Rabia Al-Basri • Omar Khayyam • Mawlana Rumi • Amir Khusrow • Hafez • Kabir • Lal Ded • Lalon Shah • Allama Muhammad Iqbal
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Some Sufi Mystics: Objective: The objective of this module is to discuss the works of some select Sufi mystics of India and abroad. They are Rabia al-Basri Omar Khayyam Mawlana Rumi Amir Khusrow Hafez Kabir Lal Ded Lalon Shah Allama Muhammad Iqbal A Brief Overview of Sufism: The movement of Sufism began with gnostic attitudes towards the material world. It derived many of its principles from Christian monasticism, Buddhist and Hindu theosophical teachings, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. It pivots around the spiritual aspects of our existence over the material. It is more of an individual perception of God without the interference of the religious preachers. Many believe that the term “Sufi” has derived either from the Greek word “Sophia” meaning wisdom or from the word “Soffe” meaning the stone bench outside the mosque at Medina, where the prophets used to sit. It may also refer to the woolen cloak as “Suf” means wool. Sufis mostly belonged to the class of “ulama”, a class of religious scholars, who had concentrated more on human consciousness and inner self rather than on customs and rituals. We can say that the Sufis are antinomian as they prioritise individual faith more than the religious laws and customs. Even though, it is a part of Islamic religion, it slightly deviates from the rigidity of Islamic school of thought. We can say that the Sufis are Islamic mystics, as they deal with the ideologies of tolerance and inclusive spirituality. Sufism emerged at the beginning of the 12th century among the Ulemas with an aim to propagate the doctrines of spiritual liberty, knowledge of Truth, love and universal tolerance. According to Lewis, “Islam itself is an ecumenical religion, teaching that Mohammad, Jesus, Moses, Abraham and the lesser prophets of the Hebrew Bible were all sent by the one true God as successive messengers to mankind ” (Lewis 11). Sufism gained popularity among the scholars and the mass because of its universality, relevance and contemporaneity. Rabia al-Basri (714/717/718-801): Rabia al- Basri is considered to be one of the most influential early female Sufi poets from Basra, Iraq. She was born in a very poor family. It is said that her parents did not even have a piece of 1 cloth to wrap her. She became a slave afterwards due to poverty. After her work in the household of her master, she used to pray for long hours at night. She is well known for asceticism and piety. Posterity knew her through Farid ud-Din Attar of Nishapur, who lived about three hundred years later. According to Owen Plugfelder, Rabia also “possessed a degree of autonomy”. He says so because Rabia, in spite of being a slave, lived on her own terms. She never compromised with the yearning of her soul. In a small poem, entitled Love, she refers to cosmic love and talks of surrendering her egoistic “I” consciousness to the Lord. I have loved Thee with two loves – a selfish love and a love that is worthy of Thee. As for the love which is selfish, Therein I occupy myself with Thee, to the exclusion of all others. But in the love which is worthy of Thee, Thou dost raise the veil that I may see Thee… Rabia transcends the duality of her mundane self and talks of union with her lord. In another poem called Reality, she is trying to describe the Lord, who is formless and omnipresent. … How can you describe the true form of Something In whose presence you are blotted out? And in whose being you still exist? And who lives as a sign for your journey? The image of the formless lord as described in her poem reminds us of the Upanishadic concept of Brahman. The following example is from the poem entitled, If I Adore You. If I adore You out of fear of Hell, Burn me in Hell! If I adore you out of desire for Paradise, Lock me out of Paradise. But if I adore you for Yourself alone, Do not deny to me Your eternal beauty. The message of the poem is extremely important as she is asking humanity to turn to God not as religion imposes this duty on us. People worship God with a belief that they can avoid hell by doing so and can end up in paradise. One should adore the Divine for its eternal beauty. It is remarkable to notice that in spite of being a Muslim woman of the 8th century, she is speaking against the orthodoxy of Islamic religion. 