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INDIAN SUFISM AS AN IDEAL OF REFORMATION AND ASSIMILATION

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Dr. Hussain Randathani

 

Sufism as a moral and spiritual way of life with its universal appeal of love and humanism found and exceptionally congenial ground for its growth and spread in India from the earliest phases of its history. India had a strong inclination towards mysticism which found their clearest expression in the Vedic and Upanishad literature and this outlook provided an easy access to Islamic mysticism to the country. Besides, the growth of the sufi movement was accclcrated by the peculiar social and cultural system based on caste laws. The caste structure had deprived the Indian society of that dynamic energy which sustain societies in times of crises and make them respond to new situations and challenges. All amenities of civic life were denied to the majority of the Indian population who were regarded as out castes. The spiritual style of the mystics, their broad human sympathies and the classless atmosphere of their hospices attracted these desprived sections of Indian society to its fold. They could free themselves from discriminations imposed upon them by the caste Hindus. The sufis exemplified to the people the Islamic doctrines of tauheed as a working principle in social life.

Sufis started their mission in India long before the establishment of Muslim politicai authority. Their policy of ‘Sulh-e-kul’ and simple and pious ways attracted a number of people to Islam. Malik Dinar, who had been responsible for the spread of Islam in Malabar, was himself a disciple of Hasan al Basri, the famous mystic of Iraq. Dinar had with him a number of disciples, most of whom were his own relatives. Later, when sufism developed as a cult in the Middle East, a number of sufis migrated to India, and dividing the country as socio cultural territories called wilayats, they started an intensive social reformation by establishing monasatries at different parts. They lived amongst the lower sections of the society firstly because of caste taboos and secondly for the facility of establishing contacts with the Indian masses. It appears that nearly half a century, before the Ghurid conquest of northern India, isolated Muslim culture groups had secured a foothold in the country. At Bahraich there was a Muslim settlement around the mausoleum of Sayyid Salar Mas’ud. In some towns of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar there were Muslim shrines of which those of Miran Mulhin (Badaun), Khwaja Majduddin Bilgrami and Lala pir at Gopamau and Imam Taqi (Maner) were important.1 In South India, Malabar, Ma’bar, Gujarat and many other places grew as Muslim centres exclusively due to the life and work of sufis and not by the exertion of any politicai power. The politicai supremacy, however, “helped the mystics in extending the sphere of their work to the cities where previously caste taboos had prevented them from establishing their hospices. But, it also added to their problems by exciting the fury and frown of a section of Indian population.” Once they established their centres at some place, their humanism and simple way of life endeared them to the “public and this had nothing to do with the politicai power. “At a timc when the country was resounding with the din and clatter of the arms of the Ghurids” writes K.A. Nizami, “the atmosphere of their (sufi) humble dwellings acted as a corrective to the politicai hysteria of the period. They sat cool, collected in their khanqahs and taught lessons of human love and equality.”2 When the rulers and governing class hesitated to make direct contact with the common people due to their vain racial pride, the mystics threw open their hospices to all sorts of men, rich and poor, high and low, townfolk and villagers, men and women.

Almost all the sufi orders had their centres in India. Of all the first and foremost is the chishti order founded in India by Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti. Both medieval and modem scholars have showered copious praise on Muinuddin but no reliable information regarding his early life remains. However, he was the embodiment of sufi virtues and was famous for his out-standing spiritual achievements which included the performance of miracles. He was the disciple of Khwaja Usman Harwani, an eminent chishti saint of Nishapur. Most of the chroniclers say that the Khwaja carne to India and settled at Ajmir when it was ruled by Prithvi Raj Chauhan, but Maulana Jamali, the author of Siyar – al- Arifin says that the Khwaja settled at Ajmir after it was conquered by Muhammad Ghori and Qutubuddin Aibek was appointed as viceroy.3 A number of people accepted Islam at the feet of Muinuddin. He died at Ajmir in March 1236A.D. and his shrine became a centre of pilgrimage not only of the chishtis but also of all sorts of people despite their religion, caste or creed.

