Article contents
Shari‘a, Shi‘as and Chishtiya Revivalism: Contextualising the Growth of Sectarianism in the Tradition of the Sialvi Saints of the Punjab
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 May 2014
Abstract
This article discusses the transformation that took place within the Chishtiya silsilah after its revival in the Punjab in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Within this Chishtiya revival an exclusionary streak emerged, embedded within a shari‘a-centred orientation, leading to Shi‘a and Chishti Sunni antagonism in the Punjab. As a result, the composite and all-inclusive ethos epitomised by earlier Chishti Sufis of the thirteenth century was jettisoned. Underpinning these developments was the advent of the Usuli faction among the Shi‘a of Awadh, whose influence was resonating in the Punjab by the turn of the twentieth century. The khanaqah of Sial Sharif in Sargodha district illustrates this exclusionary trend, as reflected in the texts such as the Mazhab-i Shi‘a by Khawja Qammar ud Din Sialvi.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 24 , Issue 3: Isna ‘Ashari and Isma‘ili Shi‘ism: from South Asia to the Indian Ocean , July 2014 , pp. 477 - 492
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2014
References
1 Robinson, Francis, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (New Delhi, 2000), p. 234 Google Scholar.
2 Rizvi, S. Athar Abbas, A History of Sufism in India (New Delhi, 1975), i, p. 115 Google Scholar; Mujeeb, M., The Indian Muslims (London, 1967), p. 116 Google Scholar.
3 The literal meaning of sajjada nashin is the one who sits on the prayer carpet. Generally it denotes the hereditary heir of a pir who ipso facto assumes the role of a denomination's spiritual head. Gilmartin, David, Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan (London, 1988), p. 42 Google Scholar.
4 Ernst, Carl W. and Lawrence, Bruce, Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond (New York, 2003), p. 2 Google Scholar.
5 Anjum, Tanvir, Chishti Sufis in the Sultanate of Delhi: 1190–1400 (Karachi , 2011), p. 7 Google Scholar.
6 Rizvi, S.N.R., “Shi’ism and Sufism: Polemics and Identity Formation under the Nawabs of Awadh”, in The Islamic Path: Sufism, Society and Politics in India, (eds.) Jafri, Saiyid Zaheer Husain and Reifeld, Helmut (New Delhi, 2006), p. 382 Google Scholar.
7 Jones, Justin, Shi‘a Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism (Cambridge, 2012), p. 5 Google Scholar.
8 Khawja Abu ‘Ishaq Shami originally belonged to Syria but moved to Chisht near Herat in Khurasan province at the behest of his spiritual guide Khwaja Alu of Dinawar. On the advice of his spiritual guide, ‘Ishaq Shami adopted the soubriquet ‘Chishti’ Anjum, Chishti Sufis in the Sultanate of Delhi, pp.93–94.
9 For Shaikh-al Akbar's life and thoughts, see Chittick, William, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn-al Arabi's metaphysics of imagination (Albany, 1989)Google Scholar.
10 Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, i, p. 103.
11 Moin Nizami, ‘Reform and Renewal in South Asian Islam: The Chishti-Sabris in 18th to 19th Century North India’, unpublished PhD Thesis, 2010, University of Cambridge, p. i.
12 It is noteworthy that he cites zikr formulas in Punjabi and Hindi, such as the following, attributed to Farid-ud-din: “Say wuhi hi upwards, hi hi to the left side of the breast, hin hi toward the heart”. See Awrangābāadī, Nizām al-Din, Nizām-al-qulūb (Delhi, 1309/1891–2), p. 30, cited in ibid., pp.32–34Google Scholar.
13 Aquil, Raziuddin, “Music and Related Practices in Chishti Sufism: Celebrations and Contestations”, Social Scientist 40, (March-April 2012), p. 19 Google Scholar.
14 For Nizam-ud-din Auliya's life sketch, see Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, i, pp. 154–163.
15 Eaton, Richard, “The Political and Religious Authority of the Shrine of Baba Farid”, in India's Islamic Traditions:711–1750, (ed.) Eaton, Richard (Delhi, 2003), p. 264 Google Scholar.
16 Moin Nizami, Reform and Renewal in South Asian Islam. p. 57.
17 Sanyal, Usha, Devotional Islam and Politics in British India: Ahmad Riza Khan Barewli and his Movement,1870–1920 (Delhi,1996)Google Scholar.