2 Omar Khayyam (1148-1131): Omar Khayyam was one of the most influential figures in medieval Persia because of his contribution in the field of knowledge ranging from mechanics, astronomy, and mathematics to poetry. His poetry is known as Rubaiyat or quatrains. His fame as a poet reached the occidental audience through the translation of Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883). Rubaiyat: XXX With them the Seed of wisdom did I sow, And with my own hand labour’d it to grow: And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d— “I came like Water and like Wind I go”. XXXIII: There was the Door to which I found no Key: There was the veil through which I could not see… XXXIV: Then to the rolling heav’n itself I cried, Asking, “What lamp had Destiny to guide Her little children stumbling in the Dark?” XLIV: … Not one returns to tell us of the Road Which to discover we must travel too. These are some of Khayyam’s verses dealing with the themes of journey, lack of knowledge of Truth and transiency of our existence. Humanity is blinded by the veil of ignorance and is groping in the dark. The knowledge of truth is experiential. Each will have to experience on his own to reach the summit. In other verses, we find the images of “potter”, “clay population” and “saki”. Khayyam metaphorically says that God is a potter, who gives us a shape. He refers to humanity as “clay population” because we return to dust after our work is over. “Wine’ is also an important and recurring image in his verses. The image of wine is associated with a kind of divine ecstasy. The image of “saki” has also been used at some places. In verse LVI, Khayyam refers to the cup-bearer as ‘eternal saki’. Khayyam was popularly regarded as a hedonist but the images of wine, rose garden, music, moonlight and tavern were used by him metaphorically to indicate something of transcendental kind. Each rubaiyat is an epigram expressing the poet’s insight, wisdom and perception of Truth. Mawlana Rumi (1207-1273): Mawlana Rumi was a Sufi poet of the 13th century. His father, Bahâ al-Din was a scholar and a religious preacher. Rumi grew up in an environment of scholasticism. Baha al-Din wanted Rumi to take up his profession of mofti (Religious Preacher). Gradually, Rumi acquired a mastery over Hanafi Law, Koran, Hadith and theology, which led him to resume his father’s position. In spite 3 of being a Sufi, he was quite respectful to other schools of thought. Rumi’s fame primarily rests on his poetry. His poems are collected in two books entitled the Divân-e Shams and the Masnavi. The former one is a collection of short lyric poems and the latter is a narrative poem dealing with Rumi’s Islamic theosophy. Apart from these two, Rumi’s lectures and letters were published by his disciples. Rumi also composed a large number of rubaiyats, which were published separately in an edition entitled Robâiyât-e Mowlânâ Jalâl al-Din containing 1,642 quatrains. As a Sufi mystic, Rumi was fond of practising sama ceremony. The practice of sama involves the use of poems and music to induce a meditative mood, which helps the listeners to concentrate on God. Such was the Sufi mode of worship and Rumi found it a means of expressing his mystic utterances. Here is an example from poem 17 from Rumi’s lyric poems as compiled by Franklin D. Lewis. Didn’t I tell you: Don’t go over there, for I am the one who knows you; In this mirage of annihilation, I am your source of life; And if in anger for a million years You run from me, in the end you will return to me for I am your destination. (Lewis 355) Here Rumi is referring to the transmigratory journey of the soul in us. It passes from one body to another even if the body gets annihilated. The message of the quoted lines is that the objective of our existence is that we have to return to our essential being. The anaphora of “I” reminds us of the verses in The Gita. The “I” consciousness of his lyric is our essential being, whom all the mystics search for through their songs and poems. 4 Amir Khusrow (1253-1325) Amir Khusrow was a medieval Sufi poet, musician and scholar from Patiyali, UP. He was also the inventor of certain musical instruments like the sitar and tabla. Apart from these, he also had interest in rhyme scheme and metre. He composed poetry in Persian and Hindavi or the Hindustani. Hindavi language was popular among the contemporary mass in north India during the Mughal Empire. Hindavi incorporated a large number of words from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and Chagatai*.The modern Hindi and Urdu languages had evolved from this historically known Hindavi language. Khusrow is also known as the father of qawaali, the devotional music of the Sufis.