Sultan Bahu: The Meaning of Faqiri

Sultan Bāhū: The Meaning of Faqīrī

In my reading of this Punjabi quatrain, Sultan Bāhū makes abiding love and remembrance of God the measure of faqīrī.

Transmitted among his Abyāt, the poem is often printed as four long lines or eight shorter lines. It is identified by its opening words, “Nahī̃ faqīrī jhallīā̃ māran,” and appears as no. 179 in the Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen collection.

The Poem

The Punjabi text is followed by a readable transliteration and my English translation. I retain faqīrī because “spirituality” only partly conveys its meaning: the way of the faqīr, whose spiritual poverty involves relinquishing worldly attachments and seeking nearness to God. Explanation of faqr in Bahu’s tradition.

نہیں فقیری جھلّیاں مارن، سُتّیاں لوک جگاون ہُو نہیں فقیری وہندیاں ندیاں، سُکّیاں پار لنگھاون ہُو نہیں فقیری وچ ہوا دے، مصلّے پا ٹھیراون ہُو نام فقیر تنہاں دا باہُو، جیہڑے دل وچ دوست ٹکاون ہُو

Nahī̃ faqīrī jhallīā̃ māran, suttiā̃ lok jagāvan Hū. Nahī̃ faqīrī vahindīā̃ nadīā̃, sukkiā̃ pār laṅghāvan Hū. Nahī̃ faqīrī vich havā de, muṣalle pā ṭhairāvan Hū. Nām faqīr tinhā̃ dā Bāhū, jehṛe dil vich dost ṭikāvan Hū.

Faqīrī is not dancing in noisy frenzy, waking people from their sleep—Hū.

Faqīrī is not crossing flowing rivers and reaching the far bank dry—Hū.

Faqīrī is not spreading prayer mats and keeping them suspended in the air—Hū.

Those alone deserve the name faqīr, O Bāhū, who give the Friend a home within their hearts—Hū.

In the transliteration, ā, ī, ū indicate long vowels; the tilde ◌̃ indicates nasalization. Hū is pronounced “hoo.”

Words and Meanings

A few details help preserve the precision of the Punjabi. The collection’s accompanying Punjabi–Urdu glossary supports the following readings.

The comparison in the prayer-mat entry refers to the Roman text and Punjabi image supplied with the original quotation.

Expression	Meaning and significance
جھلّیاں مارنjhallīā̃ māran	Performing a form of dancing accompanied by loud cries. “Shouting chants and frenzied dancing” is an interpretive expansion; the Punjabi does not separately name chanting.
سُتّیاں لوک جگاونsuttiā̃ lok jagāvan	Waking sleeping people. The original does not specify the early morning.
سُکّیاں پار لنگھاونsukkiā̃ pār laṅghāvan	Crossing over while remaining dry. This detail makes the reference to an extraordinary feat explicit; “running on top of streams” is a freer rendering.
مصلّےmuṣalle	Prayer mats. Your Roman text uses sajjādā, another word for a prayer rug. The Punjabi image and the version above use muṣalle.
دوست ٹکاونdost ṭikāvan	Giving the Friend an abiding place. Dost, “Friend,” signifies God as the beloved; ṭikāvan suggests settling or establishing, giving the final line its sense of constancy.

The Friend Within the Heart

Hū belongs to the poem’s devotional meaning. It is the Arabic “He,” referring to God, and functions as a repeated invocation in Sufi remembrance. Keeping it in the translation preserves the prayerful cadence of the original. The Matheson Trust’s explanation of Bahu’s refrain.

The poem moves through increasingly striking outward acts, then ends with the quiet image of the heart becoming the Friend’s dwelling. “Enshrined the Friend” conveys this beautifully, provided we understand it as the heart’s enduring devotion and awareness of God.