| Khawaja Ghulam Farid | |
| Birth Date: | /1845 |
| Birth Place: | Chachran, Bahawalpur, British India (present-day Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Death Date: | 24 July 1901 (aged 56 or 60) |
| Death Place: | Chachran, Bahawalpur, British India (present-day Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Resting Place: | Mithankot, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Notablework: | Diwan-e-Farid Manaqab-e-Mehboobia Fawaid Faridia |
Khawaja Ghulam Farid (also romanized as Fareed; /1845 – 24 July 1901) was a 19th-century Sufi poet and mystic from Bahawalpur, Punjab, belonging to the Chishti Order. Most of his work is in his mother tongue Multani, or what is now known as Saraiki. However, he also contributed to the Standard Punjabi, Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi, Hindi and Persian literature.[1] [2] His writing style is characterized by the integration of themes such as death, passionate worldly and spiritual love, and the grief associated with love.[3]
He was born into a branch of the Koreja family who claimed descent from Umar, the second Rashidun caliph through an early migrant to Sindh. The family was established as saints associated with the Suhrawardī Sufi order. Originally from Thatta, Sindh, the family seat later moved to Mithankot in the early 18th century on the invitation of a disciple and subsequently transferred their allegiance to the Chishtī order.[4] Khawaja Farid was born in /1845 at Chachran. Farid was orphaned around the age of eight when his father died. He was then brought up by his elder brother, Khawaja Fakhr al-Dīn, and grew up to become a scholar and writer. He received a fine formal education at the royal palace of Ṣādiq Muḥammad IV, the Nawab of Bahawalpur. His brother Fakhr al-Dīn, who had brought him up after their parents' deaths, also died when Farid was 26 years old. Farid performed hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1875, and then retired to the Cholistan Desert (also known as Rohi) for chilla (retreat) where he spent a total of eighteen years. He died at Chachran on 24 July, 1901, and was buried at Mithankot.
His most significant works include: