The wonder that was india

Leaving his homeland in Transoxiana, Shah 'Abdu'llah reached India during the first half of the fifteenth century. He travelled in style through northern India, dressed like a king, while his dervishes marched wearing soldiers' uniforms, beating drums, and displaying their banners. He challenged all the sufis either to learn the principles of Wahdat al-Wujud from him and become his disciples or to teach them to him and make him their disciple. No sufi, the Shattariyya literature asserts, accepted the challenge. He went as far as Bengal and converted the leading sufi Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali, known as Shaykh Qazin of Hajjipur, to his order. From Bengal he travelled to Mandu, where Sultan Ghiyasu'd-Din Shah (1469-1500) also became his disciple. In Jaunpur, Shaykh Buddhan Shattari, a disciple of Shah 'Abdu'llah's khalifa Shaykh Hafiz, acquired several eminent sufis as his followers. Shah 'Abdu'llah died at Mandu in 1485.

The outstanding Shattariyya sufi, however, was Ghaws Shattari. His elder brother, Shaykh Phul, Emperor Humayun's great favourite, was killed by Humayun's rebel brother, Mirza Hindal, in 1539. For a long time before settling down at Gwalior, Shaykh Ghaws had been practising rigorous mystical ascetic exercises in the Chunar caves near the Ganges. When Sher Shah moved to Agra in 1540 Shaykh Ghaws fled to Gujarat for fear of persecution. Nevertheless he managed to keep in touch with Humayun. After Akbar took the throne the Shaykh returned to Gwalior; the young Emperor ignored him, but the Shaykh owned vast tracts of land and livestock and was able to live affluently until he died in 1563.

His books were controversial. In one of them he claimed that he had made a mystical ascent and had been close to God, like the Prophet Muhammad. He also re-translated the yogic Bahru'l hayat, but his most famous work is the Jawahir-i khamsa, which deals with mystical and magical practices, techniques in exorcism, and invoking the great names of Allah for material benefits. These mystical Shattariyya exercises were borrowed mainly from yogic practices and deeply impressed both Hindus and Muslims.

Many eminent sufis became Shaykh Ghaws's disciples. The most prominent among them was Shaykh Wajihu'd-Din Ahmad of Gujarat (d. 1589-90), who was celebrated for his profound learning and scholarly works on hadis and fiqh. His conversion to the Shattariyya order made it very popular from Gujarat to Burhan-pur. Shaykh Wajihu'd-Din's disciples introduced the Shattariyya order into Mecca and Medina, from where seventeenth-century pilgrims carried it to Syria, Indonesia, and Malaya.

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In the reigns of Shahjahan and Aurangzib, Gujarat, Gwalior, Mandu, and Burhanpur were the principal Shattariyya centres. The Burhanpur Shattariyyas became prominent because Shaykh 'Isa, the well-known commentator on Ibnu'l Arabi, and his disciple, Shaykh Burhanu'd-Din, lived there. Shaykh Burhanu'd-Din would not see rich men and princes and even refused to allow the orthodox Prince Aurangzib, who was viceroy of the Deccan from 1636 to 1644 and 1652 to 1657, to visit him. Aurangzib again tried to obtain his blessing before leaving to march against Dara Shukoh, but the Shaykh refused to see him. Later, however, the Shaykh relented, agreeing to meet the Prince outside his khanqah when he went to pray and to bless him.67 The Shaykh died in 1678-9, mourned by a large number of followers. The Shattariyya sufis attracted both scholars and common men as disciples and were eagerly sought as teachers of sufic mysteries outlined in the Jawahir-i khamsa.

