Bulleh Shah lived after the Pashto Sufi poet and saint Rahman Baba (1632-1706) and lived in the same period as Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689-1752). His lifespan also overlapped with the Punjabi poet Waris Shah (1722-1799), of Heer Ranjha fame, and the Sindhi Sufi poet Abdul Wahab (1739-1829), better known by his pen name Sachal Sarmast. Amongst Urdu poets, Bulleh Shah lived 400 miles away from Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810) of Delhi.[3]
Bulleh Shah practised the Sufi tradition of Punjabi poetry established by poets like Shah Hussain (1538-1599), Sultan Bahu (1629-1691), and Shah Sharaf (1640-1724).[3]
The verse form Bulleh Shah primarily employed is the Kafi, popular in Punjabi and Sindhi poetry.
Many people have put his Kafis to music, from humble street-singers to renowned Sufi singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Fareed Ayaz, Pathanay Khan, Abida Parveen, the Waddali Brothers and Sain Zahoor, from the synthesised techno qawwali remixes of UK-based Asian artists to the Pakistani rock band Junoon.