PĀRAS BHĀG is an adaptation into Sādh Bhākhā, in Gurmukhī script, of Abu Hamīd Muhammad al-Ghazzālī's Kīmīā i-Sa'ādat, an abridged edition in Urdu of his Ihyā ul-'Ulūm, in Arabic. The work was first published in 1876. Several of the manuscript copies prior to that date are still in circulation. An edition in Devanāgarī script was brought out in 1929. The question as to who adapted the work into Bhākhā and when has not been fully resolved. According to one tradition, the version in Gurmukhī characters was prepared towards the close of the seventeenth century at Anandpur by Sayyid Badr ud-Dīn of Saḍhaurā at the instance of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh (1666-1708). According to another, it was translated a little before the middle of the eighteenth century by a Sevāpanthī saint — either Bhāī Aḍḍaṇ Shāh or Bhāī Gāṛū. The book is held in great veneration by Sevāpanthī Sikhs who recite it up to this day in their ḍerās or monasteries. The work originally written in the eleventh century was meant for the edification of the Muslims laying down for them moral and social injunctions. These stipulations represent a mixture of lslamic, Sūfī and Vedāntic principles and thus have a wide appeal. The main stress is on loving devotion to God and on right conduct.

Dharam Siṅgh