THE QADIRIYYA ORDER

The Qadiriyyas originated from the great sufi Muhyiu'd-Din 'Abdul-Qadir Jilani (d. 1166). One of his descendants, Shaykh Muhammad al-Husayni, settled in Uch, and his son, Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Qadir (d. 1533), made the Qadiriyya order famous throughout the Panjab and Sind. 'Abdu'l-Qadir's son, Shaykh Hamid, was also very well known. After his death in 1571 his two sons, Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Qadir and Shaykh Musa, sought Akbar's decision on who should inherit their father's position. Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Qadir annoyed Akbar by offering prayers in the hall of audience at Fathpur instead of the mosque. The Emperor therefore favoured Shaykh Musa, who accepted a mansab and remained a lifelong supporter of Akbar and a friend to Abu'l-Fazl and his associates. Shaykh Musa, in his capacity as a mansabdar, was killed when suppressing a rebellion against Akbar in 1602.68 Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Qadir retired to Uch, where he ran the silsila until he died.

Shaykh Hamid's disciple, Shaykh Dawud, became a great celebrity at Chati in Lahore because of his devoted followers. According to Bada'uni, each day the Shaykh converted fifty to one hundred Hindus and their families to Islam. The number is grossly exaggerated, for at this rate the whole of the Panjab would have been Islamicized in a short time. The story proves only the Shaykh's enthusiasm for proselytism.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Qadiriyya order

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became famous for its teaching of the Wahdat al-Wujud doctrine in Dehli and its neighbourhood. Shah 'Abdu'r Razzaq (d. 1542) of Jhanjhana, not far from Dehli, was a very successful teacher of this doctrine. His disciple Shaykh Aman Panipati (d. 1550), wrote several treatises on the Wahdat al-Wujud. Although this was an advanced mystical philosophy not usually publicly discussed, Shaykh Aman claimed that he could convince anyone who was not prejudiced of its truth.69 Among his favourite disciples was Shaykh Sayfu'd-Din, the father of Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Haqq Muhaddis Dih-lawi.

Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Haqq was born in 1551. He received his early education from his father and was initiated into the Qadiriyya order by Shaykh Musi in 1577. Although Shaykh Musa was friendly to Akbar and his favourites, Shaykh 'Abdu'1-Haqq despised them, considering them enemies of Islam. However, 'Abdu'l-Haqq's respect for Shaykh Musa did not wane, and he always praised his teacher. In 1586 the Shaykh left for Mecca for pilgrimage, returning in 1592. Dissociating himself from the court, he lived in Delhi. After Akbar's death he hoped that Jahangir would start a new policy by reinvigorating the shari'a. He wrote a short treatise, the Nuriya-i Syltaniya, in order to show Jahangir some aspects of Sunni polity. In 1619-20 Jahangir honoured him with an audience, and the Shaykh presented him with his biographical dictionary of Indian sufis, entitled the Akhbaru'l-akhyar.70 Before his death, however, the Emperor turned against the Shaykh and his son, Nuru'1-Haqq, suspecting them of being friends with Prince Khurram, who was trying to seize the throne. Nufu'l-Haqq was banished to Kabul. The Shaykh was summoned to Kashmir, but, while he was in Lahore, the Emperor died. After Khurram's accession as Shahjahan, both father and son were allowed to return to Delhi. Nuru'1-Haqq was reappointed Qazi of Agra, and Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Haqq lived in Delhi until he died in 1642. The Shaykh's fame rests on his works on hadis. His Maddriju'n-Nubuwwah is designed to satisfy both the mystics and the rationalists who misunderstood the holy and exalted status of the Prophet and minimized the importance of his miracles.

Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Haqq's sufism was expressed as an unceasing wish to reconcile the exoteric with the esoteric, the shari'a with the sufi path, and fiqh with sufism. In his mystical writings he tried to cut across differences in sufic beliefs and practices and reminded sufis that dogmatism was alien to mysticism. To him a judicious combination of scholarship, sufic ecstasy, and ma'rifa (gnosis) was indispensable for a sufi, although he admitted that this ideal was rarely achieved. The Qadiri idea of a perfect life in the world,

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according to the Shaykh, was to follow first the shari'a laws and the jurists' teachings and then the sufi path. Those who chose to become mystics without first obtaining mastery over fiqh had strayed from the safe path. It was possible for a scholar and an 'alim to obtain initiation into sufism and to achieve perfection in that realm, but after ecstasy and mystic illumination had filled a student, a return to scholarship was impossible.

