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Kalām: Momin Sahib (Babgam, Pulwama) · Performed by: Gulzar Ganie

Momin Sahib is held to be an early Kashmiri Sufi poet of Babgam in Pulwama, associated with the lineage of Khwaja Habibullah Nowshahri. Much of his work has been lost, and little firm biographical detail survives, but his greatest contribution is the Kashmiri masnavi rendering of Attar's Mantiq al-Tayr, in which the stations and stages of tasawwuf are unveiled through the language of birds. A few of his ghazals and wachhun still circulate on the tongues of singers, of which Aognuy Sapan tah Dognīyār Trāvov is among the most beloved.

The Kalām

Farsi / Kashmiri Script	English Transcription	Modern Smooth English Translation
اوٛگنُے سپَن تہٕ دۄگنیار تراوو	Ognuy sapan tah dognīyār trāvov	Become one; cast away all two-ness.
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.
وۄٹھ تُجۍ عشقن ژھٹھ دِتھ دراوو	Woth tujī ishqan zhath dith drāvov	Rise — love has struck you and drawn you out.
میٚژِ جامہٕ گٔنڈِتھ دراوو لو	Mēzh jāmah gaṇḍith drāvov lo	Tie on the seeker's robe and step out, dear one.
بے رنگ پانَے ہر رنگہٕ آوو	Be-rang pānay har rangah āvov	The colourless Self has appeared in every colour.
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.
غأبُ الغأبہٕ نِشہِ ہا لُباب دراوو	Ghāb-ul-ghābah nishah hā lubāb drāvov	From the hidden depth of the Hidden, the pure essence came forth.
اتھ پیو محمدﷺ ناوو لو	Ath pyov Muhammad nāvov lo	Upon it fell the blessed name Muhammad ﷺ.
زان کر پأدا بر چِکہٕ چاوو	Zān kar pādā, bar chikah chāvov	Awareness was born; the barred door swung open.
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.
شیٚے تہٕ ژور نَو ستھ پتھ کُن تراوو	Shey tah tsor, nav sath path-kun trāvov	Leave behind the six, the four, the nine, and the seven.
برونہہ کُن گُر ٹِکہٕ ناوو لو	Bronh-kun gur-ṭikah nāvov lo	Turn the steed toward what lies ahead, dear one.
کُنُے کُنِرس دِتھ چُھے جلاوو	Kunuy kuniras dith chhuy jalāvov	The One gives light to the one who seeks the One.
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.
مُدا چُھ کُنُے داہ تہٕ کاہ تراوو	Mudā chh kunuy; dāh tah kāh trāvov	The aim is the One; let go of ten and eleven.
ییٚتہِ نو کأنسہِ رأو گاوو لو	Yitih no kānsah rāw gāvov lo	There, no one is lost or led astray.
ژھاے چھے پننی راے بدلاوو	Zhāy chhe paninī rāy badlāvov	Change the way you cling to your own opinion.
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.
نَے کانہہ زاس تَے نَے کأنسہِ زاوو	Nay kānh zās, tay nay kānsih zāvov	None begets, and none is born.
اتھ پیٹھ اخلاص آوو لو	Ath peth Ikhlās āvov lo	From this comes the truth of Ikhlāṣ.
فی انفُسِکُم شأہد آوو	Fī anfusikum shāhid āvov	"Within yourselves" the witness has come.
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.
پوٗرِرَس سٕتۍ روز دوٗرؠر تراوو	Pūriras sətī roz, dūrīr trāvov	Stay with the perfected one; cast away distance.
لولہٕ سٕتۍ دِل پھۄلراوو لو	Lolah sətī dil pholrāvov lo	With love, let the heart blossom open, dear one.
ژھایہِ رۆس مومن صأب مایہِ چانہِ آوو	Zhāyih ros, Momin Sāb, māyih chānih āvov	Without You, O Momin Sahib, how would Your grace have reached me?
پانہٕ مٔنزۍ پان پرزٕ ناوو لو	Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov lo	Recognize yourself within yourself, dear one.

Where the Meaning is Not Obvious

The refrain — "Pānah manzī pān parz-nāvov." The whole kalām pivots on this line. It is not an invitation to self-admiration but the Sufi inward turn. The seeker is told to stop scanning the horizon for the Beloved and instead recognize the Divine sign already placed within the self. The refrain is the answer the rest of the verses keep pointing to.

"Dognīyār" — two-ness. This is the Kashmiri rendering of dū'ī, the duality that splits "I" from "He." Momin Sahib is not asking the seeker to erase love, but to move past the felt distance between lover and Beloved into the unity that love was always pointing toward.

"The colourless Self in every colour." A classic Sufi paradox: the Real is beyond form, yet every form discloses it. Colourless means beyond fixed attribute; every colour means manifest through all of creation. Nothing in the visible world is finally other than the One who shows through it.

"Ghāb-ul-ghābah" and the name Muhammad ﷺ. This points to the Sufi cosmology of the Haqīqat al-Muḥammadiyya — the Muhammadan Reality — understood as the first effulgence from the Hidden of the Hidden. It is not a historical claim about the Prophet's birth; it is a mystical statement about the primordial light through which the unseen first becomes knowable.

The numbers — six, four, nine, seven, ten, eleven. These are not arithmetic puzzles to be cracked. They stand for the whole human habit of dividing reality into categories: the bodily faculties, the elements, the heavenly spheres, the directions. The instruction is to step out of the counting altogether. The One cannot be reached by addition.

"Nay kānh zās, tay nay kānsih zāvov" — none begets, none is born. A direct echo of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ: lam yalid wa lam yūlad. The next line confirms it: Ath peth Ikhlās āvov — "from this comes Ikhlāṣ." Momin Sahib is folding the Qur'anic declaration of pure Oneness into the Kashmiri tongue.

"Fī anfusikum" — within yourselves. This recalls Qur'an 51:21: Wa fī anfusikum, afa lā tubṣirūn — "And within yourselves; will you not then see?" The witness is not somewhere far off. The proof is already inside the seeker; the only task is to turn and look.

The closing signature. Zhāyih ros, Momin Sāb, māyih chānih āvov — a tender takhalluṣ where the poet effaces himself entirely. The grace is not his; he is only the place where the grace found a tongue.

You can listen to the rendering here: