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

THE SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGN OF MULTAN
shape the movement of aristocratic futuwwa. It is also thought that
this movement was specially instituted for the extensive dissemination
of the teaching of the Suhrawardiyya order. The connection with
futuwwa was reflected even in the girdling (shadd) ceremony, forming
a part of the initiation ritual of this fraternity.
Abu Hafs ‘Umar became famous as a preceptor and teacher, whose
personality exerted a profound influence on many outstanding
contemporaries – among his admirers was even the great Persian
poet Sa‘di Shirazi, who celebrated Abu Hafs in his poem ‘Būstān’.
The founder of the fraternity adhered to moderate orthodoxy and
used to bestow khirqa even upon those whom it is impossible to
call dervishes, for example, al-Qastalani, founder of the school of
traditionalists. Influence of the eponym of Suhrawardiyya order upon
posterity was not limited to the members of the fraternity founded
by him – even Chishti malfūz.āt, in particular Fawā’id al-fu’ād, are
replete with stories about his spiritual feats and virtues.
The Suhrawardis came to South Asia somewhat later than the
Chishtis, in the first half of the thirteenth century, although, as if
to make up for it, they came not one at a time, but as a large group.
Three of the five khalīfas of Abu Hafs: Nuruddin Mubarak Ghaznavi
(died in 1235), Qadi Hamiduddin Nagori (died in 1244, and who
should not be mixed up with his Chishti namesake Hamiduddin
Suwali Nagori), and Baha’uddin Zakariya Multani (1182–1262) 1
finally settled down in the subcontinent. All of them made an
excellent career: Nuruddin Mubarak Ghaznavi held the post of
shaikh ul-Islām of Delhi for twenty years and was called Mīr-i Dihlī
(Lord of Delhi); Hamiduddin Nagori was the chief metropolitan qād˝ī
(although he won real fame thanks to his Sufi treatises and successful
campaign against ‘ulamā in support of samā‘), and Baha’uddin
Zakariya also acted at first as the shaikh ul-Islām and subsequently,
having founded the central cloister of the fraternity in Punjab, became
the real spiritual sovereign of Multan, nicknamed Mīr-i Multān.
The rivalry between Chishtis and Suhrawardis should not be
conceived as enmity or antagonism: many members of the competing
fraternities were on very friendly terms with each other, for example,
Qadi Hamiduddin Nagori with Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki or
Nizamuddin Awliya with Shaikh Ruknuddin. The instances of mutual
hostility between leaders of the two fraternities are most probably an
exception rather than the rule. In any case this hostility was expressed
not in hostile conduct, but in frank discussions, of the type held
on the question of poverty by Hamiduddin Suwali Nagori and
Baha’uddin Zakariya on the occasion of the maz.har in Delhi. 2
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