Baba Syed Abdullah Shah Qadri Shattari, better known as Baba Bulleh (sometimes Bhulle) Shah, Bulleh to himself (whatever that self was), was a 17th century Indian sufi poet, today widely considered one of the greatest. His poetry has been adapted to various styles of music including rock, Bollywood and Lollywood, qawwali, and various south Asian styles of folk music, notably by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Junoon, Abida Parween, as well as many other folk and recording artists. He was a man without ego and as such is difficult to categorize within a definite religion, social class, sexual orientation, psychological profile, as Bulleh in himself, or any category at all beyond a description of the man as himself.
The young Abdullah's lack of self definition was initially troubling to the sufi master he sought guidance from, Baba Shah Inayat Qadri Shattari. As a syed (a direct descendent of Muhammad) it was considered beneath Abdullah's dignity to sit at the feet of Shah Inayat, a member of the Arain (an indigenous farming tribe around Punjab), and he was strongly discouraged by his family when they learnt of his intention to become the student of a lesser man. So having been taken in by the master's charisma and with all his being dependent on learning from him he was obliged to return and confess the mistake that his family had told him he had made. Inayat retorted simply 'you are not Bulleh, you are bhulliya (lost)' and dismissed him.
And he was. His ego now belonged to Inayat and to be without him was a death for Bulleh. Realizing his great sin he wrote in warning to his family
Jera saanu syed sade
Dozakh milan sazaaian
(May whoever calls me a syed be punished in hell.)
and returned again to Inayat to confess to having made a mistake in leaving and that on no better grounds than someone else's class prejudice. Inayat, thoroughly unimpressed with Bulleh's lack of principles, sent him away once and for all, annihilating him.
Bulleh spent twelve years looking for a way to persuade Inayat of his conviction. To signify his repentance he spent these years wandering and dancing among the Kanjar tribe, nomadic descendents of jungle dwellers who made their living through entertainment and prostitution. As a final romantic gesture Bulleh danced for Inayat while disguised as a female Kanjar dancer wearing ringing ankle bracelets and singing 'Tere ishq nachaaya thayya thayya' (Loving you has made me dance with passion). (This was not the only time Bulleh sang his love for Inayat. Once on Inayat's return from an absence Bulleh spontaneously sang the classical song 'Mera piya ghar aaya' (My beloved has come home)). Realizing that Bulleh's ego was no longer his own Inayat agreed to become his master, the only master Bulleh ever took.
Jad me sabak ishq da parhya
Darya dekh wahdat da warya
Guman gheeran de wich urya
Shah Inayat laaya paar
(When I had learnt the lesson of ishq [love beyond sex and chastity] I sank in the river of union. I was lost in the current until Shah Inayat brought me across.)
During the Mughal-Sikh war Bulleh censured the killing of a Sikh man in a misdirected act of revenge against the murder of several Muslims.
Na me mumin wich maseeta
Na me wich kufr di reet an
Na me paakan wich paleet an
Na me Musa na Firaun
Bhulleya ki jaana me kaun?
(I am neither a believer inside a mosque nor am I an observer of the rituals of infidels. I am not pure amongst the impure, I am neither Moses nor Pharaoh. Bulleya I know not who I am.)
His expression of dissidence in defending a Sikh earned him the epithet of infidel amongst his fellows but this never bothered Bulleh. He would openly hail Guru Tegh Bahadur as a holy warrior and compare local mullahs to Satan who despite whose plausible ostension to knowledge of God was damned none the less.
Tenu kaafir kaafir akhne
Tu 'aaho, aaho' akh
(When they call you (Bulleh) an infidel tell them 'yes, yes'.)
Raatein jaagein karein ibadat
Raate jaagan kutte
(You stay up all night praying. Dogs stay up all night too.)
As the religious killed Jesus and Mansur as heretics and for fear of what they could not understand so was Bulleh shunned by the ignorant. There is a legend (and all of these anecdotes are legends) that as a young student Abdullah was unable to move beyond learning the first letter of the abjad and on recognizing the uselessness of learning more his entire school building vanished.
Ilmo bas karein o yaar
Iko Alif tere darkaar
(End the book learning, mate. One Alif is sufficient.)
When Bulleh died the disgust towards him as a kaafir was such that no Muslim would stoop to ritually bathe him or move his corpse at all for three hot Punjabi days. But this was no indignity to Bulleh. His final poem as inscribed above his tomb reads 'Bulleh Shah asa marna nahin/gor paya koi aur' (It wasn't for Bulleh Shah to die, someone else is buried here). Nor is it Bulleh receiving his recognition today but someone else.