This daas wrote the following about 6 years ago, on April 6, 2004.

Yesterday I went to get my pathetic car repaired and while waiting there, I started talking to a Pakistani young fellow. He asked me some questions about Sikhi to quench his curiosity and I asked him questions on Islam.

He had “Jhulay Lal” written on his car screen and seeing it I asked him, “what is that written on the screen of your car?”

“Oh that! It says jhulay lal”, replied he.

"What is jhulay lal?"

“Jhulay Lal was our bazurg i.e. a Sufi Saint we believe in. You must have heard of the famous song – Dama Dam Mast Kalandar. Ali da pehla Number”.

“I heard this one in my early years. I think it was sung by Runa Laila”.

“Yes you are right that it was sung by Runa Laila. Instead of ‘Ali da pehla number’, the original song was ‘Sakhi Shahbaaz Kalandar’. They have changed it now", he complained.

When I heard him say “Sakhi Shahbaaz Kalandar”, I remembered that during the time of Siri Guru Arjun Dev jee, Sakhi Sarvars were very prominent in the Amritsar area and thousands of Hindus had converted to Islam, via the Sakhi Sarvar sect of Islam. Siri Guru Arjun Dev jee laid the foundation of Siri Taran Taran Sahib just to combat the Sakhi Sarvars, who were growing very rapidly. After the establishment of Siri Taran Taran Sahib, the Sakhi Sarvar sect got eradicated from Amritsar and Lahore area. Guru Sahib did massive parchaar in that area.

It is so true that if it had not been for our Guru Sahibaan, the whole of Punjab would have been Muslim.

I asked him about the Sakhi Sarvar sect and he replied that Sakhi Sarvar and Sakhi Shahbaaz Kalandar are two different sects but are very similar. I asked him what Sakhi meant. He replied that Sakhi means such person from whom all wishes are fulfilled. I knew only one meaning of Sakhi and that is - a friend. In Gurbani I as far as I am aware, Sakhi always means a female friend.

I asked him if he knew what it meant by "Dama Dam Mast Kalandar, Sakhi Shahbaaz Kalandar". He did not know the meaning. Right then, I understood what this line means. I told him that it means that “Sakhi Shahbaaz Kalandar, the great Faqir (Kalandar) stays intoxicated (mast) in Allah through his every breath (Dama Dam)”. Sufis too believe in remembering Allah with every breath i.e. Dam Dam. Gurbani too says “Dam Dam samalda”.

Then we started talking about our Rehit and other deep subjects. I told him about Sikhi rehit and he told me about his rehit.

I learned a very important lesson from him. He told me that they do 5 nimaaz a day and a true Muslim is supposed to do their nimaaz (prayer) considering it to be their last nimaaz.

I loved this idea. I thanked him for his suggestion and said to him that we Sikhs too have been told by our Guru Sahib to always remember death.

If we do our nitnem considering it to be our last nitnem, how beneficial it can be to us. Imagine how much concentration, urgency, pyaar and with how great supplication we will do our nitnem. Imagine how great our abhyaas would be if we did it considering that it could be our last abhyaas.

Guru Sahib kirpa karan.

Daas,
Kulbir Singh