To the Shaykh both the Jabriyya and Qadariyya were extremists. The former reduced men to inanimate stones by believing humanity was helpless and God was responsible for all their actions; while the Qadariyya maintained that men were completely responsible for their own actions, ignoring the divine will. Both, asserted the Shaykh, had strayed from the middle path.

The Shaykh also rejected the idea that rules of worship, prayers, and obedience to the shari'a laws were meant only for externalists and widows and that dervishes were naturally exempt. He asserted that these misguided sufis failed to remember that the laws had initially been laid down by the prophets and came in their final form from Muhammad, who by God's will had perfected human ethics.

Shaykh 'Abdui-Haqq fiercely criticized those who lived dissolutely and ignored the shari'a laws in the name of Wahdat al-Wujud. He called them hypocrites who cried 'Hama Ust!' ('All is He!') when their souls were foul and vicious. They used the Unity of Being as an excuse for licentious behaviour and grounds for abusing those sufis who lived virtuously.

In his famous letter to the Mujaddid, 'Abdu'l-Haqq wrote that Ibnu'l-'Arabi's explanation of the Wahdat al-Wujud doctrine was not based on revelation, since it was a subjective statement of his own convictions. The Shaykh believed that only the intelligible parts of Ibn al-'Arabi's books should be accepted by true Muslims, and these should be taken at their face value only, because God alone knew the author's true intentions.71

Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Haqq's sons and disciples were both sufis and 'ulama' and followed the teachings in his khanqah closely. A mystical strand was nevertheless introduced into the Qadiriyya discipline by Miyan Mir and his disciples. They favoured a more emotional stance and many of them eventually left their careers as theologians and scholars to live as ascetics and hermits. Miyan Mir's ancestors Came from Siwistan in Sind. The Mir completed his formal education in Lahore and then turned to practical sufism. Accompanied by some disciples, he began to visit the graves of eminent sufis in Lahore. They would afterwards walk far into the jungle, where each would sit alone under a tree to meditate. At the prescribed

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hours of obligatory prayer they would assemble for congregational prayers. Miyan Mir became very popular but in 1607-8, finding fame a burden, he left for a secluded life in Sirhind. There he fell ill and developed a chronic pain in his knee. He returned quietly to Lahore a year after leaving it, and although he moved to the quarter occupied by the gardeners, his presence soon became known. Miyan Mir tried to avoid his numerous admirers and returned any gifts, commenting that the giver had mistaken him for a beggar while in fact he was rich with God. Miyan Mir trusted God completely and even on hot Lahore evenings threw out all his water so that none remained for the next day. In 1620 the Emperor Jahangir, en route to Kashmir, invited Miyan Mir to visit his camp. Although he was greatly impressed with the Mir's mystical discourse, out of regard for his asceticism the Emperor dared present him with only the skin of a white antelope to pray on.72 He died in 1635."

The most renowned of Miyan Mir's disciples was Mulla Shah. He was born in a village near Rustaq in Badakhshan and settled down in India in 1614—15. He was a distinguished scholar and wrote very perceptive sufic literature. His most controversial work is a commentary on the Qur'an composed in 1647-8. Defining the infidel, he wrote:

Oh believer! The infidel who has perceived the Reality and recognized it [which is the acme of faith] is a believer. Conversely the believer who has not perceived the Reality and has not recognized it is an infidel. This shows that the spiritual elite see a believer and an unbeliever differently. The blessed are they who have seen the believer-infidel and have obtained the essence of faith through such an infidelity; the loser is one who has not met this type of kafir. Whatever is general knowledge and belief is commonplace and imperfect. Perfection is something different. Similarly 'ishq (love) and 'irfan (gnosticism) differ; everyone is found submerged in the ocean of love but love undoubtedly reminds one of dualism. 'Irfan involves a transcendence of the dichotomy between 'I' and 'You'. It is easy for iconoclasts to smash idols but the destruction of the ego depends on a deeply rooted spirituality. This attribute is not acquired through personal effort but by divine grace.74

In 1639-40 both Prince Dara Shukoh and his sister Jahan Ara became Mulla Shah's disciples. The Emperor Shahjahan was also deeply devoted to him. Mulla Shah lived during the summer in Srinagar and in winter in Lahore. After Dara Shukoh was defeated by Aurangzib, the new Emperor sought to imprison Mulla Shah. He could find no excuse and had to be content with ordering him to reside permanently in Lahore, where he died in October 1661.

