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

THE OLD MAN OF AJMER
7 One should consider his evil deed due to one’s evil ‘self’
responsible for the action.
8 One should regularly fast during the day and spend the night in
prayer.
9 One should remain quiet and speak only when it is imperative
to do so.
(Rizvi 1986: 123–4)
Although Ajmer Sharif continued to be the main shrine and the
cradle of the Chishtiyya order in the subcontinent, immediately after
Khwaja Mu‘inuddin’s death the centre of activities of the fraternity
shifted to Delhi. Thanks to the selfless efforts of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar
Kaki, with whom begins the Chishti tradition of non-collaboration
with the authorities, refusal to be in service (shughl) and nonacceptance
of gifts and donations from the high and mighty of this
world, the fraternity not only gained a foothold in the capital, but also
became the most influential and popular spiritual institution of the
Delhi Sultanate.
One should not be deceived by the word ‘popular’: it does not
signify that the Chishtis initiated into the fraternity each and everyone
without exception, although they had considerably enlarged the
contingent of neophytes at the expense of non-Muslims, from whom
at first, till their initiation, they did not demand formal conversion to
Islam. As persons capable of true comprehension of human souls, the
Great shaikhs of the Chishtiyya understood that mystic experience
was a phenomenon of a different and higher order than ecstasy (wajd),
the reaching of which was the practical purpose of Sufism in the
opinion of the majority. The well-known automation of the practice
of dervishes, typical for many ţarīqas, led to the false conclusion that
an ordinary person can in a short enough period of time master mystic
experience with the help of a set of psycho-physical exercises, such as
participation in samā‘, breath control (h˝abs-i dam), rhythmic movements,
or the silent and loud dhikr (remembrance/praise of God).
At the same time the ultimate aim of the Sufi’s path, fanā/baqā
(annihilation/subsistence), demanded of him complete regeneration
and transformation of the personality, which was within the reach
only of the specially gifted and chosen few. Momentary altered
states of the psyche (h˝āl), ecstatic enlightenment, falling into a trance
right up to complete loss of consciousness, which the uninitiated
could experience at the time of collective auditions, were not genuine
mystic experiences, although they did create for a man the illusion
of transient unity with the Absolute.
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