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emember God while farming and Abdul Karim explained: “When a woman
carries a pitcher on her head, is she not able to walk and talk?” He said, “The
Lord is nearer to you than your heart.... Separation and union are one and the
same.” Abdul Karim has left us only 93 verses. He was so Sindhi, he has used
only 8 Persian and 30 Arabic root words. However, the greatest gift of Abdul
Karim was his great-grandson, Shah Abdul Latif ‘Bhitai’.
Shah Abdul Latif
Shah Abdul Latif [Shrine] (1689--1752) was not only the greatest poet of Sindh, he
was probably the greatest Sindhi in history As a poet he belongs to world class.
His poetry is more valuable than all the other Sindhi literature put together. And
he was not only a great poet; he was a great saint, a great nationalist, a great
humanist. And at a pinch. he could be a humorist, too.
A Frenchman, who saw “Hamlet”, said that the play was fine but the author had
uied too many quotations. He did not know that the “quotations” had been
coined by the author Or “Hamlet” himself. So, too, with Shah. Many wise
sayings, which are current coin in Sindhi, had been authored by Shah. Here was
a Syed who spent three years visiting holy spots from Hinglaj to Dwarka. Except
when he wore black during Moharrum, he draped himself in bhagwa. Atal and
Chanchal, two singers from Delhi, played music in his durbar, despite orthodox
displeasure.
Much of his poetry expresses the aspirant’s seeking for God in terms of wellknown
ballads. In Islamic tradition the seeker and the sought are both males. But
Shah followed the Indian tradition, in which the seeker is a woman. Most of
Shah’s heroines come from a “lower” strata than the heroes --- but they shine
brighter. His “Sur Husseini” glorifies the martyrdom of Hassan and Hussain.
“Not only men, but birds and animals and the angels in the skies, too, wept for
them.”
In “Sur Samundi,” Shah immortalises the trading traditions of Sindh. “The
monsoon is over. It is Diwali time and traders are preparing to set sail for distant
lands. Their wives are bringing offerings to the waves with tearful eyes. Here
they clasp the mast; there they say that without their lords, they will feel cold
even in their quilts.” But then he gives it a quick spiritual turn: “You must
worship the Deep (God) if you wish to gain rubies and pearls.... They who
worship the sea, they shall be fulfilled.”
“Sur Ramkali” is devoted to the yogis. “They carry nothing with themselves,
certainly not their own self (ego).... They have sewed up their hearts to Rama. . .
For them joy is the same as sorrow; they offer arati with their tears of blood.... If
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