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

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THE SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGN OF MULTAN Notwithstanding the temporal qualities of a diplomat and politician, Baha’uddin Zakariya was undoubtedly endowed with the vocation of a mystic and the talent of a spiritual preceptor, which was admitted even by his opponents. Fawā’id al-Fu’ād ascribes to him the ability to recite the entire Qur’an in one cycle of prayer: ‘Shaykh Baha ad-din Zakariya then stepped forward. In one cycle of prayer he recited the entire Qur’an plus four additional sections; then in the second cycle he recited the Surat al-Ikhlas (Q. 112) and finished his prayer’ (Amir Hasan 1992: 86). In addition, the Shaikh had the rare gift, called nafs-i-gīrā, which is the ability to fully control the spiritual state and consciousness of his murīds and to bend them to his will. Following the precepts of the founder of the Suhrawardiyya order, Baha’uddin Zakariya considered that a sālik, travelling on the mystic Path, should not change his leader in the course of the entire spiritual journey: ‘You should not tarry at every door and entrance’, he used to say, ‘Hold onto one door and hold onto it firmly’ (Amir Hasan 1992: 112). Apparently, that is why many of his murīds lived in the cloister in Multan for decades, as, for example, the poet Fakhruddin Ibrahim ‘Iraqi, 14 who spent twenty-five long years in the saint’s magnetic field. One could come across similar ‘old-timers’ even in Chishti jamā‘atkhānas (let us recall, for example, Badruddin Ishaq and the Kirmani family), but on the whole the period of novicehood and the process of granting of khilāfat-nāma amongst them was considerably shorter. The South Asian Suhrawardis in general somehow very reluctantly parted with their baraka: Baha’uddin Zakariya and Jalaluddin Surkhposh Bukhari nominated khalīfas in the main from amongst their own sons, and Jalaluddin Tabrizi and Qadi Hamiduddin Nagori restricted the number of disciples considerably. It has already been mentioned that Baha’uddin Zakariya did not countenance musical auditions. At the same time most of all he liked to listen to how Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi recited his ghazals. As it was even for the Chishtis, poetry was for him the most adequate means of expression of mystic experience. It is mentioned in Fawā’id alfu’ād that he would stand in the doorway of his room, continually repeating the bait: O beauty, cast a glance once more on me, For I’ve strayed not – may God my witness be! ‘What could he have been thinking?’ Nizamuddin Awliya comments upon this episode, ‘Nobody knows what the verse connoted for 147
THE SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGN OF MULTAN him, or what he derived from its constant repetition’ Amir Hasan 1992: 198). In any case Baha’uddin did not succeed in banishing samā’ from the khānqāh in Multan for all time: nowadays qawwāls perform the bait from a famous ghazal of Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi at the gates of his tomb. Nukhustīn bāde k-andar jām kardand Zi chashm-i mast-i sāqī wām kardand The eternal wine poured out in the goblet, Was borrowed from the sāqī’s intoxicated eyes. (Safa 1984: 580) Tradition has it that other disciples of the Shaikh were shocked to learn that this ghazal was being sung in local taverns to the accompaniment of the harp. They complained to the Shaikh who asked ‘Iraqi to recite the complete ghazal. On listening to the end of the verse, Baha’uddin Zakariya was so deeply moved by it that he declared ‘Iraqi’s training completed. He ordered him to give up discipline, presented him his own khirqa and later appointed him his khalīfa. ‘Iraqi’s devotion to his pīr expressed itself in many of the verses which he wrote. One of them stated: If you ask of the world who is the guide of mortals, You will hear from the heavens nothing but ‘Zakariya’. (Amir Khurd 1978: 109) Amongst Baha’uddin Zakariya’s and Qadi Hamiduddin Nagori’s disciples there were quite a number of merchants and craftsmen by birth, who continued to lead a temporal life and visited the khānqāh only from time to time. Particularly glorified in hagiographic literature were the weaver Ahmad Naharwani, the butcher Shaikh ‘Ainuddin, Shahi Muy Tab (Hair-Rope Maker who was Nizamuddin Awliya’s boyhood friend from Badaun), Mahmud Muyina-Duz (Tailor of Fur) and the artisan Hasan Afghan. Fawā’id al-fu’ād refers to their virtues and saintliness over and over. Hasan Afghan, in particular, was endowed with such extra-sensory faculties that, in spite of being illiterate, he could among other written texts make out the lines of Qur’ran because, thanks to his internal sight (bașīrat) he could see the radiance emanating from them. Baha’uddin Zakariya used to say about him: ‘If tomorrow they ask me to bring forward one person from my household (dargah) as a representative to face judgment on behalf of all the others, I would select Hasan Afghan’ (Amir Hasan 1992: 90). 148
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MUSLIM SAINTS OF SOUTH ASIA This bo
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MUSLIM SAINTS OF SOUTH ASIA The ele
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IN CHERISHED MEMORY OF MY FATHER, A
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FOREWORD Christopher Shackle In man
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FOREWORD keen literary sensibility
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1 THE INDIAN TOMB Everyone who has
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THE INDIAN TOMB deviation of an ind
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THE INDIAN TOMB an active syncretis
