Sufism In Thirteenth And Fourteenth Century India With Special Emphasis On Amir Khusrau

Sufism developed as a world movement in the twelfth century when it was transformed into distinct orders or tariqas.  By this time there developed a well-knit network through which the Sufis spread their ideas in different parts of the world. This system guaranteed the transmission of mystical knowledge acquired by the founders of the order to further generations of sufis through their successors or khalifas.  It was about the same time the movement reached as a spiritual force in the Indian subcontinent.

Though Sufism as a reforming system reached India at an early time and there were Sufi settlements in different parts of India, clear evidence of Sufi activities is found only in the early part of the thirteenth century with the arrival of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti and his order the Chishti tariqa.  Muinuddin came from Chisht in Afganistan and settled at Ajmir, a remote place in 1206¹ when Muhammed Ghori was founding his empire in India. Ajmir developed into a sufi center with visitors coming from different parts seeking the shaikh’s blessings.  After his death in 1236,  a shrine was constructed and it became a pilgrimage center which was the first of its kind in the country.

After dividing the country into spiritual territories called vilayats the Khwaja sent his disciples to various parts to spread his mission. Among the disciples, Shaikh Hamiduddin Nagauri settled at Nagaur where he lived as a cultivator among the peasant’s community who found him as a guide and spiritual preceptor.

His successors actively engaged in spiritual practices and when Muhammed bin Tughluq ascended the throne he constructed a mausoleum for the sheikh and a kahanqah (monastery) was built for the disciples.

When central Asia and Iran were hard pressed by the Mongol invasions at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Sufis of the area moved to Delhi where the sultans provided them with all the facilities for preaching. Sultan Iltutmish had moved his capital to Delhi which was made a seat of learning by constructing the Quvvat al Islam complex and inviting sufis and scholars to it. He invited Khwaja Bhaktiyar Kaki, a disciple of Muinuddin Chishti to Delhi. Kaki actively worked among the common people and many of them accepted his mission. He had nine important disciples among whom Baba Farid settled at Ajodhan and others spread the Chishti order in and around Delhi.

Shaikh Farid trained and tutored a very large number of disciples who later on set up independent spiritual hospices and disseminated the teachings of the Chishti tariqah. Among them, Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya was the most famous and he was the greatest Sufi saint of the fourteenth century. He gave the Chishti order an expansive character, his disciples having settled at various places throughout northern and central India. Nizamuddin hailed from Badaun, a small township near Delhi. He belonged to a very poor family and always suffered to meet both ends. At Delhi, he often lived with Imadul Mulk, the maternal grandfather of Amir Khusrau.

He moved from one place to another without finding an abode to live. Though many asked the sheikh to meet Sultan Balban for some help he refused to do so. When Sultan Jalaluddin ascended the throne in 1290 he sent the sheikh some charity and promised some villages, but the sheikh rejected the offer² and decided to suffer all the hardships as a part of his retreat and renunciation. By the time of Sultan Alauddin Khalji the fame of Auliya had reached far and wide that the sultan provided all facilities to sheikh’s visitors by constructing inns and other amenities.

However, the successors of Alauddin was not in good terms with Nizamuddin  Auliya. But they could not deferat him or expel him from Delhi. His popularity was so great that even the sultans dared to do  any harm to the sheikh that will create anarchy in the empire. Auliya died in 1325 and Sultan Muhammed bin Tughlu q constructed an imposing dome over his grave. Both Hindus and Muslims were attracted to the shrine and considered its dust  a sacred relic.

Amir Khusrau, the parrot of Hindustan was a very close disciple of Nizamuddin.³ His fore fathers migrated to India from Balkh during the time of Sultan Iltutmish. He could learn Arabic, Persian and Hindustani from the court and became a fine poet in his early ages. He was a poet and Historian and a sufi as well.

He dedicated five masnavis to Alauddin Khalji along with the history of his reign. Khusrau is believed to have invented the musical instrument, the sitar meaning seven bars and several melodies. They were designed to produce novelty in sufi sama (music)  rituals in which he himself participated. Though Khusrau was very close to court circles his real dedication remained within the sufi movement and on the completion of his official duties he would escape to Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliyas monastery. When the Shaikh died Amir Khusrau was with Giyasudin Tughluq on his Bengal expedition. On hearing the news of the death he hastened to Delhi and recited the following verse by standing besides the grave of Auliya with tears

“The beloved sleeps on her cough

With her face covered

With her curled lock

Oh , Khusrau! Return to

Your own house for the

Entire world is now covered by night’’

In the words of A.A.A.Rizvi the curled lock in sufi symbolism represents mysteries and the home is eternity. Khusrau was in fact predicting his own death, and he became so overwhelmed  at his loss that he apparently was unable to weep for the Shaikh.³ Khusrau survived a further six months after the Shaikh’s death and died in September 1325.

Music formed a major part of the  life and  biography of Amir Khusrau. Nothing in music could be named and not found connected to Khusrau, not even the mystical dance performed by the Sufis. During the sama mehfils (music session) at the khanqah of Hazrat Nizamuddin, dancing was not allowed. But during one such performance, Khusrau stood up to dance. Hazrat requested him: “Dance in such a way that your hands are raised to the sky as if calling to God, and your feet should hit the earth as if denouncing it.” And it is so, the sufis raise their arms and whirl while stamping their feet on the ground.