18 Rahman, Fazlur, Islam (Chicago, 1979 [1966]), pp. 205–211 Google Scholar; Clancy-Smith, Julia A., Rebel and Saint: Muslim Notables, Populist Protest, Colonial Encounters (Algeria and Tunisia, 1800–1904) (Berkeley, 1997)Google Scholar.
19 Nizami, Khaliq Ahmed, Tārīkh-i Masha’īkh-i Chisht, (Karachi, 2007), v, pp. 278–280 Google Scholar.
20 Kohati, Muhammad Suhbat Khan, Faroog-i ‘ilm main Khānwāda-i Sīyāl Sharīf aur un kē Khulfa kā Kirdār (Karachi, 2010), pp. 60–61 Google Scholar.
21 Willis, John Ralph, “Jihad fi Sabil Allah: Its Doctrinal Basis in Islam and Some Aspects of Its Evolution in Nineteenth-Century West Africa”, The Journal of African History 8, 3 (1967), pp. 395–415 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 With Sulaman Taunsawi, Khawja Muhammad ‘Aqil of Kot Mithan and Hafiz Muhammad Jamal of Multan, Chishti pirs came to epitomise the Islamic revivalist streak, which seemed to have lent an exclusionary character to Taunsawi and his successors despite their Chishtiya denomination. The pirs of Golra Sharif and Sial Sharif were disciples of Taunswi.
23 Wilson, James, Shahpur District Gazetteer (Lahore, Government of the Punjab Printing, 1897), p. 87 Google Scholar.
24 Khwaja Zia-ud-din was an ardent supporter of the Khilafat movement. Hence he had extremely cordial relations with Deobandi ‘ulama, as was evident from the welcome accorded to him by several ‘ulama including Anwar Shah Kashmiri on his visit to Deoband in 1927.See Chishti, Murid Ahmad, Fauz-ul-Miqāl fī Khulfa-i Pīr-i Sīyāl, (Jhelum, n.d), iii, p. 245 Google Scholar.
25 Sipah-i-Sahabah-i Pakistan came into existence in September 1985 in District Jhang. Local cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was its first leader. Campaigning against Shi‘ism was the central postulate of the SSP. For a detailed account of the SSP, see Nasr, Vali Reza, “The Rise of Sunni Militancy in Pakistan: The Changing Role of Islamism and the Ulama in Society and Politics”, Modern Asian Studies, 34, 1, (Feb., 2000), pp. 139–180 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zaman, Muhammad Qasim, “Sectarianism in Pakistan: the Radicalization of Shi‘i and Sunni Identities”, Modern Asian Studies, 32, 3, (Jul., 1998), pp. 689–716 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
26 Fakhir-ud-din Dehlavi was born at Aurangabad. He was a khalifa of Shah Kalim Ullah Shahjahanabadi (1650–1729), a much acclaimed protagonist of Chishtiya revivalism. For his biographical account, see Rizvi, S. Athar Abbas, Shah Waliullah and His Times (Canberra, 1980), p. 376 Google Scholar; Nizami,Tārīkh-i Mashā’īkh-i Chisht, pp. 451–496; Ernst and Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love, p. 109.
27 Gilmartin, David, “Religious Leadership and the Pakistan Movement in the Punjab”, Modern Asian Studies 13, 3 (1979), p. 488 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
28 Khwaja Noor Muhammad was the prominent khalifa of Fakhir-ud-din Dehlavi. He received his early instruction at Lahore and then proceeded to Delhi for higher esoteric learning from Fakhir-ud-din. Later on, at the persuasion of his teacher (murshid) he came to Muhar (Bahawalpur) and settled there. Muhar in due course became the centre of Chishtiya activity. For further details, see Nizami, , Tārīkh-i Mashā’īkh-i Chisht (Lahore, 2007), v, pp. 210–234 Google Scholar, and Javaid, Qazi, Punjāb kē Sūfī Dānīshwār (Lahore, 2005), pp. 201–219 Google Scholar.
29 Nizami, Tārīkh-i Mashā’īkh-i Chisht, v, p. 211.
30 Siddique, M. Zammer ud din, “The Resurgence of the Chishti Silsilah in the Punjab during the Eighteenth Century”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 1970 (New Delhi, 1971), i, p. 408 Google Scholar. Also see Moini, Liyaqat Hussain, “Devotional Linkages of Punjab with the Chishti Shrine at Ajmer: Gleanings from the Vikalatnamas”, in Sufism in Punjab, (eds.) Singh, Surinder and Gaur, Ishwar Dayal, pp. 379–382 Google Scholar; Sanyal, Devotional Islam, pp. 46–47.
