The Ascension of the Subjective Self through Self-realization: A Case of Khawaja Ghulam Farid’s Poetic Persona

Abstract

Self-realisation is many things to many social scientists, however, for the study it is its spiritual dimension that has been brought into play. Self-realisation is the ultimate beginning and the end of the seeker (wayfarer/ adept/ lover) of the ultimate Truth in this temporal world. In Sufi discourse, self-realization has three distinct stages – the awakening of the self, the purification of the self, and the illumination of the self, other than the affirmation of the self and the annihilation of the self which are part and parcel of the Perfect Man (Insal-ul-kamil). In Islamic theology, the perfect man is the vicegerent of Allah on the earth. The Sufis strive to achieve the station of the perfect man through the journey of self-realization. The study follows the model of Ibn-e-Arabi (1165–1240) for insight to trace the stages of the Perfect Man which is the poetic persona in the selected Kafis of Khuwaja Ghulam Farid (1845–1901). The Saraiki Kafis of Khuwaja Ghulam Farid is enmeshed with divine love and the yearning of the persona “I” which is the speaker (subjective self) of the poet. The objective of the study is to delve into the speaker’s yearnings and trace his ascension through self-realization to the station of the vicegerent of Allah (Khalifa-tul-Allah). Moreover, it aims to locate several stages of self-realization and their impact on the persona to perfection. The study reveals that the poetic persona of Farid begins this journey of self-realization from the point of existential crisis, achieves nearly all its stations and reaches the Station of No Station, that is, the Perfect Man or the vicegerent of God.