Thy first duty is to give up faith, unfaith, Islam and all religions.
Born in Sindh, Pakistan in 1739, his real name was Abdul Wahab but he adopted the name Sachal Sarmast for his poetry which means truthful mystic. He wrote mystic poetry in Arabic, Sindhi, Seraiki, Punjabi, Urdu, Farsi (Persian) and Baluchi. Sachal urged people, rather than blindly following tradition, to seek the truth directly. And like ibn Arabi and others, Sachal Sarmast taught a vision of Unity called Wahdat al-Wujud. He passed from this life on the 14th day of Ramadan in 1829 at the age of 90.
Sachal's Poetry
Friend, this is the only way
to learn the secret way:
Ignore the paths of others,
even the saints' steep trails.
Don't follow.
Don't journey at all.
Rip the veil from your face.
'Tis not in religion I believe
'Tis love I live in.
When love comes to you.
Say Amen!
Neither did I roll rosary, nor did I ponder and pray,
I went to no mosque or temple, nor bow in adoration to any,
Sachal is lucky everyday, love is all around him.
You by yourself, know what is in your form!
Why chant 'Allah Allah'? Find Allah within you.
You listen, you see, Allah's word is witness,
There is no doubt, O Sachal! that the Lord is One!
We are, what are we?
We know not, what we are!
For a moment we are blessed
For a moment we are accursed
Some moment we pray and fast
Some moment we are free spirits
Now we declare, 'Only we exist'
Now we declare, 'We don't exist'
For a bit, our heart is calm
In a bit, we weep rivers
Now we say, 'We are self-realized'
Now we ask, 'Who are we?'
'Sachal' we are only That eternally
What other contracts can we make here?
I was sitting by the roadside,
When the path became clear to me;
In the palace the Beloved I saw,
a glimpse the Beauty gave;
Through the window was the vision,
a glimpse the Beauty saw;
Take care of the ignorant;
Our bond was made for a reason.
I truly recognized the Lord,
My companion He sure became;
'He is the Creator of all
and intrinsic to all',
All doubts in this perished;
With happiness shall I carry
Sisters, if your trust I have.
All the journeys, all the manifestations
The Dear One's own;
Friend 'Sachal' know this correctly,
Slumber has created illusions.
Sachal regarded love as the path to spirituality:
'Tis not in religion I believe
'Tis love I live in.
When love comes to you.
Say Amen!
'Tis not with the infidel
that love resides
Nor with the faithful.
[translation by Gul Agha and Jethmal Parsram Gulrajani]
