Ginanic Literature

A treasury of sacred hymns from the Ismaili spiritual tradition

The Ginans are devotional hymns composed by Ismaili Pirs over centuries, expressing themes of divine love, spiritual longing, and the path to inner illumination. Explore the collection below.

Verse of the Day

A daily reflection from the ginanic tradition

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Collection

Browse the Ginans

Select a ginan to read its verses, translation, commentary, and listen to the recitation.

Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn

Anant Akhādo

A 500-verse granth composed over 6 months and 6 days, recited across 40 days

500 Verses 40 Days

Pir Shams

Ab Teri Mahobat Laagi

Now the love for You has taken hold of me, O my Lord

10 Verses Audio

Pir Abdul Nabi

Eji Venati Karu(n) Chhu(n)

O Lord, I make a humble plea to You

10 Verses Audio

Bibi Imam Begum

Eji Darshan Diyo Mora Naath

Grant me Your vision, O my Master — I am Your maiden

14 Verses Audio

Pir Shams

Satgur Aavya Kaa(n)i Aapñe Dwaar

The True Guide has come to our very door

9 Verses Audio

Bibi Imam Begum

Satgur Miliyā Mūne Āj

Today I have found my True Guide — I have attained bliss

7 Verses Audio

Sayyad Muhammad Shah

Dhanre Ghaḍī Jo Din Sant Padharya

Blessed is the moment when the Saint arrived

6 Verses Audio

Pīr Sadardīn

Tamkū Sadhāre So Din

Many days have passed since You departed, O my beloved

11 Verses Audio

A Sayyad (r.a.)

Yā Alī Khūb Majālis Zīnat Karke

O Ali! This glorious Majlis has been beautifully decorated — today, congratulations upon this kingdom

8 Verses Audio

Pīr Sadardīn

Pre-Bandagī Verses

Translation & Commentary on the two threshold verses recited before bandagī

2 Verses Audio

Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn

Nīnd Kartā Nīnd Gaire

The wake-up call — while sleeping, the night of life passes away

11 Verses Audio

Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn

Hūn Rē Darshan Binā Bāvarī

Without Your darshan I am distraught — Beloved, come home

4 Verses Audio

Pīr Sadardīn

Hūn Balhārī Gur Āpṇē, Pīr Āpṇē

I sacrifice myself for my Pir — who has shown me true religion

16 Verses Audio

About This Project

Preserving the Ginanic Heritage

This project aims to make the sacred Ginans accessible in a beautiful, readable format — pairing the original text with English translations, scholarly commentary, and audio recitations.

Each Ginan is attributed to one of the great Ismaili Pirs who composed these devotional hymns to illuminate the path of spiritual seeking and divine love.

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Ginanic Literature · Pir Shams

Ab Teri Mahobat Laagi

Now the love for You has taken hold of me, O my Lord

This sacred ginan by Pir Shams expresses the soul's passionate yearning for divine love and the Imam's nazar. Through ten verses, the poet traverses the journey from longing to ecstatic union.

Mishaal Vallyani

Ab Teri Mahobat Laagi

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The Ten Verses

1

Neino(n)se nein milaavo mere Saheb
Ab teri mahobat laagi

✦

O my Lord, let Your eyes meet mine — now this love for You has taken hold of me.

The soul implores the Divine to turn His gaze upon it — a recurring mystical motif wherein the murid yearns for the Imam's nazar (glance of grace).

2

Kholo parda, sanmukh dekho
Has has mukh dikhlaavo mere Saheb

✦

Lift the veil, turn Your face toward me, O my Lord — reveal Your countenance to me, smiling.

The parda (veil) is the separation between the manifest and the hidden — the soul pleads for the veil of heedlessness to be lifted so the Divine face may be beheld directly.

3

Teri suratka Pir Shams piyaasa
Darshan daan dilaavo mere Saheb

✦

Pir Shams thirsts for a glimpse of Your form — O my Lord, bestow upon him the gift of Your darshan.

Here the composer identifies himself — Pir Shams — as the one consumed by longing. Darshan (sacred beholding) is the highest gift the murid can receive.

4

Hamsu(n) rees na kariye o piyaara
Hamku(n) sang chalaavo mere Saheb

✦

O Beloved, do not be displeased with me — take me along with You, O my Lord.

A plea of humility — the soul acknowledges its own unworthiness yet begs not to be left behind on the spiritual journey.

5

Juvaani divaani so kuchh na nibhegi
Jyu(n) nadiyu(n)ka nir chalaavo mere Saheb

✦

Wild youth cannot sustain anything of worth — O my Lord, let it pass as rivers flow away.

A meditation on impermanence — youth, like river water, is fleeting. Only devotion to the Divine endures. The soul urges itself to look beyond the intoxication of worldly vitality.

6

Aashak tera, tere saath chalega
Dosti dil bich laavo mere Saheb

✦

I am Your lover — I shall walk only with You. O my Lord, plant Your friendship within my heart.

The declaration of the aashiq (lover-devotee) — total allegiance to the Beloved, asking that divine friendship be rooted not merely in words but within the innermost heart.

7

Chhel chhabila suno albela
Maya tu(n) man bich laavo mere Saheb

✦

O radiant and beautiful One, O carefree Beloved, listen — place Your love deep within my mind, O my Lord.

The Beloved is addressed with attributes of radiance and divine ease (albela — carefree, untouched by worldly concern). The soul asks that divine maya — not illusory attachment but sacred love — take residence within.

8

Chanchal chaala, joban matvaala
Mahobat manme(n) laavo mere Saheb

✦

Restless is my gait, intoxicated by the bloom of youth — O my Lord, plant Your love within this mind of mine.

The soul confesses its own restlessness and the intoxication of youth, yet turns that very energy toward the Divine — asking that love for God replace the chanchal (wavering) of the worldly mind.

9

Teri ramzka piya mei(n) hu(n) divaana
Ishk akal bhulaavo mere Saheb

✦

O Beloved, I am mad with longing for Your mystic secret — let this love make me forget all worldly reason, O my Lord.

Ramz — the hidden, esoteric secret of the Divine. The soul desires such total immersion in divine love (ishk) that rational calculation (akal) dissolves entirely — a classical Sufi theme of annihilation in the Beloved.

10

Mukhda dekhiya, tab man harakhiya
Pir Shams kanthi suñaaya mere Saheb

✦

When I beheld Your face, then my heart rejoiced — O my Lord, Pir Shams has sung this from the throat of his soul.

The closing verse — the journey is complete. The darshan has been granted; the heart rejoices. Pir Shams signs the ginan with his name and declares this to be a singing of the innermost self, not merely of the lips.

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Ginanic Literature · Pir Abdul Nabi

Eji Venati Karu(n) Chhu(n)

I offer my heartfelt supplication before You, O my Master

A ginan of supplication by Pir Abdul Nabi, tracing the soul's journey from vulnerable petition through honest confession of unworthiness to the ecstatic experience of divine union and the fulfilment of hope.

Farhad Budhani

Eji Venati Karu(n) Chhu(n)

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The Ten Verses

1

Eji Venati karu(n) chhu(n) Saheb mora ne
hasine saamu(n) juvo ji
Hasi bolaavo maara hansaaji-na raaja
Sharam hamaari Ya Aly toye ji

✦

          I offer my heartfelt supplication before You, O my Master — look upon me with a smile.
          Call me with joy and warmth, O Sovereign of my joyful soul.
          My honour and dignity rest entirely in Your keeping, O Aly.
        

The opening establishes the ginan's bhav (feeling/mood) — the murid stands before the Imam in complete vulnerability, asking not for grand gifts but simply to be seen, smiled upon, called by name. The phrase "sharam hamaari" signals that the seeker's self-worth is wholly vested in the Imam's grace.

2

Eji Kar jodine em maa(n)gu(n) ho Saheb
Aash hamaari Ya Aly puro ji
Hame goonegaari bando dosaari maaro
Jivdo chhe tamaare hajoor ji

✦

With hands joined in reverence, I make this petition, O Master — fulfil my deepest hope, O Aly. I am a sinful and blameworthy servant, yet my entire life-force stands present before You.

The bodily gesture of joined hands (kar jodine) is not merely ceremonial — it is the physical enactment of spiritual surrender. The seeker does not deny his unworthiness; he presents it honestly alongside his petition. "Jivdo chhe tamaare hajoor" — the soul itself is the offering laid at the Imam's threshold.

3

Eji Vaacha paalo mora Kaayam Sami ame
Aavya chhu(n) tamaare sharañe ji
Ati aadheen thai paayaj laagu(n) to
Paap hamaara Ya Aly parharo

✦

Honour Your promise to me, O Ever-Living Lord and Master, for I have come seeking refuge in You. In the deepest humility I cling to Your feet — remove all my sins, O Aly.

"Vaacha paalo" — fulfil Your word — is a remarkable invocation. The murid reminds the Imam of the covenant (misaq) between Imam and mumin: a relationship of mutual obligation, not merely one-directional plea. "Sharañe" (refuge) echoes the concept of seeking divine shelter, while "paayaj laagu(n)" — clinging to the feet — is the classic gesture of complete surrender in the ginanic tradition.

4

Eji Paap parhari Saheb bhetiya ne
Hetesu(n) haido maaro harakhiyo
Moro man baandho aapña alakh saathe
Ami mahaaras bhirakhiya ji

✦

With sins removed, I have truly met my Master — my heart overflows with loving joy. My mind is now anchored to the Unfathomable Lord, and I have tasted the nectar of supreme Bliss.

