Qadir Bux Bedil

Faqir Qadir Bux Bedil (Sindhi: فقير قادر بخش بيدل‎) (1814–1873) better known by his pen name Bedil (one bereft of heart)[citation needed] was a Sufi poet and scholar of great stature.

After Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Sachal Sarmast, two stars that shone on the firmament of Sindhi poetry and who could measure up to them in excellence were the father and son – Bedil and Bekas.

[citation needed] His father Khalifa Muhammad Mohsin was a disciple of Sayed Mir Janullah Shah Rizwi who was a great saint of his time, highly venerated and was chief of forty cardinals of Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed of Jhok Shareef.

Thus Bedil was brought up in such an enlightened environment under the guidance of Mir Sahib.

[citation needed] It is narrated in the book Diwan-e-Bedil by Abdul Hussain Musavi that the midwife came and announced the news of the birth of a child to father who was sitting in the gathering with Sufi Januallah Shah.

She said, "You have been blessed with a child but alas, his one foot is physically twisted."

Although he had a deformity in one foot, yet he undertook long journeys to Sehwan to pay homage to the Saint's Shrine.

[citation needed] Bedil was the most voluminous poet of Sindh, even more so than Shah Latif, with 10 books of poetry to his credit.

He compiled as many as 23 books on prose and poetry written in Persian, Sindhi, Saraiki,[6] and Urdu: the more known being: Scholar Nabi Bux Khan Baloch has termed Fakir Qadir Bux Bedil as the last Sufi saint who wrote on Tasawuf and history of Sindh and taught mysticism through his poetry.

Wahadat Namo is a thought-provoking work through which Bedil Fakir has presented the essence of Sufism (mysticism).

Bedil was the first scholar who wrote the history of Jhok Sharif and the sacrifice of Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed of Sindh.

[9] Among his poetic compositions, we have his famous elegy, written on the death of Sachal Sarmast immortalising the master and incidentally himself too.

Some of the verses from this elegy are: Wonderful was the magic of love in Daraza, my friend Sachu was there, the intoxicated seeker and the Gnostic.

[11] His annual Melo or Urs (death anniversary celebration) is held at his shrine (Dargah) in Rohri on the 14, 15, 16 Dhu al-Qi'dah – the eleventh month of the Muslim calendar where thousands of his Murids (disciples) throng to pay homage to the great saint-poet.