Baba Farid
Baba Farid (Fariduddin Masud Ganjshakar) is the first great Punjabi Sufi poet — a Chishti master of Pakpattan whose shaloks stand in the Guru Granth Sahib, making him the shared saint of Punjabi Islam and Sikhism.
Life
Born at Kothwal near Multan, Farid studied in Qasur? — he studied at Multan and Khurasan and became the khalifa of Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki in the Chishti line, settling at Pakpattan on the Sutlej. The “sugar treasury” (ganj-e-shakar) of his epithet attaches to the legend of his fasting — a guest’s gift of sugar to a starving ascetic became the tradition’s emblem of his sweetness. Punjabi devotion remembers his wife’s Needle? — keeps: his mortifications in winter are proverbial in the land.
Teachings/Works
Some 130 shaloks and four hymns are included in the Guru Granth Sahib under his name (compiled there by Guru Arjan’s editors, whether directly from Farid or through the Sufi transmission is debated). They speak of the body’s dust, of slandering none, of the Lord who fills every heart.
Legacy
His dargah at Pakpattan (Pakistan) is among Pakistan’s great shrines, with the annual Chishti fair; Sikhs revere him among the bhagats of the Granth.
Verification notes
- Life rests on Chishti hagiography; the Granth’s Farid corpus may include verses of a later namesake (the “second Farid”) — a known scholarly debate.
- Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).