This verse marks a turning point — a shift from petition to experience. "Alakh" (the Imperceptible/Unfathomable One) is a term shared with the Nath yogic tradition, absorbed into Ismaili ginanic vocabulary to denote the transcendent divine. "Mahaaras" (the great nectar/bliss) evokes the mystical experience of union — described as something consumed, internalized.

5

Eji Bhai re moman tame bhaave aaraadho ne
Hetesu(n) Hari-ne aaj ji
Jeñe ek manthi aapña Saheb sreviya te
Paamiya avichal raaj ji

✦

O brother believer, worship and adore the Lord today with sincere devotion and love. Those who have served their Master with undivided singleness of heart have attained the Everlasting Kingdom.

The voice shifts from personal supplication to communal instruction — "bhai re moman" (O brother believer). "Ek manthi" (from one/with singleness) denotes the undivided, undistracted devotion that the ginanic tradition consistently privileges over ritual multiplicity. "Avichal raaj" (the immovable/eternal kingdom) points toward the spiritual sovereignty that is the fruit of that devotion.

6

Eji Kaayam Sami Shah Kahek maa(n)he betha ne
Aly roope avtaar ji
Paatr sitoter Imam chaalis
Partak Shah Nizar ji

✦

The Ever-Living Lord and Master is seated in the city of Kahak, manifested in the form of Aly. He is the seventy-seventh vessel and the fortieth Imam, made fully manifest as Hazrat Shah Nizar.

The ginan's key historical-theological verse. Kahak is a town in the Qazvin region of Iran where Imam Shah Nizar resided. "Paatr sitoter" (vessel seventy-seven) and "Imam chaalis" (fortieth Imam) are numerological designations rooted in Ismaili imamate succession theology. The Imam is identified with the eternal "Aly roope" — the light of Aly perpetually manifest.

7

Eji Shah Nizar jene bhetiya teni
Kaaya avichal thaay ji
Paap jaave sarve bhav taña pachhe
Dehi teni nirmal thaay ji

✦

Those who have attained the presence of Hazrat Shah Nizar — their physical form becomes immortal and steadfast. The sins accumulated across all their existences are dissolved, and their body becomes wholly purified.

"Kaaya avichal" (the body becoming immovable/immortal) reflects the ginanic doctrine that didar — the direct vision of the living Imam — is itself transformative at a physical level, not merely spiritual. "Sarve bhav taña paap" (sins of all existences/lifetimes) acknowledges the weight of karma across multiple cycles of birth, all of which are annulled through this singular encounter.

8

Eji Pop parmal dehi chhe nirmal
Sahejethi satpanth dhyaavo ji
Hira-ne vira tame parkhine lejo nahika
Fokat khaaysho fera ji

✦

The body, purified, becomes fragrant like a flower in bloom — so contemplate the True Path with effortless ease. But O brother, examine the diamond carefully before you acquire it, lest you waste your existence in futile cycles of return.

The "hira" (diamond) is the Imam — the living Guide — who must be recognized and tested before commitment, because mistaking a false guide for the true one condemns the seeker to "fera" (cycles of return, rebirth). "Sahejethi" (with ease, naturally, effortlessly) is a term from Sahajiya traditions, pointing to the non-strained, organically arising devotion that characterizes the mature mumin.

9

Eji Aash puri Sahebe uñiya-chaarini
Shah Nizar Shahni vaar ji
Umed dharta aashaj pahonchi ne
Bhetiya tantav didaar ji

✦

The Master has fulfilled the hopes of even His imperfect and stumbling devotee — for this is the age of Hazrat Shah Nizar. Through the sustaining of hope alone, all expectations have been met, and the true Vision (didar) of Reality has been experienced.

"Uñiya-chaarini" is a poignant self-description — literally one who walks crookedly or imperfectly — the flawed, stumbling seeker who is nonetheless met by the Imam's grace. "Tantav didaar" (the realized vision/didar) marks the consummation of the spiritual journey that began in Verse 1 with a simple request to be looked upon with a smile. The arc is complete: from longing for a glance to receiving full vision.

10

Eji Aap pirsaade Sahebe ardaas saambhli amne
Kidha te jooga joogna daas ji
Bhañe Pir Abdul Nabi haathidu(n) dejo aasha
Kaljoog vikhdo so(n)saar ji

✦

By His own grace, the Master has heard my supplication and accepted me as His servant across age upon age. Pir Abdul Nabi says: I beg You, O Lord, hold my hand and give me hope — for the world of Kaliyuga is filled with venom and deceit.

The closing bhanit (signature verse) identifies the composer as Pir Abdul Nabi. The final plea — "haathidu(n) dejo" (give me Your hand) — returns to the ginan's governing image of physical contact with the divine: feet clung to in Verse 3, hands joined in Verse 2, and now the Imam's hand reaching down to hold the seeker's. "Kaljoog vikhdo so(n)saar" (the poisonous world of Kaliyuga) situates this ginan within the classical Indic eschatological framework — the present age as the darkest era, making the Imam's guidance existentially necessary.

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Ginanic Literature · Bibi Imam Begum

Eji Darshan Diyo Mora Naath

Grant me Your vision, O my Master — I am Your maiden

A ginan of longing and devotion by Bibi Imam Begum — one of the rare female voices in the ginanic corpus. Through fourteen verses the daasi (maiden) moves from personal longing through divine immanence, historical testimony, eschatological vision, and final supplication.

Yasmin Rayani

Eji Darshan Diyo Mora Naath

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The Fourteen Verses

1

Eji Darshan diyo mora naath daasi chhu(n) teri
Daasi teri Shaami tere dar ubhi
Araj kare chhe jodi haath

✦

Grant me Your vision, O my Master — I am Your maiden. Your maiden stands at Your door, O Lord, petitioning You with hands joined together.

The opening image is one of threshold-standing — the daasi does not presume entry but positions herself at the door, which in ginanic devotional language carries immense weight. "Darshan" (the auspicious vision of the divine) is not merely sight but transformative encounter. The joining of hands (jodi haath) recurs throughout the ginan as its bodily leitmotif — and notably reappears in the final verse, creating a structural embrace around the entire composition.

2

Eji Haath jodine Shaami araj karu(n) chhu(n)
Hardam rahejo more saath

✦

With hands joined, O Lord, I make my supplication: remain with me at every breath, my Master.

"Hardam" (at every breath, always, every moment) is a word of extraordinary density in the ginanic tradition. It does not ask for divine presence in moments of crisis or ritual — it asks for an unbroken, breath-by-breath companionship. This is the intimacy of sohbet (constant companionship), not the formality of occasional worship.

3

Eji Hardam Shaami maara reeda maa(n)he rahejo
Alga ma thaajo ek saas

✦

Be present always, O Lord, within my very heart. Do not become distant from me even for a single breath.

"Reeda" (the innermost heart, the seat of the soul) deepens the request of Verse 2 — not merely with me, but within me, in the innermost chamber of being. "Alga ma thaajo ek saas" — do not separate yourself even for one breath — is among the most poignant lines in this ginan. The unit of measurement is a single breath: the smallest possible unit of lived time.

4

Eji Shaami alga nathi toone alga kari nav jaañu(n)
Aa ghato-ghat bolo chho mora naath

✦

You are not distant, O Lord — I do not perceive You as being far. I feel You speaking to me in every fibre, in every vessel of my being.

This verse performs a remarkable reversal: having just pleaded for the Lord not to be distant, the daasi immediately affirms that He is, in truth, never distant at all. "Ghato-ghat" (in every vessel, every atom, every particle of existence) is a term with deep Sufi and Indic resonances — the divine as the inner content of every apparently separate container of being. This is the ginan's theological heart.

5

Eji Shaami tere antko ant, tu(n)hij jaañe
Shaami maara mota chho samarath

✦

Only You, O Lord, know the measure of Your own boundlessness. You are my Great Protector, my All-Powerful Master.

"Antko ant" (the limit of the limitless, the end of the endless) is a paradoxical construction: the daasi acknowledges that the Imam's nature exceeds all cognitive grasp — only He can know the extent of His own being. "Mota samarath" (the Great, the All-Capable) is not merely a honorific but a statement of refuge — the seeker's smallness finding safety precisely in the enormity of the divine.

6

Eji Jooga joog Shaami maara bhagat ugaariya
Utam sada chhe Satpanth

✦

Age after age, my Master has redeemed His devoted ones. The path of Satpanth is eternally and supremely radiant.

The ginan now pivots from intimate personal devotion to historical testimony — grounding subjective longing in the objective record of divine faithfulness across time. "Jooga joog" (age after age) establishes a pattern: the Imam's salvific action is not exceptional but habitual, not occasional but structural to the nature of reality. "Satpanth" (the True Path) is declared "utam sada" — always supreme.

7

Eji Dhruv Pahelaaj Rukh-mugat raaja
Bhagat kamla dhan saath

✦

Dhruv, Prahlad, and Rukhmugat the king — all saved together through devout Kamladhan.

Three figures from the Puranic-ginanic tradition are invoked as witnesses to divine redemption. Dhruv is the child devotee whose unwavering meditation elevated him to immortal stellar status. Prahlad (Pahelaaj) is the son of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, whose devotion survived every persecution. Kamladhan is the bhagat whose meritorious faith extended salvation to those around her — individual devotion carrying communal redemptive weight.

