Khwaja Ghulam Farid


Khawaja Ghulam Farid Koreja or Khawaja Farid was a 19th-century Punjabi Sufi poet of the Indian subcontinent. He was a scholar and writer who knew several different languages. He belonged to the Chishti–Nizami Sufi order. He was known for his work which helped popularize the Punjabi language.
Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology was named after him.

Early life

His mother died when he was four years old and he was orphaned around the age of twelve when his father, Khawaja Khuda Bakhsh, died. He was then brought up by his elder brother, Khawaja Fakhr-ud-Din aka Khawaja Fakhr Jehan Sain, and grew up to become a scholar and writer. He mastered Saraiki, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, and Braj Bhasha, and also wrote kafi poems in the Saraiki, Urdu, Sindhi, Persian, and Braj Bhasha languages.
Nawab Sadeq Mohammad Khan V of Bahawalpur took Khawaja Ghulam Farid Koreja to his palace at Ahmadpur Sharqia for his religious education by a scholar, when he was 8 years old. His elder brother Khawaja Fakhr-ud-Din Koreja who had brought him up after his parents' deaths, also died when Khawaja Ghulam Farid Koreja was 28 years old. Khawaja Ghulam Farid then left the Cholistan Desert and lived there for 18 years.
Khawaja Ghulam Farid Koreja performed Hajj, Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1876.

Works

His most significant works include:
In his poetry, he frequently uses the symbolism of a desert. Talking about how beautiful the desert is and how it attracted him to stay there for 18 years and how he believed that made him feel close to Muhammad. Sometimes he touched the topic of political affairs, opposing the British rule in Bahawalpur state writing a letter to the Nawab of Bahawalpur and also mentioning it in some of his poetry.

Awards and Recognition