Baba Malang Sahib

Muhammad Hussein Baksh, commonly known as Baba Malang Sahib, was born to Ghulam Muhammad and Churaan Bebe in 1921 in Hoshiarpur (Punjab) British India. He was the descendent of General Yaar Muhammad who was the son of the celebrated Sufi saint Shah Muhammad and one of the most faithful Commander-in-Chiefs of Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore. He was the fourth in the line of succesion from Baba Jyoti Shah, the celebrated Sufi saint and poet of Punjab. He belong to the Chisti order of Sufis.

Hussain’s father was extremely relegious person who used to send him to local ‘Madrassa’ (Islamic school), for learnig Quranic education while his mother was a liberal Sufi lady. She was the student of famous saint Maulvi Ghulam Rasool of Alampur Kotla (Hosiarpur). After her marrige she came to live in his husbands house near Nanda Chaur (Hoshiarpur) and became the pupil of Baba Jyoti Shah and Sant Baba Narayan Das, the two outstanding Sufi-Sants of their time. She died when Hussain was quite young. After her death, in accordance with her will, Enayat Shah Zeldar, the caliph of Baba Jyoti Shah, took the responsibility of teaching the young Hussain. But feeling himself too old and not up to the task, Baba Jyoti Shah assigned his disciple Maoj Deen to be the new teacher of Hussain. It was Maoj Deen who first called Hussain a Malang, a term used for enlighted and dauntless Sufis and qalandars.

Maoj Deen was the friend of famous poet Dr. Muhammad Iqbal. Once, Iqbal was sitting with Maoj Deen when Malang Hussain arrived. Maoj Deen said to Iqbal 'there comes my Shaheen'. Malang met Iqbal and both admired each other. Malang used to meet with Baba Sawan Singh and Sant Baba Narayan Das both of whom he respected as his Gurus.

In about 1934, the young Hussain moved to Lahore from Hoshiarpur. After spending four or fives years in Lahore Malang got a job with British Indian Railways in Lahore. Maoj Deen was also an employ of the Railways thus both were able to enjoy each other’s company. Maoj taught Hussain like a benevolent friend and comrade. Malang Hussain had due respect in his heart for Maoj Deen and loved him more than he loved his father. To his way of thinking, his father gave him life but his teacher gave him the way to lead his life. Malang was the favourite disciple of Maoj Din. He was the ‘Shaheen of Maoj Deen’ who latter became his caliph.

Malang was a revoltionary Sufi. He had a close comradeship with revolutionary leaders like Dada Amir Haider, Massod Khadarpoosh and Dr. Aziz Shaheed. He was a keen supporter of the proletariat revolution. To Comrade Dr. Aziz he was the "Incarnation of Karl Marx". Aziz, also, use to call him "Our Guru". During the partition of British India, Malang's moral support was with Bhagat Sing and Subhas Chandra Bose, the famous Indian revolutionaries.

Malang was the greatest humanist of his time. In 1947, at the time of the partition of British India, Malang saved the lives of many Sikhs and Hindus from the hands of extremist Muslims and helped them to reach safe destinations in India.

According to Baba Malang Sahib all human beings, and all other creatures too, belong to one class. He loved animals and birds so much that he never wore leather-made sleepers and never ate meat.

Malang died on October 31, 1995 in Lahore due to a lung disease. He is buried in Mughalpural next to his beloved teacher Maoj Deen.