# Bari Imam

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17th-century Sufi ascetic from Punjab

Bari Imam بری امام Title Mystic Personal life Born 1617 CE (1026 AH)[1] Choli Karsal, Punjab, Mughal Empire (now in Punjab, Pakistan) Died 1705 CE (1114 AH)[1] Noorpur, Punjab, Mughal Empire (now in Islamabad, Pakistan) Main interest Sufism Religious life Religion Islam Denomination Sunni Jurisprudence Hanbali Muslim leader Influenced by Abdul Qadir Gilani

The tomb of Bari Imam in [Islamabad](/source/Islamabad)

**Peer Syed Abdul Latif Kazmi Qadiri**, often referred to as **Bari Imam** or **Bari Sarkar** (1617 – 1705), was a 17th-century [Punjabi Muslim](/source/Punjabi_Muslims)[2] [Sufi](/source/Sufi) ascetic. He is venerated as the patron saint of Islamabad, [Pakistan](/source/Pakistan). Born in [Karsal](/source/Karsal), [Chakwal District](/source/Chakwal_District), he is one of the most prominent Sufis of the [Qadiriyya](/source/Qadiriyya) order of the [Islamic mysticism](/source/Sufism)[3] Today, his shrine is widely visited by Sunni Muslims who venerate saints, especially those in Pakistan and South Asia.[4][5][1]

The life of Bari Imam is known essentially through oral tradition and hagiographical booklets and celebrated in [Qawwali](/source/Qawwali) songs of Indian and Pakistani Sufism.[4]

The forests where Bari Imam roamed

## Biography

Bari Imam was eight years old when his family migrated from Karsal in Chakwal District to what is now [Aabpara](/source/Aabpara_Market), Islamabad in Pakistan. Additionally, [Syed Kasran](/source/Syed_Kasran) in the Tehsil of [Gujjar Khan](/source/Gujar_Khan_Tehsil) is considered to be his birthplace.[6] His father, Syed Mehmood Shah, was a farmer whom he helped with farming and with his herd of animals until he was 12 years old. Then Bari Imam was sent to [Ghorghushti](/source/Ghorghushti) in Campbellpur (now known as [Attock](/source/Attock), Punjab, Pakistan) where he stayed for two years to learn [fiqh](/source/Fiqh), [hadith](/source/Hadith), logic, and other disciplines related to Islam, because at that time [Ghorghushti](/source/Ghorghushti) was a renowned seat of Islamic learning.[7]

According to some sources, he later married and had one daughter, though both his wife and daughter are said to have died prematurely.[4] After their deaths, Bari Imam began wandering the forests of the [Hazara district](/source/Hazara_District) in [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa](/source/Khyber_Pakhtunkhwa), where he spent twenty-four years as an [ascetic](/source/Ascetic).[4]

Shah Abdul Latif also went to Central Asian states of that period and to the Islamic holy cities of [Mecca](/source/Mecca) and [Madinah](/source/Madinah) to learn about Islam and perform [hajj](/source/Hajj).[1][5]

After his return to the Indian subcontinent, he then decided to settle in the Noorpur Shahan area (now [Noorpur Shahan](/source/Noorpur_Shahan%2C_Islamabad) in Islamabad). At that time, this area was known to be a dangerous place (locally known as Chorpur (place of thieves) due to its reputation as full of bandits and killers who used to attack and rob trade caravans passing through this area headed towards Central Asian countries. Over time, he succeeded in teaching these people about love, peace and harmony. Later Shah Abdul Latif came to be known as "Bari Imam".[1][8]

Because Bari Imam Sarkar did not transmit any of his doctrines to writing; as such, it may be rightly presumed that he bequeathed all of his teachings orally.[9]

Bari Imam was renowned in his own life for being an ascetic who subjected himself to great self-humiliation in the public sphere, "living among the pariahs and consciously exposing himself to the disdain of the people."[4][10]

A celebrated [miracle worker](/source/Miracle_worker), Bari Imam is also described in regional lore as one through whom God performed many [marvels](/source/Karamat) to convince the local people of the truth of [Islam](/source/Islam); thus, some of the most popular miracles ascribed to him are his having caused water to gush forth from rocks and his having brought back to life the dead water buffaloes of a [peasant](/source/Peasant) who had earlier provided the saint with milk during his ten years of spiritual seclusion.[4]

