Chistis, Sufis and Kabir

The Chistis in the Subcontinent:

Chistis were the most influential of the groups that migrated to India in the Twelfth Century because they adapted to the local environment and traditions.

Life in the Chishti Khanqah:

• Khanqahs were the centre of social life
• Shaikh Nizamuddin’s hospice in Delhi consisted of several rooms and a big hall

• • Inmates included family members of the Shaikh, his attendants and disciples
  • A veranda surrounded the courtyard and a boundary wall ran around the complex
  • There was an open kitchen (langar), run on futuh (charity)
  • People from all walks of life came seeking discipleship
  • Visitors included poets such as Amir Hasan Sijzi and Amir Khusrau and the court historian Ziyauddin Barani

• Practices such as bowing before the Shaikh, offering water to visitors, shaving the heads of initiates, and yogic exercises, represented attempts to assimilate local traditions

Chisti Devotionalism: Ziyarat and Qawwali:

• Pilgrimage to tombs of Sufi saints is called ziyarat This practice is an occasion for seeking the sufi’s spiritual grace (barakat)

• The most revered among these is that of Khwaja Muinuddin, popularly known as “Gharib Nawaz”

• • It was popular because of the austerity and piety of its Shaikh, the greatness of its spiritual successors, and the patronage of royal visitors
  • Muhammad bin Tughlaq was the first Sultan to visit the shrine but the earliest construction was funded by Sultan Ghiyasuddin Khalji
  • Akbar visited the shrine fourteen times and gave generous gifts

• Use of music and dance including mystical chants performed by specially trained musicians or qawwals to evoke divine ecstasy was also a part of Ziyarat

• • The Sufis remember God either by reciting the zikr (the Divine Names) or evoking his Presence through sama (audition)

Languages and Communication:

• In Delhi, those associated with the Chishti silsila conversed in Hindavi, the language of the people
• Sufis such as Baba Farid composed verses in the local language, which were incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib
• Sufi poetry was composed in and around the town of Bijapur, Karnataka
• These were short poems in Dakhani (a variant of Urdu) attributed to Chishti Sufis
• Sufis of this region were inspired by the bhakti tradition of the Kannada vachanas

Sufis and the state:

• The Sufis accepted unsolicited grants and donations from the political elites
• The Sultans set up charitable trusts (auqaf) and granted tax-free land (inam)
• These donations were used for requirements like food, clothes, living quarters and ritual necessities
• It was believed that the auliya could intercede with God, which is why kings often wanted their tombs to be in the vicinity of Sufi shrines
• However, there were instances of conflict between the Sultans and the Sufis
• To assert their authority, both expected that certain rituals be performed such as prostration and kissing of the feet

• • Sufi Shaiks were often addressed with titles, for example, disciples of Nizamuddin Auliya addressed him as sultan-ul-mashaikh

New Devotional Paths: Dialogue and Dissent in Northern India

Weaving a Divine Fabric, Kabir-

Verses ascribed to Kabir have been compiled in three distinct but overlapping traditions:

• • The Kabir Bijak is preserved by the Kabirpanth (the path or sect of Kabir) in Varanasi and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh
  • The Kabir Granthavali is associated with the Dadupanth in Rajasthan
  • Many of his compositions are found in the Adi Granth Sahib

• All these manuscript compilations were made long after the death of Kabir
• Kabir’s poems are in several languages and dialects

• • Some are composed in the special language of Nirguna poets, the sant bhasha 
  • Ulatbansi (upside-down sayings), are written in a form in which everyday meanings are inverted 
  • These hint at the difficulties of capturing the nature of reality in words: expressions such as “the lotus which blooms without flower” or the “fire raging in the ocean” convey a sense of Kabir’s mystical experiences

• He described the Ultimate Reality as Allah, Khuda, Hazrat and Pir

• • He also used terms drawn from Vedantic traditions, alakh (the unseen), nirakar (formless), Brahman, Atman
  • Terms with mystical connotations such as shabda (sound) or shunya (emptiness) were drawn from yogic traditions

• Diverse and conflicting ideas are expressed in these poems

• • Some poems draw on Islamic ideas and use monotheism and iconoclasm to attack Hindu polytheism and idol worship; 
  • Some use the sufi concept of zikr and ishq to express the Hindu practice of nam-simaran (remembrance of God’s name)

• Hagiographies within the Vaishnava tradition attempted to suggest that he was born a Hindu but was raised by a poor Muslim
• They also suggested that Ramananda was his guru but it is difficult that they both were contemporaries