Muslim Saints of South Asia: The eleventh to ... - blog blog blog

THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN
respectfully bowed low before him. 12 During Shaikh Farid’s long life
a number of people, some even more powerful than Nur-i Turk, had
bowed before him, but in his old age the saint used to recollect exactly
the rebel’s bow. 13
From Hansi the saint moved to Ucch, where, near the deserted
mosque of Masjid-i Hajj, and with the help of a mu’adhdhin, he at
last realized his cherished dream and undertook chillah-i ma‘kūs for
forty nights. Before dawn the mu’adhdhin, holding the rope, used to
pull him out of the well, so that the saint could perform his ablutions
(wudű¯’) and offer morning prayers (namāz-i șubh˝) standing on the
ground. It is not known how long this ascetic impulse continued:
in Jawāhir-i farīdī ‘Ali Asghar, with his inclination for fantastic
hyperbole, asserts that Farid performed the inverted fast over a period
of ten years. For that matter, according to his calculations, the saint
lived for more than hundred and twenty years. In any case Shaikh
Farid’s chillah-i ma‘kūs firmly went down in Chishtiyya tradition,
and stories about it evoked the admiration of the audience for a long
time to come. In the fifteenth century Muhammad Gesudaraz’s
disciples wondered why blood did not flow and food was not ejected
from the eyes and mouth of the saint who had spent so much time
suspended upside down. To which Gesudaraz reasonably replied that
in the body of the saint, which had withered up almost to the state
of a skeleton, there was no longer any such substance left which could
flow out (Husaini n.d.: 231).
While Farid was giving himself up to mortification of the flesh,
in the year 1236 Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki passed away during
samā‘. Farid had to place himself at the head of the orphaned fraternity
and so returned to Delhi. However, life of a metropolitan shaikh,
calling for certain diplomatic skills and a flair for politics, was a
burden on the unsophisticated and somewhat provincial Punjabi.
After Iltutmish’s death in the same year, discords commenced in the
midst of the Turkish military aristocracy, which were aggravated
by general discontent with the enthronement of the late Sultan’s
daughter, Razia. All the khānqāhs in Delhi, to a greater or lesser
extent, depended on the donations of the aristocracy and on the
religious policy of the authorities. They were therefore compelled
to side with some party in the court or influential private person.
Inexperienced as Farid was in court intrigues, he still foresaw that in
the conditions of dissidence and mutual hostility which had already
begun it would not be possible for him to maintain strict neutrality.
He preferred to relinquish the honorary authority of the head of the
fraternity and leave Delhi, this time forever.
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