Abdul Latif’s grandfather Shah Karim was a Sayad of Matari and so celebrated for his piety that his mausoleum at Bulree in the Karachi District is still the scene of an annual fair. Shah Karim was born in 1558 A.D. and died it is said in 1660 A.D. The tale runs that while Shah Karim was yet a boy, he met a fakir in a mosque. The fakir had been a soldier, but the awful consequences of war had so preyed on his mind that he had deserted the army. Shah Karim became the spiritual follower of this fakir and grew up so renowned a saint that it was commonly said that whereas Bahawaldin, a rival saint, could make a live man dead, Shah Karim could make a dead man alive. Shah Karim removed to Bulree and had three sons, one of whom Shah Habib was the father of Abdul Latif, the subject of our article. The date of his birth is to be found in the Persian line on his mausoleum.

According to the Abjad system, this gives the date of his death as 1751 A.D. As he was sixty-three when he died, he was born in 1688 A.D. He thus lived to see the establishment of the Kalhora dynasty, the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739 and that of Ahmad Shah Durani in 1748.

Abdul Latif fell in love with a beautiful Moghul girl, the daughter of one Mirza Beg. He was said to be a descendant of Mirza Jani Beg of the Turkhan dynasty, whose tombs are among the Makli Hills. Abdul Latif serenaded the lovely girl in verses written by himself, until he was ordered off the premises [23]by her father. Undefeated, he turned himself into a pigeon and cooed his love to the fair maiden from the trellis of her balcony. Even so Mirza Beg with a father’s vigilance pierced his disguise and threatened to set his falcons on Abdul Latif, unless he flew away. The unhappy Abdul Latif went and sat on a sandhill and watched the house of the Moghul girl with such devotion from afar, that the sandhill grew round him until it had covered all but his head. A goatherd Jam by name who passed saw his head sticking out. He told Abdul Latif’s father, Shah Habib, who had his son dug up. But Abdul Latif was still beside himself with amorous passion. He went to a carpenter and induced him to hollow out a tamarisk tree, that stood by itself in a cemetery. Latif got inside the hollow tree and looked out on the world through a single cleft. In vain Shah Habib sought everywhere for his son. At last his lamentations touched the heart of the carpenter, who shewed him his son’s hiding place. Shah Habib took his son home, but an evil fate overtook the carpenter. As a punishment for betraying Abdul Latif’s hiding place, he became a leper. Shah Habib licked the sores, so that they healed, all save one obstinate one that remained open on his forehead.

Abdul Latif did not stay long in his father’s house, but began to wander about Sind. One day he came to Lakhpat. There he saw some Sami fakirs worshipping an idol, probably of Parvati. They were pouring milk over it and as they did so, they repeated “O Grandmother, drink this milk.” But the idol being of stone, hearkened not at all. Latif went into the village, bought a bowl full of milk and stood close to the idol. In one hand he held his shoe and then he said to the idol “O Grandmother of the Samis, drink this milk or I shall beat you with this shoe.” The idol no longer hearkened not. Terrified at the threat, it drank up all the milk in the bowl. The Sami [24]fakirs were filled with wonder and envy. After Abdul Latif had left the spot, they plotted to kill and eat him, so as to obtain his supernatural powers. They invited him to a feast, intending to make their guest the principal dish. But Abdul Latif by his inner knowledge guessed their wickedness and departed.

As he journeyed he met another fakir, whose beautiful face was haggard and worn, as if with care. As the fakir walked, he cried always “Jhal fakir, Hal fakir (Take it fakir, go fakir).” Abdul Latif asked him why he did it. The fakir refused to tell him, unless Abdul Latif promised to help him to win what he sought. “If,” said the fakir, “I win my goal through your help, I shall get you a Burat or letter of salvation.” The saint gave his promise and the fakir told him what ailed him. Some months before he had met a jungle tribe and had daily begged from them. Whenever he did so, a lovely maiden of the tribe had given him alms and as she gave them, she repeated these words “Jhal fakir, Hal fakir.” The beauty of the girl’s voice and face had burnt into his brain. When the tribe left, he could think of nothing but of her and he set out to seek her. As he went, he repeated her words in the hope of finding her. Abdul Latif by his inner knowledge soon located the jungle tribe. With the fakir he went to their camp and began to recite to them his verses. They were so charmed with the verses that they asked him to name his reward. He told them to send the lovely girl to the hut wherein he had put his humble belongings. The girl was sent and in the hut the fakir awaited her. Their eyes met, but the storm of passion that swept over both of them was too mighty for their strength to bear. They fell back lifeless into Abdul Latif’s arms. He called the girl’s parents and told them the tale of the fakir’s wooing and its tragic end. At his request the man and the maiden were buried in the same grave. That night Abdul Latif watched by the [25]grave, for he had not yet received the Burat or letter of salvation. At midnight a woman’s hand rose from the grave and offered him a letter. But Abdul Latif doubted the virtue of a Burat that came from a woman. “I shall not take the Burat,” he said, “unless he who promised it to me gives it.” The girl’s voice answered that that was impossible. The fakir for very shame, she said, dared ask nothing from God. He had not been able to hide his love but to the whole world had told his sorrows. Her love had been as ardent as his, but she had had the strength to hide it. It was at her request that God had given the Burat and the saint must take it from her hands.

