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

THE PEACEMAKER OF DELHI
Of course, the Shaikh saw his mission not in performance of
karāmāt, and reliable hagiographers do not even ascribe them to
him.
He was not a miracle-monger of ordinary sort. He never
flew in the air or walked on water with dry and motionless
feet. His greatness was the greatness of a loving heart; his
miracles were the miracles of a deeply sympathetic soul. He
could read a man’s inner heart by a glance at his face and
spoke the words that brought consolation to a tortured
heart.
(Habib 1937: 34)
Indeed, Amir Hasan cites not a few examples of how the Shaikh
consoled his visitors, telling them simple stories about the saints of
bygone ages, friends and acquaintances of his youth or, it would seem,
quite abstract parables; in this he continued the traditions of Indo-
Persian didactic literature. The moralizing purport of the story did
not contain anything supernatural, but accentuated many times in
the charismatic aura of the narrator’s personality, it had a manifest
psychotherapeutic effect on the hearer.
Generally speaking, the Shaikh’s discourses from Fawā’id al-fu’ād
bear resemblance to certain methods of modern psychiatry, in
particular to the ‘psychotherapy of shared emotional experience’,
which is used for the rehabilitation of victims of violence and
catastrophes. Skilfully establishing an associative relationship between
the cause of the ‘patient’s’ suffering and the content of the discourse
which followed, the Shaikh brings influence to bear upon the
depressed psyche of the interlocutor indirectly and purely emotionally
– he holds his hand, cries together with him, recollects something
from his own experience, jokes, recites verses, but avoids point-blank
touching upon the subject unpleasant to the man. He chooses no less
a considerate approach towards sinners and disciples at fault, not
disheartening them by his undoubted superiority.
Apparently, that is why the Shaikh’s discourses always had a
positive result. This happened, in particular, with Amir Hasan Sijzi,
whose salary was withheld over a period of several months while he
was in service in the Sultan’s army. Not having any other sources of
income, he felt extremely depressed, but felt shy of telling the Shaikh
about his anxieties, considering them to be too material. But it was
not surprising that Nizamuddin was a saint, capable of reading
others’ thoughts, and, besides, the institution of gathering information
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