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

THE WARRIOR SAINTS
It is known that before undertaking a voyage through the Bay of
Bengal, sailors and merchants, praying for a fair wind and seeking
protection from the Burmese and Portuguese pirates, used to give a
promise in writing to Pir Badr to pay a certain amount in his name.
When a ship safely reached Chittagong special port officials used to
board the ship and collect from the crew and the passengers the
amount promised by them for payment to the saint. This ritual,
apparently, is older than Pir Badr’s cult: even Ibn Battuta writes about
it, connecting it with the name of the seafarers’ patron saint Abu
Ishaq Kazeruni (who died in 1035), to whom Indian sailors, on the
way to the China Sea, used to pay money as promised (Trimingham
1971: 236).
People also used to apply to Pir Badr for help during floods, which
are very frequent in the coastal regions of East Bengal. After collective
ziyārat of the devotees to the saint’s tomb, the waters miraculously
abated. According to popular etymology this manifestation of
karāmāt called into being the distorted form of the saint’s name,
Badar-rao (as a result of mistakenly merging together the words badr
and rā’o: the latter word in Indian languages means ‘prince’ or
‘chief’), which together means ‘channel for water’ or ‘drain’ (whereas
the saint’s name in Arabic means ‘full moon’) (Asad ‘Ali 1979: 145).
Pir Badr’s connection with water has manifested itself in the main
ritual of his veneration: during the days of the saint’s ‘urs people used
to visit the village pond or the neighbouring river and float small
bunches of grass on the water, on which, as on rafts, they placed
lighted lamps. Everyone knows that lights floating on water are
typical of Diwālī rituals and many other religious festivals of the
Hindus. Very similar were the veneration rituals of the legendary
saint Khwāja Khid˝r (al-Khad˝ir), whom the Hindus of East Bengal
depicted travelling on a fish and that is why they identified him with
matsya – the ‘fish’ avatār of Lord Vishnu.
The mysterious figure of Khwaja Khizr, the green-clad hero of
Muslim legends and tales, shows through the outlines of the historical
image of many South Asian saints. Travelling together with Iskandar
(Alexander of Macedonia), he drank deep from the spring of the
water of life and became immortal; hence his most popular nickname
Zinda Pīr. Commentators of the Qur’ān consider that in the āyat
60–81 of the sūra ‘The Cave’ there is reference to Khizr as a preceptor
and companion of the Prophet Musa (Moses), revealing secret mystic
truth to the latter. If in popular tales Khizr used to come to the aid of
wayfarers who had lost their way and of people in trouble, to Sufis
he appeared all the time in visions and dreams.
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