“Suhrawardiyyah”
The only other work able to match the Kashf al-mahojub in popularity and utility in India was the Awarif al-marif by Shaykh Shihab al-Din Abu Hoafs Umar (539/1145-632/1234), the founder of the Suhrawardi Order. He obtained training under his uncle Shaykh Doiya al-Din Abul-Najib Suhrawardi (490/1097-563/1168), who built a hospice on a ruined site on the Tigris in Baghdad. The caliph appointed Shaykh Shihab al-Din as his ambassador to different courts of important rulers and built an extensive khanqah for him in Baghdad, which included luxurious bath houses and gardens. He traveled extensively and made several pilgrimages to Mecca, accompanied by his eminent disciples. Sufis from all over the world flocked to his khanqah to obtain initiation from him. One of them was Shaykh Bahaal-Din Zakariyya, who was born at Kot Karor near Multan (now in Pakistan) in about 578/1182-83. After studying at different centers of Islamic learning, he arrived in Baghdad. His training period under Shaykh Shihab al-Din lasted for only seventeen days, to the utter disgust of the senior disciples, but the Shaykh silenced them by saying that when they had first come to him they had been like green wood which would not catch fire, whereas Baha al-Din had been like dry wood, which had begun to burn with a single breath.
In Multan, the eminent Sufis and ulama stubbornly opposed Shaykh Bahaal-Din, but his scholarly attainments and a distinctive position among the disciples of Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi soon made him a principal figure in Multan. It appears that merchants from Iraq and Khurasan were attracted to him in large numbers. The Shaykh built an extensive khanqah on the pattern of his spiritual guides khanqah in Baghdad. He fearlessly opposed Qubachah, the ruler of Multan, and espoused the cause of Sultan Shams al-Din Iltutmish (607/1211-633/1236) of Delhi, who seized Multan in 625/1228. The repeated Mongol invasions of Multan made the life of the townsfolk miserable, but the fame of Shaykh Baha al-Dins piety in Khurasan and Transoxiana facilitated successful negotiations with the Mongol invaders.
Shaykh Baha al-Din strongly discouraged Sufis from seeking guidance from a number of different pirs (spiritual guides), urging them to lay their heads on one rather than a number of thresholds. He placed great stress on performing obligatory prayers and assigned a secondary place to supererogatory prayers and zikr. He ate normally and did not indulge in incessant fasting. In Safar 661/ December 1262 he died at Multan, and his tomb became a center of pilgrimage in the region. He was succeeded by his own son, Shaykh Soadr al-Din Arif (d. 684/ 1286). Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyyas disciple and son-in-law, the poet and mystic Shaykh Fakhr alDin Ibrahim, popularly known as Iraqi (d. 688/ 1289), spread his fame from Syria to Turkey. Iraqis Lamaat (Divine Flashes), based on lectures by Shaykh Soadr al-Din Qunawi (d. 673/ 1274) on his master, made a deep impact on the spiritual discipline of the Indian Suhrawardiyyah.
Shaykh Soadr al-Din Arif was fortunate to have the poet Amir Husayn Housayni (b. 671/1272-73) as his disciple. Husayni works, such as ad almus Ăfirin (Provision of Travelers), Nuzhat al-arwaho (Pleasure of Spirits), and Kanz al-rumuz (Treasury of Mysteries) are devoid of Iraqis spiritual sensitivity, but their deep ethical teachings are of far-reaching importance.
Shaykh Soadr al-Dins son and successor, Shaykh Rukn al-Din Abul-Fatho, revived the political and spiritual glory of his grandfather. From the reign of Sultan Alaal-Din Khalji (695/1296-715/1316) to his own death in 735/1334-35 in the reign of Sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq (725/1325752/1351), Shaykh Rukn al-Din was deeply revered by all the reigning monarchs of the Delhi sultanate. Whenever he visited Delhi, he never forgot to call on the great Chishty Shaykh Nizamuddin Awliya, but he did not care for the latters strained relations with the sultans. Petitioners filled Shaykh Rukn al-Dins palanquin with petitions on his way to the sultans court. The latter read them carefully and granted the petitioners requests, thanks to Shaykh Rukn al-Dins influence. The works of the shaykh do not survive, but some of his authentic conversations with Sufis tend to indicate that he regarded possession of wealth, scholarship, and mystical enlightenment as indispensable for the Sufis. The Chishtis, however, never agreed with the Suhrawardis on the question of the accumulation of wealth. Some of the Suhrawardi saints were, however, great ascetics. One of them was Shaykh Uthman Sayyah (d. 738/ 1337-38) (the traveler) of Sunnam in eastern Punjab. He was a disciple of Shaykh Rukn al-Din. With his pirs, he departed on a pilgrimage to Mecca without carrying even so much as a waterpot. After his return from Mecca, his pir allowed him to live in Delhi, where he spiritedly defended the Chishti practice of sama (spiritual music).
