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

THE HERMIT OF LAHORE
mentor’s words: ‘God has preserved me from mud ever since I put
unquestioning trust in Him and guarded my interior from the
desolation of cupidity’ (al-Hujwiri 1992: 234). Once again the author
gives himself up to self-deprecation, unequivocally implying that it
was exactly here that his ‘internal dirt’ came to light.
For al-Hujwiri the natural world is full of unexplained phenomena
to an even greater extent than is the world of human relations. In
India he saw ‘a worm which appeared in a deadly poison and lived
by it, because that poison was its whole being’ (al-Hujwiri 1992:
407). In Turkistan he observes a burning mountain, ‘from the rocks
of which salammoniac fumes were boiling forth; and in the midst of
that fire was a mouse, which died when it came out of the glowing
heat’ (al-Hujwiri 1992: 408). Each time, such wonders become an
occasion for a lengthy discourse on inscrutable divine providence.
Constantly anticipating wonders in everyday life, al-Hujwiri is
extremely careful and conservative when he discusses karāmāt in
his book. Continually he emphasizes that saints can work wonders
only if they do not violate the requirements of religious law. ‘In
fact, miracles (karāmat) and saintship are Divine gifts, not things
acquired by Man, so that human actions (kasb) cannot become
the cause of Divine guidance’ (al-Hujwiri 1992: 225). The author
continues:
Accordingly, a miracle (karāmat) will not be manifested to
a saint unless he is in a state of absence from himself and
bewilderment, and unless his faculties are entirely under
the control of God. While saints are with themselves and
maintain the state of humanity (bashāriyyat), they are veiled;
but when the veil is lifted they are bewildered and amazed
through realizing the bounties of God. A miracle cannot be
manifested except in the state of unveiledness (kashf ), which
is the rank of proximity (qurb); and whoever is in that state,
to him worthless stones appear even as gold.
(al-Hujwiri 1992: 226–7)
This passage in its own way answers the question raised at the
beginning of the chapter: who became a Muslim saint and why? Al-
Hujwiri’s answer is obvious – well, anybody, but only by God’s grace,
the motives of which are kept back from mortals.
An analysis of Kashf al-mah˛jūb is not one of the tasks of this book,
all the same, however, it is worth mentioning a few words about it.
Like many works of Muslim didactic literature it has been written in
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