Punjab Government in India established the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences at Faridkot, the city which itself was named after him.
There are various explanations of why Baba Farid was given the title ShakarGanj ('Treasure of Sugar'). One legend says his mother used to encourage the young Farīd to pray by placing sugar under his prayer mat. Once, when she forgot, the young Farīd found the sugar anyway, an experience that gave him more spiritual fervour and led to his being given the name.
The small Shrine of Baba Farid is made of white marble with two doors, one facing east and called the NūrīDarwāza or 'Gate of Light', and the second facing north called BahishtīDarwāza, or 'Gate of Paradise'. There is also a long covered corridor. Inside the tomb are two white marbled graves. One is Baba Farid's, and the other is his elder son's. These graves are always covered by sheets of cloth called Chaddars' (the green colouredchaddars are covered with Islamic verses), and flowers that are brought by visitors. The space inside the tomb is limited; not more than ten people can be inside at one time. Ladies are not allowed inside the tomb, but the late Benazir Bhutto, then Prime Minister of Pakistan, was permitted to enter inside by the shrine guardians, when she visited the shrine. Another rare exceptional case was the late HajjahKainz Hussain of Jhelum, wife of the late Haji Manzoor Hussain, who was allowed inside the tomb and was given a Chaddar, which resulted in miraculous improvement in her health.
Charity food called Langar is distributed all day to visitors here[18] and the Auqaf Department, which administers the shrine. The shrine is open all day and night for visitors. The shrine has its own huge electricity generator that is used whenever there is power cut or loadshedding, so the shrine remains bright all night, all year round. There is no separation of male and female areas but a small female area is also available. There is a big new mosque in the shrine. Thousands of people daily visit the shrine for their wishes and unresolvable matters; for this they vow to give to some charity when their wishes or problems are resolved. When their matters are solved they bring charity food for visitors and the poor, and drop money in big money boxes that are kept for this purpose.This money is collected by the Auqaf Department of the Government of Pakistan that looks after the shrine.
great old holy city of Jerusalem, there is a place called Al-Hindi Serai (Indian lodge or shrine), where it is claimed Baba Farid lived for many years in the early 13th century, almost 800 years ago. Baba Farid walked into Jerusalem around the year 1200, little more than a decade after the armies of Saladin had forced the Crusaders out of Jerusalem. The place is now a pilgrim lodge for Muslims of the Indian sub-continent. It is claimed that this building is currently cared for by the 86-year-old caretaker, Muhammad Munir Ansari, in 2014. "No one knows how long Baba Farid stayed in the city. But long after he had returned to the Punjab, where he eventually became head of the Chishti order, Indian Muslims passing through Jerusalem on their way to Mecca wanted to pray where he had prayed, to sleep where he had slept. Slowly, a shrine and pilgrim lodge, the Indian Hospice, formed around the memory of Baba Farid.Later accounts of his life said that he spent his days sweeping the stone floors around al-Aqsa mosque, or fasting in the silence of a cave inside the city walls."
Chillas
- A Chilla of Baba Farid is located in Dhirdan village of Lunkaransar tehsil in Bikaner district, Rajasthan, India.
- Poraha village in Amravati district of Maharashtra, India.
- Girad a small town in Samudrapur constituency of Wardha district of Maharashtra, India.
- Manegaon a small village situated in Tehsil Barghat, District Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India.
- Bad Chicholi, in Betul District of Madhya Pradesh.
- Ajmer darghasharif, Rajasthan, India.
- The Shrine (mazar/mazār) is vast and spacious, located in the city of Pakpattan, otherwise PākpattanSharīf, located in central Punjab province in Pakistan.