31 Siddiqi, “The Resurgence”, p. 410.
32 Nizami,Tārīkh-i Mashā’īkh-i Chisht, pp. 26–48.
33 Siddiqi, “The Resurgence”, p. 409.
34 Hussain, Zakir, Tazkīra-i Chishtīya Shāmsīya (Lahore,2003), p. 511 Google Scholar.
35 Siddiqi, “The Resurgence”, p. 409.
36 Javed, Qazi, Hindu-Muslim Tehzīb (Lahore, 1983), pp. 354–356 Google Scholar.
37 Jalal, Ayesha, “Post-Orientalist Blues: Cultural Fusion and Confusion”, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 27, (Jan-March 1990), p. 113 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
38 Sanyal, Devotional Islam, p. 46.
39 Metcalf, Barbara Daly, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860–1900 (New Delhi, 1986), p. 140 Google Scholar.
40 He therefore exhorted his disciples to play their part in the political situation of the Punjab when Multan was threatened by successive Sikh attacks. Siddiqi, “The Resurgence”, p. 410.
41 Ibid.
42 Such texts as Ahya-ul-‘Ulūm, Fatūhat-i Makkīya, Awārī-ul Mu‘arif, Kanz-ud-Daqā’īq and Kafīya were being taught there. Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, ii, p. 312.
43 Hashemi, Nader, Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (New York, 2009), p. 39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, ii, p. 314.
45 Ibid.
46 For overall impact of reform movements, see Jones, Kenneth, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India (Cambridge,1989)Google Scholar, and for particular reference to the Punjab see Talbot, Ian, Punjab and the Raj (New Delhi, 1988)Google Scholar.
47 Saeed, Sayyed Muhammad, Mīra’t-ul ‘Ashiqeen (Lahore, 2006), p. 18 Google Scholar.
48 Zakir Hussain, Tazkira-i Chishtīya Shāmsīya, p. 511.
49 Gilmartin, “Religious Leadership”, p. 492.
50 Ibid.
51 Sialvi, Ghulam Ahmad, Anwār-i Qamarīya (Lahore, 2002), pp. 278–279 Google Scholar.
52 For the Ahmadiya Movement, see Lavan, Spencer, The Ahmadiya Movement: A History and perspective (New Delhi, 1974)Google Scholar, and Friedmann, Yohanan, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and its Medieval Background (New Delhi, 1988)Google Scholar.
53 Kashmiri, Shorish, Tārīkh-i Khatam-i Nubuwwat (Lahore, 1972), pp. 48–60 Google Scholar.
54 Chishti, Mureed Ahmad, Fauz al-Miqāl fī Khulf-i Pīr Sīyāl,v (Karachi, 2008)Google Scholar.
55 Shi‘as consider only those hadith authentic that have been transmitted through the members of ahl-i bait (family of the Prophet) whereas for Sunnis numerous close companions of the Prophet are legitimate transmitters, such as Abu Hurairah, ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar and Ayesha, the Prophet's wife. However, Shi‘i tradition rejects the authenticity of these ahadith, accepting them only when their text is similar to that narrated by any member of ahl-i bait whom Shi‘as regard the only legitimate source. See Auda, Jasser, Maqasid Al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach (London, 2008), p. 86 Google Scholar.
56 Malik, Jamal, “Muslim Culture and Reform in Eighteenth-Century South Asia”, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society Series 3, 13 (2003), pp. 230–235 Google Scholar.
57 Azam Qasmi, M., “Sufism and the Founders of Deoband: A Study of Their Understanding and Responses”, in The Islamic Path: Sufism, Society and Politics in India, (eds.) Jafri, Saiyid Zaheer Husain and Reifeld, Helmut (New Delhi, 2006), p. 346 Google Scholar.
58 Zaman, Muhammad Qasim, “Studying Hadith in a Madrasa in the Early Twentieth Century”, in Islam in South Asia in practice, (ed.) Metcalf, Barbara D. (New Delhi, 2009), p. 226 Google Scholar.
59 Robinson, Francis, “Strategies of Authority in Muslim South Asian in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries”, Modern Asian Studies, 47 (January 2013), pp. 1–21 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
60 Ibid.
61 Moin Nizami, Reform and Renewal in South Asian Islam, p. 265.
62 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, administrators in religious schools stressed the study of hadith. For more on this, see Zaman, “Studying Hadith”, pp. 225–239.