Shaikh Hamiduddin Nagauri (d. 1276 A.D.) and Qutubuddin Bhakhtyar Kaki (d. 1235 A.D.), the disciples of Khwaja Muinuddin populariscd the chishti silsilah in northern India. Shaikh Fariduddin Ganj i Shakar(d. 1265), the disciple of Shaikh Bhakhtyar gave the chishti silsilah the momentum of an organized spiritual movement. He trained and tutored a large number of disciples who later on set up independent khanqahs and disseminated the teachings of chishti silsilah. Among Ihem the most outstanding was Hazarat Nizamuddin of Delhi. For nearly half a century he lived and worked in Delhi. All sorts of men visited him and found spiritual solace in his company4. Other renowned chishti saints are Shaikh Nasiruddin (d. 1356), Khwaja Husyn, Shaikh Abdul Quddus (d. 1537) Shaikh Jalal Taneswari, Shaikh Abdul Aziz, Shaikh Salim and Shaikh Gesù Diraz.

The chishti saints generally lived under extreme poverty, without sufficient food and dwellings. Most of them lived on charity offered by the devotees. They devcloped an attitude of contempt and indifference towards the rulers who themselves felt humble before the spiri tually elevated saints. Shaikh Farid advised Sayyid Maula; “Do not make friends with kings and nobles. Consider their visit to your home as fatal (for your spirit). Every darvesh who make friends with the kings and nobles will end badly.”5

The Suhrawardi silsilah was planted in India by Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariyya (d. 1182 -83) whose mystical ideology was radically different from that of his chishti contemporaries. He believed in living a normal and balanced life – a life in which both the body and the spirit received equal care. Neither he himself fasted perpetually, nor did he recommend a life of star-vation and self mortification to those associated with him.

Unlìke the chishtis, the suhrawardis believed in accumulating wealth. Shaikh Bahauddin said: “Wealth is the illness of the heart but in the hands it is a cure.” Besides, they did not abstain from taking part in politicai matters or associating with the politicai powers. Shaikh Bahauddin was a man not only of great organizing capacity but a very remarkable understanding of human nature. He organized the silsilah on firm foundation and attracted to his fold a very large number of talented dis ciples. Shaikh Sadaruddin Arif, his son, Sayyid Jalaluddin Surkh, Sayyid Jalaluddin Makhdum-i-Jahanian are important saints of suhrawardis.

Shaikh Muhammed Husyn Jilani started the Qadiri silsilah in Uchch in the fifteenth century. His son Abdul Qadir Sani, Shaikh Davud, Shaikh Nau Shah, Mian Mir and others spread the order at different parts of the country. Darà Shukoh, the eldest son of emperor Shajahan was a disciple of Mian Mir. Darà had some important sufi works to his credit. In his Majma’ al Bahrain he asserted Hinduism and Islam as the rays of the same sun.

The Naqshabandi order of sufism was planted in India during the period of the Mughals who had maintained dose relationship with the sufis of the order from Central Asia itself. Babar himself was a disciple of Khwaja Ubaidullah Ahrar, a principal Naqshabandi saint at Tashkant. However Khwaja Baqi Billah (d. 1603) was the founder of the order in India. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624), the most famous sufi of Naqshabandi order in India was his disciple. Sirhindi was a radical reformer of the religion and was a critic of Akbar for his religious experiments. He declined the invitation of Akbar to the discussions at Ibadat Khana. He propounded the theory of Wahdat al Shuhud (phenomenological monism) instead of ontological monism (Wahdat al Wujud). He found that the latter leads to misunderstanding the true nature of the existance and is often mistaken as pantheism or Vedanta. So he explained that God is existent and unique in His self, qualities and action as in no way any created object can be a part of Him. It would be wrong to say, all is God but better to say all is from Him.6

With the settlement of Muslims in India conciliation and concord between the various culture groups became an urgent social necessity. The Muslim mystics, not the rulers, rose to the occasion and releasing synthetic forces which liquidated social, ideological and linguistic barriers, helped the development of a common cultural outlook. They adopted an attitude of sympathy and understanding towards all cults and creeds.The communal intercourse among the Indiain masses and the role of sufis in bringing the different groups together has been described by Atindranath Bose in his contribution to the Cultural Heritage of India.

