Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

1 2 0Islam i n World Cult u r e spraxis and championed a reconstructed Pakistani cultural identity that was simultaneouslyMuslim, mystic, and modern.Writing SufismIn many ways, the contemporary Chishti Sabiri model of a socially engaged Sufismparallels that of their nineteenth-century predecessors. Hajji Imdadullahand Rashid Ahmed Gangohi—key players, as we have seen, in the foundationof the Deoband m a d r a s a—were themselves Chishti Sabiri s h a y k hs, and theirlegacy stands as an enduring model. The reformist agenda of Muhammad ZauqiShah, Shahidullah Faridi, and Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani, however, was focusednot on institution building but on the written word. Combining spiritualpedagogy and practice with literary acumen, these contemporary mastersgrounded Pakistani Sufism in a distinctly modern idiom. Writing in both Urduand English, each of them valorized Chishti Sabiri identity as a defense againstthe tradition’s critics and as a barrier against Western cultural encroachmentand political hegemony. Addressing a diverse Pakistani and international audience,they employed technical and scientific vocabulary in combination withmass media (from the printing press to cyberspace) to demonstrate the enduringrelevance of the doctrinal teachings and ritual practices at the heart of Sufii d e n t i t y.Zauqi Shah drew on his experiences and expertise as a journalist to inscribea new vision of Chishti Sabiri identity through a diverse range of publications.The shaykh went even further in his political activism. Attending thefirst meeting of the Muslim League in Karachi in 1907, he formally joined theorganization in 1940 and went on to serve as vice president for the district ofAjmer. A confidant of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Zauqi Shah wrote a series of lettersin English to Pakistan’s future leader. This lengthy and lively correspondencehas recently been published by the order in a book entitled Letters of aSufi Saint to Jinnah (Muhammad Zauqi Shah 2000). Among contemporaryChishti Sabiri disciples, Zauqi Shah is remembered for both his high spiritualstatus and his political clout as an early Pakistani nationalist. In Tarbiat al-Ushaq, a compilation of the shaykh’s discourses (malfuzat), Wahid Bakhsh Rabbaniwrote:This matter is not generally known by the people, but the elect know it: whileQaid-e Azam [Muhammad Ali Jinnah] was the outward founder of Pakistan,Hazrat Muhammad Zauqi Shah was its inward, spiritual founder. The fact is thatfrom ancient times Chishti saints have played a major role in the conquest ofH i n d u s t a n . . . . That is why Hazrat often used to say, “Hindustan is the inheritanceof the Chishtis.” (Rabbani 1983, 76–77)