63 Robinson, “Strategies of Authority”, p. 4.
64 Nur-i Muhammadi is the idea that there was a light of Muhammad, derived from God's own light, which had existed from the beginning of creation. Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India, pp. 300–312.
65 An Iranian émigré Mir Muhammad Amin Nishapuri Sa‘adat ‘Ali Khan Burhan-ul-Mulk (died in 1739) founded Shi‘i rule in Awadh in 1722 with Faizabad as its capital. Mirza Muhammad Muqeem Abul Mansur Khan Safdarjang (died in 1753) and Shujah-ud-daula became Nawabs respectively. For details, see Cole, Juan R.I., Roots of North Indian Shi’ism in Iran and Iraq: Religion and State in Awadh, 1722–1859 (Berkeley, 1988), pp. 40–55 Google Scholar.
66 Rizvi, S. Athar Abbas, A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna-Ashari Shi‘is in India, ii (New Delhi, 1986), p. 72 Google Scholar.
67 Rizvi, “Shi’ism and Sufism”, p. 382; Cole, Roots of North Indian Shi’ism, pp. 152–157.
68 . Makhdum Jahaniyan Shaikh Jalal-ud-din Bukhari was Suhrwardiya Sufi. He settled in Uch, a town in South Punjab. He had taken an oath of allegiance with Baha-ul-Haq Zakariya Multani (died in 1335 A.D). See for further detail, Javed, Punjab Key Sufi Danishwar, pp.102–119.
69 Rizvi, A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna-Ashari Shi‘is, ii, p. 72. Tafdiliya refers to those Sunnis who proclaim their belief in Imam ‘Ali's superiority (tafdil) over the other claimants to the Caliphate while not disputing the legitimacy of the three leaders who preceded ‘Ali in the office.
70 Ibid , pp. 332–334.
71 Hasan, “Sectarianism in Indian Islam”, p. 224. For Abu Qasim, see Rahi, Akhter, Tazkira-i ‘Ulamā-i Punjāb, i (Lahore, 1998), pp. 51–52 Google Scholar.
72 Rizvi, A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna-Ashari Shi‘is, ii, p. 333.
73 Gazetteer of Jhang District 1883–84, p. 50. Drawing on the Census of 1881, it states that the total number of Muslims in the district was 326,919, among whom 11,835 were Shi‘i and only eight Wahhabis.
74 Gazetteer of Jhang District 1929 (Lahore, 2000), p. 69.
75 Sadiq, Siddiq, Jhang: The Land of Two Rivers (Jhang,2002), pp. 217–218 Google Scholar.
76 Shi‘i activists were sent to Lucknow at the behest of Mubarak ‘Ali Shah, a leading member of the Zubairi, Shah Jiwana clan. Bilal, Tārīkh-i Jhāng (Jhang, 1973), p. 371 Google Scholar; Siddiq Sadiq, Jhang, pp. 237–238.
77 Chishti, Mureed Ahmad, Fauz al-Miqāl fī Khulf-i Pīr Sīyāl, iv (Karachi, 1989), pp. 560–561 Google Scholar.
78 Lane, Edward William, An Arabic-English Lexicon, iii (Beirut, 1968), p. 1121 Google Scholar. According to Qamar-ud-din Sialvi, Zeyd was the son of Zain-ul ‘Abideen. See Sialvi, Qamar-ud-din, Mazhab-i Shi‘a (Lahore,2011), p. 39 Google Scholar.
79 Saeed, Mīra’t-ul‘Ashiqeen, p. 183.
80 Jang-i-Jamal took place in 656 AD, in Basra. Talha and Zubair were close companions of the Prophet and sided with Ayesha in the battle of Camel against ‘Ali; both were killed.
81 Ibid.
82 This conception of ‘fraternal enmity’ invokes the primacy of violence as a means of transformation of the meaning and practices of the political in India and asserts that violence, whether conceptual or otherwise, was of meaning only when directed against the intimate. See Kapila, Shruti, “A History of Violence”, Modern Intellectual History,7, 2 (August 2010), pp. 437–457 Google Scholar.
83 Saeed, Mīra’t-ul‘Ashiqeen, pp.183–184.
84 Sialvi, Mazhab-i Shi‘a.
85 Ibid., pp. 20–26.
86 Ibid., p. 41.
- 2
- Cited by