“… Then Islam knocked at the western gates of India, and the sufis, inspired by the Islamic idea of equality, came as the torch bearers of a liberal folk philosophy. Their spirits were free from those superstitions and rigidities which caused stagnation among the classical Indian and Islamic schools. Against the sterility of the orthodox systems, the new popular appeals awakened a fresh spiritual fervour and let loose great creative power which so long lay dormant. A new philosophy grew up based on the material of human values. It trusted in the latent divinity of the human soul, in the universality of love and in the dynamic power of emotion. It released powerful spiritual energy hither to pent up by social barriers among the dumb millions of the soil”.7

Hindu Muslim Mystical Ideals

In fact, there are numerous points of agreement and affinity between the Hindu and Muslim mystical ideas and they present similar tenets and tendencies not only in higher spheres of philosophical speculations but also on popular and devotional levels. Al Biruni points out the resemblence between the views expressed in Samkya and those of the sufis regarding their allegorica! concept of paradise, between the Hindu doctrins of Moksha (liberation) and Muslim and Christian mystical parallel and between the ontological monism of Abu Yazid Bistami and similar doctrins in Patanjali

The pantheistic monism or Advaita Vedanta and Wahdat al wujud of the sufis are different expressions of the conceptions of divinity, of man and of the universe. Though both the theo-ries bear basic difference, for both of them the Divine Being, which is the sole ground of all that exists, manifests itself as the world and diversities are nothing but various modes of its ap-pearance. This self manifestation of ultimate Being is spoken of in such vedantic terms as vivarta, prathibhasa and pratibimbha which are literally the same as the sufi concepts of tajalli, zuhur, aks and numud. The sufis identifies the Supreme Soul with the soul in man leading to the state of Hama ust or anal haq which come very near to the vedantic idea of tatwam-asi or aham brahmasmi. In both vedanta and sufism we set paralles  even in terminologies. In both case jhana or ma’rifat is the only state in which the ultimate truth can be realised and the path for this is called marga or tariqa. The successive stages in the transformation of the self is called bhumika or maqamah. For the sufi terms of fana and baqa, the corresponding vedantic terms are nirvikalpa samadhi and mukti. Other terms are as follows:

Nirguna brahmam- dat al Mutlaq

Vyakta avyakta – zahir batin

     Nirupahika Supadhika – mutlaq, muqayyad

Sai and satyam – haq wa haqiqat

Sadhaka and siddha – Salik and wasil

Dhyana and dharna  – dikr wa muraqaba

Satyasa satyam- Haqiqat al haqaìq

 jyotism Jyoti – nur al anwar

Apparently unconnected parallels of the doctrines of the upanishads are found in al Ghazzali’s distinction between the worldly and spiritual, in al Hujwiri’s differentiation between human and divine knowledge and the doctrine of the descent of the absolute found in some sufi paths.9

It has been suggested that some of the parallelisms between Hindu and Muslim mysticistn might have been explained by direct and indirect Muslim influence on the Hindu centres of learning where vedanta was developed and systematized by Shankaracharya (d. 820) and classical Bhakti by Ramanuja (d.l 137). As pointed out by A. Barth, it was precisely in those parts of the Deccan where early Arab travelers had established their colonies that from the ninth to twelfth century those great religious movements connected with the names of Shankara, Ramanuja, Anantatirtha and Basava took shape and out of which the majority of the historical sects came and to which Hinduism presents nothing analogous till a much later peri od.10 How-ever, many historians reject the view of Muslim influence on Sankara and his doctrine by saying that the doctrines were already there in vedas and upanishads and Sankara was only bringing out those hidden ideals and giving them a new life. Bhattachatterjee is more correct when he suggests: “….though the exact extent of Christian and Muslim influence on Hinduism is difficult to assess, there is definitely a theistic urge in Hindu religion in the periods of early Muslim settlements in the Deccan which finds powerful expression in many vedantic writers who came after Sankara.”

Mystical ideas of Islam and the sufi way of life were so appealing to the Indian mind that even the Brahmins did not remain unaffected by the influence. Prof. Essor Suniti Kumar Chattarji writes:   “We lean from one of the sixteenth century biographies of Chaitanya Ihat in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Brahmins were taking to heterodox ways like wearing a beard instead of being clean shaven, walking with a big stick, reading persian and reciting the mathnawi, and these the author of biography did not like, and he called them eviis of Kali or iron age”.’2

The sufis often criticized vehemently the unfare dealings of the rulers and persuaded them to act fairly and righteously with the subjects. Mian Abdullah Ajodhani condemned openly the attempts of Sultan Sikandar Lodhi (1498-1517) for demolishing certain temples and sacred places. When Muhammad bin Tughlaq titled himself as the Sultan -i- Adii (The Just sultan), Shaikh Shahabuddin Haque criticized him by saying, “Those who are unjust cannot be called the just ones.” Hazrat Nizamuddin avoided the company of kings. During his life time seven rulers ascended the throne of Delhi but he visited none of them. When Alauddin Khalji decided to visit him he said: “My hospice has two doors, If the Sultan enter through one I will run away through the next door.” Shaikh Abdu Rahman Naqshabandi refused the land provided to him by Aurangazeb.13

