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

NOTES
13 Murāqaba (‘spiritual communion’, ‘meditation’) is the concentration of
thoughts for the purpose of spiritual communion with God, a saint or
preceptor; it is a psycho-technical method by means of which a Sufi
conceived the image of a saint or his murshid. Murāqaba could take
place both during the lifetime of a saint and after his death; celebrated
mystic unions of Jalaluddin Rumi with Shams Tabrizi, of Shaikh
Farid with Nizamuddin Awliya, Dara Shikoh with Miyan Mir, Shah
Husain with Madho Lal etc., come under the category of murāqaba.
On a shaikh’s death his disciples sought murāqaba near his tomb,
which facilitated the state of contemplation and meditation.
14 Distribution of consecrated food is an integral element of a wider
concept tabarruk (from baraka), including the distribution of offerings
made to a saint among his relatives and descendants and also the
passing on of blessings through material objects, consecrated by contact
with a saint.
15 Another tomb ascribed to ‘Abdul Qadir Jilani happens to be in Kallar
Kahar of Punjab. In Qalat a Shi‘a missionary of the eleventh century
actually bearing this name is buried and in Punjab there is similarly a
Turkestani saint of the thirteenth century.
16 Ibāh˝a (Arabic ‘giving freedom, permission’) is mentioned in early Sufi
texts, in particular, by al-Hujwiri, in respect of the mystics, considering
themselves to be free from social and ethical limitations. Amir Khusrow
and Barani in their chronicles relate the term ibāh˝atī to Isma‘ilis and
‘people of incest’. Therefore, the attempts to trace the etymology of
this word to ‘spoiled transmission’ of the word bhakti are erroneous
as is also the notion about ibāh˝atī as an esoteric Hindu sect, in which
‘elements of early medieval age tantrism had survived’ (Ashrafyan
1963: 133).
17 At the same time the graves of British colonial officials occasionally
became objects of ritual veneration. An example is perhaps the grave of
John Jacob, who was at the head of British administration in Khangher
(now Jacobabad) of Sind in the middle of the last century. The
memorial to Jacob in the local Christian cemetery is venerated by
the Sindhis as a shrine: they decorate it with flower garlands, and on
Thursdays they kindle votive lamps in front of it.
18 Mithankot is a small town on the bank of the Indus, built around the
tomb of Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1815–1910), a saint famous for his
popular poetry in Siraiki.
19 Compare, for example, the bait (couplet) of Abu Sa‘id bin Abul Khair
Mayhani:
Hūsham na muwāsiqān–o khīshān burdand
Īn kajkulāhān-i mūparīshān burdand
I lost my reason not due to relatives and supporters,
Those with cocked hat and dishevelled hair plundered it.
(‘Afifi 1997: 2024)
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