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

D e bati ng Ort h o d ox y, Contesting Tr a d i t i o n 1 2 1In this retelling of Indo-Muslim history, the Chishti Sabiri historiographicalproject deviates radically from that of their Islamist counterparts. Here, Sufisaints are anything but marginalized mystics. Instead, Chishti spiritual mastersare placed firmly at the forefront of both religious and political life, guidingand sanctifying the teleological evolution of South Asian Islam from the Delhisultanate through the birth—under the spiritual direction of Muhammad ZauqiShah himself—of the “Land of the Pure” (Pakistan).Though he wrote comparatively less than his mentor, Shahidullah Faridialso published numerous tracts. One of his most accessible texts, Inner Aspectsof Faith ([1979] 1986), contains a series of essays on a broad range of topics,from Islamic theology to Sufi psychology. Without a doubt, though, it wasWahid Bakhsh Rabbani who inherited the literary mantle and political legacyfrom Zauqi Shah. Rabbani produced a voluminous body of texts, in both Urduand English. Encompassing a massive collection of letters to his disciples, numeroustranslations of pre-modern Persian biographical texts, treatises on ritualpractice, and polemical pieces defending the Chishti Sabiri tradition fromits detractors, his writings are remarkably diverse in content and form.In his work entitled Islamic Sufism (1984), for example, Rabbani respondsdirectly to both Euro-American Orientalist scholars and his Islamist detractorsin a spirited defense of the Sufi tradition. In a broad and nuanced exposition,he challenges the assumptions, methodologies, and conclusions of Sufism’scritics with a critical eye and a sharp tongue. The book’s format and style mirrorsthe models of Orientalist scholarship, complete with technical vocabulary,an index, bibliography, glossary, and graphs, as well as a full-page color photographof the s h a y k h . A true bibliophile, Rabbani moves easily between multiplelanguages and diverse epistemologies. Yet throughout, there is never anydoubt about his fundamental loyalties and commitments. Though he is fluentin the language of modernity, his book remains firmly grounded in Islamic idiomsand a Sufi worldview. Islamic Sufism, in short, presents an old messagethrough a new medium.Nothing more lucidly encapsulates contemporary Chishti Sabiri imaginingsof Sufi identity and its role in the legacy of South Asia, however, than an eclecticbook Rabbani wrote late in his life, The Magnificent Power Potential of Pakistan(2000). This is a weighty text, more than 550 pages long in both its Urdu andEnglish manifestations. Its scale is equaled by its scope, which ranges from acomprehensive analysis of early Islamic military history to a detailed survey ofthe legacy of Indo-Muslim culture. The book culminates in a frank assessmentof Pakistan’s position (and, as the title suggests, “power potential”) in the conte m p o r a ry global order. It is a unique and in many ways atypical work in a Pakistanimarket glutted with religious literature, much of it ideological andhighly polemical. Even for Rabbani, whose literary pursuits embraced multiplegenres in diverse registers, this work stands out as unique. Throughout the