8

Eji Harischandr Taara Raañi ku(n)var Rohidaas-ji
Vachne vechaaña haathoi haath

✦

Harischandra, Queen Tara, and Prince Rohidas — true to their vow, they were sold from hand to hand.

Harischandra is the paradigmatic figure of absolute truthfulness — a king who, to honour a vow, was reduced to slavery. Taara Raañi is his queen, who endured equal humiliation without breaking faith. Rohidas is their son. "Vachne vechaaña haathoi haath" — sold hand to hand for the sake of their vow — is a devastating image of faith tested to its absolute limit. These figures testify that the Satpanth is a path of costly, total commitment.

9

Eji Paanch Paandav Maata Koonta-ji kahiye-ji
Sati Draupadi chhe saath

✦

The five Pandavas and Mother Kunti, we should say, together with the righteous and steadfast Draupadi.

The Mahabharata's central figures are absorbed into the ginanic pantheon of divine protection. Kunti and Draupadi are foregrounded alongside the five brothers — a conscious centring of female faithfulness. "Sati Draupadi" is particularly significant given the ginan's own female authorship: Bibi Imam Begum places herself in a lineage of women whose devotion constituted the moral backbone of their era.

10

Eji Pir Sadardin bujarag kahiye
Baar karodna kanth

✦

Pir Sadardin the venerable — let us acknowledge him — the Lord and liberator of twelve crores of souls.

Pir Sadardin (14th–15th century) is one of the most consequential figures in Ismaili ginanic history, credited with initiating twelve crore (120 million) souls into the Satpanth. "Bujarag" (the elder, the venerable one) is a term of deep reverence. His appearance connects the intimate personal devotion of the early verses to the vast spiritual heritage within which the daasi stands.

11

Eji Añat karod Pir Kabirdin saathe ji
Tenu(n) var didhu(n) Niklanki naath

✦

Pir Hasan Kabirdin, saviour of infinite crores — to whom the tenth manifestation, Naklanki, gave His own hand.

Pir Hasan Kabirdin was the son of Pir Sadardin and among the most prolific composers in the ginanic tradition. "Añat karod" (innumerable crores) — his salvific reach is described as literally uncountable. "Niklanki naath" (the Spotless Lord, the tenth avatara) — in the ginanic synthesis of Vaishnava and Ismaili cosmology, the Imam is identified with the Kalki avatara. "Var didhun" (gave His hand) echoes the daasi's own plea, creating thematic symmetry.

12

Eji Nar Naklanki jaare navsha thaashe
Thaayshe te visav ku(n)vaarino kanth

✦

When the male manifestation Naklanki comes as the bridegroom, He will become the consort of the maiden earth.

The ginan's great eschatological vision. "Nar Naklanki" arriving as navsha (bridegroom) and taking the "visav ku(n)vaari" (the maiden earth) as his bride — this is the consummation of cosmic history as a divine wedding. The daasi persona now reveals its deepest layer: every individual "maiden" who has maintained devotion is a microcosm of the maiden earth awaiting the Bridegroom. Personal longing and cosmic eschatology are the same story at different scales.

13

Eji Te din Shaami moone paas tedaavjo
Pakdi lejo maaro haath

✦

On that day, O Lord, summon me to Your side. Be certain, O Lord, to take my hand firmly in Yours.

"Te din" (that day) is the eschatological horizon toward which all the preceding historical testimony has been building. The daasi's request is perfectly calibrated: not to be spared or rewarded, but simply to be called — "tedaavjo" (summon me) — and to have her hand held. The same joined-hands image from Verse 1 is here inverted: in Verse 1 she holds her own hands together in supplication; in Verse 13, she asks Him to hold her hand. The movement from self-enclosure to divine embrace is the ginan's spiritual trajectory made visible.

14

Eji Kahet Imam Begam soono mora Shaamiji
Etlu(n) maa(n)gu(n) chhu(n) mora naath

✦

Says Bibi Imam Begum: Listen, O my Lord — this much, and only this much, do I ask of You, my Master.

The closing bhanit (composer's signature verse) is a masterpiece of restraint. After cosmological vision, historical testimony spanning multiple yugas, and the grand eschatological wedding of Verse 12 — the entire ginan is gathered into "etlu(n) maa(n)gu(n) chhu(n)" — this much is all I ask. Bibi Imam Begum does not ask for liberation, kingdom, or cosmic standing — she asks to be summoned and held. It is, in its simplicity, one of the most profound closing lines in the ginanic canon.

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Ginanic Literature · Pir Shams

Satgur Aavya Kaa(n)i Aapñe Dwaar

The True Guide has come to our very door

A ginan by Pir Shams built around a sustained allegory — the broken pearl necklace — exploring the soul's scattered relationship to divine knowledge, the danger of faithless company, and the indestructible design woven into the fabric of the believer's identity.

Shama Judah

Satgur Aavya Kaa(n)i Aapñe Dwaar

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The Nine Verses

1

Eji Satgur aavya kaa(n)i aapñe dwaar
Re aapñe kem re karine paaye laagiye, ho ji

✦

The True Guide has come to our very door — so how, then, shall we fall at His feet? How are we to approach Him?

The Satgur (True Guide, the living Imam) has arrived — not at a distant shrine, not in a past era, but "aapñe dwaar" (at our very door). The proximity is startling. And yet the immediate response is not joy but perplexity: "kem re karine paaye laagiye" — how shall we fall at His feet? The question is genuine. The community stands before the Imam but finds itself unprepared — and the pearl necklace allegory that follows explains why.

2

Eji Satiye todyo motida-no haar
Re tena moti veraaña chandan chokmaa(n), ho ji

✦

A virtuous woman broke the necklace of pearls — and its pearls scattered across the sandalwood courtyard.

The allegory is introduced with deliberate ambiguity. "Satiye" (a virtuous/faithful woman) breaks the pearl necklace — and the pearls scatter across "chandan chok" (the sandalwood courtyard, a pure and fragrant space). The sati may represent the soul that loses its coherent connection to divine knowledge, or the community whose unity has been broken by circumstance. "Chandan chok" is not a degraded space — sandalwood is sacred — suggesting the pearls were lost not in contamination but in dispersal: the knowledge is not corrupted, merely scattered.

3

Eji Moti viñanta kaa(n)y laagi chhe vaar
Re aapñe em re karine paaye laagiye, ho ji

✦

It has taken so long to gather those scattered pearls — and this is why we now hesitate at how to fall at His feet.

This verse directly connects the allegory to the opening question. The delay in "viñanta" (gathering, picking up one by one) the scattered pearls explains the community's present unworthiness before the Satgur. Time has been consumed in recovery — the vaar (delay) is both literal and spiritual. The refrain of Verse 1 returns: this is why we do not know how to approach Him — we are still gathering what was lost.

4

Eji Jaajo jaajo samoondariya-ni laher
Re maaraa(n) man-na maanelaa(n) moti laavjo, ho ji

✦

Go, go — ride the ocean's waves! Bring back the pearls that my heart truly desires.

The command "jaajo jaajo" (go, go — an urgent doubling) sends an envoy out across the ocean in search of the desired pearls. "Man-na maanelaa(n) moti" (pearls that satisfy the heart's deepest longing) is a crucial qualification: not any pearls will do. The soul knows what it is looking for — there is a specificity to genuine spiritual seeking that distinguishes it from mere acquisition. The ocean (samoondar) is the world in its vastness and danger.

5

Eji Moti laaviya kaa(n)i laakhoi laakh
Re maara man-na maanela moti nahi malya, ho ji

✦

Pearls were brought back — hundreds of thousands of them — yet the pearls my heart truly desires were not among them.

The ginan's pivotal moment of recognition. The search was not unsuccessful in quantity: "laakhoi laakh" (hundreds of thousands) were retrieved. Yet none are the right pearls. This verse encodes a profound critique of undiscriminating spiritual accumulation: one can gather vast stores of knowledge, practice, and ritual, and still not have found the particular pearl that the heart recognizes as its own. Pir Shams implicitly distinguishes between external religiosity and inner recognition — the hallmark of Ismaili ta'wil (esoteric interpretation).

6

Eji Ma kar ma kar kaa(n)i nugra-no sang
Re te to nugre jaaliyo taaro chhedlo, ho ji

✦

Do not keep — do not keep — the company of the ungrateful, the faithless. For it is the ingrate who burned the very end of your thread.

The allegory reveals its moral dimension. "Nugra" (the ungrateful one, the faithless) is identified as the agent of destruction — it was the ingrate who "jaaliyo taaro chhedlo" (burned the end of your thread). The burning of the thread-end caused the necklace to come apart and the pearls to scatter. Bad spiritual company — those who do not value the covenant, the gift of the Imam's guidance — is identified as the source of the community's dispersal. "Ma kar ma kar" (do not, do not) is an urgent, emphatic warning.

7

Eji Vaali vaali hirliya-ni gaanth
Re te to trute pañ re chhoote nahi, ho ji

✦

Again and again the knots of the silk thread are tied — they may break, yet they do not come undone.

