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The most loved Sufi poet of Pashto, 'the nightingale of Peshawar'
Sow flowers, so that your surroundings become a garden; do not sow thorns, for they will prick your own feet.
Abdul Rahman Mohmand, known as Rahman Baba, was born into the Mohmand tribe near Peshawar, around the time Khushal Khan Khattak was alive. Very little is known for certain about his life, since he wrote almost nothing about himself.
He is remembered as a humble, devout man who lived quietly, avoided politics and the courts of the powerful, and devoted himself to prayer and poetry. He received a religious education and was deeply influenced by Sufi teaching.
Love of God and of all humanity, sincerity, humility, tolerance, peace and the vanity of worldly ambition. His language is simple and musical, which made his verses part of everyday Pashtun life.
Rahman Baba's shrine at Hazar Khwani in Peshawar is a place of pilgrimage and poetry gatherings. In 2009 militants bombed it, a sign of how much his message of peace and tolerance opposed their views; it was later rebuilt.