(MIAN MUHAMMAD BAKHSH’S PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE)

Abstract

Abstract: 
Classical Punjabi poetry is the epitome of the philosophy of love and its various aspects. Through their poetry, 
Punjabi Sufi poets travel from worldly love to true love and their readers also witness this process of love 
transformation. Amongst from Punjabi Sufi poets, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh has mastered the intensity of love 
and its various stages. For him, love is a gradual process and the lover is its agent. He calls love as an 
unattainable and most difficult thing. It is the lover's destiny to burn in the fire of love, from which he escapes 
by attaining eternal life instead of dying. Without love, there is no difference between human and animal. It is 
love that elevates a person to the level of humanity. There is no limit to faith without love. Resurrection is one 
of the attributes of love. For a lover, every moment is worth a moment of the last day. The path of love is as 
difficult as the ‘Pul Sirat’ (Road to the Success), it can be realized only by the lover who becomes the traveler 
of this path in search of heaven. Lover is not afraid of death at all like ‘Parwana’ (the flame’s lover). 
Asceticism and worship are of no use without love, because love is given only by burning in the fire of love, 
and the one who gives his life in the path of love attains the status of martyrdom and attains eternal life. These 
concepts of love by Mian Muhammad Bakhsh are derived from his ‘Masnavi Safar-ul-Ishq’, known as "Saif-ul
Muluk", whose explanation and analytical study is the focus of this article.