As one deeply devoted to Sufi philosophy, it breaks my heart to see the radicalisation of Islam spread amongst Muslim communities bringing about destruction, death and conflict in the world. Although the majority of Pakistanis’ adhere to the ahle sunnah jamaat, and are followers of Sufi traditions, the radical minority is creating havoc. After Datta Durbar in Lahore and Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s dargah in Karachi, Baba Farids dargah in Pakpattan became the third important dargah to be attacked by terrorists.
These are attacks on the symbols of syncretism, the very message of peace and brotherhood that these Sufi’s spent their lives spreading. They preached ‘al khalq o ayalullah, all humanity forms the family of God. It was their emphasis on equality and love that drew commoners to the fold of Islam.
Sufism has been impacting the subcontinent as early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Delhi had become an important Islamic centre. Abul Fazl’s Ain e Akbari mentions fourteen Sufi orders active in India during the sixteenth century, many of which continue to flourish. Muslims of the Indian subcontinent mostly follow the Chisti, Naqshbandi, Qadri and Suharwardi Orders.
The Pakistani Taliban, who have been claiming responsibility for attacks on Sufi shrines, are driven by the Wahabi belief that declares those visiting dargahs as infidels. The strongest opposition to Sufism comes from the heretical view of it by Wahabi-inspired ideologies. The origins of nearly all twentieth- century extremist movements lie in this new Islamic theology that developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the tribal areas of the eastern Arabian Peninsula. Wahabis Muslims are a literalist sect where metaphors, allegories and transcendence mean little. They are exceptionally harsh towards Muslims expressing love and dedication to Prophet Muhammad and the Sufis, for they believe it borders on idolatry. There is no tolerance for Shias, non-Muslims or any other understanding of Islam.
The roots of almost all modern militant Islamic movements can be traced to one man called Abdul Wahab from Nejd in the Arabian Peninsula. He set out to ‘purify’ Islam, believing that Muslims had drifted away from true religion. Wahab’s followers destroyed many sacred sites in Makkah and Madinah that he considered visiting as heresy. Attacking the arts for being frivolous and dangerous, Wahab sanctioned the rape; murder and plunder of those who refused to follow his injunctions. He was considered a heretic by most, for Makkah and Madinah were then centres of contemplative Islam, inhabited by Sufis from all over the world.
In 1774-5 Wahab negotiated a deal with the then nomadic tribe of Saud, forebears of the current royal family in exchange for support in their quest for political domination. Most Saudi’s reject the name Wahabi; they either call themselves Muwahuddin- Unitarians- or Salafi, referring to Salaf, the venerated companions of the Prophet. In their blinkered view, no other version of religious truth can exist. This new face of Islam has nothing to do with Sufis, music, poetry, miracles or the countless devotional customs of Muslim cultures across the world.
Under the patronage of the Saudi Arabia, Wahabism went from strength to strength. Abul Ala Mawdudi, a journalist who translated the Quran outside the paradigms of classical propagated the Wahabi ideology. He founded the political party Jamaat e Islami in Pakistan, making jihad central to Islamic discourse. Addressing non-Muslims as infidels, he grouped Muslims into ‘partial’ and ‘true’ Muslims. Mawdudi’s ideas of Islam as a revolutionary doctrine to take over governments and overturn the whole universal order deeply influenced Syed Qutub of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. These groups have been motivated by political upheavals and the rejection of traditional scholars. Syed Qutub’s brother happened to be among the teachers of Osama bin Laden.
The growing extremism in Muslim communities is largely a result of this Wahabi ideology that the Saudis spend millions in promoting through outreach programs. Unfortunately, there is no collective Muslim protest against the Saudi regime for bulldozing graveyards, destroying cultural and religious heritage in the holy cities, imposing a certain sexual segregation of the sexes inside the Prophets mosque at Madinah, radical sermons, or the distribution of radical literature outside Saudi mosques.
Although radical ideology is making some inroads; thankfully India remains a place where Islam is still practiced as taught by the Sufis. I often walk to the Nizamuddin dargah complex, where one of the entrances from the side of Amir Khusrau’s dargah is actually adjacent to the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters. The Tablighis are ideologically opposed to the Sufi way of seeking intercession to God, but there are never any disturbances in the area. I dread to think what would have happened in this kind of a locality in countries like Pakistan. Even though different schools of Islamic philosophy and law thrive in India, their acceptance of each other, and their peaceful co-existence with people of different faiths makes the country and its Muslims unique.
