Richard Eaton and Bruce Lawrence in their books “Sufi Folk Literature and the Expansion of Indian Islam” and “Islam in India: The Function of Institutional Sufism in the Islamisation of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kashmir” respectively point out the need to differentiate between the theoretical and often esoteric Sufi knowledge which is often reserved for the edification of those already initiated — from the particular South Asian localised and institutionalised lived Sufi orders and spaces. In literary terms, on the one hand was the Sufi “high tradition”, often penned in Persian and inaccessible to the layperson including complex doctrines of mystical metaphysics such as the formulations of Ibn ‘Arabi, while on the other hand was the gradual process through which Sufi precepts and aesthetic representations infused the folk culture through the already existing vehicles of expression, such as Deccan poems and songs or more generally, through a gradual process of “Islamic acculturation” reflected in dress, food, speech etc. For the latter variant of Sufi apprehension, the symbol ordering of ritual and sacred spaces became a far more instrumental means of the transfusion of Sufi values, as a powerful regime of signs, as opposed to elitist theoretical elaborations reserved for the literati.
Indeed, as Lawrence points out many Sufis teachers did not regard writing as a particularly useful means of expression, and indeed found it to be a rather risky endeavour seeing as to the ease with which mystical exposition can be vastly misunderstood by the untrained reader who could not possibly be fully aware of the various significations elaborated therein and might even come to consider these teachings to be heretical. Therefore, even in writing, Sufi notions were best expressed through poetry, due to the fluidity of expression and the nature of poetry to push the limits of language and prevent the reader from attempting to position these ontological relationships (between the devotee, God, the prophet and the Sufi master) into a familiar rationalist framework. Thus many prominent lyricists in the Indo-Persian tradition were claimed as belonging to particular Sufi orders or conversely, many Sufi thinkers chose to express themselves primarily through verse.
It is this great risk of misunderstanding the relationship between Sufi notions, Sufi practices and representations that lead to contradictory descriptions of Sufism, some of which are elaborated in Gaborieau’s examination of Wahhabi-influenced oppositions. Desiderio Pinto offers an intriguing perspective on this issue, as he recalls an incident where a man who adhered to the teachings of the Tablighi Jam a’ at and was therefore “officially” quite opposed to the concept of the dargah and its practices, nonetheless stayed outside the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya for two weeks in order to pray for a job, which he subsequently obtained in the Gulf. So although this man perceived the practices at the shrine to be on the order of idol-worship, he still could not divorce himself from the powerful symbolic spiritual presence of this designated holy space which is wholly indigenous to South Asia, utilises localised means of signification and draws people of all backgrounds to its sanctuary, a place where “even tourists, come in removing their shoes, covering their heads and talking in low tones without being told.
They walk around the dargah with respect” and as one man noted, “when I come here, I feel a sense of peace and quiet and I forget the world with all its meanness and problems.” These seemingly “unorthodox” practices which take place at the shrines are actually based on sound Sufi metaphysical relationships, even if their observance is only unconscious for most visitors and is based on a more direct and personal love for Saints. About these magnetic spiritual iconic personas, Gellner is noted by Eaton as having said, “Islam is not what they do. They are lslam” and as Lawrence concludes, “though often derided as a degenerate form of pure Islam; the Sufi tomb cults embodied the logical outcome of cumulative, unbridled devotion to living saints.
MUHAMMAD YASIR KAYANI
Kasur