One of the ginan's most theologically rich images. The hirliyo (silk thread) has been knotted "vaali vaali" (again and again) — and these knots "trute pañ re chhoote nahi" — may snap, but do not truly come loose. The distinction between breaking under tension and coming fully undone is precise: the misaq, the covenant of the soul with the Imam, may be strained to the point of apparent rupture — but it cannot be annulled. The soul's fundamental binding to the divine remains, even through the most severe tests.

8

Eji Paadi paadi patole bhaat
Re te to faate pañ re fite nahi, ho ji

✦

Pattern upon pattern is woven into the silk fabric — it may tear, yet the design does not fade.

The image shifts from thread to patola (the celebrated double-ikat silk fabric of Gujarat). "Paadi paadi" (pattern upon pattern) describes the design embedded in the fabric's very structure — not printed on its surface but woven into it. "Faate pañ re fite nahi" — it may tear, but the design does not fade. The soul's spiritual identity — its deen, its essential nature as a mumin — may be torn by circumstance, but the design that the Imam has woven into it cannot be erased. The patola weaving tradition of Patan, Gujarat, where the pattern is set before weaving begins and cannot be altered thereafter, is something Pir Shams's Gujarati audience would have understood immediately.

9

Eji Bolya bolya Pir Shamash Chot
Re maara momanbhai tame amraapuri paamsho, ho ji

✦

Pir Shams of Chot has spoken — thus he declares: O my brother believers, you shall attain the Immortal Realm.

The closing bhanit identifies the composer as "Pir Shamash Chot" — Pir Shams associated with Chot (a location in Sindh). "Bolya bolya" (he has spoken, spoken thus) carries prophetic authority. The declaration is one of unambiguous promise: "amraapuri paamsho" — you shall attain Amraapuri (the Immortal City, the realm of liberation). After eight verses of scattered pearls, burned threads, and ingrate company — the ginan ends not in anxiety but in certainty. The silk thread may snap; the fabric may tear; the pearls may be lost for a long time — but the destination of the sincere mumin is assured.

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Ginanic Literature · Bibi Imam Begum

Satgur Miliyā Mūne Āj

Today I have found my True Guide — I have attained bliss

A ginan of arrival and fulfilment by Bibi Imam Begum — the complement to her viraha ginan Darshan Diyo. Where that ginan ached toward the moment of didar, this one opens with that encounter accomplished. Through seven verses the dāsī moves from the dissolution of sorrow through the granting of vision to the recognition of divine unity pervading all existence.

Ehteshaam Alee

Satgur Miliyā Mūne Āj

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Ejī satgur miliyā mūne āj, ānand hūn pāmī.

Today I have found my True Guide — I am filled with bliss.

This opening refrain functions as the ginan's tonic note — the declaration of accomplished union against which every subsequent verse resonates. "Mūne āj" (to me, today) anchors the mystical event in the present moment rather than in eschatological futurity. "Ānand hūn pāmī" (I have attained bliss) — ānand in the Indic devotional tradition is not mere happiness but the supreme joy that arises from union with the divine. The refrain is sung before the first verse and returns as the structural and emotional anchor after each one — ensuring that no matter how the verses develop theologically, the listener is continuously returned to this single, luminous fact: the True Guide has been found, and bliss has been attained.

The Seven Verses

1

Ejī satgur miliyā tāre dukhaja taḷiyājī,
Sarve sāriyā dāsīnā kāj, ānand...

✦

When I found my True Guide, all my sorrows dissolved entirely. My Lord fulfilled all the affairs of His maiden.

"Dukhaja taḷiyā" (sorrows sank away, dissolved to the bottom) — not that sorrow was fought or overcome, but that it simply sank, as sediment settles in still water once turbulence ceases. The dāsī persona appears here as in her earlier ginan — Bibi Imam Begum consistently identifies herself as the Lord's maiden-servant, and "dāsīnā kāj" (the affairs of the maiden) suggests that the Imam's attention extends to the particular concerns of each devotee.

2

Ejī kāj dāsīnā sarve sāriyājī,
Darshan dīyā mahārāj, ānand...

✦

He fulfilled all the needs of His maiden, and the Sovereign King bestowed upon her His Didar.

The hinge of the entire ginan — the fulfilment of needs and the granting of didar are presented as a single continuous act. "Kāj sārvā" (fulfilling needs) and "darshan dīvā" (granting the vision) are not sequenced as cause and effect but presented together, suggesting that didar is itself the supreme fulfilment of every need. "Mahārāj" (the Sovereign King) carries both temporal and spiritual authority simultaneously.

3

Ejī darshan dekhiyā man santokhiyājī,
Mahāpad pāmī chhūn rāj, ānand...

✦

Having beheld the Didar, my heart became fully satisfied — I have attained the kingdom of an exalted realm.

"Man santokhiyā" (the heart became santokh — satisfied, at peace) — santokh in the Indic devotional tradition is not mere happiness but a deep, settled sufficiency in which nothing further is lacking. "Mahāpad pāmī" (I have attained the great station) — the seeker does not merely see the Imam; she is elevated by the encounter into a new ontological register. The spiritual sovereignty attained through didar is described in the language of rulership.

4

Ejī mahāpad kerī bhāī vāt chhe nyārījī,
Koi na jāṇe e kāj, ānand...

✦

The nature of that great station is wondrous and altogether strange — no one fully knows its reality.

"Nyārī" (strange, wondrous, singular) signals that the mahāpad belongs to a register of experience that resists description. "Koi na jāṇe e kāj" (no one fully knows its reality) is not despair but theological precision: ordinary cognition cannot encompass what didar opens. The structural movement from Verse 3 to Verse 4 — attained, yet unknowable — is one of the most remarkable two-verse sequences in Bibi Imam Begum's corpus.

5

Ejī jo jāṇe so nar navkhaṇḍ māṇe jī,
Ghaṭo ghaṭ dekhe mahārāj, ānand...

✦

He who knows its reality conquers all nine regions of the world — and in every heart he beholds that Sovereign King.

What "no one knows" in the ordinary sense is nonetheless knowable through the Imam's grace. Knowledge here is not intellectual but experiential — marifat (gnosis) rather than ilm (information). "Navkhaṇḍ māṇe" (commands the nine regions) — the nine divisions of the world represent cosmological totality. "Ghaṭo ghaṭ dekhe mahārāj" — in every vessel, every particle of existence, he sees the Sovereign King. The didar transforms all subsequent perception permanently.

6

Ejī ghaṭo ghaṭ dekhe tāre ek karī lekhe jī,
Nar Alī Shāh nū rāj, ānand...

✦

When he sees in every heart, he reckons all as one — the kingdom of Lord Ali Shah pervades everywhere.

"Ek karī lekhe" (reckons all as one) — the ghaṭo ghaṭ vision resolves into tawhid (divine unity): the multiplicity of forms is simultaneously recognised as one. This is the classical mystical movement from kathrat (multiplicity) to wahdat (unity). "Nar Alī Shāh nū rāj" — the Imam is identified with the eternal Alī form, and his kingdom is not a bounded territory but the recognition of unity itself, present everywhere for the one whose vision has been transformed.

7

Ejī kahet Imām Begam suṇo mora bhāīijī,
Alī Nabī chhe sirtāj, ānand...

✦

Sayyida Imam Begum says: Listen, O my brothers — Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Nabi Muhammad are our Lords and Crown.

The closing bhanit delivers a theological declaration of remarkable concision. "Alī Nabī chhe sirtāj" (Ali and Nabi are the crown) — sirtāj (crown of the head, the supreme pinnacle) positions both Ali and the Prophet Muhammad as the twin foundations of the devotee's spiritual universe. In Ismaili ta'wil, Ali represents the bātin (esoteric) dimension while the Prophet represents the zahir (exoteric) dimension. Together they constitute the complete structure of divine guidance. Bibi Imam Begum ends not with herself but with this foundational theological affirmation.

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Ginanic Literature · Sayyad Muhammad Shah

Dhanre Ghaḍī Jo Din Sant Padharya

Blessed is the moment, blessed is the day when the Saint arrived

A ginan of joyful arrival by Sayyad Muhammad Shah, celebrating the coming of the Saint through a striking range of theological registers: personal devotion, cosmological description, soteriological declaration, and grateful self-identification — all held together by the refrain's sustained note of blessing.

Ginan in Chorus

Dhanre Ghaḍī Jo Din Sant Padharya

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Jirevālā dhanre ghaḍī jo din sant padharya

O my dear! Blessed is the moment, blessed is the day when the Saint arrived.

"Jirevālā" (O my dear, O beloved one) is an intimate form of address pulling the congregation into the ginan's emotional world immediately. "Dhanre ghaḍī" (blessed is the moment) — in the Indic tradition, ghaḍī (a unit of time) can be either auspicious or inauspicious; the Saint's arrival consecrates this particular moment as dhan (blessed, worthy, precious). The refrain returns after each verse as a continuous reminder: whatever theological heights the verses reach, the foundational fact remains this simple, luminous declaration of blessed arrival.

The Six Verses

1

Jirevālā dhanre ghaḍī jo din sant padharya,
Alī men tā dinkī balihaṛī,
Re vālā ghar āṅgan mōrī pavitar kidhī,
Moro jīv janam sadhārī,
Re vālā dhanre ghaḍī jo din sant padharya.

✦

Blessed is the moment when the Lord arrived — may I be sacrificed upon that day. O my beloved, He has purified my house and threshold, and made my soul successful in this life.

