The
saloks of Sheikh Farid
Ji guide the seeker towards life’s true purpose, the devotion to the one absolute Divine, IkOankar. In these saloks, he reminds us that our time in this world is finite; therefore, one must turn to IkOankar without delay. Yet, attachment to transient possessions and relationships causes many to forget this truth, becoming entangled in vices that lead to restlessness and inner turmoil. In contrast, those who cultivate virtues such as love, humility, patience, contentment, selfless service, and righteousness experience the bliss of connection with IkOankar even while living a householder’s life. Their life becomes serene and suffused with inner joy.
In the thirty-eight stanza, Sheikh Farid says,
O Farid! You waste the four quarters of the day, having roamed, and waste the four quarters of the night, having slept. In Islam, the first
namaz, or prayer of the day, happens in the morning after the call to prayer. Sufis also have ideas around sleeping less to live a more aware and awake life. Sheikh Farid, reflecting on his own time, comes to understand that he has wasted it. What do we spend our waking hours doing? We roam and roam—we are always looking for something, looking to accumulate and consume, hustling and grinding, running in the ‘rat race.’ We waste our days and our nights in forgetfulness, in ignorance, and in numbness to our relationship with
IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One). Sheikh Farid reminds himself and all of us that it is better to be in remembrance of
Allah, used as an epithet for IkOankar, than to be sleeping or roaming.
Sheikh Farid ends the stanza with a question:
IkOankar will ask for the account—for what purpose had you come? When we are so caught up in the movements of life, when we are so consumed with our consumption, our accumulation, our wandering, and our sleeping, we do not think about how much time has gone by. We do not reflect on how we are spending the opportunity of this life. Sheikh Farid is shaking himself and all of us out of our own sleepwalking, urgently asking us what we have to show for this time. When IkOankar asks us what we came here for and whether we fulfilled our tasks, what will we have to say for ourselves? We did not pursue a connection with IkOankar, the One who created us. What will we say when we have to face the One who made us? Who gave us the gift of these lives? Sheikh Farid is reminding us that we are here to pursue and experience an incredible relationship with IkOankar. We are here to be in love with the One, to become
of the One. Will we change course? Will we have something to show for these lives when the time comes?