## Shrine

The shrine of Bari Imam in Islamabad

A silver-mirrored shrine of Bari Imam is located in Noorpur Shahan in Islamabad. It was originally built by the [Mughal emperor](/source/Mughal_Empire) [Aurangzeb](/source/Aurangzeb), who revered Bari Sarkar, in the 17th century.[1] It has since been renovated many times, and is now maintained by the [Government of Pakistan](/source/Government_of_Pakistan). Until the 1960s, the shrine was famous for its *[urs](/source/Urs)* celebration, when the death anniversary of the saint was commemorated and which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people each year (in one particularly populous year, the attendance is said to have been 1.2 million people).[4][5]

On 27 May 2005, a suicide attack took place at the shrine of Imam Bari in which 20 people died and almost 70 were injured.[11][1]

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-Dawn2_1-6) Muhammad Umar and Suhail Yusuf (10 July 2014). ["Syed Shah Abdul Latif: 'Khushki kay Imam'"](https://www.dawn.com/news/1118335). *Dawn (newspaper)*. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (2014). ["Antinomian Sufis"](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-sufism/antinomian-sufis1/B04007691404A18ADE68E7F87601547F). In Ridgeon, Lloyd (ed.). *The Cambridge Companion to Sufism*. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 101–124. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1017/cco9781139087599.008](https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fcco9781139087599.008). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-107-01830-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-107-01830-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Tazkar-e-Khanwad-e-Hazrat Ishaan, p. 281 and Chapter on Bari Imam

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-EI3_4-6) Chaudhary, M. Azam. ["Barrī Imām"](https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/db/ei3o). In Fleet, Kate; [Krämer, Gudrun](/source/Gudrun_Kr%C3%A4mer); Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; [Rowson, Everett](/source/Everett_K._Rowson) (eds.). *Encyclopaedia of Islam* (3rd ed.). Brill Online. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [1873-9830](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1873-9830).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-TheNation_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-TheNation_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-TheNation_5-2) (Associated Press of Pakistan) [Security plan chalked out for Bari Imam Urs](https://nation.com.pk/20-May-2015/security-plan-chalked-out-for-bari-imam-urs) The Nation (newspaper), Published 20 May 2015, Retrieved 5 January 2021

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [*Punjab District Gazetteers: Rawalpindi District with Maps 1907*](http://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.19431). The “Civil and Military Gazette” Press, Lahore. 1909.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-TheNation2_7-0)** ["Urs of Bari Imam to start from 22nd"](https://web.archive.org/web/20080206104708/http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/may-2005/13/nationalnews3.php). *The Nation (newspaper)*. 10 April 2007. Archived from [the original](http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/may-2005/13/nationalnews3.php) on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-kuna_8-0)** (Mohammad Yousaf Khokhar) [Shah Abdul Latif, Nurpur Shahan and Islamabad](https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticlePrintPage.aspx?id=1271697&language=en) Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Published 28 July 2002, Retrieved 5 January 2021

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Ghulām Shabbīr Hāshmī, *Ṭulba-yi Shāh Laṭīf*, Islamabad, 2010

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Jürgen Wasim Frembgen, *Journey to God. Sufis and dervishes in Islam*, trans. from the German by Jane Ripken, Karachi and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 160-161

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Two involved in Bari Imam suicide attack arrested"](https://www.dawn.com/news/651709/two-involved-in-bari-imam-suicide-attack-arrested). *Dawn (newspaper)*. 14 August 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Bari Imam](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bari_Imam).

- ["Shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Kazmi (Bari Imam)"](https://web.archive.org/web/20100324111012/http://www.world66.com/asia/southasia/pakistan/islamabad/sights/shrineofshahabdullatifbariimam)

- ["Mausoleum (Mazar) of Shah Abdul Latif (Bari Imam)"](http://wikimapia.org/3232281/Mausoleum-Mazar-of-Hazrat-Shah-Abdul-Latif-Bari-Imam-RA)

- [Urs of Bari Imam](https://web.archive.org/web/20080206104708/http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/may-2005/13/nationalnews3.php)