"Balihaṛī" (the act of offering oneself as sacrifice, total self-surrender) is a devotional gesture of the highest order: not merely gratitude but the willingness to be consumed by the auspiciousness of the moment. "Ghar āṅgan mōrī pavitar kidhī" (He purified my house and courtyard) — the Saint's arrival is transformative at the level of physical space: the domestic threshold becomes sacred ground. "Jīv janam sadhārī" — the entire trajectory of the seeker's life is retroactively redeemed by this single arrival.

2

Jirevālā jān ajān bhae kīrtārath,
Sādh sabhā sukhārī,
Re vālā pāras parse lohā rang palaṭe,
To jagmag jot ujārī, re vālā dhanre...

✦

That Lord is aware yet pretends to be unaware; joining the gathering of the Lord brings happiness. By the touch of the touchstone, the nature of iron changes and it starts to shine with light.

"Jān ajān" (He who knows yet appears not to know) — the Imam's apparent unknowing is not ignorance but divine discretion, a concealment of omniscience that preserves the seeker's freedom. "Sādh sabhā sukhārī" — the jamāt (congregation) itself is a vehicle of grace. The pāras (philosopher's stone) metaphor is among the most celebrated in the ginanic and Sufi traditions: as the touchstone transforms base iron into gold by contact, so the Saint transforms the seeker's nature by proximity alone. "Jagmag jot ujārī" — transformation expressed as the kindling of light within what was previously dark matter.

3

Jirevālā adham udhāraṇ sant sadhāraṇ,
Par ātmū upgārī,
Re vālā vidit ved gāe guṇ gītī,
To akaḷ purush avtārī, re vālā dhanre...

✦

That Lord is the saviour of the fallen and helper of others' souls. The Veda bears testimony and the Geeta praises Him — He is the manifestation of the Incomprehensible Being.

"Adham udhāraṇ" (the redeemer of the lowest) — the divine's salvific reach extends specifically to those whom society has deemed unredeemable. "Vidit ved gāe guṇ gītī" — both the Vedic and Gita traditions are called as witnesses to the Imam's identity, positioning the Satpanth as their fulfilment rather than replacement. "Akaḷ purush avtārī" (the manifestation of the Being beyond time and comprehension) — the Saint is the living avatara of the ultimate divine reality.

4

Jirevālā sant charaṇ raj surinar ich he,
Dharam rāhā sardārī,
Re vālā nāv rupe jug tāraṇ karaṇā,
Bhav bhae bhanjanhārī, re vālā dhanre...

✦

Take the dust of that Lord's feet, for He is the good Lord and leader of the path of righteousness. In the guise of a captain He saves this world, and He is the remover of fear from this life.

"Sant charaṇ raj" (the dust of the Saint's feet) — one of the most sacred images in the devotional traditions of the subcontinent: to receive the dust of the saint's feet is to receive his grace in its most concentrated form. "Nāv rupe jug tāraṇ karaṇā" (in the form of a boat, He carries across the age) — the Imam as vehicle of salvation across the ocean of saṃsāra. "Bhav bhae bhanjanhārī" (destroyer of the fear of worldly existence) — liberation described as the removal of fear, an eminently human formulation of what salvation means.

5

Jirevālā or upāe nahīn hae tāranko,
Ye hae tārankī bārī,
Re vālā choṭ na lāge us santankuṇ,
So jamdā rahiyā jakh mārī, re vālā dhanre...

✦

There is no other way for liberation — this is the door to salvation. That Saint is never troubled, and the angel of death remains helpless.

"Or upāe nahīn hae tāranko" (there is no other means of liberation) — the ginan's most doctrinal statement, delivered with quiet confidence. "Ye hae tārankī bārī" (this is the door of salvation) — the Saint is positioned not merely as a guide but as the threshold itself. "Choṭ na lāge us santankuṇ" (no blow can touch that Saint) — the Imam's inviolability is declared. "Jamdā rahiyā jakh mārī" (the angel of death remains helpless, biting its hands in frustration) — even Yama, the lord of death, is rendered powerless before the Saint.

6

Jirevālā Alī guṇ sant sadā sir more,
To jugājug sharaṇ sadhārī,
Re vālā jāgyā bhāg Gur Sohodev bheṭiyā,
To Sayyad Mahmad Shāh qarārī,
Re vālā dhanare...

✦

The blessings of Mawla Ali are always upon me, and since ages I am successful due to His protection. By meeting Pir Sadardin, I became fortunate. Sayyid Muhammad Shah affirms this.

The closing bhanit is among the most personal and theologically layered in the ginanic corpus. "Alī guṇ sant sadā sir more" (the grace of Ali is always upon my head) — the composer places himself under the perpetual shelter of the Alid light. "Jugājug sharaṇ sadhārī" (age after age He has provided refuge). "Jāgyā bhāg Gur Sohodev bheṭiyā" (my fortune awakened upon meeting Pir Sadardin) — "Gur Sohodev" is a reverential epithet for Pir Sadardin. "Sayyad Mahmad Shāh qarārī" (Sayyid Muhammad Shah confirms this) — qarārī (one who confirms) is both a signature and a testimonial: the composer does not merely compose but witnesses.

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Ginanic Literature · Pīr Sadardīn

Tamkū Sadhāre So Din

Many days have passed since You departed, O my beloved

A viraha ginan by Pīr Sadardīn — an escalating anatomy of longing through images of broken promise, abandoned child, separated calf, and fish out of water, culminating in the eschatological promise that the Beloved shall surely return.

Yasmin Rayani

Tamkū Sadhāre So Din

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Ejī tamkū sadhāre so din bahot ja huā re piyā

O my beloved! Many days have passed since You departed.

The refrain is the ginan's emotional anchor — returned to after every verse, ensuring the listener never loses sight of the governing condition: the Beloved has departed, time has stretched unbearably, and the soul waits. "Tamkū sadhāre" (since You departed) fixes a precise moment of loss. The refrain does not resolve this loss — it inhabits it, verse after verse, until the eschatological promise of the final verse reframes the entire waiting as purposeful.

The Eleven Verses

1

Ejī tamkū sadhāre so din bahot ja huā re piyā,
Me dekhūn tumārī vātre,
Maherbān mere, sāheb mere, dayāvant mere,
Yā shāh tuj binā so din jāvenge kaesā jī.

✦

Many days have passed since You departed. I watch in wait for Your coming. O my merciful one, my Master, my compassionate one — how will these days pass without You?

"Me dekhūn tumārī vātre" (I watch and wait for news of Your coming) is the posture of one standing at the threshold scanning the horizon — not passive despair but active waiting. The triple address — maherbān mere, sāheb mere, dayāvant mere — deepens the central paradox: a Lord this merciful has nonetheless left. Each epithet makes the absence more incomprehensible.

2

Ejī vāchā daine shāh moro gām sadhāryā piyā,
So dīdhī vāchā prīte pāḷore, maherbān...

✦

Giving me Your promise You went off to Your city — fulfil Your given promise with love.

"Vāchā" (promise, covenant) is theologically loaded, pointing to the misaq — the primordial covenant between the Imam and the soul. The Beloved's departure is not abandonment but postponement. "Prīte pāḷo" (honour it with love) — the fulfilment of a promise is asked for not as legal obligation but as an act of love. The covenant and affection are rendered inseparable.

3

Ejī esā me jāntī to chaḷne na detī piyā,
Me bhī chaḷtī tumāre sāthre, maherbān...

✦

Had I known this, I would not have let You go — I too would have gone with You.

A flash of retrospective longing — the "if only I had known" of grief. The speaker does not reproach the Beloved but herself, for having permitted the separation. "Me bhī chaḷtī tumāre sāth" (I too would have walked alongside You) carries a sweet intimacy: not "I would have stopped You" but "I would have followed." This is the posture of the sāthī (companion on the path).

4

Ejī jiskāre māī bāp gām sadhāryā piyā,
Uskā farjand kyūn kar rahevere, maherbān...

✦

How can the child remain alone whose parents have left their city?

The register shifts from romantic viraha to familial desolation. "Māī bāp" (mother and father) introduces the Imam not merely as Beloved but as parent — the primary relationship of dependence and belonging. "Farjand" (child) positions the mumin as spiritually orphaned. The rhetorical question implies that separation is not merely painful but unnatural, a violation of the proper order of belonging.

5

Ejī uskāre farjand iyūn pukāre re piyā,
Jiyūn thān vichhūtā vāchhre, maherbān...

✦

Their child cries out like a calf separated from its mother's udder.

The image is visceral and unforgettable. The calf (vāchhro) separated from the udder (thān) is an image of interrupted nourishment — not merely affective loss but the cutting off of the source of life itself. Pīr Sadardīn strips viraha of poetic elegance and renders it as a bodily, primal need. The mumin without the living Imam is not merely sad — he is starving.

6

Ejī jal vichhūtī jem māchchhaladīre piyā,
So jīvengī ketlik vār re, maherbān...

✦

A fish separated from water — how long can it survive?

Where the calf image speaks of interrupted nourishment, the fish image speaks of medium — the very element in which one exists. The Imam is not merely the source of sustenance; He is the substance in which the mumin lives and breathes. "Ketlik vār" (how long) — the question is urgent, existential. The fish out of water is among the most celebrated images in both Sufi and Bhakti traditions.

7

Ejī panīkī bhirmandal phūlonkī chhāyāre piyā,
So varaṇā varaṇ piṇḍ nipāyāre, maherbān...

