poem 2 Jamaladiini—Sayyid Jamaladdin

Introduction

Dada Masiti opens this poem with an invocation to God to have mercy on her paternal grandfather Sharif Jamaladdin b. Sharif b. Mohamed b. Jaʾfar. The use of in the opening and closing lines of the poem—as well as else- where in the poem—gives her poetic discourse an especially solemn quality. However, she does not develop a narrative of Sayyid Jamaladdin’s deeds or virtues and gives no details about his life. Today very little is remembered about him or other members of Dada Masiti’s closest family (parents and siblings); we can say with some certainty only that Sayyid Jamaladdin belonged to the Mahadali group of Ashrāf and probably lived in Brava in the second half of eighteenth century. Throughout this poem Dada Masiti develops the themes that are so dear to her heart. She prays directly to God for all Muslims (lines 11–13) and herself (lines 14–16). Later (lines 34–35), she invokes Fatima as the one who will gather all the faithful in her arms on the terrible Day of Reckoning (“the day the earth will tremble”), when they will have to face the dangers of the ṣirāṭ. Once again, she warns her audience of the impermanence and temptations of this world, and expands upon the theme of how Satan tempts the soul (lines 25–29). She also hints at her own struggles against her passions before she eventually suc- ceeded in heeding advice and warnings (lines 31–32). She touches upon the inevitability of death and expresses longing for the hour “when bliss will come to her,” giving a vivid description of how she imagines her own funeral (lines 17– 22). Of particular interest are lines 6 to 9, in which she calls for the interces- sion of Shaykh ʿAbdulqādir al-Jīlānī and Shaykh Aḥmad bin Idrīs, the patrons of the two ṭarīqas with the largest following in Brava, the Qādiriyyah and the Aḥmadiyyah. She also mentions the two main representatives of these ṭarīqas who were her contemporaries in Brava, that is to say, Sharif Alawi bin Habib Makka, khalīfah of the Qādiriyyah, and Nureni Mohamed Sabir, the foremost Bravanese jurist and ʿālim of her time, who was affiliated with the Aḥmadiyyah and with whom she had a close friendship. Elsewhere, in her poems “Ya Rabbi ya Rahmaani” (poem 5) and “Mowḻaana Muhyidiini” (poem 6), Dada Masiti singles out Sharif Alawi by calling him “her own Sheikh,” but

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/9789004365957_021 sayyid jamaladdin 277 this does not detract from her conviction, reiterated here, that all ṭarīqas are valid and that their are to be heeded and followed.1 Dada Masiti goes on to emphasize the importance of ṣabr (lines 37–38), which Sufis considered an essential step on the path to God, together with taqwā (“to be God-fearing”). Ṣabr encompasses the concepts of patient forbear- ance and complete acceptance of whatever trials God sees fit to send to His creatures. It is through ṣabr, Dada Masiti states, that human beings become virtuous and righteous, and for those are reserved the shaded dwellings of Par- adise.

Metre: A mono-rhyme poem of forty lines. The rhyme in –ni is repeated also in the first hemistich of each line throughout, except for lines seven, nine, and fourteen.

Sources: M.5.2, O.4.1, O.7.2, O.10.3, T.1.13.

1 This concept is made explicit in Dada Masiti 5: 23.