Publisher : Saiful Faruqi, Surma Prokashon. Date of publication : Ekushe Boimela 2013. Cover design : Nasim Ahmed. Compose: Sotota Computer. Printing : The Desh Printers, Banglabazar, Dhaka. Page : 216. Price : Taka. 300.00.
Professor Jahan Ara Khatun is a renowned educationist and researcher having wide ranged research-oriented works on folklore of Bangladesh on her credit. Her present book ‘Moromi Kobi Sheikh Bhanu’ is a research work. It appears most accomplished research work onhe poet under discussion. Poet Sheikh Bhanu would have been obscured had he not been explored well by the author of this book. The author Professor Jahan Ara Khatun has made a threadbare discussion on the works of this poet along with necessary annotations as necessary to bring this mystic poet to the fore. She has given a thorough review of the mystic bauls of different genre both ancient and modern vividly by which one can easily grasp the idea of the mystic poets of not only from Bangladesh but also of the world in a nutshell. Her analytical process is generalised while Moromi Kobi Sheikh Bhanu is surfaced significantly with a salient feature like an auto-photo focus. This is an excellent work in which the reader will be able to know the meaningful mystic words with reference to other baul researchers of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.
Her annexure in the bibliography at the end of the book has brought forth almost all noted authors in this context from home and abroad. It is needless to mention here about anyone of those famous authors which signifies Professor Jahan Ara Khatun’s wide readership to refer to reflecting Moromi Kobi Sheikh Bhanu Shah, a remote country poet folklorist of Sylhet.
The annexure of poet’s magnificent works, ‘Asrarul Eshk’ in four balam (chapters) is noteworthy.
Being reviewer of this book I am fascinated by the works of the poet. Hence I render here with into English what the poet himself spoke. Poet Sheikh Bhanu speaks in poetry :
Listen to me my friends,
I am inflicted in sin.
I am doing business dealing in
merchandise at home and abroad.
I am uneducated.
Sheikh Bhanu is my name.
In unfair business I have lost my fame.
I didn’t do good to gain anything at last.
Now I am to go very fast
to get hold of prophet’s boat
provided my sacred Shain (saint)
becomes my host.
I am at home in Vadikara having no root
of learning
but afflicted in many civil cases.
Had I had right accounts in all faces,
brother, being uneducated
I have nothing to be asked for them.
Hence I might be exonerated.
Sharioti (of Shariat ) was my father Nasaruddin.
My brother Liaquat was an expert but I am fallen.
And as such I ask for Allah’s pardon
so that I shall remain in peace.
Allah bestows me enough food and shelter
but I could hardly repay His debts.
My district is Sreehotto (Sylhet). I do business.
Finding me in poor condition Allah made me rich.
Ah! How I forgot Him?
That unseen divine Being gives me happiness.
It might happen that
He might put me in trouble
for my faithlessness.
Thinking all these I fell in fever without coming round
Since, I am in remorse aground. Ah!
My murshid (guide) Miron Shah,
what a great knowledgeable savant, ah!
That prayer-bound divine person lighted my heart.
He is the Tartar, with outstanding wisdom,
the disciple of the great pir (Abdul Qader Jilani) of Baghdad,
he traveled far and wide from country to country
to convey the message of peace
and at last he came at our poor home.
He remained without sleeping praying throughout the night
And brought about the awakening among us
with the message of peace.
I became his disciple. He however left for his home.
He taught me to be faithful in Allah’s oneness at right earnest.
In addition to this the readers will have thorough version of mysticism from Socrates to update accounts of mystic world along with Bengali aphorism of the bauls of Bangladesh and West Bengal.
I solemnly thank the author of this valued book Prof. Jahan Ara Khatun. The publisher also deserves thanks for this valuable publication of our great literary history and heritage. The book has been dedicated to late Prof. Mohammad Ali, the father of the writer and one of the greatest educationist, philosopher of international fame. The book is well ornamented with good cover design by Nasim Ahmed. It appears almost no printing mistake, having descent printing on valued offset paper. Price is reasonable. The book needs wide readership.