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Aurangzib continually condemned Mulla Shah for discussing such an inflammatory theory of sufism as the Wahdat al-Wujud with his father and elder brother instead of keeping his mystical ideas for sufi cars only.75

Dara Shukoh, Shahjahan's eldest son, was also his father's favourite, and the Emperor believed that he could make him his successor without much difficulty. Dara Shukoh therefore received a specialized literary education and military training, but he was no match for his brothers in political intrigue and far-sightedness.

Prince Dara Shukoh's interest in sufism aroused the attention of the Qadiriyya and Chishtiyya sufis. This in turn stimulated him further, and he became obsessed with the idea that the Indian sufi orders were the pivot on which all worldly and spiritual matters depended. Accepting the impossibility of a Muslim attaining his spiritual goal and final salvation without their aid, Dara Shukoh argued that all Muslims should be brought within the sufi discipline.76 He attributed his own well-being to the Qadiriyyas.

From 1640 Dara Shukoh began to write sufi treatises. The Sakinatu'l-awliyd', completed in 1642, includes a detailed biography of Miyan Mir and his disciples. He also wrote short sufi tracts, of which the Hasandtu'l-'arifin is devoted to the ecstatic sufi sayings. His growing interest in Hindu mysticism upset the orthodox. In his Majma'u'l-bahrayn (The Mingling of Two Oceans) he tried to prove that an appreciation of the deeper elements in sufism and Hindu mysticism could be achieved only by the elite of both religions. Comparing the Islamic sufi concepts and terminology with those of the Hindus, he proved they were identical. ' The Majma'u'l-bahrayn was singled out by the 'ulama' as justification for condemning Dara Shukoh to death. They accused him of calling infidelity and Islam 'twin brothers', even though the work in fact lies strictly within Ibnu'l-'Arabi's ideological framework. It asserts that the stage of universality and perfection was reserved for the Prophet Muhammad, and that divine transcendence was harmoniously blended with immanence. The Hindu equivalents are intended merely to reinforce the Muslim sufi beliefs. Dara's most important contribution was the Persian translation of the Upanisads, which, he said, contained subtle hints relating to the Wahdat al-Wujud doctrines.77

Dara Shukoh's sister, Jahan Ara Begum, sometimes known as Begum Sahiba, was also devoted to Mulla Shah. In her early career she was interested in Chishtiyya sufism and she wrote a biography of Khwaja Mu'inu'd-Din Chishti and some of his disciples. She completed her biographical account of Mullla Shah, entitled the Sahibiya, in 1641. It is a major contribution to sufi literature. Jahan

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Ara served her father devotedly during his captivity and tried to allay his hatred of Aurangzib.78 Aurangzib admired her and, after Shahjahan's death, sought her advice on state matters. She died unmarried in 1681. During Aurangzib's reign the Qadiriyya order lost the patronage of the court, but its general popularity did not wane.

THE NAQSHBANDIYYA ORDER

The Naqshbandiyya order, or the order of the Khwajas, originated in Transoxiana. Its distinctive features were formed by Khwaja 'Abdu'l-Khaliq (d. 1220) of Ghujduwan or modern Gizduvan, near Bukhara. The main principles of the order were controlled breathing and mental zikr, although strict observance of the shari'a was also strongly stressed. The order of the Khwajas came to be called the Naqshbandiyya following Khwaja Baha'u'd-Din Naqshband (d. 1389).