Reverting back to Shaykh Shihab al-Dins disciples, who strengthened the Suhrawardi spiritual movement in India, we may mention Hoamid al Din of Nagawr in Rajasthan, not to be confused with the Chishtiyyah Shaykh Hoamid al-Din Soufi. His family had migrated from Bukhara to Delhi before its conquest by the Turks. He completed his education in Delhi and was appointed the qadi of Nagaor. After three years of service, he was disgusted with it and left for Baghdad, where he became Shaykh Shihab al-Dins disciple. He visited Mecca and Medina, traveled to many parts of western Asia and then arrived in Delhi around 618/1221. He was a firm friend of the Chishti Khwajah Qutob al-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki and enthusiastically participated in sama sessions in Delhi. His wit, in conjunction with his deep knowledge of Islamic Law, frustrated the ulamas efforts to defeat him on legal issues. His thirst for unqualified and non delimited love in his three surviving works, the Ishqiyyah (Pertaining to Love), the qawali al-shumus (Risings of the Suns) and the Risalah min kalam (Treatise of Kalam), is very profound. In the Ishqiyyah he says that although Lover and Beloved appear to be different, they are in fact identical. Whoever sees them as two is confused and whoever does not see them at all is insane. One who is lost in Being is a part of Gods Attributes. This stage makes Sufis present everywhere. The extinction of "I" leads to the predominance of "He." Both Lover and Beloved mirror each other. Love is the source of everything that exists. Fire is the burning quality of love, air is its aspect of restlessness, water is its movement, and earth is its immutable aspect. In the Tawali al-shumus, the Qadoi spells out the mystery of the Names of Allah. He says that the greatest Name of God is Huwa (He) and it indicates His eternal nature, hallowed and free from decline and fall. The Qadoi died in 643/1245-46.
The disciple of Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi who made Islam popular in Bengal was Shaykh Jalal al-Din Tabrizi. He excelled all the shaykhs disciples in serving his pir. Migrating to Bengal, he built a khanqah at Deva Mahoal near Pandua in northern Bengal and converted a large number people to Islam. In the Riholah (Travels) of Ibn Batotoutoah, Shaykh Jalal of Sylhet whom he visited has been confused with Shaykh Jalal Tabrizi and the mistake has been repeated by several scholars.
The early Suhrawardis and the Chishtis had divided different regions of the Indian subcontinent into spheres of their respective spiritual influence and refrained from interfering with those of others. Despite their humility and self-abasement, the Chishtis encouraged their disciples to exhibit the utmost veneration to their pirs and even permitted the performance of sajdah (prostration) before them, but Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyya expected his disciples to greet him with the customary al-salamu alaykum (peace be upon you). He also urged his disciples to finish their obligatory religious duties first and to greet him afterward. The Suhrawardi view of the function of the state, envisaged by Shaykh Shihab al-Dins disciple, Shaykh Nur al-Din Mubarak Ghaznawi, who settled in Delhi and died there in 632/1234-35, encompassed the prosperity of the Sunni upper classes alone; Shiis and Hindus were permitted to survive, provided they did so in a deprived economic state. The Suhrawardis, as depicted in the legends surrounding Shaykh Jalal al-Din Tabrizis activities in Bengal, and those of Makhdum Jahaniyan, as we shall see, were unhesitating in their proselytizing zeal. By contrast, the Chishtis believed that only the company of pious and ascetic Muslims prompted others to accept Islam. To them, their main mission was to work for the integration of those who embraced Islam in an attempt to make them genuinely pious Muslims and save them from emulating the example of the haughty governing classes.
