Khwaja Ghulam Farid

Early life and career

His mother died when he was four years old and he was orphaned around the age of twelve when his father, Khwaja Khuda Bakhsh, died. He was then brought up by his elder brother, Khwaja Fakhr-ud-Din, and grew up to become a scholar and writer. He mastered Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, and Braj Bhasha, and also wrote poems in Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, Persian, and Braj Bhasha languages.

Nawab Sadeq Mohammad Khan V of Bahawalpur took Khwaja Farid to his palace at Ahmad pur sharkia for his religious education by a scholar, when he was 8 years old. His elder brother Khwaja Fakhr-ud-Din who had brought him up after his parents' deaths, also died when Khwaja Ghulam Farid was 28 years old. Khwaja Farid then left for Rohi area or Cholistan Desert and lived 18 years there.

Publications

His most significant works include:

Deewan-e-Farid (poem collection in Multani ,1882; in Punjabi, 1883 ; in Urdu, 1884)

Khwaja Farid composed as many as 272 kafis of high literary merit.

Manaqabe Mehboobia (in Persian prose)

Fawaid Faridia (in Persian prose)

In his poetry, he frequently uses the symbolism of a desert. Sometimes he touched the topic of political affairs, opposing the British rule in Bahawalpur state.

Awards, recognition and legacy

The 20th century saw development of an entire branch of literary studies into the life and work of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, named faridiyat.

Today, many religious and educational institutions in Pakistan and India are named after him (e.g., Government Khawaja Farid College in Rahimyar Khan, Pakistan) as are streets and town quarters.

A Khwaja Ghulam Farid Award is awarded by the Government of Pakistan in literature, its recipients including Ismail Ahmedani, Noshi Gilani and others.

In 2001, on Khwaja Ghulam Farid's 100th death anniversary, Pakistan Post issued a memorial stamp to honor him in its 'Poets of Pakistan' series

Tribute to Promissed Messiah of Qadian

Khawaja Sahib was also a contemporary of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib of Qadian. He told his followers:

"Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani is also right, and he is right and truthful in his affair. Day and night he is engrossed in the service of God Almighty. He has given his life for the progress of Islam and raising aloft the cause of the Faith. I can see nothing wrong or bad in him at all. If he has claimed to be the Mahdi and Messiah, that too is among the things which are permissible."

(Isharat-i Faridi, compilation of the talks of Khawaja Ghulam Farid, by his son, p. 179)

The above claim of Khawaja Farid's support for Ghulam Ahmed is controversial and have very little substance to it (Here's a book in Urdu that refutes this claim). Isharat-i Faridi was compiled by Maulana Rukkunidin based on his understanding of Khawaja Sahib's sayings. The book was not compiled by Khawaja Sahib's son and thus the entire claim be taken with a pinch of salt. In general, Mirza Ghulam's prophethood claims of being a Messiah and Prophet is rejected outright by Muslim scholars.