Sindh faced many outside intruders and conquerors since ages. who came, plunder, loot and went away. Some stayed for a time unless they were replaced by new intruders.
There was another type of conquerors, who came only for giving and not receiving. These were the sufis. Amongst them the most prominent name is Qalandar Laal Shahbaz, who became the identity of Sindh and Sindh became his identity. Sindhri da Sehwan da Shahbaz Qalandar.
Will discuss life of Qalandar Laal Shahbaz and his importance in Sindhi society since centuries in this thread.
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
Lal Shahbaz Qalander was originally born in Marwand near Tabriz, in north-west Iran, and walked to Sindh around the same time as Marco Polo was setting off from Venice to China, at the end of the thirteenth century. Known during his life as Sheikh Usman Marwandi, the saint was probably part of the same wave of humanity that brought the greatest of all Sufi poets, Jalal ad-Din Rumi, from Afghanistan to Turkey – the great diaspora of refugees set in motion by the advance of the Mongol armies, who in turn destroyed both Balkh, the home of Rumi, and Tabriz, the home of Lal Shahbaz.
In his lifestyle, however, Lal Shahbaz Qalander was a much more extreme figure than Rumi. For all his theological free-thinking, Rumi was in fact a prominent maulana in a mosque in Konya and so a respected local divine. In contrast, Lal Shahbaz was a Qalander, or holy fool, ‘an unruly friend of God’ who, enraptured by the love of the divine, followed a religious path that involved rejecting the material world, the constraints of convention and the strictures of the Shariah, and looking instead for humiliation and blame from society as a proof of sanctity.
As part of this quest, Lal Shahbaz is said to have moved from Lal Bagh into the brothel area of Sehwan. This of course horrified the clerics of the local ulema, but Lal Shahbaz Qalander in time converted the prostitutes, who soon became his most ardent devotees. **He also encouraged his followers to dance their way to God – a Persian poem ascribed to him describes his ecstatic Qalanders as dancing in the fire and on the gallows of life.
(An extract from Nine Lives by William Dalrymple)
**
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
Dhamaal at Qalandar Shahbaz Mazar
The ecstasy of the dhammal is a safety valve, providing an outlet for tensions that otherwise could have no other expression in this deeply conservative society. The dhammal is renowned for its ability to heal, and in Sindh – as elsewhere in Sufi Islam – it is widely believed that a disease that appears to be physical, but which actually has its roots in an affliction of the spirit, can be cured by the power of Sufi music and drumming. The hope is that by sending the women into a trance, their sadness and anxiety will be calmed and, ultimately, cured.
Many scholars believe that just as the Sufi fakirs of Sehwan Sharif model their dreadlocks, red robes and dust-smeared bodies on those of Shaivite sadhus, so the dhammal derives from the damaru drum of Shiva, by which, in his form of Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance, the Destroyer drums the world back into existence after dancing it into extinction.
According to the sixth-century Chinese traveller Huien Tsang, Sehwan was the cult centre of a Shaivite sect called the Pashupatas who believed in emulating the dance of Shiva as part of their rituals, using this shamanistic dancing as a way of reaching union with God. Remarkably, Sehwan Sharif seems to have maintained the ancient Shaivite dance of the Pashupatas in a thinly Islamicised Sufi form.
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
I have seen Sindhis swearing in the name of Qualandar Shahbaz:), he is the spiritual representative of Sindh. Shiv Bhakts are the biggest community of intoxicated dancers:)
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
I have seen Sindhis swearing in the name of Qualandar Shahbaz:), he is the spiritual representative of Sindh. Shiv Bhakts are the biggest community of intoxicated dancers:)
You might have heard 'Jhole laal' from Sindhi Hindus. I read somewhere that Hindu consider him a 4th Century Hindu mystic and poet :)
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
Yes JhooleLal, my interaction with Sindhis started very recently, majority of them have come recently from Pakistan:), their life struggle both there and here is tragic, but that is for some other thread some other time:)
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
Legends and Karaamat
(1) On his way from Baluchistan to Sindh, he also stayed in present day Karachi’s Manghopir area for muraqba (meditation), and it is said that Manghopir’s natural warm fountain is a miracle of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. That warm fountain started to flow from beneath the hill, on which Lal Shahbaz sat for muraqba (meditation). After passing hundreds of years, that warm fountain is still flowing continuously and is said to have miraculous healing power especially for asthma patients.
(2) In Sehwan Lal Shahbaz is said to have punished himself with great feats of self-mortification, testing his self-discipline by engaging in the Hindu ascetic practice of tapasiya, sitting in a cauldron over a fire, so turning his skin red. It was also here, according to his devotees, that the saint transformed himself into a falcon – the other legend which gave the saint his name Shahbaz. On one occasion he flew to Mecca to perform evening prayers at the Ka’ba; another time he flew off to the aid of his friend Sheikh Baha ud-Din Zakariya, who was in mortal danger from the King of Multan. Lal Bagh was also the scene of another of his celebrated miracles: producing the springs of sweet water which to this day irrigate his holy garden.
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
when does his annual urs takes place? i mean in which month?
It takes place in Shaban (18th to 20th) each year. Its like a big occasion of the area. People come from all Pakistan and outside Pakistan to pay homage to this great saint.
Re: Conqueror of the hearts - Qalandar Laal Shahbaz
there was this song dedicated to him .. "lal meri pat rekhiyo bhala " :) we sang at my bro's wedding!
There are many songs in Sindh which refers to Qalandar Shahbaz including the most famous 'Ho jamalo' in words 'Hiya Sindh Qalandar Laal ji' :)
was Shah Abdul latif also influenced by him?
All the subsequent sufis of Sindh including Sachal Sarmast, Shah Latif, Makhdoom Bilawal were influenced and follower of this Saint, who is revered by all Sindhis irrespective of their religion.
aap Timepass main ajaen for my interview 
aa gaye