Insight
The other side of Sufism
By R. K. Ohri, IPS (Retd)
THE ORGANISER
Page 38/42
April 27, 2008 issue
A reappraisal of the role of Sufis working as missionaries
of Islam
For centuries the Sufi creed and Sufi music have been tom
tomed as great symbols of spiritualism and promoters of
peace and harmony between the Hindus and the Muslims. The
cleverly marketed concept of Sufi spiritualism has been
unquestioningly accepted as the hallmark of Hindu-Muslim
unity. It is time we studied the history of Sufis, tried to
track the narrative of their coming to India and analysed
their explicit missionary role in promoting conversions to
Islam. More im****tantly, it needs to be *****sed how did
the Sufis conduct themselves during reckless killings and
plunders by the Muslim invaders? Did they object to the
senseless mass killings and try to prevent unremitting
plunder of Hindu temples and innocent m*****? Did the Sufis
ever object to the capture of helpless men and women as
slaves and the use of the latter as objects of carnal
pleasure? These are some of the questions to which answers
have to be found by every genuine student of Indian
history.
Most Sufis came to India either accompanying the invading
armies of Islamic marauders, or followed in the wake of the
sweeping conquests made by the soldiers of Islam. At least
the following four famous Sufis accompanied the Muslim
armies which repetitively invaded India to attack the Hindu
rulers, seize their kingdoms and riches and took recourse
to extensive slaughtering of the commoners. Almost all Sufi
masters were silent spectators to the murderous mayhem and
reckless plunder of temples ands cities by the marauding
hordes across the sub-continent. Taking advantage of the
fact that the Hindu m***** are deeply steeped in spiritual
tradition and mysticism, the Sufis used their mystic
paradigm for applying sort of a healing balm on the
defeated, bedegralled and traumatized commoners with a view
to converting them to the religion of the victors. The
following well-known Sufi masters came to India along with
the invading Muslim armies which repetitively invaded India
in wave after wave:
Khwaja Moi****din Chishti of Ajmer had accompanied the army
of ****habuddin Ghori and finally settled down at Ajmer in
the year 1233 A.D.
Khawaja Qutubuddin came to Delhi in the year 1236 in the
train of ****habuddin Ghori and stayed on to further the
cause of Islam.
Sheikh Faridudin came to Pattan (now in Pakistan) in the
year 1265.
Sheikh Nizamuddin Auliya of Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin came
to Delhi in the year 1335 accompanying a contingent of the
Muslim invaders.
Additionally, the famous Sufi ****habuddin Suhrawardy of
Baghdad was brought to India for carrying out the
missionary work of conversions by Bahauddin Zakariya of
Multan several decades after the Hindu ruler had been
defeated and the kingdom laid waste after repetitive
plunder and manslaughter. Like all Sufi masters, his main
task was to apply the balm of spiritual unity on the
traumatized Hindu population and then gradually persuade
them to convert to Islam. Not a single Sufi, the so-called
mystic saints, ever objected to the ongoing senseless
manslaughter and wreckless plunder, nor to the destruction
of temples, nor for that matter to the ghoulish enslavement
of the so-called infidel men and women for sale in the
bazaars of Ghazni and Baghdad. Operating from the sidelines
of spiritualism they even participated in the nitty-gritty
of governance to help the Muslim rulers consolidate their
authority in the strife torn country. And significantly,
their participation in the affairs of the State was not
conditional upon the Muslim rulers acting in a just and
even handed manner. On the contrary, the Sufis invariably
tried to help the Sultans in following the path shown by
the Prophet and the Shariah. Another im****tant objective of
the spiritual and mystic preachings of the Sufi masters was
to blunt the edge of Hindu resistance and prevent them from
taking up arms to defend their hearth and home, their
motherland and their faith, through the façade of peace and
religious harmony. The Naqashbandi Sufis had very close
relations with Jahangir and Aurangzeb. The well known Sufi
Saint of Punjab, Ahmad Sirhindi (Mujadid) of the
Naqashbandi order (1564-1634) held that the execution of
the Sikh leader Guru Arjun Dev by Jehangir was a great
Islamic victory. He believed and openly proclaimed that
Islam and Hinduism were antithesis of each other and
therefore could not co-exist. Even the Chishti Sufi, Miyan
Mir, who had been a friend of Guru Arjun Dev, later on
turned his back on the Sikh Guru when the latter was
arrested by Jahangir and sent for execution.
