Shah Inayat Qadiri - Poetic References

Poetic References

In the "Song of the Saints of India" (Bang-i-Auliya-i-Hind) occurs the following reference;

From the tribe of gardeners was brother Shah Inayat,
He received honor from Shah Raza Wali Allah.
He earned his living in the small town of Qasur Pathana.
The ruler Husein Khan of this town was his arch enemy.
From there Inayat Shah came to the city of Lahore;
Two miles to the south of the city he made his habitation.
It is at this place that we find his tomb.
In 1141 he departed from this world.

Bulleh Shah says about his beloved teacher Enayat Shah:

Bullah has fallen in love with the Lord. He has given his life and body as earnest. His Lord and Master is Shah Inayat who has captivated his heart.

Shah Inayat wrote "Dasdtur al-Amal" in which he describes various methods Hindus employed for attainment of salvation in ancient times. According to him, this knowledge was acquired and carried by the Greeks after Alexander's invasion of India, from where it was borrowed by ancient Iranians and subsequently adopted by the mystics of Islamic countries.

Quoting from R. M. Chopra's "Great Sufi Poets of the Punjab": " The Wazai-i-Kalaan" gives the year of his death as 1735 AD, during the time of Emperor Muhammad Shah. He had acquired a good knowledge of Persian and Arabic. As he was born with a mystic disposition, he became a disciple of the famous Sufi scholar Muhammad Ali Raza Shattari." He further goes on to say, Shah Inayat "migrated to Lahore where he established an institution of his own. In this institution came men of education for advanced learning in philosophy, Sufism and other spiritual sciences of the time."

"Shah Inayat wrote considerably on Sufism and its developments. His writings were mostly in Persian. He was an erudite scholar whom Bulleh Shah made his Hadi or Guru."