Call to teach Sufism as compulsory subject at varsity level

LAHORE: World Punjabi Congress Chairman, Fakhar Zaman, has said that in this hour of darkness and moral bankruptcy, the Sufi poets serve as a beacon to guide us through.
In his presidential address during the conference on Baba Farid Shakarganj, organised by Pakistan Academy of Letters, International Writers’ Council, Idaara Fikr-o-Fun and World Punjabi Congress (WPC), Zaman said that Baba Farid was the first known Sufi poet of the sub-continent whose poetry’s imagery, diction and symbolism influenced all the later Sufi poets until the last Mian Muhammad Bakhsh. Over a span of seven and a half century Baba Farid’s exposition of have-nots and the downtrodden gave a philosophy of progressivism, justice and equality.
Zaman said that Baba Farid’s times saw great poets and auliya like Fareed-du-din Attaar, Maulana Rumi, Sheikh Saadi, Hazrat Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaaki, Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Auliya. In the subcontinent, during the reign of Salateen-e-Delhi, Sufis always resisted the temptations of darbar and lived as heroes among the toiling masses.
Fakhar Zaman further said this was unfortunate that in the land of Punjabi Sufi poets, the Punjabi language did not enjoy its proper status and the rightful place. He repeated his demand that Sufism should be taught as a compulsory subject in the college and universities, Punjabi should be introduced at the primary level and a Punjabi University in Lahore, preferably by updating the existing Punjab Institute of Language and Culture.