Sufism

Also called: Tasawwuf · Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"

Meaning

Sufism, called tasawwuf in Islamic texts, is the mystical side of Islam. Sufis try to know God directly, through personal experience and intense love, and not only through study of the law and holy books. It matters because its institutions, the khanqah, the silsila and the dargah, helped Islam take root among ordinary people in India. Its shrines also became shared sacred spaces for Muslims and non-Muslims.

Explanation

Background: a protest from inside Islam

• Sufism began as criticism from within Islam. It was not an outside import.
• In the early centuries of Islam, some Muslims turned to asceticism (living simply and giving up comfort) and mysticism (trying to feel God directly).

• They were protesting against the growing materialism of the Caliphate. As the Caliphate grew into a rich empire, they felt religion was turning into wealth and politics.

• Its first stage was a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (661–749 CE) [2].

• They rejected the dogmatic, scholastic interpretation (dry, rule-bound classroom argument) of the Qur'an and the sunna (the Prophet's practice).
• What they wanted instead:
• a personal experience of God,
• intense devotion and love of God,

• to imitate the Prophet Muhammad as the perfect human being, using his life as their model.

• The name: "Sufism" is a 19th-century English word. The sufis themselves never used it. Islamic texts say tasawwuf. Three possible roots are offered:

• suf (wool): sufis wore coarse woollen clothes as a sign of simple living,
• safa (purity): purity of heart,
• suffa: the platform outside the Prophet's mosque, where his poor companions sat.

Growth over time: from a mood to organised orders

• Early stage: individual ascetics who protested against worldliness under the Umayyads [2].
• Next stage: the movement took in outside ideas that suited it and grew into a mysticism of divine love [2].
• By the 11th century: Sufism was a fully developed movement with its own literature on the Qur'an, on the mystic path and on how a sufi should behave.
• Around the 12th century: the silsilas took fixed shape. The organised orders, called tariqa (Arabic for "path" or order), were first established in the 12th century [2].
• By the mid-20th century: there were hundreds of these orders, with millions of members [2].

Main parts: khanqah, silsila, dargah

• Khanqah (a Persian word meaning hospice, a place of shelter):
• It was the centre of the sufi community, not a private hermitage. People came there to eat, listen and stay.
• Elsewhere in the Islamic world the same kind of centre was called ribat, zawiyah or tekke. Ordinary lay people, not only members, were invited to stay [2].

• It fed the poor, taught people and settled disputes. That is why it drew people of all castes and faiths.

• People inside the khanqah:

• shaikh (Arabic), also called pir or murshid (Persian): the teaching master,
• murid: the disciple,

• khalifa: the successor the master names before he dies.

• Silsila (literally "chain"):

• It is a spiritual family tree that runs from master to disciple, without a break, back to the Prophet Muhammad.
• The chain proved that the teaching was genuine. Spiritual power was believed to flow down it.

• A disciple became part of the silsila only after investiture with the khirqah, when he was given the master's frock. The classical chains ran back through the Baghdad master Junayd to the Prophet [2].

• Initiation of a disciple involved three steps:

• an oath of allegiance to the shaikh (a sign of obedience),
• wearing a patched garment (a sign of poverty),

• shaving the hair (a sign of giving up vanity).

• How silsilas got their names:

• After a founder: the Qadiri order is named after Shaikh Abd'ul Qadir Jilani. The Qadiriyyah is counted among the oldest and most widespread Sufi orders [2].

• After a place: the Chishti order is named after the town of Chisht in central Afghanistan.

• Dargah (Persian for "court"):

• It is the tomb-shrine of the shaikh. The saint is treated like a spiritual king who still "holds court".
• A dargah is the shrine or tomb of a Sufi saint and a place of pilgrimage and worship in India [3].
• Ziyarat means the pilgrimage to the tomb.
• Urs is the saint's death anniversary. It is seen as a "marriage", the union of his soul with God, so it is a festival and not a time of mourning.

Beliefs, the radical wing, and the results

• Why the grave became powerful:
• A wali (plural auliya) is a "friend of God", a sufi believed to have received God's special favour.
• He holds barakat (the power to bless) and can work karamat (miracles).

• People believed barakat stayed in his body after death. So the grave itself became a source of blessing. This is the whole logic of the dargah.

• Not all sufis accepted the khanqah:

• Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs and Haidaris rejected it completely.
• They lived by mendicancy (begging for food), celibacy (no marriage) and extreme asceticism.
• They openly broke the shari'a (Islamic law), so they were called be-shari'a ("outside the law").