✦

In the eddies of water and the shadows of the flowers, forms of so many kinds have been created.

A sudden, extraordinary tonal shift — from anguish into contemplative wonder. The Beloved's creative abundance — whirlpools, flower-shadows, infinite forms — is held up as evidence of His immanence in the world He has not visibly returned to. "Varaṇā varaṇ piṇḍ" (forms of every variety and colour) — the world is saturated with the Beloved's creative signature. The viraha is momentarily suspended in awe: if the world is this multiform, the Beloved is not entirely absent.

8

Ejī haideke bhītar agan jaltī re piyā,
So tūhī bujāvanhār re, maherbān...

✦

A fire is burning in my heart — which only You can extinguish.

"Agan" (fire) is the classical image of viraha's inner burning. But Pīr Sadardīn's inflection is in "tūhī bujāvanhār" — only You are its quencher. The fire is not presented as pathology to be overcome through discipline; it is directed back toward the Imam as its sole resolution. The ginan does not counsel the mumin to manage his longing — it insists that the longing has only one answer.

9

Ejī dukh ne sukh doe hazrat likhiyāre piyā,
So dosh kisikū na dījere, maherbān...

✦

Suffering and happiness are both inscribed in one's destiny by the Lord — so do not blame anyone for these.

"Hazrat likhiyā" (the Lord has written/ordained) is not fatalism but tawakkul (trust in divine dispensation) — the recognition that even this separation is held within divine intention. "Dosh kisikū na dīje" (do not attribute fault to anyone) is directed both outward and implicitly inward — do not even blame the Beloved for His departure. The viraha is to be inhabited, not redirected into grievance.

10

Ejī charaṇ bheṭādo yā shāh najar milāvo piyā,
Haiḍāmānhe mahe ja āṇore, maherbān...

✦

Let me touch Your feet and let our glances meet — have mercy in Your heart for me.

"Charaṇ bheṭādo" (allow me to touch Your feet) — the physical gesture of complete submission. "Najar milāvo" (meet my gaze) — the nazar of the Imam is itself a vehicle of grace in Ismaili theology. "Haiḍāmānhe mahe ja āṇore" (bring Your sovereign presence into my heart) — the ultimate petition: not merely the Imam's physical return but His indwelling. The external viraha and the internal longing resolve in the same movement.

11

Ejī eso ginān Pīr bhaṇāve Sadardīn,
Sāmī rājo jampūdipmānhe āvengo nirvānre,
maherbān...

✦

Pīr Sadardīn says this ginān: My Lord King shall surely come to the Indian subcontinent.

The closing bhanit delivers the ginan's eschatological promise. "Jampūdip" (Jambudvipa, the ancient Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent) grounds the cosmic promise in specific geography. "Āvengo nirvānre" (shall surely come in liberation and fulfilment) — the entire structure of the ginan — the burning, the waiting, the separated calf, the fish out of water — is retroactively reframed as preparation for this arrival. The viraha was never merely suffering; it was the necessary interior condition of one who is genuinely waiting. The fire of longing is what keeps the lamp lit.

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Ginanic Literature · Pīr Sadardīn (r.a.)

Pre-Bandagī Verses

Translation & Commentary

The two verses recited before bandagī — the Ismaili practice of meditative devotion — occupy a uniquely liturgical position. They are not merely poetic or doctrinal but threshold texts, whose function is to prepare the murīd for the interior silence that follows. Both are drawn from the ginanic corpus of Pīr Sadardīn (r.a.), though from two distinct ginans.

Ismaili Ginans

Pre-Bandagī Verses

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Verse One

1

From: Ejī Shāh Islāmshāh Amāne Maliyā — Pīr Sadardīn (r.a.)

Ejī Pīr Sadardīn boliyā, tame sāheb jānnjo hāzur,
amar padavī to mile jo antar bhetiye nūr.

✦

As Pīr Sadardīn has stated — know the Lord to be present. The eternal abode can only be attained if the interior, the heart, is illuminated by the Noor.

The verse opens with Pīr Sadardīn invoking his own authority as direct witness — unusual in that the Pīr's name appears at the beginning rather than in the closing bhanit. “Jānnjo hāzur” (know the Lord as present) is a command, not a suggestion — the murīd is instructed to actively recognise the Imam's presence rather than merely believe in it abstractly. “Antar bhetiye nūr” (the interior meets the Noor) describes the encounter with divine light as a mutual meeting of the prepared soul and the Imam's luminous reality — implying that the seeker must arrive interiorly ready. The verse encodes a complete soteriology in a single couplet: presence recognised → interior illuminated → eternal station attained. It orients the practitioner inward, toward the bātin (esoteric interior), before bandagī begins.

Verse Two

2

From: A separate ginan by Pīr Sadardīn (r.a.)

Ejī darshan chhe have jāgantā, ane shodiliyo gun-vantā,
aj kal das mā(n)he Sāmī āviyā,
var āl vā ne anant, kroṛiyu tārā vā ne anant.

✦

          Now in the awakened state is the time for the Vision — seek out the Expert, the Guide.
          At present the Lord has come as the tenth manifestation, to be a protector and bestow eternal life.
          He has come to liberate the crores and grant them eternal life.
        

“Have jāgantā” (now, in the awakened state) establishes the verse's governing urgency — darshan (the Vision) is available specifically to those who are spiritually awake and alert in this present moment. “Shodiliyo gun-vantā” (seek out the one endowed with qualities) pairs wakefulness with active seeking — the murīd must both open the interior eye and orient it toward the living Guide. “Aj kal das mā(n)he” (at present, in this era, as the tenth manifestation) grounds the verse in historical specificity: this is not abstract eschatology but an immediate and unrepeatable kairos (appointed moment). The closing repetition of “anant” (eternal, without end) — applied to both protection and liberation — encircles the entire salvific act in infinity, orienting the practitioner outward toward the zāhir (manifest present) of the living Imam's era.

The Two Verses Together

These two verses form a gateway into bandagī by anchoring the practitioner simultaneously between the bātin (esoteric interior) and the zāhir (manifest present) — the twin axes of Ismaili spiritual cosmology. Verse 1 directs the seeker inward: the Imam is present, the Noor is accessible within, eternal life is contingent on interior illumination. Verse 2 directs the seeker outward and historically: the Imam has manifested in this era, the opportunity is now, and the liberation of crores is underway.

Together they ensure the practitioner enters the silence of bandagī holding both truths simultaneously — the Imam is here within you and the Imam is here in this age — neither unmoored from the interior nor unaware of the historical urgency of the living Imam's presence.

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Ginanic Literature · A Sayyad (r.a.)

Yā Alī Khūb Majālis Zīnat Karke

O Ali! This glorious Majlis has been beautifully decorated

A madāh {praise/panegyric} ginan addressed directly to Hazrat Ali (a.s.), composed for a majlis convened in honour of the Imamate. The composer deploys the formal language of royal court celebration — thrones, canopies, carpets — while grounding each verse in the spiritual realities of marifat, dīdār, and munājāt. The refrain "āj" {today} sustains a note of present celebration throughout: this is not historical commemoration but living, immediate rejoicing.

Prince Rahim Aga Khan V — Takht Nishini Golden Verses

Yā Alī Khūb Majālis Zīnat Karke

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Āj rāj mubārak hove,
Nūr aen Alīku rāj mubārak hove;
Shāh āle Nabīku rāj mubārak hove,
Hove hove āj rāj mubārak hove.

Congratulations to you today for this spiritual kingdom. O light of the eyes of Hazrat Ali (a.s.)! Congratulations to you for this kingdom. O Progeny of the Prophet (s.a.s.)! Congratulations to you for this kingdom — congratulations, congratulations, today congratulations for this kingdom.

The cascading repetitions of "rāj mubārak hove" {congratulations upon this kingdom} are not mere rhetorical flourish but liturgical accumulation, each address layering a different dimension of the Imam's identity — Noor of Ali, Progeny of the Prophet — into the celebration. The refrain is simultaneously a royal proclamation and a du'ā {prayer of blessing}.

The Eight Verses

1

Yā Alī khūb majālis zīnat karke,
Farash bichhāī gālī;
Ān baethe haen takhtke upar,
Shāh Rahīm Shāh vālī;
Āj rāj mubārak hove...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! This glorious Majlis has been beautifully decorated and carpets are spread on the floor. Our Lord Shah Rahim Shah (a.s.) has sat on the throne. Congratulations to you today for this spiritual kingdom.

The opening verse enters the majlis with striking immediacy — carpets spread, throne occupied, the living Imam seated. The cascading repetitions of "rāj mubārak hove" are not mere rhetorical flourish but liturgical accumulation, each address layering a different dimension of the Imam's identity — Noor of Ali, Progeny of the Prophet — into the celebration. The verse is simultaneously a royal proclamation and a du'ā.

2

Yā Alī dīdār leneku āye Shāh,
Terī Hindī jamāat sārī;
Sijda bajākar najrān deve,
Jān apnīku vārī; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! The whole Jamat of the Indian subcontinent have come for your Dīdār. Respectfully they pay their homage to you as if they are offering their lives.

The entire Indian jamāt is presented as a single unified body moving toward the Imam for transformative vision. "Sijda bajākar najrān deve" {offering prostration and tribute} — what is brought is not merely ritual observance but the self entire. "Jān apnīku vārī" {offering their very lives as sacrifice} renders the congregation's dīdār-seeking as an act of total surrender.