Sufi monasteries became a refuge to all communities. The doors of the khanqahs were open to any person of any community who might be willing to associate himself with the sufis. When Kumbhadev and Bahram Khan were defeated in their rebellion against Muhammad Shah Bahmani, they fled to the khanqah of Zainuddin Daud who offered shelter and allowed them to flee to Gujarat.14

Some of the sufis had aquainted themselves with Hindu religious thought and mystical ideas. Amir Khusrau admires the customs of Hindus thus:

Oh, you sneer at the idolatory of Hindu Learn also from him how worship is donc.l5

Shaikh Muhammad Gesù Deraz was well versed in Hindu tradition and had studied Sanskrit. Muhammad Gauth of Gwalior had dose contact with Hindu saints and yogis and had studied Hindu philosophy. He translated the Hindu philosophical work on yoga, Amritha kunda into persian. Mir Adbul Qasim Findiriski studied the yogavasista, wrote margmal notes on it and arranged a glossary of its technical terms. Darà Shukoh, son of Shahjahan and a member of the Qadirì order had great respect for Hindu saints. He had translated fifty upanishads into Persian and wrote a treatise on vedanta in Sanskrit and several works in Persian, dealing with vedanta and sufism.16 His masterpiece Majmaul Bahrain, deals elaborately on Hindu Muslim fusion. Shaikh Muhammed Afzal Sarkush stayed at the Ashram of a sadhu for twenty five days to study on the unity of Islam and Hinduism. Husain Ambar Khan, a seventeenth century sufi wrote a commentary in Marathi on Bhagawat Gita called Ambar Husain17 Many sufis regarded the Hindu heroes like Rama and Krishna as prophets and Khwaja Hasan Nizami, adescendant of Hazrat Nizamuddin wrote a book exclusively on the subject viz, Hindustan ke do Pighamber Rama aur Krishna (Rama and Krishna two Prophets of Hindustan). Mirza Mazhar Jani Janan ( 1699-1780) a poet saint regarded vedas as directly inspired and Hindus who had their revealed scriptures and prophets are like the ‘Men of the Book’ (Ahi -i-kitab) as monotheists. Shah Waliyullah’s son and successor Shah Abdul Aziz regarded Krishna among the awliya (saints) be cause of the impact Bhagawat Gita made on his mind.18

The sufi saints were in general highly respected by the non Muslims who treated them with a deep sense of trust and veneration. Khwaja Muinuddin of Ajmir and other saints of the Chishti order were highly esteemed by Hindus who visit even now their shrines to fulfil their desires as that of Muslims. Sayyid Sultan Ahmad had a large number of Hindu followers who called him Lakhidatda. Lala Shah Baz Qalandar Suhrawardi was called by Hindus as Raja Bharati. When the Hindus of Sindh, under the oppression of Kalhora kings were fleeing in numbers to save their life and faith, many of them were given shelter by Shaikh Inayat Shah.19 Babà Farid was respected by all communities and the fact that his devotional composition in the Punjabi language had been included in the Adigrunth of Sikh religion, bears witness for this. Chatrapati Sivaji and his family were closely connected with the sufis of the Deccan. We are told in a legend that Sivaji’s grand father Maloji, having no sons approached Shah Sharif of the Deccan and with whose blessings he became the father of two sons and the name of the sufi was given to them as Shaji and Sharifji. Sivaji is the son of Shaji.20

The Hindu mind was moved to a large extent by the sufi teachings of unity of God and brotherhood of man. “The fact that,” says Nizami, “the religious leadership of the Bhakti move-ment in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries came from the lower stratum of Hindu society – a section which had been deeply influenced by Muslim mystics and their khanqah life is too sig-nificant to be ignored. Probably never before in the long history of Hinduism religious leaders had sprung from those strata of society to which Chaitanya, Kabir, Nanak, Dhanna, Dadu and others belonged. There was hardly any saint of the Bhakti school who had not passed some of his time in a khanqah” 21 The sufi argumenls against idol worship and polytheism, its strong condemnation of caste discrimination and their idea of equality must have inspired the Hindu bhgats to start a counter reformation among themselves in order to avert the challenges to the Hindu society. They challenged the monopoly of Brahmins in religious leadership and insisited that none can be deprived of loving and worshipping God. Like the sufis, the Bhakti leaders also laid stress on Bhakti, instead of knowledge and admitted non Brahmins and even low caste people into the religious fold. The preaching of the sufis on the one hand and the development of Bhakti movement on the other, brought the Indian masses together and created an atmosphere in which the two could live and co-operate. To quote the words of Kshiti Mohana Sen, “Hinduism and Islam strictly bound by the tenets of their own scriptures had no points of contact with each other. They were like the two banks of a river ever separated by the stream flows between them. Who was to build the connecting bridge? The orthodox Hindus as well as the orthodox Muhammadans were unfit for the task, and it was left to the free spirits and lovers of humanity from both these groups, the Hindu Bhaktas and the Muhammadan sufis to devote their life to the construction of the bridge.”22

