Sachal promoted religious tolerance.

ISLAMABAD -- Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday said peace, love and brotherhood can only be promoted in Pakistan through the thoughts and messages of Sufi poets.

Speaking at an international Sachal conference, he said there was a need to spread the message of Sufis and promote the soft image of Pakistan in the world.

The conference was organised in connection with the 199th anniversary of Sufi poet Sachal Sarmast by Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL). It was presided over by politician Mehtab Akbar Rashdi.

The minister said Sachal spread the message of religious tolerance through his poetry and tolerance was needed in these days of the epidemic. Sufis poets created spiritual awakening through their poetry in the Indus Valley and spread awareness throughout the region. Sachal Sarmast's name is prominent in Sindh after Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, he said.

The number of beneficiaries of the spiritual and intellectual blessings of Sachal Sarmast is unlimited. If we spread the message of Sufism, many problems can be overcome.

We need to spread message of Sufis to promote soft image of Pakistan in world, minister says

The era of Sachal Sarmast was the era of Kalhora and Talpur rulers of Sindh. There was extremism and religious hatred at a peak. In such a situation, Sachal Sarmast turned Sindh into a place of peace for the common man through his poetry.

'He felt the surrounding environment intensely and accepted its impact and there was softness in his temper and the colour of the welfare and wellness of humanity apparent in his poetry,' she said.

She said jurisprudential differences were on the rise during the Kalhora period and Sachal Sarmast was well aware that courtier scholars were involved in the background of the hatred. Accordingly, he started a movement against the scholars through his poetry. This subject was new in Sindhi poetry so this Idea gained popularity.

Dr Yousuf Khushk, the chairman PAL said Sufism was not just a theory for Sachal Sarmast rather it had emerged as an...

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