It may be recalled that the great Sufi master of the
eleventh century, Al Qushairi (A.D.1072) had unambiguously
declared that there was no discord between the aims of the
Sufi 'haqiqa' and the aims of the Sharia. The definition
given by Al Hujwiri should be able to quell any doubt about
the commitment of Sufis in upholding the supremacy of the
Islamic faith over all other religions. That dogma has been
the key component of the philosophy of Sufism not only in
India, but across the world -- from India to Hispania
(i.e., the Spain). The great Sufi master, Al Hujwiri, laid
down the golden rule that the words "there is no god save
Allah" are the ultimate Truth, and the words "Muhammad is
the Apostle of Allah" are the indisputable Law for all
Sufis. In other words, the Sufism and the ulema represent
the same two aspects of the Islamic faith which are
universally accepted and obeyed by all Muslims. By
definition therefore Sufi masters could be no exception.
The renowned ninth century Sufi master, Al Junaid, also
known as "the Sheikh of the Way", and widely revered as the
spiritual ancestor of Sufi faith, had categorically
proclaimed that for Sufis "All the mystic paths are barred,
except to him who followeth in the footsteps of the
Messenger (i.e., Prophet Muhammad) [Source: Martin Lings,
What is Sufism, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1975,
p.101].
As pointed out by Reynold A. Nicholson in the Preface to
the famous tome, 'Kashaf al Mahjub' (Taj & Co., Delhi,
1982). "no sufis, not even those who have attained the
highest degree of holiness, are exempt from the obligation
of obeying the religious law". In fact, the famous tome,
'Kashaf al Mahjub' written by Ali bin Al-Hujwiri, who was
also known as Data Ganj Baksh, was widely regarded as the
grammar of Sufi thought and practice. Most Sufis have
invariably drawn on the contents of this treatise for
preaching the sufi thought (also known as sufi silsilas).
As already stated, on page 140 of Kashaf al Mahjub Al
Hujwiri loudly proclaims that "the words there is no God
save Allah are Truth, and the words Muhammed is the Apostle
of Allah" are the indisputable Law.
K.A. Nizami in his celebrated book, The Life and Times of
Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (Idarah-I Adabiyat-i-Delhi, Delhi)
has stated that the Auliya openly used to say that "what
the ulama seek to achieve through speech, we achieve by our
behaviour." The Auliya was a firm believer in the need for
unquestioned obedience of every Muslim, every Sufi, to the
dictates of the ulema. According to K.A. Nizami, another
Sufi saint Jamal Qiwamu'd-din wrote that though he had been
associated with the Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya for years,
"but never did he find him missing a single sunnat …… ".
The well known authority on Sufism, S.A.A. Rizvi has
recorded in his book, 'A History of Sufism in India' that
Nizamuddin Auliya used to unhesitatingly accept enormous
gifts given to him by Khusraw Barwar which implied that the
Auliya was unconcerned with the source of the gift,
provided it was paid in cash. Yet the Auliya was a firm
believer in the need for a Muslim's unquestioned loyalty
and obedience to the ulema. As reiterated by K.A. Nizami,
Auliya used to preach that the unbeliever is the doomed
denizen of Hell. In his khutba he would leave no one in
doubt that Allah has created Paradise for the Believers and
Hell for the infidels "in order to repay the wicked for
what they have done". It has been categorically stated on
page 161 in the famous treatise, Fawaid al-Fuad, translated
by Bruce B. Lawrence (Paulist Press, New York, 1992) that
the Auliya confirmed on the authority of the great Islamic
jurist, Imam Abu Hanifa, that the perdition of the
unbelievers is certain and that Hell is the only abode for
them, even if they agreed to confess total loyalty to Allah
on the Day of Judgment.
In the above mentioned treatise on Sufi philosphy, Fuwaid
al-Fuad, a very interesting instance of enslaving the
kaffir Hindus for monetary gain has been cited which shows
how another Sufi, Shayakh Ali Sijzi, provided financial
assistance to one of his dervishes to participate in the
lucrative slave trade. He had advised the dervish that he
should take "these slaves to Ghazni, where the potential
for profit is still greater". And it was confirmed by
Nizamuddin Auliya that "the Dervish obeyed". Obviously
therefore, neither spiritual ethics and nor justice to all,
including the infidels, were the strong points of Sufi
saints.
