Shaikh Abdul Rahim Garhori: The Vigilant Poet and Sufi Saint of Sindh

Shaikh Abdul Rahim Garhori (Sindhi: شيخ عبد الرحيم گرهوڙي‎) was a popular sufi Saint and Poet of the province Sindh. Shaikh Abdul Raheem Garhori belonged to the tribe of Mangrio and his father’s name was Sadullah Mangrio.

Biography

In the time period of 1739 CE (1152 A.H.),Shaikh Abdul Rahim Garhori was born in the area of Ranipur, Khayrpur, province Sindh. Shaikh Abdul Raheem Garhori was the disciple and follower of Sultan-ul-Aoliya Khawaja Muhammad Zaman. He fought against an evil Hindu magician Mahadev in the desert of Thar. Mahadev and other priests of the proposed temple claimed to be the gods and began converting the people Muslims to Hinduism. Due to this, Garhori had a wish to initiate Jihad against Mahadev. He, at first, provided peace to Mahadev on case that he would stop and abandon magic and the proposed temple and convert to the religion Islam, which Mahadev refused. Then Garhori invaded the temple with his devotees and temple was ruined and Mahadev was killed. In this war, Garhori himself was extremely injured and lost his life over there. This war took place in the time period of 1192 A.H., when he was 40 years old. Father of Abdul Raheem Garhori had already passed away before this tragedy but his mother was alive.

Shaikh Abdul Rahim Garhori married 5 times, and had 4 daughters and 1 son; who passed away when he was 5 years old. In Garhor, there is a tomb committed and dedicated to Abdul Raheem Garhori. Dr. N.A Baloch recently had investigated that the Garhori was born in the village “Warr”, Taluka Khipro, district Sanghar.

Shaikh Abdul Rahim Garhori was also a poet and introduced several poems. His poetry is in various languages such as Arabic, Persian and Sindhi. His poetry was issued by Dr Umar Bin Muhammad Daudpoto under the title  of Abdul Raheem Grohiri Jo Kalam.