PARAS BHAG is an adaptation into Sadh Bhakha, in Gurmukhi script, of Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazzali`s Kimia i Saddat, an abridged edition in Urdu of his Ihyd ul Ulum, in Arabic. The work was first published in 1876. Several of the manuscript copies prior to that date are still in circulation. An edition in Devanagari script was brought out in 1929. The question as to who adapted the work into Bhakha and when has not been fully resolved. According to one tradition, the version in Gurmukhi characters was prepared towards the close of the seventeenth century at Anandpur by Sayyid Badr ud Din of Sadhaura at the instance of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708).
According to another, it was translated a little before the middle of the eighteenth century by a Sevapanthi sainteither Bhai Addan Shah or Bhai Garu. The book is held in great veneration by Sevapanthi Sikhs who recite it up to this day in their deras or monasteries. The work originally written in the eleventh century was meant for the edification of the Muslims laying down for them moral and social injunctions. These stipulations represent a mixture of Islamic, Sufi and Vedantic principles and thus have a wide appeal. The main stress is on loving devotion to God and on right conduct. D.S.
This is a Punjabi translation of an ancient Persian text “Kimia-a-Saadat” written by Mohammad Algazali, a tenth century Islamic scholar and Sufi saint. The Sewa Panthi Sect among the Sikhs holds this ancient text in great respect because of its author’s valuable views of on ideal human conduct and moral uprightness. The translation has been done in the prevalent hybrid “Sadh Bhasha” which was a medium of preaching in Sewa Panthi shrines. The diction, phraseology, verbs and other grammatical components used in translation are simple and of everyday usage of the people. However, the diction is highly dominated by Hindi and Braj Bhasha languages which were popular in earlier times.