Khusrau’s love for India’s flora and its favourable climate is evident in many other places. While arguing on why India is the most beautiful place to live in the world, he uses the example of Adam, who when exiled from heaven to earth, first set his foot in  Sri Lanka, the Indian continent  according to the Biblical and Islamic traditions. He was sent to India, since the only place, as favourable as heaven, was India. If he was sent to Khorasan, Arab or China,he wouldn’t have survived the extreme climate there for more than a few hours.

 Nizamuddin Auliya had many important disciples besides Amir Khusrau. Hasan Sijsi, the poet and Ziauddin Barani, the historian are few among them. Many disciples  actively engaged in sufi preaching in different parts of Hindustan. In Delhi Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh remained as his successor and when Muhammed Bin Tughluq asked him to move to his second capital at Daulatabad he decided to remain in Delhi itself. He was behind the installation of Firoz Shah Tughluq on the throne after the death of Muhammad bin Tughluq. He came to be known as Chiragh i Delli (The lamb of Delhi) and after his death in 1356 he was buried in Delhi and his grave became a centre of attraction to the people.

The Chishti saints lived under conditions of awful poverty and they looked down up on possession of private property as a serious impediment to the growth of one’s spiritual personality.⁴ They considered fasting to be a remarkable expedient for weakening those desires that lead never to happiness but either to disillusionment or further desire. They reduced their diet in order to control the calls of the flesh. Once Shaikh Nizamuddin was asked why he was taking very little food, he replied, ”So many poverty stricken people are sleeping without dinner in the corners of the mosque s and before the shops. How can this food go down my throat.’’ ⁵ A Chishti hospice or khanqah is a simple hall where all the inmates lived a community life. They all slept, studied, prayed on the ground and no discrimination , not even on the basis of seniority, was permitted to prevail in the hospice. If food was available, all would partake it; if not all would suffer jointly the pangs of hunger.

Like the Chishtis the Suhrawardi order also found its way to India.   Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariyya was the first peacher of Suhrawardi order in the sub continent. He was close to Sultan Iltutmish who appointed him as the head of religious affairs, the Shaikh al Islam. His disciples Sayyid Nuruddin Mubarak Gaznavi Sayyid Jalaluddin  and Qazi Hamiduddin and his successors actively engaged in the propagation of the order in the country.

Sufism played as a movement for social and cultural integrity of the Indian society. Sufis looked up on social service as the supreme object of all their spiritual exercises. The piri  murid system, metaphysical doctrines, the ethics and percepts, the prayers and litanies, the community life of the khanqah –together formed a consistent , integrated almost individual whole. The common people found solace for their worries and mental and physical illness in the prayers of sufis. That is why we see the Sufis living amongst the people by bearing their sorrows and worries. They were able to gauge the motives of the people who came to them  and accepted them as disciples. The constant contact with the needs and the sorrows as well as the weaknesses and vices of the people were the anvil on which the sufi’s personality was hammered out. They were believed to have acquired supernatural powers because of their supernatural gifts. Muinuddin Chishti said: ”To answer the call of those in distress, to fulfill the needs of the helpless and  to feed the hungry are the best acts of obediance’’⁶

The Chishtis and Suhrawardis maintained different attirude towards state. When the Chishtis completly abstained from the rulers the suhrawardis accepted their gifts and lived with them. During the life time Nizamuddin Auliya seven rulers ruled over Delhi, but he never visited any one of them except Sultan Jalauddin who summoned him to give his evidences for permitting sama or music in the shariath. The chishtis declined to accept honours and titles or to visit the court though the officers of the government came to their assemblies and princes could regard as their disciples.

In the end of 14^th century we find the Sufism losing its spiritual intensity and becoming more missionary in character. One aspect of its missionary activity was the attempt to propagate higher religious and spiritual standards. This is well represented by the correspondence of later Sufis like Khwaja Diya Nakhshabi and Shaikh Sharafuddin Yahya Maneri. The other aspect is the appraisal, assimilation  of the spiritual values of Hinduism. Shaikh Fariduddin and Nizamuddin had connection with yogis who often visited them and talked on spiritual matters. Nizamuddin had very open mind and he appreciated the devotion of Hindus. Shaikh nNasiruddin had studied Hindu yoga practices and asked his followers to follow the yoga practice of holding breath in order to concentrate.⁷ Shaikh Gesu Deraz, the Chishti sufi mentions  of conversing with yogis on Hindu spirituality and studying it by himself and arguing with gurus on spiritual matters.⁸

When Shaikh Nizam-u’d-din Auliya saw Hindus bathing in the Jumna and singing devotional songs, he said,

(Every people have their own path, their own religion and centre of worship).

(O you! who sneer at the idolatry of the Hindu, Learn also from him how worship is done.)

Amir Khusrau, who had delved deep into the Hindu religious literature, said:

(Though Hindus do not believe in the religion in which we do, In many matters they and we believe in the same thing.)⁹

At the end of the fourteenth century, the devotional character of Hindi songs and the appeal they made to the Sufis brought Hindus and Muslims closer together. Amir Khusrau had played an important role in synthesizing the sufi language at par with the Hindi. Shaikh Nizamuddin was very sensitive to the music of words and to the tender charm of the Hindustani of the those days. By the time of Gese Deraz  India Music had been studies and Hindustani devotional songs had come to occupy a very significant position in the sama gatherings. As told by Mr. Mujib, the ”Sufis made and intuitive choice of the common ground of spirituality between Hindus and Muslims and opened the way for a mutual appreciation of aesthetic values which could revolutionize the whole cultural attitude of Muslims’’¹⁰

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