Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhattai : Life and Teachings

          Sindh has always been one of the favourite place for the sufi and pious people. It is famous for its culture, sufi poetry and the truth and sincerity the sindhi people have got inside their hearts and this sincerity originates from the poetry and teachings of sufi people like Hazrat Laal Shahbaz Qalander and Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhattai.

This week the Urs of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhattai is being celebrated with zeal and zest. Devotees from all over the Pakistan  come to attend this religious celebration and to enrich their hearts and minds with the sincere teachings and poetry of love of these sufi poets like Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhattai (RA). Here is a brief biography of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhattai (RA).

He was born in 1689 at a village called Hala Havelli near Hyderabad, Sindh. Shah Abdul Latif’ was the direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad through Imam Zain-ul-Abideen, son of Imam Husayn. Shah's father, Syed Habib Shah had migrated from Matyaru, Afghanistan to Sindh.

When he was young, he fell in love with the daughter of the village’s landlord. The landlord however, turned against him and tried his best to harass his family. After that Shah Latif, left his home became a spiritual wanderer.

In the quest of eternal love, he traveled in many parts of Sindh and adjoining lands where he met Sufis and Yogis. He spent three years in the company of these Sadhus.

Finally, when he arrived in Thatta, he met a Sufi saint Makhdoom Muhammad Moin. He understood the inner condition of Shah Latif, and held him there for a few days. He then told him, "The truth, for which you are wandering around, is inside of yourself. A man is a mirror for a man. You've seen God's manifestation in the hand of that girl." After a few days living with that Sufi saint, Shah Latif felt inner satisfaction and then he left for Hala.
By the time he returned to Hala, the landlord had already died he married the love of his life Bibi Saidha Begum who died within a few years of their marriage and he never married again.

After her death, he would often seek solitude and spend most of his time in contemplation and Muraqaba (Sufi meditation) and writing poetry.

He lived a very simple life. His food was simple as well as his dress, which was often of saffron color, the color of the dress of Sufis or Yogis, stitched with a black thread.

For the last eight years of his life, he lived at Bhitshah, a small village built by him. A few days before his death, he retired to his underground room and spent all his time in prayers and fasting, eating very little. The great Sufi poet died in 1752 was buried at the same place where a shrine now stands. In 1866, 114 years after the poet's death, a German scholar Ernest Trump compiled Risalo, a complete collection of Shah Abdul Latif's poetry,