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THE INDIAN TOMB saints’ cult in I
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THE INDIAN TOMB Probably the most o
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THE INDIAN TOMB another saint of De
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THE INDIAN TOMB indication of the c
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THE INDIAN TOMB 1276. 9 Hagiographi
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THE INDIAN TOMB form with a dome in
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THE INDIAN TOMB Some of the saints
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THE INDIAN TOMB A powerful religion
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THE INDIAN TOMB They were known by
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THE INDIAN TOMB cenotaph of Sayyid
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THE INDIAN TOMB Mazhar Janjanan, he
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THE INDIAN TOMB The cult of saints
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THE INDIAN TOMB As a scholarly prob
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THE INDIAN TOMB realized. The form
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2 THE HERMIT OF LAHORE Everywhere a
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE These examples
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE difference bet
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE almost every c
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE in the practic
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE condemned them
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE response to th
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE have composed
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE that I have su
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE in particular
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE The saint of H
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THE HERMIT OF LAHORE and order, the
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3 THE OLD MAN OF AJMER A pious erud
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER silsila, Iraqi
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER was at the hea
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER this hall of p
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER Prithviraj’s
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER he unreservedl
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER During Akbar
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER on the saint
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER and estate man
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER former, but ri
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THE OLD MAN OF AJMER 7 One should c
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4 THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN There is
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN In the ear
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN Maqșūd-i
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN the newcom
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN pebbles, w
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN respectful
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN in good ti
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THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN told him:
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Page 168 and 169: 7 THE WARRIOR SAINTS When Hindus an
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THE MENDICANT SAINTS not because it
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EPILOGUE As I have tried to show in
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EPILOGUE An equally important role
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EPILOGUE elephant ride. It exaspera
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NOTES 5 The profusion of relics in
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NOTES 2 THE HERMIT OF LAHORE 1 The
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NOTES His feet were firmly planted
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NOTES 4 THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN 1
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NOTES despair and would come to me
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NOTES 6 In the last year of ‘Ala
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NOTES life). Here his opponent lost
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NOTES in his creative writings. Aft
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NOTES 5 The Hyderis of Khurasan der
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GLOSSARY bārahmāsa poems that dea
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GLOSSARY ī mān faith, creed inkā
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GLOSSARY nafs-i ammāra unregenerat
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GLOSSARY tarāwih˝ supererogatory
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BIBLIOGRAPHY u’d-dīn Chirāgh-i-
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Delvoye, F., ‘Nalini
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BIBLIOGRAPHY —— (1965) ‘Malf
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‘Abdar Rahim 164 ‘Abdul ‘Aziz
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cenotaphs (fake graves) 23-4 Chanda
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Jhelum 12 Jinnah, Muhammad ‘Ali 3
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Pir Badr 13, 165-9, 177, 201 Pir Bu
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