- [Tomb of Bari Imam](https://web.archive.org/web/20191111191601/http://www.cybercity-online.net/Pakistan/html/shrines_tombs___mosques_in_pak.html)

- [Bari Imam - A Great Sufi](https://web.archive.org/web/20110516125758/http://pakistantimes.net/2005/04/12/national1.htm)

- [The Shrine of Bari Imam](https://web.archive.org/web/20080206104708/http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/may-2005/13/nationalnews3.php)

v t e Muslim saints in South Asia 8th–9th century Abdullah Shah Ghazi 10th–11th century Ali al-Hujwiri (Data Ganj Bakhsh) 12th–13th century Abdur-Razzaq Nurul-Ain Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari Alaul Haq Pandavi Baba Fakruddin Baba Farid Bahauddin Zakariya Bu Ali Shah Qalandar Burhanuddin Gharib Ganj Rawan Ganj Baksh Hajib Shakarbar Imam Ali-ul-Haq Ismail Qureshi al Hashmi Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari Khawaja Awais Kagha Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Makhdoom Husamudeen Manikpuri Makhdoom Sharfuddin Ahmed Yahya Maneri Makhdoom Yahya Maneri Mu'in al-Din Chishti Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi Nizamuddin Auliya Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki Pir Mangho Rukn-e-Alam Shah e Alam Syed Ahmad Sultan Tajuddin Chishti Usman Harooni 14th–15th century Abdul Quddus Gangohi Shamsuddin Sabzwari Akhi Siraj Aainae Hind Bande Nawaz Ibrahim Yukpasi Jahaniyan Jahangasht Madin Sahib Makhdoom Ali Mahimi Makhdoom Bilawal Nagore Shahul Hamid Salim Chishti Shah Sultan Balkhi Mahisawar Shah Syed Muhammad Nurbakhsh Qahistani Shah Yaqeeq Bukhari Wajihuddin Alvi Zainuddin Shirazi Zar Zari Zar Baksh 16th–17th century Pir Baba Baba Shadi Shaheed Jamali Kamboh Muhammad Ghawth Shah Abdul Karim Bulri Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Daud Bandagi Kirmani Haji Bahadar Ali Abdullah Shah Baba Budan Madho Lal Hussain Shah Inayat Shaheed Shah Inat Rizvi Baba Shah Jamal Abdul Hamid Baba Rahman Baba Bari Imam Mir Mukhtar Akhyar Pir Hashim Shah Inayat Qadiri Muhammad Qadiri Syed Musa Pak Bulleh Shah Ali Haider Multani Mian Mir Shah Badakhshi Bibi Jamal Khatun Jahanara Begum Makhdoom Shah Muhammad Munim Pak Jan Muhammad of Jalna Muhibullah Allahabadi Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi Sultan Bahu Syed Abdul Rehman Jilani Dehlvi Zeb-un-Nissa 18th–19th century Ata Hussain Fani Chishti Bedil Bekas Fazal Ali Qureshi Ghulam Ali Dihlawi Khawaja Muhammad Zaman of Luari Khwaja Abdul Ghaffar Naqshbandi Khwaja Ghulam Farid Khwaja Nizam ad Din Machiliwale Shah Mahmoodullah Shah Maula Shah Maulvi Ghulam Rasool Alampuri Mewa Shah Mian Muhammad Bakhsh Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan Muhammad Qasim Sadiq Muhammad Channan Shah Nuri Muhammad Suleman Taunsvi Muhammad Usman Damani Murtada al-Zabidi Noor Muhammad Maharvi Rohal Faqir Sachal Sarmast Sakhi Shah Chan Charagh Saleh Muhammad Safoori Sayyad Laal Shah Hamdani Sayyid Sahib Husayni Shams Ali Qalandar Syed Muhammad Zauqi Shah Syed Misri Shah Syed Shah Afzal Biabani Syed Shah Murid Ali al-Qadri al-Jilani Tajuddin Muhammad Badruddin Waris Ali Shah 20th–21st century Ahmad Hussain Gilani Sufi Muhammad Barkat Ali Ludhianvi Farid-ud-Din Qadri Pir Irani Syed Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri This table only includes figures venerated traditionally by the majority of Muslims in the Subcontinent, whence persons honored exclusively by particular modern movements are not included.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bari Imam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bari_Imam) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bari_Imam?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.