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

THE SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGN OF MULTAN
Having savings was not prohibited to Suhrawardis, and they gave
to the poor a fixed amount of alms, consisting of 20 per cent of each
futūh˝. Most of the pilgrims came to Chishti cloisters for ta‘wīdhs
and medical aid. The Suhrawardis in general did not render such
a service: people used to visit their khānqāhs mostly for esoteric
rather than practical purposes. In particular, the Suhrawardis used
to interpret dreams and insisted upon a daily detailed account of their
dreams from the murīds, which, according to them, were an indication
of a mystic’s progress along the Path.
The Chishtis, as we will recall, spent a large part of their life
observing fasts, devising such refined forms of mortification of the
flesh as chilla-i ma‘kūs and șaum-i Dā’ūdī. In hagiographic literature
a Chishti mystic is usually depicted as an emaciated person, clad
in rags and tatters. The Suhrawardis considered that the fast in the
month of Ramad˝ān, enjoined by Sharī‘at, was quite enough, and they
categorically rejected various ascetic experiments, seeing in them
the influence of kāfirs (pagans). Jalaluddin Tabrizi advised Sufis to
eat three times a day in order to accumulate strength for prayers and
for avoidance of sin. External tidiness, khirqa made of fine wool and
well-groomed hands, decorated with finger-rings, were the hallmark
of Baha’uddin Zakariya, his disciples and descendants.
The practice of Chishtis is inconceivable without samā‘, which
Suhrawardis forbade on the basis of their eponym’s declaration that
all auditions (samā‘, h˝ad˝ra) ran counter to religious law. 7 In the
central khānqāh of the fraternity in Multan this interdiction was
consistently put into practice, although in our day qawwālī is
performed even here. However, the Suhrawardis could not eradicate
samā‘ in their ranks. It has already been mentioned that one of the
most ardent apologists of musical auditions was Qadi Hamiduddin
Nagori, who had to take recourse to all sorts of tricks in order to
conduct samā‘ in private houses. The same Qadi Hamiduddin Nagori
advised Iltutmish to arrange samā‘ for the dervishes during a long
drought in Delhi. The Sultan agreed, and after the samā‘ the rains fell
heavily (Hamid Qalandar 1959: 85).
Beginning with Nizamuddin Awliya the Chishtis started observing
celibacy, although at the same time they did not forbid members of
the order to marry. It seems that Nizamuddin did not suffer from
celibacy, but then Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dihli constantly had to drink
lemon juice and chew some herbs in order to suppress the calls of
the flesh. In the instances when Chishtis married they did not attach
much importance to family life, regarding it as an ordinary (and
burdensome) fulfilment of duty. This way of thinking is exemplified
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