Arise, Farīda, from your sleep;
Your beard is getting grey.
That which is to come is near;
That which has passed is far away.
Strive, oh, Farīda! to be
As the Musjid trodden grass,
Humble and self-abased,
Yet in friendship with your God.
Crooke says of Baba Farīd, that he was called also, Shakkarganj, or
Fountain of Sweets. Shakkar being the Persian for sugar; but more
probably from the Arabic word “Shookur,” thanksgiving. He was a disciple
of Qutub-ud-din, who lived near Delhi, who again sat at the feet of
Imam-ud-din of Ajmere, also a great name to swear by. Baba Farīd is said
to have had the “Hidden hand” (dast-i-ghaib), a sort of magic bag which
gave him anything he wished.
Every devotee who contrives to get through the door of his mausoleum is
assured of a free entrance into Paradise, and the crowds are immense.
Pak Pattan was called the “Ferry of the Pure One,” and the latter days
of Farīd-ud-Din were spent at Adjudhan, a very ancient city in the
Punjâb. This Fakir was instrumental in the conversion of the whole of
the Southern Punjâb to the faith of Islam.
_Note._—The self-inflicted penances of both Hindu and Mahomedan Fakirs
are well known, but perhaps the “Measurement Affliction,” or “Kusht,”
from the Persian word “Kusht,” meaning “killing,” will be new to some.
It consists in making an approach to the shrine from a considerable
distance, and measuring that distance by so many lengths of the body,
foot after head, until the shrine is reached. But few can go through
this extreme torture in the sun, and then only with the assistance of
relatives and friends, who supply sherbet and drinks to the devotee, and
keep his body cool with fans.
_Note._—In relation to this Folk-tale, it is said in the district:
Burri jungul ki wassar
Burri khullachnee nââr
Burri moorick ki hassa
There are three things that are bad:
Perpetual seclusion in the jungle;
A quarrelsome and peevish wife;
The rough horse-play of a boor.
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