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

THE MENDICANT SAINTS
And, finally, the word qalandar denoted a member of the mysticascetic
movement in Khurasan, which in the course of time took
shape as the Qalandariyya fraternity and by the thirteenth century
reached the borders of India. The teaching of Qalandariyya differed
from the doctrines of other Muslim fraternities by virtue of the serious
influence of Hindu and Buddhist practices on it. Its fundamental
tenets were: the rejection of the mystic-ascetic practice of seclusion
and life together in a cloister; an indifferent and negligent attitude
towards the mandatory injunctions (farā’id˝) and rituals of Islam; the
avoidance of participation in common prayer and public worship; a
refusal to observe the fast obligatory for all Muslims; subsistence by
means of collecting alms; the absence of any property; and a nomadic
way of life. Some members of the Qalandariyya fraternity also used
to make a vow of celibacy.
The Qalandariyya movement came into being on the basis of
the early teaching of Malamatiyya (from Arabic malāmat, ‘blame’),
to which al-Hujwiri has devoted a separate chapter of his Kashf almah˝jūb.
After giving an account of different kinds of malāmat
incurred by the mystics of the past, al-Hujwiri wrote ironically of his
contemporaries:
In those days it was necessary, for incurring blame, to do
something disapproved or extraordinary; but in our time, if
anyone desires blame, he need only lengthen a little his
voluntary prayers or fulfil the religious practices which are
prescribed: at once everybody will call him a hypocrite and
impostor.
(al-Hujwiri 1992: 65)
The malāmatī used to assert that ‘blame is abandonment of welfare’
(al-malāmat tark as-salāmat) and in their aspiration for ‘belittling
themselves’ and dissolving themselves in God intentionally attracted
people’s censure and contempt by their scandalous escapades. 2 In so
doing they were guided by the āyat: ‘They fear not the blame of
anyone; that is the grace of God which He bestows on whomsoever
He pleases; God is bounteous and wise’ (5: 59).
Conscious of their own insignificance before God and in order to
avoid the attention of others, the malāmatīs rejected everything
superficial and ostentatious, including collective dhikr and tarāwih˝
(supererogatory prayers), which were widely practised amongst
Sufis, their special dress and mode of life, because they considered
that these manifestations of piety were meant for the public. However,
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