The Naqshbandiyya order was popularized in India by Babur, the first Mughal Emperor. Following in his father's footsteps, Babur was deeply devoted to the Naqshbandiyya leader Khwaja 'Ubaydu'llah Ahrar (d. 1490). The Khwaja was both a scholar and a political leader. His spiritual descendants supported Babur in his fight for the throne against Uzbeks. Some of them subsequently moved to India.

An important migrant to India was Khwaja Khawand Mahmud. He lived in Kashmir and visited the courts of Akbar and Jahangir. Later Jahangir stopped the Khwaja's anti-Shi'i and puritanically orthodox activities, and he moved from Kashmir to Kabul. The Khwaja returned to Kashmir during Shahjahan's reign, but the Emperor found his anti-Shi'i sermons a threat to law and order and expelled him. The Khwaja settled in Lahore, dying there in 1642. His son, Mu'inu'd-Din, was a scholar of both jurisprudence and sufism.79

The sufi who did most to make the Naqshbandiyya order outstanding in India was Khwaja Baqi Bi'llah of Kabul. He was born in 1563 or 1564 and was initiated into Khwaja 'Ubaydu'llah Ahrar's Naqshbandiyya branch near Samarqand by a local leader. In 1599 he moved to Delhi and settled there. Many leading nobles from Akbar's court became his devotees. He died in 1603. Although he lived in India for only four years he left an indelible mark on its spiritual and intellectual life.

Two of his spiritual descendants, Shaykh Ilahdad and Shaykh

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Taju'd-Din Sambhali, left India when they failed to wrest the leadership from Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, the most talented disciple of Khwaja Baqi Bi'llah. Shaykh Ahmad was born at Sirhind in 1564. His father, Shaykh 'Abdul-Ahad, taught him when he was young and initiated him into the Chishtiyya and Qadiriyya orders. He seems to have visited Fathpur-Sikri some time before the imperial court left for the Panjab in August 1585. Shaykh Ahmad was shocked by the dominance of rational and philosophical thinking at the court. In a discussion with Abu'l-Fazl he is said to have remarked that Imam Ghazali had written in the Munqiz min al-zalal that useful sciences which the philosophers claimed as their invention were astronomy and medicine, but these were in fact plagiarized from the books of the former prophets. The remaining sciences, such as mathematics, were of no use to religion. Abu'l-Fazl was annoyed at these remarks and declared that Ghazall was unreasonable. Each disliked the other. Like Shaykh 'Abdu'l-Haqq, Shaykh Ahmad also believed that Akbar's supporters were hostile to the idea of prophethood. He therefore wrote several short treatises on the subject. The Isbdt al-Nubuwwa asserts the importance of miracles and the prophets, particularly of Muhammad. Another treatise discusses the importance of the first clause of the Islamic credo, 'There is no God but Allah', while a third, Radd-i Rawafiz,80 condemning the Shi'is, also became very popular. This treatise refutes the letter written by the Shi'i 'ulama' of Mashhad in response to the argument of the Transoxianan 'ulama' in about 1587 concerning the infidelity of the Shi'is.

In 1599 Shaykh Ahmad's father died, and he decided to leave for Mecca. He halted at Delhi and visited Khwaja Baqi Bi'llah, who initiated him into the Naqshbandiyya order. He revisited Delhi twice during the Khwaja's lifetime. Like his father, Shaykh Ahmad at first followed the Wahdat al-Wujud doctrines, but his sufi exercises under the Khwaja made him expert in the Wahdat al-Shuhud system. He wrote to the Khwaja discussing his mystical progress, and the Khwaja encouraged him to take an independent line.

The Shaykh also wrote to his contemporaries, particularly Shaykh Nizam Thaneswari, urging him to abandon the Wahdat al-Wujud beliefs. After Akbar's death he wrote to various leading noblemen, urging them to persuade Jahangir to reverse Akbar's political and religious policies. He urged that jizya should be reimposed, that cow-slaughter should be resumed, and that-positions in the finance department should no longer be offered to Shi'is and Hindus. Muslims should avoid infidels as they did dogs. In another letter he wrote that Shi'is were worse than infidels and that

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trained by the Khwaja's talented disciple Khwaja Husamu'd-Din and by the Mujaddid himself, but they chose to follow Khwaja Baqi Bi'llah's Wahdat al-Wujud beliefs. Both Khwaja Kalan and Khwaja Khwurd wrote a number of short treatises in a bid to convert Khwaja Ma'sum and other Mujaddidiyyas to the Wahdat al-Wujud doctrines.88 They did not oppose the use of sufi music, which the Mujaddid had strongly condemned. The eighteenth-century Shah Waliu'llah Dihlawi (d. 1762) was a devoted follower of Khwaja Khwurd's school of thought.

