The Persian Poet Urfi

Urfi was one of the Persian poets whose  quotes Shri Nathji had mentioned.  Shri Nathji had often used in his sermons, the following quote of Urfi:  

“Urfi agar bagiriyaa mayyassar shude visaal, Sad saal mi tavaan ba tamannaa gareestan

“Urfi, if He can be reached only through tears,

Then I can weep for a hundred years together”

Shri Nathji had often said that God could not be obtained through force, or wealth or tears, and that God could only be had through His own Grace. That the word “Khudaa” meant in effect “Khud-aa!” i.e. “Come by Thyself!”

 Muhammad ibn Badr-al-Din (1538AD -1591AD) known by his pen-name Urfi, or Urfi Shirazi, was a 16th-century Persian poet. He was born in Shiraz in Iran. In his mid thirties, he migrated to India and settled in Lahore and became one of the poets of the court of Akbar the Great. He is one of the most prominent Persian poets of Indian style. He was known for his splendid and deeply melancholy qasidas (odes). Urfi not only had a great influence on Indian and Persian poetry but also on the development of poetry in Turkey and throughout the Ottoman Empire, were his poems were very popular.  Urfi died in 1591, in Lahore (Which was Akbar capital at that time. Lahore was capital of Akbar for 20 years before shifting it to Agra) at the age of 63 years. His corpse was later transferred to Najaf, in Iran, which is among the holist Shi'ite Islamic cities.  The photograph is of a manuscript of Urfi poetry from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts in the University Library of Bratislava, Slovakia