Hmm.
Dude, he's literally taking a shot at the fake pious people and asking what's the difference between the dogs and the pious people lol. That's sarcasm man.
I mean, what he has written is clear and straightforward. In fact, he was called a heretic by hardcore Islamists. So basically you are just telling me one part of the story.
"A
dargah was built over his grave. He was declared non-Muslim by a few literalist "
Mullah" of Kasur and they had claimed it was prohibited to offer the funeral prayer of Bulleh Shah due to
Kufr allegations put on him by extremists. His funeral prayer was led by Qazi Hafiz Syed Zahid Hamdani, a great religious personality of Kasur.
[4]"
I see that in the Islamic world a lot, you say something which even goes slightly contrary to the religion and you are labelled a 'heretic' and also that people are always discussing about what 'true' Islam is which is funny many times. Subcontinental Muslims especially behave like ' Shah se zyada shah ke wafadar'.
Regardless, I would expect Islamists to claim him as 'one of them', that's completely natural but I don't want to get into a religious debate over here. If there was some other forum, we would've chatted more and I would also have loved to know more but sadly this isn't the appropriate place.
You don't need to, this is just a random anonymous forum.
BUT, if what you say is true, then my views on him changes and not in a positive way.
Your views are your views, he was not Thier to please people, he was a Muslim respected by many people because of his teachings, and Sufi saints are known for preaching people about islam, his teacher was a famous islamic preacher, scholar with multiple written works and he followed and preached this scholars teachings throughout his life- so in that sense he was a madrasa educated from a scholarly Sufi preacher- there's no question of him being not a Muslim or some in between thing preaching athiesm in form of humanism- yes humanism in some ways but humanism within Islam, and how it is in the Islamic framework (this is why he is called a Sufi saint- if he was preaching something other than Sufi Islam he wouldn't be called that)
What he was against was bad practices of clergy (that's why the declaration of non-muslim by those same people) or the larger conflict in the name of religion, Sikh killing Muslims, Muslims killing some other people etc etc
So his efforts to reduce that tension or conflict may "sound" off or him preaching something different but that was poetry
He was first and foremost a Sufi religious preacher (his primary work) whose poetry became famous but his first job/focus wasn't on litterery side but on the preaching or religion side so if that makes him bad, preaching religion just like every Sufi preacher that ever existed (that's why they're called Sufis it's a preaching (to both (Muslim/non Muslim) and spreading of Islam focused sect- they won't call you revered Sufi figure if you're doing something other than preaching )
So if being a religion focused sufi preacher makes him bad than I disagree his work/actions speaks for itself
Dude stood up to the ruler of the time to support a persecuted non-muslim movement, when saints were also a target, would write poetry to ease religious tensions,
I mean what's the negative part in this character (copy paste)
(When Aurangzeb banned the music and dance, declaring it as haram in Islam–Bulleh Shah, following instructions from his teacher, defiantly went from village to village in Punjab, singing and dancing to his Kafis.
As Aurangzeb beheaded Guru Tegh Bahadur, Bulleh Shah dared to call the slain Sikh leader as Ghazi, a religious warrio
” Kitay Tegh Bahadur Ghazi hay
Bulleh Shah hailed the revolutionary spirit of Guru Gobind Singh, calling him a ‘protector’ of those who believed in right to follow their religious belief. )”
when the Sikh gurus son started killing random Muslims in the dozens to avenge his father he went and stopped him
The "Neither Hindu nor Muslim,
Sacrificing pride, let us sit together" poem was not meant to literally mean they are same thing or there's no relgios lines and are same thing
It was in the context of discrimination that was happening in society at the time due to religios differences, it was in context that we are humans first and foremost
And yes your interpretation of what he meant is the mainstream interpretation, and is taught in the mainstream that it was comparison of fake pious people and dogs - so from your perspective you're correct
But the people who taught me of his work and what I feel/ my interpretation of that particular poem - I feel or message I took was loyalty and devotional love to God and it's comparison to relationship of dog and his master
So from mainstream I know what they say but I personally feel something different about it (or I was taught differently and I agree with it)
I think people have a misconsaption of a religious preacher especially an islamic one so they don't look at him as a preacher just a random poet eventhough his primary focus was preaching but this was how Sufis have preached for centeries by criticizing clergy, bad cultural practices and than showing the true message (what they believe to be true) to both Orthodox Muslims and non-muslims
But thier (Sufi)end goal is preaching of Islam and it's humanist values (people/critics can say there are none but this is what Sufi relgious preacher is trying to teach and make em understand to both orthodox Muslim and non-muslims)