Another time Abdul Latif went to Kotri and there exposed the impostures of the Mullas who surrounded the governor Lalla Beg. At their instigation the cruel ruler ordered Abdul Latif to be impaled and then cut to pieces. When the executioners went to Shah Latif’s house to seize him, they found him already dead and dismembered. As they returned to tell Lalla Beg, they saw the saint standing in the roadside alive and well. They spoke of these marvels to Lalla Beg, who at once remitted the sentence.

Abdul Latif, before he started on his wanderings, had, because of his unsatisfied love for the Moghul girl, cursed the whole tribe of the Moghuls, who then lived in Sind. All this time his curse had been quietly working. One by one they had died off, including the hard-hearted Mirza Beg. Of all the Moghul children only one boy Gulla by name survived and the beautiful girl, whom Abdul Latif loved. Freed from her father’s cruelty by his death, she no longer hesitated but sought out and found her lover. With her she took her kinsman Gulla. Abdul Latif overjoyed at her coming recalled his curse and Gulla lived to be the ancestor of many Moghuls thereafter. [26]

Abdul Latif, or as we should now call him Latif Shah, did not settle down to enjoy his wedded happiness at Varsum, where Shah Habib had lived and where he himself had been born. Near it was the tomb of an earlier saint Nuh Halani. The jealous spirit of the dead saint envied Latif Shah’s happiness and glory. Nuh Halani’s spirit haunted Shah Latif night and day. In despair Shah Latif sought the aid of Bahawal Hak, a holy man of Multan. He advised him to consult Sayad Mahmad Massum Shah. The latter in turn advised him to migrate to Bhitta, then a desolate mound of sand. Latif Shah obeyed the Sayad, but even at Bhitta—tantaene animis caelestibus irae—he was not safe from persecution. Nuh Halani changed the spirit of a former disciple into a huge snake and bade it bite the unhappy Shah Latif. But the latter prayed to Sayad Mahmad Massum Shah and with his aid and his own sanctity, he tamed the snake and kept it in a cage, as a trophy of his victory. Nuh Halani’s descendant Makhdum Mahmad Zaman could not bear the sight. He redeemed the snake at the cost of a vast stretch of country and turning the snake again into a spirit, sent it back to do service to Nuh Halani in the house of Hades.

“Happy is the wooing that’s not long in the doing,” is an old English proverb and perhaps it was of the long delay in the union of Shah Latif and his bride, that they were not blessed with children. Two legends are told to account for this calamity. One is that Shah Latif drew after him the son of one Jani, who in anger cursed the saint that his wife should bear him no sons. Latif Shah accepted the curse and consoled himself with the remark that his disciples were his sons. The second legend is that Latif Shah’s wife, a year after marriage, was expecting a child. After the manner of women in delicate health, she had strange longings. One day she sent her maid-servant to a great distance to get a certain kind of fish. Latif [27]Shah missed the maid-servant and asked whither she had gone. On learning what had happened, he flew into a rage—if I may say such a thing of so holy a man. He cursed his unborn child, saying “If the child gives all this trouble now, what terrible trouble it will give when it is grown up! May such a blossom be nipped in the bud.” The child was still-born and no other came to soothe the poor mother’s grief.

It was at Bhitta that Shah Latif wrote the Shah jo Rasalo. When he had finished it, his two faithful disciples Tamar and Hashim brought it to him. As he read over the lines in which he had told the sorrows of Saswi, he exclaimed that the verses did not truly convey a spiritual meaning, but were full of sinful passion. As he said this, he flung the great work into the Kirar Dandh, a lake close by. His horrified disciples beseeched him to let them write the Shah jo Rasalo from memory. Reluctantly he consented and the Shah jo Rasalo was saved.

Shah Latif died in 1751 at the age of 63, three years after Ahmad Shah Durani’s invasion. The saint’s body lies in a splendid tomb designed by a celebrated mason of Sukkur, under the orders of Ghulam Shah Kalhoro. The door with silver bars was added by Mir Mahmad and a deep well for the use of pilgrims was sunk in the courtyard by one Laung Fakir. The Pir of the tomb is the descendant of Jam the goatherd, who found Shah Latif buried up to the neck in sand. Every Friday night pilgrims keep watch by the tomb and sing passages from the saint’s immortal poem. This custom had its origin in a dream dreamt by his disciple Hashim. After his master’s death, he was ill of fever and could not get well. One night Shah Latif appeared to him in a vision and bade him recite on the following Friday some lines from the Shah jo Rasalo. He did so and was cured. [28]