PARAS BHAG

PARAS BHAG is an adaptation into Sadh Bhakha, in Gurmukhi script, of Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazzali`s Kimid iSa`ddat, an abridged edition in Urdu of his Ihyd ul Ulum, in Arabic. The work was first published in 1876. Several of the manuscript copies prior to that date are still in circulation. An edition in Devanagari script was brought out in 1929. The question as to who adapted the work into Bhakha and when has not been fully resolved. According to one tradition, the version in Gurmukhi characters was prepared towards the close of the seventeenth century at Anandpur by Sayyid Badr ud Din of Sadhaura at the instance of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708).

According to another, it was translated a little before the middle of the eighteenth century by a Sevapanthi sainteither Bhai Addan Shah or Bhai Garu. The book is held in great veneration by Sevapanthi Sikhs who recite it up to this day in their deras or monasteries. The work originally written in the eleventh century was meant for the edification of the Muslims laying down for them moral and social injunctions. These stipulations represent a mixture of Islamic, Sufi and Vedantic principles and thus have a wide appeal. The main stress is on loving devotion to God and on right conduct. D.S.