This is a guest post from Sh. Ram Ohri, IPS (Retd)
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
importantly, it needs to be assessed 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 masses?
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
masses 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 Moinuddin
Chishti of Ajmer
had accompanied the army of Shihabuddin 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 Shihabuddin 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
Shihabuddin 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 reckless 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
important 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 Moinuddin
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 (Munshiram
Manoharlal, 1978, p. 117), there is a
reference in the book, Jawahar-i- Faridi,
to the fact that when Moinuddin 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 masses till date have
failed to realize 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 masses, even educated
classes. 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 worship 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.
Related posts:
Sufi Sayyid Ali Hamdani
Sufi Moin-ud-deen Chishti
Sufi Muhammad Ghaus
Sufi Amir Khusro
