Ali Haider Multani

Ali Haider (1690-1785), Punjabi Sufi poet, was born in village Chountra,tehsil Pir Mahal district Toba Tek Singh, Punjab in the year 1101 AH (1690). He passed, says the tradition, the greater part of his life in the village of his birth, where he died in 1199 AH or the year 1785 at the age of ninety-five. Ali Haidar was a Gilani Saiyyad and a scholar of Arabic and Persian. He had to his credit great Sufistic achievements. During the unsettled and troublous times following the death of Aurangzeb, his mystic poetry helped in maintaining mental equilibrium of the people and brought much needed comfort and solace to the peasantry in and around Multan. Ali Haidar was a confirmed Sufi and belonged to Qadariyya Silsila. He was a great scholar of Persian and Arabic and made a profuse use of their vocabulary in his verses in Punjabi (Saraiki). According to him, the Sufi in real life nourishes agony and tears of love while seeking union with the Divine Beloved. His Siharfis are read with great interest.