3

Yā Alī terā nasībā roze avvalse,
Detā haere kamālī;
Shāhā Sultān Shāhke mukh mese niklā,
Shāh Rahīm Shāh vālī; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! Your fortune has reached perfection from the first day. Words came out from the mouth of Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah (a.s.) that Shah Rahim Shah (a.s.) is the successor to the throne of Imamat.

"Nasībā roze avvalse" {fortune from the very first day} — the Imam's glory is rooted in primordial divine designation, not contingency. The verse preserves as living testimony the spoken nass {designation} of Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah (a.s.) naming his successor — the ginan functioning as a sacred archive of the Imamate's unbroken continuity.

4

Yā Alī shāh kahūn to tujkū bajā hae,
Bakht buland peshānī;
Chhoṭī umarme alī martabā,
Tālūkī hae nishānī; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! It is proper to call you king because your fortune is very exalted. Such a high status in such a small age is truly the sign of greater fortune.

"Choṭī umarme alī martabā" {an exalted station at a young age} frames the Imam's youth not as limitation but as cosmic sign. "Bakht buland peshānī" {an elevated forehead of fortune} — in the Indic and Persianate traditions the forehead is the locus of written destiny, and its elevation signals a sublime fate inscribed before birth. Youth and greatness together constitute the nishānī {mark} of even greater glory to come.

5

Yā Alī takht ne chhatra tujhkū mubārak,
Zahrājī ke pyāre;
Abul Hasan Shāh karaṇī so terī,
Jannat āp sāṇvāre; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! O beloved of Hazrat Fatimatuz Zahra (a.s.)! Congratulations to you on this throne and canopy. O Abul Hasan! This is your wonder and this heavenly embellishment is due to you.

"Zahrājī ke pyāre" {beloved of Fatima al-Zahra} identifies the Imam through his maternal lineage, while "Abul Hasan" — the epithet of Hazrat Ali (a.s.) himself — collapses the distance between the first and present Imam, affirming the light as singular and continuous. "Jannat āp sāṇvāre" {Paradise is embellished by you} is a beautiful inversion — it is the Imam's presence that adorns Paradise, not the reverse.

6

Yā Alī takht ne chhatra sunke tere,
Falakse barse nūrān;
Motī tabākā hāthūnme lekar,
Shāhkū vadhāve hūrān; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! Having heard the good news of your throne and canopy, light pours down from the heavens. With trays of pearls in their hands the houries greet you.

"Falakse barse nūrān" {Noor rains down from the heavens} — the Imam's enthronement is a cosmic event to which the celestial realm itself responds. The hūrān {houries} bearing trays of pearls echo the pearl imagery of Pīr Shams's ginan, here transformed from loss and recovery into abundance and gifting — the earthly majlis and celestial celebration rendered simultaneous.

7

Yā Alī mehmān khāneme momanku jab,
Lāe id musalle;
Shamsī jo salawāt padh kar,
Mārfatkī khushiyālī; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! In the guest-house there is Eid-like celebrations for momins. Shamsi recites salawāt and attains the happiness of marifat (gnosis).

The majlis is reimagined as a guest-house in which believers are honoured guests of the Imam — a beautiful inversion of ordinary hierarchy. The verse encodes a precise spiritual mechanics: salawāt {liturgical blessing} → marifat {gnosis} → khushiyālī {joy} — the outer act of recitation and the inner illumination of gnosis rendered entirely inseparable.

8

Yā Alī terī mubārakbādīke khātar,
Sayyad karte munājāt;
Shāha Najaf tere pusht panāh,
Tere dushman hove fanā; āj...

✦

O Ali (a.s.)! To congratulate you on this auspicious occasion the Sayyid is offering this prayer. May Shah-e-Najaf (Hazrat Ali a.s.) be your support and may all your enemies perish.

The closing bhanit presents the entire ginan as an act of munājāt {intimate supplication} — not performance but offering. "Shāha Najaf" {the King of Najaf, Hazrat Ali a.s.} is invoked as the pusht panāh {shelter and support} of the present Imam, and the final prayer — "tere dushman hove fanā" {may your enemies perish} — makes the bhanit itself an act of loving protection rather than merely authorial signature.

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Ginanic Literature · Pir Hasan Kabirdin (r.a.)

Nīnd Kartā Nīnd Gaire

The Wake-Up Call — A Ginan of Pir Hasan Kabirdin (r.a.)

This compact eleven-verse ginan belongs to the genre of jāgṛti (awakening) compositions — the Pīr addresses the sleeping soul with increasing urgency, warning that time itself is being consumed by sleep. The voice shifts throughout: from diagnosis (verses 1–2) to assurance of the Imam's presence (3–4), to direct exhortation (5–9), to promise (10), and finally to the Pīr's personal intercession on behalf of the congregation (11). It shares much of its theological vocabulary with the Anant Akhādo — the same author's signature urgency, the same addressing of the Imam as western king and sultan of Jambudvipa (the subcontinent, the heart).

Akbarali Babul

Nīnd Kartā Nīnd Gaire

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The Eleven Verses

1

Nīnd kartā nīnd gaire, Nindrāē gai sārī rāt jī

✦

While sleeping, the time of sleeping passed away — and the whole night passed away in sleeping.

The tautology is deliberate: sleep sleeping sleep — the soul does nothing but sleep, and the night of this life is already gone.

2

Nīnd kartā din vahī gayo re, To prānī padio jamanē hāth jī

✦

While sleeping, days passed away — and man fell into the hands of the angel of death.

The jamadūt (angel of death) arrives precisely while the soul is unconscious of time — delay is not neutral, it is fatal.

3

Pāchhman bēthō bādshāh, To gaḍh mednī chomār jī

✦

That spiritual king is seated in the west — whose fort is surrounded on all four sides by people.

The pachham (western) Imam — Islamshah in Iran — described as a fortress-king with devotees gathered around him on every side.

4

Rikhīsar tāran sāmījī āvīyā, To dainton khankāl jī

✦

That spiritual king has arrived to save the believers — and to destroy the enemies of religion.

The dual mission: salvation of devotees paired with destruction of enemies — the classical Naklanki pattern.

5

Sukrit hoē tē sanchlorē vīrā, To kāhē karo chho vār jī

✦

O brother, accumulate virtuous deeds — why do you delay?

The direct address — vīrā (brother) — and the simple question that pierces through excuses.

6

Kāl karo tē prānī āj karorē, To kāl ḍho chhē kāl jī

✦

O man, instead of delaying till tomorrow, do it today — because death stands between today and tomorrow.

The striking image: death lives in the space between today and tomorrow — procrastination is the only thing death needs.

7

Jēvā manchhā tēvā māmvī, To prānī ochhintā padsē jāl jī

✦

As the fish, so the man — he will suddenly be trapped in the net.

A fishing metaphor: the soul like an unsuspecting fish, caught the moment it is distracted.

8

Sāmī sarovar amē vēlā, To sāmī tan truthē bharī āsh jī

✦

The Lord is the ocean, we are tiny streams — O Lord, if You are pleased, our wishes will be fulfilled.

A beautiful reversal of scale: streams flowing into the Lord — fulfillment comes through disappearing into the ocean.

9

Vohorat vohoro vorlorē, To kharcho tē vīr dalāl jī

✦

O trader, do business — O brother, spend like a generous person.

Spiritual life framed as commerce — but with generosity, not hoarding, as the profitable strategy.

10

Bāhū tē āgal aval shāh rē, To jampū dīpno sultān jī

✦

In the time to come, the first Lord will hold your hand — who is the sovereign of the subcontinent.

The promise: the Imam Himself — sultān of Jambudvipa — will personally take the hand of the awakened soul.

11

Em boliyā Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn, To sāmī gunāh fajal karēvo jī

✦

Thus said Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn — O Lord, have mercy and forgive our sins.

The bhanita (signature verse) closes the ginan with the Pīr's personal intercession — the teacher who warned now pleads on behalf of the warned.

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Ginanic Literature · Pīr Sadardīn (r.a.)

Hūn Balhārī Gur Āpṇē, Pīr Āpṇē

I Sacrifice Myself for My Pir — A Ginan of Pīr Sadardīn (r.a.)

This ginan opens with the technical vocabulary of qurbāni {sacrifice, devotional self-offering} — hūn balhārī {I sacrifice myself}, a phrase with deep resonance in both Sufi and Vaishnava Bhakti traditions. The composition begins in personal devotion (verse 1), shifts swiftly to the universal warning of death (2), then unfolds a sustained meditation on greed, attachment, and the inevitability of dissolution (3–9), before turning to the diagnostic image of leafless tree and knowledge-less momin (10–11), and finally arriving at the call to recognition (12–16). Every verse is prefaced by Jīrēvīrā — "O brother" — making the entire ginan a sustained fraternal address.

Yasmin Rayani

Hūn Balhārī Gur Āpṇē, Pīr Āpṇē

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The Sixteen Verses

1

Jīrēvīrā hūn balhārī gur āpṇē, pīr āpṇē,
Jeṇē dekhāḍiyā āvā sat dharam, sat dharam

✦

O brother — I sacrifice my life for my Pir — who has shown me such true religion.

The opening qurbāni — life itself offered to the Pīr who reveals the sat dharam {true religion}. This is the affective ground for everything that follows.