Makhdum Jahaniyan Sayyid Jalal al-Din Bukhari was a grandson of Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyyas disciple, Sayyid Jalal al-Din Surkh. Sultan Muhoammad ibn Tughluq, who initiated the policy of controlling the appointment of the heads of Sufi khanqahs, had made him the head of the khanqah of Sehwan. Before long, however, Makhdum Jahaniyan embarked on a pilgrimage and later traveled to many parts of the Islamic world, earning the title Jahangasht (world traveler) for himself. During the reign of Sultan Firuz Tughluq (752/1351-790/1388), he settled down in Uchh and occasionally visited Delhi. A notorious puritan, Makhdum Jahaniyan strongly deplored the Indian Muslim religious customs and ceremonies which had been borrowed from Hindus and were an Indian accretion. He urged that dervishes, Sufis, and ulama visit rulers and government officials in order to elicit assistance for the downtrodden sections of Muslims. He introduced among his disciples the spirit of the akhi and futuwwah (spiritual chivalry) organizations of Anatolia, Khurasan, and Transoxiana. After his death in 785/1384, he was succeeded by his brother, Sadr al-Din, who achieved fame under his nicknames Raju and Qattal (slayer) for his militant evangelism. A grandson of Makhdum Jahaniyan moved to Gujarat and before long came to be known as Qutob-i Alam (The Pole of the Universe). He settled in Ahmadabad, the newly founded capital of an independent provincial ruling dynasty of Gujarat. He died in 857/1453 and was succeeded by his son, who came to be known by the illustrious title Shah-i Alam (The Emperor of the World), and was also called Shah Manjhan. Qutob-i Alam, Shah-i Alam (d. 880/ 1475) and their disciples made Gujarat a leading Suhrawardi Sufi center of India. The influence of Shaykh Sama al-Din and the fame of his disciple Shaykh Jamali transformed Delhi into an important Suhrawardi center. Jamali (d. 942/ 1536) was passionately fond of traveling and, starting with a pilgrimage to Mecca, he traveled through western Asia and the Maghreb. At Herat he called on the great Persian poet Jami and held lively discussions, particularly on Iraqis Lamaat. Jamali was the author of several Persian mathnawis in which he lyrically delineated the theme of spiritual transmutation through love. The biographical notes on the Chishtis and Suhrawardis which he wrote in his Siyar al-arifin (Biography of the Gnostics) comprise a wealth of information which he collected during his travels to Persia and Iraq. In the eighth/ fourteenth century a Suhrawardi center was established in Kashmir, strengthening orthodox Sunnism there.
The only other work able to match the Kashf al-mahojub in popularity and utility in India was the Awarif al-marif by Shaykh Shihab al-Din Abu Hoafs Umar (539/1145-632/1234), the founder of the Suhrawardi Order. He obtained training under his uncle Shaykh Doiya al-Din Abul-Najib Suhrawardi (490/1097-563/1168), who built a hospice on a ruined site on the Tigris in Baghdad. The caliph appointed Shaykh Shihab al-Din as his ambassador to different courts of important rulers and built an extensive khanqah for him in Baghdad, which included luxurious bath houses and gardens. He traveled extensively and made several pilgrimages to Mecca, accompanied by his eminent disciples. Sufis from all over the world flocked to his khanqah to obtain initiation from him. One of them was Shaykh Bahaal-Din Zakariyya, who was born at Kot Karor near Multan (now in Pakistan) in about 578/1182-83. After studying at different centers of Islamic learning, he arrived in Baghdad. His training period under Shaykh Shihab al-Din lasted for only seventeen days, to the utter disgust of the senior disciples, but the Shaykh silenced them by saying that when they had first come to him they had been like green wood which would not catch fire, whereas Baha al-Din had been like dry wood, which had begun to burn with a single breath.
In Multan, the eminent Sufis and ulama stubbornly opposed Shaykh Bahaal-Din, but his scholarly attainments and a distinctive position among the disciples of Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi soon made him a principal figure in Multan. It appears that merchants from Iraq and Khurasan were attracted to him in large numbers. The Shaykh built an extensive khanqah on the pattern of his spiritual guides khanqah in Baghdad. He fearlessly opposed Qubachah, the ruler of Multan, and espoused the cause of Sultan Shams al-Din Iltutmish (607/1211-633/1236) of Delhi, who seized Multan in 625/1228. The repeated Mongol invasions of Multan made the life of the townsfolk miserable, but the fame of Shaykh Baha al-Dins piety in Khurasan and Transoxiana facilitated successful negotiations with the Mongol invaders.