• Sufis who followed the shari'a were called ba-shari'a ("with the law").

• Results:

• The khanqah gave Sufism a physical base. The silsila kept it going across generations. The dargah gave it a lasting pilgrimage centre after the master died.
• Together these turned a personal mystical feeling into a mass social movement.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Sufism began in the early centuries of Islam, with its first stage under the Umayyads (661–749 CE) [2]. It had developed its own literature by the 11th century. Its silsilas and orders took shape around the 12th century [2]. In India it flourished across the medieval period, roughly the 8th to 18th centuries.
• Places:
• Baghdad, home of Junayd, through whom the classical chains ran [2].
• Chisht in central Afghanistan, which gave the Chishti order its name.

• Ajmer, Rajasthan, about 130 km south-west of Jaipur [5].

• Key people: Junayd of Baghdad; Shaikh Abd'ul Qadir Jilani (Qadiri order); Khwaja Muin al-Din Chishti (Ajmer).

• Ajmer Sharif, a living example:
• The tomb of Khwaja Muin al-Din Chishti at Ajmer is one of the most sacred Muslim shrines in India. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, many from foreign countries, come each year for the urs [4].
• The Mughal emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan visited Ajmer often [5].

• The 813th Urs of the saint was observed in a recent annual cycle [6]. The Prime Minister of India sends a ceremonial chaadar (a cloth offering) to be placed at the shrine each year [7].

• How we know:

• the sufis' own literature on the Qur'an, the mystic path and conduct (developed by the 11th century),
• the records of silsila descent,
• surviving dargahs and the living urs tradition,
• official records: the ASI's Draft Heritage Bye-Laws for Ajmer [5] and PIB releases on the Urs [6] [7].

Don't confuse with

• Bhakti movement: Bhakti was a devotional movement within Hindu traditions, led by saints who attacked ritual and the priests' control over religion. Sufism grew inside Islam. The two ran side by side and shared the language of love for God, but they came from different religions.
• Khanqah vs dargah: the khanqah is the hospice where the living shaikh taught and fed people. The dargah is the tomb-shrine built where he was buried.
• Ba-shari'a vs be-shari'a: ba-shari'a sufis followed Islamic law. Be-shari'a groups (Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs, Haidaris) openly broke it.
• Qadiri vs Chishti naming: the Qadiri order is named after a founder (Abd'ul Qadir Jilani). The Chishti order is named after a place (Chisht, in central Afghanistan).

Prelims Hooks

• Tasawwuf is the term used in Islamic texts. "Sufism" is a 19th-century English word. The suggested roots are suf (wool), safa (purity) and suffa (the platform outside the Prophet's mosque).
• Khanqah is a Persian word for hospice. Shaikh is Arabic, while pir and murshid are Persian. All three words mean the teaching master.
• Silsila means "chain" and traces spiritual descent back to the Prophet Muhammad. It took fixed shape around the 12th century, and the organised tariqas also began in the 12th century [2].
• Dargah is Persian for "court". Ziyarat is the pilgrimage to it. Urs is the death anniversary, seen as the saint's union ("marriage") with God.
• Wali (plural auliya) means friend of God, barakat is his grace, and karamat are his miracles. Trap: Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs and Haidaris were be-shari'a, not ba-shari'a.
• The dargah of Khwaja Muin al-Din Chishti is at Ajmer, Rajasthan [4]. Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan visited it often [5].

Mains Points

• Sufism was reform from within.
• It began as a protest against the Caliphate's materialism and against purely bookish religion.
• It ran parallel to the bhakti saints' attack on ritual and priestly control.

• This supports the argument that medieval Indian religious change came from reform movements inside both Islam and Hinduism.

• Institutions explain how Sufism spread in India.

• The khanqah gave food, shelter and teaching open to everyone.
• The silsila kept the teaching going across generations.
• The dargah made the saint a permanent pilgrimage centre.

• Ziyarat on the urs drew Muslims and non-Muslims alike, which is hard evidence of a composite culture.

• Royal patronage and internal division.

• Rulers linked themselves to the saints' prestige. Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan visited Ajmer [5], and a state offering is still sent today [7].
• This patronage risked pulling the sufis into the very worldliness they had first rejected.
• The ba-shari'a / be-shari'a split shows Sufism was never one uniform group. An answer that treats all Sufis as the same can be corrected with this point.

Related concepts

• Khanqah
• Shaikh
• Murid
• Khalifa
• Silsila
• Qadiri order
• Mian Mir
• Shattari order
• Nund Rishi
• Dargah

Read more

• The growth of Sufism: khanqah, silsila, dargah