2

Jīrēvīrā nahīn rē vichhoḍo āgal momano,
Bhāī momano,
Tārā jugnī potī chhē sandh, vīrā sandh

✦

O brother — after this there is no separation ahead — the end of your life has come.

The startling pivot: the moment of devotion is also the moment of no return — what you fail to do now cannot be done later.

3

Jīrēvīrā tū rē vanjārō moman medanī,
Moman medanī,
Tārā dilmā karjē vichār, ē vichār

✦

O brother — you are like a businessman in this concourse — think over this in your heart.

The vanjārō {travelling merchant} as image of the soul — passing through a marketplace, with limited time to make profitable trades.

4

Jīrēvīrā bālpaṇmā sāmī rājo sirēvīē, jeṇē sirēvīyā,
Tēno jīv sāhebsūn meḍā milē, ē meḍā milē

✦

O brother — obey the Lord from childhood — he who does it, his soul joins the Lord.

A profound statement: the formative years are the foundation; childhood obedience grafts the soul onto the Lord's substance.

5

Jīrēvīrā jeṇē jīvē ā jug sandheā, jeṇē sandheā,
Tēnē loṇio ārē sansār, ē sansār

✦

O brother — those who kept their attachment with this world — they earned this world.

A devastatingly precise observation: you receive what you reach for. Worldly attachment yields exactly the world — and nothing more.

6

Jīrēvīrā luṇio khetra na ṭoiē, ē na ṭoiē,
Tē par lok hasē sab koī, ē sab koī

✦

O brother — do not protect the field whose harvest has been reaped — people will laugh at that.

The magnificent image: guarding an empty field after harvest. Religious posturing without spiritual substance is precisely this absurdity.

7

Jīrēvīrā lobh tu melī nē sagio, ē na sagio,
Tu nē mīṭho tē lāgo ārē sansār, ē sansār

✦

O brother — you could not shun greed — you found this world too sweet.

The honest diagnosis: greed remained, world tasted sweet — three words capture an entire spiritual failure.

8

Jīrēvīrā jem rūē bālā pumbaḍā, ē pumbaḍā,
Tem rovengo ārē sansār, ē sansār

✦

O brother — like small children cry — the whole world will cry on the Day of Judgment.

A poignant comparison: the cosmic weeping of the Day reduced to the scale of a child's helplessness — universal, inconsolable, futile.

9

Jīrēvīrā sāyar vohoṇā rūvē māchhlā,
Rūvē māchhlā,
Tēnē āviyo chhē kāl, vīrā kāl

✦

O brother — without the sea, fishes cry — because it is the time of their death.

The fish removed from water — a classical image of spiritual displacement. Without the ocean of the Lord, the soul gasps even as it weeps.

10

Jīrēvīrā pān vinā sīyā rūkhaḍā, sīyā rūkhaḍā,
Tenī chhāēn na bēsē koī, ē na koī

✦

O brother — what is a tree without leaves? Nobody sits in its shade.

The leafless tree — the human form without the inner foliage of devotion offers no shelter to anyone, including its own owner.

11

Jīrēvīrā ginān vinā sīyā momanno, sīyā momanno,
Tēnē muā pachhī mokh na hoē, ē na hoē

✦

O brother — what is a momin without knowledge? He will not get salvation after death.

The companion image to the leafless tree: a momin without ginān is structurally incomplete — name without substance.

12

Jīrēvīrā kāēn na ruvo āpṇā jīvnē, āpṇā jīvnē,
Tamē mūvā pachhī kāhē karsho, ē karsho

✦

O brother — why don't you worry about your own soul? What will you do after death?

The direct question, repeated for emphasis — why are you not worried? — pierces through casual religiosity.

13

Jīrēvīrā phīrē halkārā sachā kāyamī, sachā kāyamī,
Tamē chēto chetanṇhār, chetanṇhār

✦

O brother — the proclaimer of the Lord is on his beat — be careful, O ye who become careful.

The halkārā {herald, proclaimer} of the eternal Lord moves through the world unseen — the call to vigilance is not abstract but responsive to active divine messengers.

14

Jīrēvīrā dīpjampūmē ek būṭīyā, ek būṭīyā,
Tēnē hāē koī rākhaṇhār, rākhaṇhār

✦

O brother — there is a herb in the Indian subcontinent — is there anyone who can keep it?

The ek būṭī {one herb} — the rare, precious medicinal plant — symbolises the Imam Himself, accessible only to those equipped to recognise and preserve Him.

15

Jīrēvīrā rākhaṇhāro dhaṇī āvshē, dhaṇī āvshē,
Tamē parkho tē parkhaṇhār, parkhaṇhār

✦

O brother — the Keeper Lord will come — recognise Him, O ye who recognise.

The promise: the rākhanhāro dhaṇī {Keeping Lord} will manifest — and the criterion is recognition, parkho — the same word used throughout the Anant Akhādo for spiritual discernment.

16

Jīrēvīrā Pīr Sadardīn boliyā ventī, ē ventī,
Tamē japjo sāhebjīnu nām, sāhebjīnu nām

✦

O brother — Pir Sadardin most humbly says — remember the name of the True Lord.

The bhanita {signature verse} closes with the simplest of all instructions, distilled from sixteen verses of warning, diagnosis, and exhortation: remember the Name.

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Ginanic Literature · Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn (r.a.)

Hūn Rē Darshan Binā Bāvarī

Without Your Darshan I am Distraught — A Ginan of Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn (r.a.)

This ginan belongs to the viraha genre — the poetry of longing-as-devotion that the Khoja tradition shares with Vaishnava Bhakti and Sufi ḥubb. The voice is feminine, the addressee the Beloved-Lord, and the central experience is bāvarī — distracted, mad, undone by absence. What distinguishes this composition is the architectural imagination: each verse opens a different space — the river beneath the wall, the locked sandalwood chamber, the cage of family — and each space holds the same single longing. The refrain "Hūn rē darshan binā bāvarī" returns at the close of every verse, the ostinato of a heart that cannot rest.

Yasmin Rayani

Hūn Rē Darshan Binā Bāvarī

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Ējī Ūnchā rē koṭ bahu vēchnā, Nīchē vahē dariyāv
Hūn rē dariyāvandī māchhalī, Sā(n)hiyā tāraṇ āv

The towering walls, the flowing stream beneath. I am a fish in the stream. Come, Lord — come to my rescue.

The opening image is magnificent — high inaccessible walls (the Beloved's distance), a river flowing below (the lover's tears, or the world's currents), and the speaker as māchhalī {fish} in that water. The fish-in-water image of the soul recurs throughout ginanic poetry, but here it is given a particular pathos: the fish knows the Lord stands above the walls, yet cannot reach Him.

The Four Verses

1

Hūn rē darshan binā bāvarī, Bālam gharē āv, sājan gharē āv
Bando bhulīyo tārī bandagī, Sā(n)hiyā sūrat batāv — Hūn rē

✦

For lack of Your darshan I am distraught. Beloved, come home — Lord, come to this devotee who neglected his devotions. Lord, show Yourself — show Your beauteous face.

The double address — bālam {beloved} and sājan {dear one} — is the language of conjugal devotion. The profound admission bando bhulīyo tārī bandagī {the servant forgot his devotions} is the soul's confession: it is my neglect, not Your absence, that has created this distance — yet I still cry for Your face.

2

Ējī Agar chandan nī koṭḍī, Sufal rachiyā kamāḍ rē
Tālā didhā chhē prēmnā, Sā(n)hiyā kholaṇ āv — Hūn rē

✦

A room of agarwood and sandalwood — splendidly carved are the doors — locked with the locks of love. Come, Lord — come and undo the locks.

A breathtaking image: the koṭḍī {small chamber} fragrant with agar and chandan, doors sufal rachiyā {beautifully constructed}, but tālā {locks} fastened — and crucially, the locks are of love itself. The Beloved must come to unlock what only the Beloved can open. Love locks the door for Love alone to enter.

3

Ējī Pinjar padiyo parivārno, Koīk būjat jān
Mērē tankī vēdnā, Sā(n)hiyā tapat bujāv — Hūn rē

✦

Cast into a cage of family and worldly attachments — few are those who know. The anguish in my being — come Lord, come and quench this raging fever.

The cage of parivār {family} — a startling image in any devotional literature, but particularly so here. Family is not condemned but named as a cage — a place of love that nonetheless confines. Koīk būjat jān {only a few understand} marks the experience as one of spiritual loneliness: the surrounding attachments do not, cannot, comprehend the soul's tapat {burning fever}.

4

Ējī Itnā kop nā kījiyē, Sā(n)hiyā dījē didār
Pīr Hasanshāhnī vinatī, Sā(n)hiyā tāraṇ āv — Hūn rē

✦

Do not harbour this much wrath, my Lord. Lord, grant me Your didār. Pīr Hasan Kabīrdīn beseeches You — come, Lord — come and rescue me. I am indeed restless without Your darshan.

The bhanita {signature verse} closes the ginan with two notes: the gentle plea itnā kop nā kījiyē {do not be so angry} — addressing the Beloved as one whose silence is perceived as displeasure — and the Pīr's own vinatī {humble entreaty} on behalf of every soul speaking through this composition.

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Ginanic Literature · Pir Hasan Kabirdin (r.a.)

Anant Akhādo

A 500-Verse Granth Composed Over 6 Months and 6 Days

The Forty Days

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