THE SHI'IS

The Shi'i sect was first established in India in Sind. Many Shi'is who had been persecuted by the Umayyad and 'Abbasid caliphate moved there. Around 982 the Sind governors, who had owed allegiance to the 'Abbasid caliphate, were replaced by governors whose allegiance was to the Egyptian Fatimid caliphs. The Fatimid were Isma'ili Shi'is and had introduced the hierarchical dais missionary system, which preached Isma'ili Shi'ism secretly.89 In Sind they appear to have converted both Hindus and Sunnis. Their missionaries had the gift of recognizing a promising candidate who would easily be converted. Initially they shook the potential convert's faith in his own religion and then taught him only as much Isma'ili doctrine as he would accept. 'Ali was presented to both Sunnis and Hindus as the perfect ideal for all mankind. It was not difficult to convince the Hindus that 'Ali was an incarnation of Vishnu. The Isma'llls interpreted their teachings esoterically and never bothered to change their Hindu converts' names, ancestral social customs, or laws of inheritance and succession.

In 1010 Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni tried ruthlessly to annihilate the Isma'ilis in Multan; they nevertheless emerged later as a powerful community. Mu'izzu'd-Din Muhammad of Ghur also fought them but was apparently killed himself by an Isma'ili assassin. In Raziyya's reign, a certain leader named Nur Turk, who had established a reputation for learning and piety, started a campaign against the Sunni 'ulama', condemning them as hostile to 'Ali. In 1237 he collected his devotees from Sind and Gujarat and attempted to seize power, but his coup d'etat was foiled by Raziyya. Nur Turk moved to Mecca and died there. The Isma'ili missionaries retired to Gujarat and Sind, where they continued preaching their religion. The south-eastern half of lower Sind remained Isma'ill, however, and the Sumra rulers of Sind practised the

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Isma'ili faith until the fourteenth century before gradually changing to Sunnism.

The Bohra community of Gujarat was apparently converted to the Isma'ili sect in the thirteenth century. The stories of this conversion are legendary. As their main occupation was in trade and commerce, they maintained cordial relations with the Hindus and found no difficulty in trading in Gujarat and western India. A sub-sect of the Isma'ilis was known as the Khojas. Their da is were also active missionaries who promoted cohesion within the sect.

The Isna' 'Ashari Shi'is90 believed in the twelve Imams, the last being the hidden Imam Mahdi. The sect seems to have been introduced into India after the conversion of the Il-Khamd Mongol, Uljaytu Khudabanda (1304-14), to Shi'ism. Istikhan al-Dihlawi, the author of Basdtinu'l-Uns, a collection of Hindu tales compiled in 1326, credited Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq with making the Ja'fri faith (Isna' 'Ashari Shi'ism) strong in India. Its introduction brought to India Muharram, the mourning ceremonies commemorating Imam Husayn's martyrdom, which were initiated by the Shi'i immigrants and their converts. Sultan Firuz stated that the Rawafiz (Shi'is) produced their own religious books and treatises and continually sought converts. They also 'openly reviled and foully abused' the first three caliphs who succeeded the Prophet, the Prophet's beloved wife, 'A'isha Siddiqa, and all the respected sufis.91 According to Firuz the Shi'is also doubted the Qur'an's authenticity, claiming that the third Caliph, 'Usman, had included many baseless interpolations.92 Firuz tried unsuccessfully to crush Shi'ism by executing its partisans, burning Shi'I books, and censuring and threatening possible converts.