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

THE PEACEMAKER OF DELHI
In contrast to his predecessors in the fraternity, Shaikh Qutbuddin
and Baba Farid, who discontinued systematic religious education as
soon as they took to the Path, Nizamuddin Awliya continued to study
fiqh and ‘ilm al-h˝adīth even when he was already a mystic. By all the
standards of his time he could be regarded as a real scholar and
intellectual. In the religious circles of Delhi he was valued as an
erudite muh˝addith and a brilliant polemicist, having the reputation
of a ‘destroyer of assemblies’ (mah˝fil shikan). Alas, at a mature age
he was unable to give evidence of this latter talent, because Chishti
ethics forbade participation in religious and philosophical discussions.
Throughout his life Nizamuddin was an ardent bookworm. He
never parted with his vast library, which was a matter of particular
pride for his khānqāh in Ghiyathpur. Side by side with ‘authentically
passed on books’ (kutub z.āhirat ar-riwāya) of Hanafi creed and vast
Sufi literature, there were in this library not a few dīwāns of Arab
and Persian poets and several manuscripts of the saint’s favourite
book, Maqāmāt of al-Hariri. Since the daily routine in Nizamuddin’s
khānqāh is known in detail thanks to Amir Hasan and Amir Khurd,
it is evident that even at an advanced age the saint used to spend
all the night through in reading. Fortunately even to old age he had
preserved good eyesight, making it possible for him to decipher
manuscripts by the light of a single candle, and, unfortunately,
throughout his life he was a martyr to insomnia. Red and inflamed
from night vigils, his eyes were the only detail which spoiled the
Shaikh’s beautiful features.
Nizamuddin began studying fiqh and the science of h˝adīth in his
native Badaun (now Uttar Pradesh), where he spent the first eighteen
years of his life. Badaun had the reputation of a town of ‘ulamā
– Sultan Iltutmish had established here one of the well-known
madrasas, almost as good as the one in the capital. Here were born
Raziuddin as-Saghani, compiler of Mashāriq al-anwār, 9 the most
authoritative of the medieval South Asian collection of h˝adīths, Amir
Hasan Sijzi, the outstanding historian ‘Abdul Qadir Badauni and
many other celebrities. Nizamuddin often remembered his native
town and in his speech used the dialect Pūrbī, common in Badaun (the
eastern dialect of Hindawī ). He even used to playfully assert that
the vows made by him to God were expressed in Pūrbī verses.
Many Central Asian Sufis, members of silsila-i Khwājagān (predecessors
of the Naqshbandiyya fraternity), had long since settled in
Badaun. Both the grandfathers of the saint, natives of Bukhara, and
also his father, Khwaja Ahmad, were associated with this order. The
saint’s real name was Muhammad, but he became known to his
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