If the narrative of the preachings and acts of Khawaja
Moi****din Chishti of Ajmer are taken as indication of his
religious philosophy and deeds, he emerges as a sufi master
who nursed a deep hatred against the infidel Hindus and
showed utter contempt for their religious beliefs. As
elaborated by S.S.A. Rizvi in 'A History of Sufism in
India, Vol. 1 (Mun****ram Manoharlal, 1978, p. 117), there
is a reference in the book, Jawahar-i- Faridi, to the fact
that when Moi****din Chishti reached near the Annasagar Lake
at Ajmer, where a number of holy shrines of Hindus were
located, he slaughtered a cow and cooked a beef kebab at
the sacred place surrounded by many temples. It is further
claimed in Jawahar-i-Faridi that the Khwaja had dried the 2
holy lakes of Annasagar and Pansela by the magical heat of
Islamic spiritual power. He is even stated to have made the
idol of the Hindu temple near Annasagar recite the Kalma.
The Khwaja had a burning desire to destroy the rule of the
brave Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan, so much so that he
ascribed the victory of Muhammad Ghori in the battle of
Tarain entirely to his own spiritual prowess and declared
that "We have seized Pithaura alive and handed him over to
the army of Islam". [Source: Siyar'l Auliya, cited by Rizvi
on page 116 of 'A History of Sufism in India'].
Throughout the Muslim rule all Sufis enjoyed full
confidence, royal favour and patronage of the cruel Muslim
rulers. Though foolishly accepted as "secular" by most
Hindus seeking spiritual solace after being battered,
bruised and marginalised, almost all Sufi saints
dogmatically followed the commandments contained in the
Quran, the Hadith and Sharia. Historians have recorded that
many Sufi saints had accompanied armies of the Muslim
invaders to use their spiritual powers in furtherance of
Islam's conquests. Not one of them raised even a little
finger to forbid slaughter of the innocents, nor did they
question the imposition of jiziya by Muslim rulers. In
fact, most of them guided the
Muslim rulers in carrying forward their mission of conquest
and conversion by furthering their campaigns of plundering
the wealth of Hindus of which many Sufis willingly partook
share. It was almost a taboo for Sufis, the so-called
saints, to accept a Hindu ascending the throne of any
kingdom during the heydays of the Muslim rule. . In an
example narrated by S.A.A. Rizvi on page 37 of his well
researched book, The Wonder That Was India (Vol.II, Rupa &
Co, 1993, New Delhi) it is pointed out that when the
powerful Bengali warrior, king Ganesha, captured power in
Bengal in the year 1415 A.D., Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, attacked
his kingdom at the request of outraged ulema and numerous
Sufis of Bengal. In the ensuing strife, the leading Sufi of
Bengal, Nur Qutb-i-Alam, interceded and secured a political
agreement to the benefit of the Muslim community and
satisfaction of Sufis. Under dire threat King Ganesha was
forced to abdicate his throne in favour of his 12 years old
son, Jadu, who was converted to Islam and proclaimed as
Sultan Jalaluddin -- to the satisfaction of the Sufi
masters. Similarly Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat (1411-42),
though a practitioner of Sufi philosophy, was a diehard
iconoclast who took delight in destroying temples, as
stated in the same tome, by S.A.A. Rizvi. The Sultan also
used to force the Rajput chieftains to marry their
daughters to him so that they would become outcastes in
their own community. And the endgame of the Sultan could as
well be that perhaps some of the outcaste Rajputs might
then opt to become Muslims.
Unfortunately due to relentless colonization of the Hindu
mind during 1000 years long oppressive Muslim rule, the
Hindu m***** till date have failed to realise that the so-
called Sufi philosophy of religious harmony is a one-way
street. This trend of Hindus praying at tombs and dargahs
has been nurtured by the strong undercurrent of belief in
spiritualism among Hindu m*****, even educated cl*****.
That is the crux of the matter. Deeply steeped in their
traditional belief in spirituality and mysticism, the
Hindus have developed the custom of visiting dargahs and
continue to pray at the tombs of Sufis, no Muslim, nor any
Sufi, has ever agreed to wor****p in a Hindu temple, nor
make obeisance before the images of Hindu Gods and
Godesses. For them it would be an act of grossest sacrilege
and unacceptable violation of the basic tenets of Sufism.
That is the truth about the Sufi saints and their
philosophy of inter-religious harmony.
More at:
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Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
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