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

THE SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGN OF MULTAN
was no need of it, since soon after a khānqāh, with a mosque attached
to it, was erected for the Shaikh on Iltutmish’s order. It is difficult to
imagine Baba Farid or Nizamuddin Awliya in such a situation,
indicative of a lack of humility, which warned most of all against
manifestation of arrogance towards the brethren or religious
authorities. A feeling of their own superiority, even arrogance, in
everything concerning faith was in general peculiar to Suhrawardis.
Thus, Jalaluddin Tabrizi once visited the governor of Badaun,
Qadi Kamaluddin Ja‘fri, and having come to know that he was
performing namāz, expressed doubt as to his ability to pray. The
offended governor, to whom the saint’s arrogant remark had been
conveyed, came to him insisting on an explanation. Jalaluddin
Tabrizi’s reply was:
Alas, the prayer of scholars (‘ulama) is one thing, and the
prayer of God’s beggars (fuqara) is another thing ... In
their prayer the scholars face the Ka‘ba and then pray. If they
cannot see the Ka‘ba, they pray in the direction of the Ka‘ba,
and if they are in a place where even the direction of the
Ka‘ba is not known, they select the most likely direction that
would orient them to the Ka‘ba. The prayer orientation
(qibla) of the scholars is not other than these three possibilities,
whereas the beggars of God never offer prayer unless
they see the Throne of God.
(Amir Hasan 1992: 345)
Although Baha’uddin Zakariya was a model of pious respectability
and Jalaluddin Tabrizi became famous for a certain amount of
eccentricity (suffice it to say that on the way from Baghdad to Lahore
the former was constantly praying and meditating, while the latter
was seeing sights and visiting acquaintances), cordial relations
between them continued for a long time. The most dramatic test of
their friendship was the maz.har, which was presided over by
Baha’uddin Zakariya, and in which Jalaluddin Tabrizi figured as the
accused, charged with an illicit sexual relationship with a bondmaid.
Hagiographic sources unanimously consider the accusation to have
been trumped up on instructions from the well-known persecutor of
Sufis, Najmuddin Sughra. This shaikh ul-Islām, who left behind him
a bad legacy in Sufi literature, bribed the slave dancing-girl (i.e. a
doubly lowly person) to commit perjury, and she slandered the saint
before the Sultan. Since this was not the first scandal in which
Jalaluddin Tabrizi turned out to be implicated, 12 the Sultan saw to it
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