Shaykh Baha al-Din strongly discouraged Sufis from seeking guidance from a number of different pirs (spiritual guides), urging them to lay their heads on one rather than a number of thresholds. He placed great stress on performing obligatory prayers and assigned a secondary place to supererogatory prayers and zikr. He ate normally and did not indulge in incessant fasting. In Safar 661/ December 1262 he died at Multan, and his tomb became a center of pilgrimage in the region. He was succeeded by his own son, Shaykh Soadr al-Din Arif (d. 684/ 1286). Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyyas disciple and son-in-law, the poet and mystic Shaykh Fakhr alDin Ibrahim, popularly known as Iraqi (d. 688/ 1289), spread his fame from Syria to Turkey. Iraqis Lamaat (Divine Flashes), based on lectures by Shaykh Soadr al-Din Qunawi (d. 673/ 1274) on his master, made a deep impact on the spiritual discipline of the Indian Suhrawardiyyah.
Shaykh Soadr al-Din Arif was fortunate to have the poet Amir Husayn Housayni (b. 671/1272-73) as his disciple. Husayni works, such as ad almus Ăfirin (Provision of Travelers), Nuzhat al-arwaho (Pleasure of Spirits), and Kanz al-rumuz (Treasury of Mysteries) are devoid of Iraqis spiritual sensitivity, but their deep ethical teachings are of far-reaching importance.
Shaykh Soadr al-Dins son and successor, Shaykh Rukn al-Din Abul-Fatho, revived the political and spiritual glory of his grandfather. From the reign of Sultan Alaal-Din Khalji (695/1296-715/1316) to his own death in 735/1334-35 in the reign of Sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq (725/1325752/1351), Shaykh Rukn al-Din was deeply revered by all the reigning monarchs of the Delhi sultanate. Whenever he visited Delhi, he never forgot to call on the great Chishty Shaykh Nizamuddin Awliya, but he did not care for the latters strained relations with the sultans. Petitioners filled Shaykh Rukn al-Dins palanquin with petitions on his way to the sultans court. The latter read them carefully and granted the petitioners requests, thanks to Shaykh Rukn al-Dins influence. The works of the shaykh do not survive, but some of his authentic conversations with Sufis tend to indicate that he regarded possession of wealth, scholarship, and mystical enlightenment as indispensable for the Sufis. The Chishtis, however, never agreed with the Suhrawardis on the question of the accumulation of wealth. Some of the Suhrawardi saints were, however, great ascetics. One of them was Shaykh Uthman Sayyah (d. 738/ 1337-38) (the traveler) of Sunnam in eastern Punjab. He was a disciple of Shaykh Rukn al-Din. With his pirs, he departed on a pilgrimage to Mecca without carrying even so much as a waterpot. After his return from Mecca, his pir allowed him to live in Delhi, where he spiritedly defended the Chishti practice of sama (spiritual music).
Reverting back to Shaykh Shihab al-Dins disciples, who strengthened the Suhrawardi spiritual movement in India, we may mention Hoamid al Din of Nagawr in Rajasthan, not to be confused with the Chishtiyyah Shaykh Hoamid al-Din Soufi. His family had migrated from Bukhara to Delhi before its conquest by the Turks. He completed his education in Delhi and was appointed the qadi of Nagaor. After three years of service, he was disgusted with it and left for Baghdad, where he became Shaykh Shihab al-Dins disciple. He visited Mecca and Medina, traveled to many parts of western Asia and then arrived in Delhi around 618/1221. He was a firm friend of the Chishti Khwajah Qutob al-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki and enthusiastically participated in sama sessions in Delhi. His wit, in conjunction with his deep knowledge of Islamic Law, frustrated the ulamas efforts to defeat him on legal issues. His thirst for unqualified and non delimited love in his three surviving works, the Ishqiyyah (Pertaining to Love), the qawali al-shumus (Risings of the Suns) and the Risalah min kalam (Treatise of Kalam), is very profound. In the Ishqiyyah he says that although Lover and Beloved appear to be different, they are in fact identical. Whoever sees them as two is confused and whoever does not see them at all is insane. One who is lost in Being is a part of Gods Attributes. This stage makes Sufis present everywhere. The extinction of "I" leads to the predominance of "He." Both Lover and Beloved mirror each other. Love is the source of everything that exists. Fire is the burning quality of love, air is its aspect of restlessness, water is its movement, and earth is its immutable aspect. In the Tawali al-shumus, the Qadoi spells out the mystery of the Names of Allah. He says that the greatest Name of God is Huwa (He) and it indicates His eternal nature, hallowed and free from decline and fall. The Qadoi died in 643/1245-46.
