Sultan Bahu

Sultan Bahu سلطان باہو
Shrine of Sultan Bahu
Born	Bahoo 17 January 1630 Shorkot, Jhang
Died	1 March 1691 Jhang
Resting place	Village Sultan Bahoo via Gharmaharaja Jhang Pakistan
Education	Marifat
Known for	Sufism, poetry, Sarwari Qadiri Sufi order
Predecessor	Syed Abdul Rehman Jilani Dehlvi
Successor	Syed Mohammad Abdullah Shah Madni Jilani
Website	http://SultanBahoo.net/

Sultan Bahu (also spelled Bahoo; ca 1630–1691) was a Sufi mystic, poet and scholar active mostly in the present-day Punjab province of Pakistan. He belonged to the Sufi order known as Qadiri, and the mystic tradition he started has been known as Sarwari Qadiri.

Little is known of Bahu's life, other than a hagiography written by a descendant of his seven generations later, entitled Manaqib-i Sultani. Sultan Bahu was born in Shorekot, Jhang in the current Punjab Province of Pakistan. More than forty books on Sufism are attributed to him, mostly in Persian, and largely dealing with specialised aspects of Islam and Islamic mysticism. However, it is his Punjabi poetry which had popular appeal and earned him lasting fame. His verses are sung in many genres of Sufi music including qawwali and kafi, and tradition has established a unique style of singing his couplets.

Sultan Bahu's education began with his mother, Mai Rasti, herself a pious woman who has her own mausoleum in Shorkot. She told him to seek spiritual guidance from Hazrat Shah Habib Gilani whose shrine is found in the village of Baghdad Sharif, near Mian Channu, to this day.

Around 1668 Sultan Bahu moved to Delhi for further training under the guidance of Syed Abdul Rehman Jilani Dehlvi, a notable Sufi saint of the Qadri (or Qadiriyya) Order in the Indian Subcontinent, and thereafter returned to Punjab where he spent the rest of his life glad.

The exact number of books written by Sultan Bahu is not known but it is assumed to be more than one hundred, forty of them on Sufism and Islamic mysticism alone. Most of his writings are in the Persian Language except Abyat-e-Bahoo which is written as Punjabi poetry. Only The following books written by Sultan Bahu can be found today.