Sultan Bahoo Books – An Ocean of Divinity

Many readers of his books have observed that teachings of Sultan Bahoo elevate one to closeness of Allah. Undoubtedly, all of his books contain an ocean of gnosis of Allah. Verily, one who reads them with true faith finds guidance towards the straight path.

How much books he has written

Although Sultan Bahoo did not acquire formal or academic education, yet he authored at least 140 books. All are in Persian except Abyat e Bahoo which is in Punjabi language. Now almost 32 of Hazrat Sultan Bahoo books are available in Urdu translation. 11 books are also available in English translation and further are in the pipeline.

How books were written

Since Sultan Bahoo could not read or write like Prophet Mohammad. Therefore, just as no Quranic verse or Hadith written by sacred hands of the Holy Prophet is available, likewise no hand written document or script by Sultan Bahoo is available. Hence, his spiritual successors and Dervishes wrote his verbal statements. And their manuscripts are now the basis of Sultan Bahoo books. His statements were the result of Divine revelations hence all scripts are Divine.

Doctor Sultan Altaf Ali

The compiler of Sharah Abyat e Bahoo and Mirat e Sultani (Bahoo Nama Kamil), Doctor Sultan Altaf Ali belongs to the family of Sultan Bahoo. He states in both these books that he could not find any manuscript of Sultan Bahoo books written by Sultan Bahoo himself. Only he could find the manuscripts written by his spiritual successors and Dervishes.

Saad Ameer Khan Niazi

Saad Ameer Khan Niazi is the translator of Sultan Bahoo books in Urdu. He also writes in the foreword of the translation of Asrar-e-Qadri:

• As a translator, I faced the problem that the original manuscripts of books were not available. So that they could be consulted and compared to deduce the actual Persian text and translate them properly. If only I could have found a single manuscript written by him then there was no need of others for the translation but unfortunately not even one was available. Actually, most manuscripts were wasted because the spiritual successors kept them in their possession instead of spreading them.

It is not strange that Sultan Altaf Ali or Sultan Hamid Ali or anyone else was unable to find any manuscript of his books written by himself as he could not read or write. Therefore, the translators got the Persian manuscripts from the heritage of family of Sultan Bahoo. Furthermore, most of the translators compared different manuscripts of the same book and then translated it. That is why, all the available translations are almost the same in terms of teachings.

Many books were lost with time

Surprisingly Sultan Hamid Ali gives a list of very few books in Manaqib-e-Sultani. It shows that most were either lost or were not available when he wrote Manaqib-e-Sultani. This is because there was not any proper institution to publish them. Furthermore it was only due to individual efforts that very few books were published and preserved.

Why some Sultan Bahoo books are still concealed

Many are still concealed maybe because Sultan Bahoo wanted to keep this Divine treasure hidden from the undeserving people. Hopefully, these hidden books will be revealed in future at some fixed time, which is why, the Holy Prophet has titled him Mustafa Sani and Mujtaba Akhir Zamani as the guide of righteousness for the last era.