The disciple of Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi who made Islam popular in Bengal was Shaykh Jalal al-Din Tabrizi. He excelled all the shaykhs disciples in serving his pir. Migrating to Bengal, he built a khanqah at Deva Mahoal near Pandua in northern Bengal and converted a large number people to Islam. In the Riholah (Travels) of Ibn Batotoutoah, Shaykh Jalal of Sylhet whom he visited has been confused with Shaykh Jalal Tabrizi and the mistake has been repeated by several scholars.
The early Suhrawardis and the Chishtis had divided different regions of the Indian subcontinent into spheres of their respective spiritual influence and refrained from interfering with those of others. Despite their humility and self-abasement, the Chishtis encouraged their disciples to exhibit the utmost veneration to their pirs and even permitted the performance of sajdah (prostration) before them, but Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyya expected his disciples to greet him with the customary al-salamu alaykum (peace be upon you). He also urged his disciples to finish their obligatory religious duties first and to greet him afterward. The Suhrawardi view of the function of the state, envisaged by Shaykh Shihab al-Dins disciple, Shaykh Nur al-Din Mubarak Ghaznawi, who settled in Delhi and died there in 632/1234-35, encompassed the prosperity of the Sunni upper classes alone; Shiis and Hindus were permitted to survive, provided they did so in a deprived economic state. The Suhrawardis, as depicted in the legends surrounding Shaykh Jalal al-Din Tabrizis activities in Bengal, and those of Makhdum Jahaniyan, as we shall see, were unhesitating in their proselytizing zeal. By contrast, the Chishtis believed that only the company of pious and ascetic Muslims prompted others to accept Islam. To them, their main mission was to work for the integration of those who embraced Islam in an attempt to make them genuinely pious Muslims and save them from emulating the example of the haughty governing classes.
Makhdum Jahaniyan Sayyid Jalal al-Din Bukhari was a grandson of Shaykh Baha al-Din Zakariyyas disciple, Sayyid Jalal al-Din Surkh. Sultan Muhoammad ibn Tughluq, who initiated the policy of controlling the appointment of the heads of Sufi khanqahs, had made him the head of the khanqah of Sehwan. Before long, however, Makhdum Jahaniyan embarked on a pilgrimage and later traveled to many parts of the Islamic world, earning the title Jahangasht (world traveler) for himself. During the reign of Sultan Firuz Tughluq (752/1351-790/1388), he settled down in Uchh and occasionally visited Delhi. A notorious puritan, Makhdum Jahaniyan strongly deplored the Indian Muslim religious customs and ceremonies which had been borrowed from Hindus and were an Indian accretion. He urged that dervishes, Sufis, and ulama visit rulers and government officials in order to elicit assistance for the downtrodden sections of Muslims. He introduced among his disciples the spirit of the akhi and futuwwah (spiritual chivalry) organizations of Anatolia, Khurasan, and Transoxiana. After his death in 785/1384, he was succeeded by his brother, Sadr al-Din, who achieved fame under his nicknames Raju and Qattal (slayer) for his militant evangelism. A grandson of Makhdum Jahaniyan moved to Gujarat and before long came to be known as Qutob-i Alam (The Pole of the Universe). He settled in Ahmadabad, the newly founded capital of an independent provincial ruling dynasty of Gujarat. He died in 857/1453 and was succeeded by his son, who came to be known by the illustrious title Shah-i Alam (The Emperor of the World), and was also called Shah Manjhan. Qutob-i Alam, Shah-i Alam (d. 880/ 1475) and their disciples made Gujarat a leading Suhrawardi Sufi center of India. The influence of Shaykh Sama al-Din and the fame of his disciple Shaykh Jamali transformed Delhi into an important Suhrawardi center. Jamali (d. 942/ 1536) was passionately fond of traveling and, starting with a pilgrimage to Mecca, he traveled through western Asia and the Maghreb. At Herat he called on the great Persian poet Jami and held lively discussions, particularly on Iraqis Lamaat. Jamali was the author of several Persian mathnawis in which he lyrically delineated the theme of spiritual transmutation through love. The biographical notes on the Chishtis and Suhrawardis which he wrote in his Siyar al-arifin (Biography of the Gnostics) comprise a wealth of information which he collected during his travels to Persia and Iraq. In the eighth/ fourteenth century a Suhrawardi center was established in Kashmir, strengthening orthodox Sunnism there.
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