Shamas Faqir

Shamas Faqir (  شمس فقیر) or Shams Faqīr was a Kashmiri Sufi poet. He belonged to the Qadiriyya silsila of Sufism.

Although there are no authentic biographical records, Mohammad Sidiq Bhat is believed to have been born in 1843 to a poor family in Chinkral Mohalla, Habba Kadal Srinagar, Kashmir. He didn't receive formal education, but became apprenticed to Mohammad Na‘īm (locally known as Nyam-Saeb), a Kashmiri Sufi poet. He became a disciple of Souch Maliar, Abdul Rehman of Barzulla, Atiq-Ullah of Gulab Bagh, Mohammad Jammal and Rasool Saeb.

When he was 25, he left for Amritsar, in the Indian Punjab, where he became a disciple of another Sufi Saint Rasūl Shāh Hākih-Tsr. After his return from Amritsar he lived in Anantnag, Kashmir, where he married. He returned to his ancestral home in Srinagar for some time, subsequently meditating for six months in a cave at Qazi Bagh in the Budgam district of Kashmir. Following this he lived in Braripora Krishpora.

Many of his poems are on the theme of a mystic's quest for the primal cause of the universe. Shamas Faqir's poems used the Kashmiri idiom of his time, and also words from Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. His poem Merajnama recounts Prophet Muhammad’s spiritual journey to God.

Shamas Faqir died in 1901, and was buried at Krishpora Shamasabad Budgam Kashmir. He had two sons and a daughter. Shamas Faqir's grandsons Sheikh Peer Mehraj ud din (Aasi Shamas) and his younger brother Sheikh Peer Mohammad Altaf (sons of Sheikh Peer Gh Mohidin Sahib (RAH) kamli wali presently at his place. Sheikh Peer Mehraj ud din (aasi shamas) is also a poet (shayar).