The Birth Of A Great Child
The crucial conditions of any area, prompted by human being, are perhaps intervention into the laws of Mother Nature. So the nature, in response to this, by knocking the social entrances, presents such an incredible endowment that the existing entities of that part become surprised.
Geographically, almost in the heart of Sindh, not too far from Hala Haveli, at a small village known to be Bhainpoor, emerged a god gifted child who fashioned such a remarkable philosophical values that saved Indus valley, like a fragile ferry, from drowning in spite of many dangers.
Yes, the ‘Lord of Bhit’, ‘Bhit Shah’ and ‘Shah Abdul latif Bhittai’ by taking the birth into the Shah Habib’s house, became the lover of Sindh and Sindh became his own forever.
How Shah Habib would then knew that the raising child in his home only belonged to him physically. In fact he (child) was lord of forthcoming and past thousands years time. He was gift for Sindh after centuries.
This child, who had loved Sindh before “be and it became” no one knew that he would be cognizant of Anthropology, Astronomy, Medical Sciences and Natural Sciences of every era.
Year 1689 was very fortunate not only for Shah Habib but it was a golden age for Sindh, who had to bring the ‘Drowning ferry of Sindh’ to the shore.
H.T Sorley says: the birth of any intellectual/genius in the contemporary condition of human knowledge is not something that can be fathomed easily. Heredity and the environment also do not contribute much. A person who is very disparate among his companions, his uniqueness is not determined only by the conditions under which he was trained. The domain of any intellectual’s thoughts is unbounded.
And Shah Latif also had qualities of keen observation, expression and manifesting the truth naturally. Those qualities endowed Latif with the ability to portray the poor condition of his people, whom he lived with, and a vision of enlightened age in his poetry aesthetically. There shall be no exaggeration in saying that his poetry was fist for his folks and then for the whole world. His poetry is immortal and he was a philosopher first and then a remarkable poet.
Latif also sang and crooned the sorrows that his people suffered, those social maladies which were driving his nation to death, those danger/menaces that had not yet approached. But we were clad in the mortal soil, so we could not predict. What should be the meaning of “oh the sailor, the thieves are prowling behind your boat”?
Shah Latif was matchless since his childhood as if he had brought something from nature. He would wander to the mounds of sand, sometimes into the woods when ever he felt like. He was neither naughty nor nutty. He held such a power that not everybody is given. He wanted to play such game that not other children may play. The play he wanted was something that no child of that time was familiar with. The children of the village were ordinary. So Latif wanted to play the game of nature with the nature.
The mother of Shah was passing from undesired condition the Father was helpless too seeing his wife restless. Poor father would go to look for his child but how would he find if he was not with the common children of the village…He (Latif) in the quest of finding natural phenomenon…
This child had restlessness in his soul who desired to be uplifted to the loftiness. This is the reason that for him the village and home were meaningless.
It became famous for Him that when he had been sent to his master for studies and his master asked him to say BAY (second letter in Sindhi alphabet) after ALIF (first letter of Sindhi alphabet), he refused to utter that letter. When master inquired the reason his answer was: “there is nothing after ALIF (A symbol for Allah/God)”. His master brought him to his father and stated all that had happened, his father kissed and instructed him but no avail.
Reason does not find it to be in accordance with the logic and human knowledge. If he was UMI (born educated) as it was believed, then why would he keep Risalo of Bulri Shah Karim (grand grand father of Shah Latif), Holly Quran and Masnavi Molana Raumi? It not difficult to understand from the facts that he knew Arabic, Persian and many other Indian languages. Some scholars also believe that he was the final successor of BHAGATI MOVEMENT. Shah Latif had a good perusal of the poetry of Bhagat Kabir. Persian was the national language of that time but Latif denounced the reading and writing in Persian and insisted folks on speaking, reading and writing in sindhi.
Now he was becoming a fully grown-up person. As the days of saying good bye to the youth approaching, love was longing to fill his soul.
As he said farewell to the days of adolescence, the love began enchanting his being but he himself was a man who, by his beauty, could enthrall others. Shah Habib, who himself was a big poet, was very anxious about his child who would go to the plains, for nights and days, where he had no acquaintance with, sitting in seclusion he would talk to his own self, the stars and the heavens; as if he was born to bestow the beautiful colors to the rainbow; the sand of the Tharr sometimes covered his living corpse; sometimes he would fly with the blowing wind; he was a magical child!
Eventually, Shah Habib forswore him on his own, so that he might understand the mystery of love. Latif had not control over himself, how then could he accept the authority of his father! If he had, then such a great child would not have come into existence. He , by his chants, revealed the mystery of the nature to the world, in a mysterious way. And that enigma, perhaps, is not going to be unraveled untill another Shah Latif is not born; by that time Sindh awaits the manifestation of another great child.
