Sufi Saints Urs in Pakistan

In Pakistan, spirituality and expressions of faith are on full public display. festivals, processions, dances, memorials and urs are held through out the year on the Shrines of Sufi Saints. These shrines attract devotees from around the country.

Here are few famous Sufi Saint Shrines where annual urs is held with great zeal and devotees go for spiritual upliftments.

Urs of Madhu Lal Hussain

hah Hussain, popularly known as Madhu Lal Hussain was a sufi saint. His three day urs is celebrated every year. The festival is a sight to behold; hundreds of pilgrims sleeping in the glow of the shrine, gaggles of malangs (ascetics) spinning to the beat of drums, and a giant cauldron into which ceremonial oil is thrown and lamps and candles are burned. Last day of Urs is reserved for women.

Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalander, Sehwan Sharif

The drum beat at the urs of Madhu Lal Hussain is just a warm up for the dhammal which takes place at the Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar every Thursday night.

Considered to be a holy night by many, devotees of this 13th Century saint converge on the tiny desert town for a ritual dance. As the drum gets louder and faster, the crowd becomes ever more intoxicated by its beat (or some other substance). Deep in a spiritual haze, dreadlocked men spin on the spot, reaching some kind of higher state, while women flail themselves, their wild locks flung from side to side.

Poetry at the Shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Bhit Shah

The sound of the sitars echo through the tiles walls of the this shrine, built around the tomb of the 18th century poet who is considered one of the Sindhi language’s greatest.

His poetry has a spiritual slant to it, meaning that for many to recite is not simply to listen, but to transcend. At the front of the tomb, like a group of receptive students before their master, a semi-circle of reciters sit every afternoon to sing out their inspiration’s words.

Urs of Data Ganj Bakhsh, Lahore

Staying in Lahore, the death anniversary of Sheikh Ali al-Hajveri takes place at the Data Darbar complex. (Like all Islamic dates, this event moves back every ten Gregorian calendar days each year). On the day of the “urs”, the streets of Lahore are streaming with pilgrims arriving from all over Pakistan; busloads of humanity compete for space on the highways with horses and carts filled with entire extended families, and they’re all gravitating towards one place.