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

THE MENDICANT SAINTS
not because it exhibits on the stage the same story with scenery of
homosexual love, but rather because it organizes in accordance with
the laws of classical literary genre the life of a popular saint, who
was in addition a historic personality.
Proselytizing poems always concluded with the tragic death or
suicide of the heroes and their union after death. Shah Husain’s story,
however, has a happy end: he lived many years with his friend and
passed away in his arms. After the saint’s demise Madho became
the makhdūm of his tomb and continued to compose songs under
the poetic pseudonym of his lover so that Madho Lal Husain’s
kāfīs available now are the fruit of collective creative work of two
‘lamps’ (chirāghān) illuminating Lahore. Madho (who died in 1646)
was buried by Shah Husain’s side. At the close of the eighteenth
century the Maharaja of Punjab, Ranjit Singh’s wife, erected over
the grave of the saints a mausoleum together with a small mosque.
Madho Lal Husain’s ‘urs is observed in February–March and coincides
with the celebration of Holī. The rituals of melā-i chirāghān have
retained many features of this Indian festival of the vernal equinox:
jumping through fire, playful bouts between men and women, and
the sprinkling of participants with coloured powder. The unorthodoxy
and syncretism of Madho Lal Husain’s cult have turned him
into a beloved character of folklore, whom latter-day tradition
ascribed opposition to the rule of the Mughals and struggle for establishment
of an independent state of Punjab. As an anti-authoritarian
hero he became a character of the plays of some contemporary
Pakistani playwrights.
At the same time Madho Lal Husain’s life, and the poem H˛aqīqat
al-fuqarādevoted to him, demonstrate that the shockingly scandalous
behaviour of wandering dervishes served as a screen to conceal
the ‘true essence’ (h˝aqīqat), and was capable of showing a heathen
like Madho the way to God and of inspiring the heart of a sinner like
Shah Husain with the emotional and passionate experience of faith.
The unending road on which qalandars made their way, turned out
to be the Path of Love, leading to that very goal, just like the ţarīqat
of ‘regular’ mystics. All-absorbing passion for the Divine Beloved,
referred to by Madho Lal Husain, was, of course, not a privilege of
those who were part of a silsila and lived in a khānqāh:
Rabba mere hal da mahram ton
Andar ton in bahar ton in rom rom vich ton
Inside is He,
And outside also He,
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