LAHORE – The 261th Urs celebrations of Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah areunderway in Kasur.
The three-day celebrations of the 262nd urs of Punjabi Sufi poet BabaBulleh Shah is being celebrated from August 26 to 28. Religious affairscommittee is making all arrangements for the Urs, including free meals forthe devotees (Langer) and holding gatherings of recitation of Naat andPunjabi Sufi poetry during the three-day event.
The ceremonies of Urs are continued and the followers of Baba Bulleh Shahare attending the events.
On August 25, the Urs began with a recitation of the holy Quran andoffering of fateha. A large number of devotees from various cities visitedthe shrine on the first day of the Urs. Various stalls of juice and alangar had been established near and around the shrine to serve thedevotees.
Bulleh Shah lived after the Pashto Sufi poet Rahman Baba (1632–1706) andlived in the same period as Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai(1689–1752). His lifespan also overlapped with the Punjabi poet Waris Shah(1722–1798), of Heer Ranjha fame, and the Sindhi Sufi poet Abdul Wahab(1739–1829), better known by his pen name Sachal Sarmast.
Amongst Urdu poets, Bulleh Shah lived 400 miles away from Mir Taqi Mir(1723–1810) of Agra.
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The great saint practised the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry establishedby poets like Shah Hussain (1538–1599), Sultan Bahu (1629–1691), and ShahSharaf (1640–1724). The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is theKafi, popular in Punjabi and Sindhi poetry.
Many people have put his kafis to music, from humble street-singers torenowned Sufi singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pathanay Khan, AbidaParveen, the Waddali Brothers and Sain Zahoor, from the synthesised technoqawwali remixes of UK-based Asian artists to the Pakistani rock band Junoon.
The district police is providing fool-proof security arrangements for theUrslink.Meanwhile, the district administration has banned recreational activitiesduring the Urs, including swings, rides, magic shows etc over securityconcerns.