This, along with the spread of Islam in India, sufism continued to serve as a major medium of sympathetic inter-relation-ship between the two communities, and brought the true spirit of Islam, its higher values, its principles of universa! equality and brotherhood and its active realistic outlook to the notice of the Hindu society. A new channel of sympathy and community feeling was opened between Hindus and Musalmans when the sufis began to compose mystical and devotional songs in their own locai languages, which were used as an instrument for preaching faith and love of God and high moral values.

The sufis turned each of the folk language into an independent standard language with its own treasure of literature. In Sindhi, Shah Latheef Bidhai(d. 1690); inPunjabi,BabaFarid, Sayyid Shah Waris, Sultan Babà and Ali Hyder; in Hindi and Urdù, Amir Khusrau, Mulla Dawud, Gesù Daras and Malik Muhammad Jaisi; in Bengali, Jalaluddin Tabrizi and Doulat Kazi; in Gujarati, Shaikh Ganj al Alani, Sayyid Burhanuddin and in Kashmiri, Mahamud Ghani and Khwaja Habibullah had widely contributed to the development of regional language and literature.

Music was anothcr field to which the saints contributed generously. Many of the mystic orders carne to realize that music also elevates emotion to the ecstatic state necessary for union with God. Amir Khusrau was the first sufi poet to introduce a number of innovations in Indian music. He introduced dholak and sitar and at least six new modes – qui, qalbana, naqsh, gul, tarana and khiyal. They contributed much to the evolution of Hindustani music.

Sayyid Nizamuddin Madhu Naik, and Makhdum Bahauddin Bunnais are sufi poets who had produced a number of books and treatises on music. Schools were opened to foster music-under sufi poets at different places and they were often patron -ized by locai rulcrs.

The Author can be reach at drhussaink@gmail.com

References

  1. K. A. Nizami, Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India During Thirteenth Century, Delhi 1974, p. 261
  2. Ibidp. 261
  3. Jamali, Siyar al Arifm, Delhi, 1893, pp 6-7
  4. Nizami, p. 197
  5. Hasna Begum, Cotttributions of Musimi Saints lo Indian Culline, Spirit of India Voi II,’P. 117.
  6. Burhan Ahmad, Mujaddid’s, Conception of Tuwhid, Lahore 1940
  7. Adindranath Bose, Cultural Heritage of India, Voi. Ili, pp. 460-2
  8. Al Biruni, Kitab al Hindi, tianslalion, (Al Biruni’s India), London 19.10 pp. 87-88
  9. W. Husain, Conception of Divinity in Islam and Upanishads,  Calcutta 1939
  10. A. Barth, The Religions of India, London 1921, pp. 209-11
  11. V. N. Bhattachattrjee, Majumdar, ed.. The Struggle for Empire, Bombay 1957, p. 459

12.Suniti KumarChattarji, Spirit of India,, Voi. I, New Delhi, 1972, pp.91

  1. Fathullah Mujtabi; Aspects ofHindu Muslim Cultural Relations, Delhi 1978, pp 100-101
  2. Tarikh – i- Ferishta, Voi. I, p 294
  3. Nizami, op. cit., p. 263
  4. Fathullah Mujtabi, op. cit., P. 102
  5. Ibid
  6. Ikram, Rind-i-Kawthar, Karachi, nd. 394, A. K. Aziz, op. cit., p. 139
  7. Kshithi Mohana Sen, Medieval Mystic of North India in the Cultural Heritage of India, Voi. IV, p. 389

20.Fathullah Mujtabi, p. 106

21.Nizami, p. 264

22.Cultural Heritage of India, p. 378

 

 

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