Sufism- the call of divine humanity

Sufism. The way of  divine humanity.The philosophy of love and syncretism. What is it all about, actually ?

In a world of hatred and strife, where the  ISIS gains headlines everyday for the wrong reasons, it might be useful to recall the philosophy of the Sufi.

The origins of Sufism are somewhat obscure, but broadly one of its earliest proponents was the   11th Century AD Persian (current day Iran)  philosopher and saint Ghazali, also known among his followers as " Sultan ul  Uluma", or king of scholars. The mantle passed on to his disciple Bahauddin, who was ostracized for the opposition of his  faith to traditional Islam. The inheritor of this tradition was, finally,  Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi . A prominent scholar ,  Rumi was  a sufferer of internecine strife , having been displaced from his hometown of Balkh to Konya,along with his father , who was ostracized for his opposition to hardline, scholarly Islam . He faced hardship created entirely due to man-made reasons, yet developed an unique philosophy of love, brotherhood and divinity. To him, the highest form of love was divine love,surpassing  everything else.

The Sufi lives in today, unaffected by the past and unperturbed by tomorrow. His thoughts are pure, his actions are divine.

Indeed, as Rumi says,

" To seek a  Sufi's wisdom do not go

To books or ink or pages, rather know

That all his wisdom can be found within

A human heart which is as white as snow."

 Sufism took its roots in India under the great Saints Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti ( Ajmer) , Khwaja Salim Chisti  ,Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya ( Delhi) and other stalwarts.

It is a late evening in July 2009 at Hazrat Nizamuddin Darga, Delhi. A crowd has collected for the evening singing. The smell of incense and flowers hangs heavy in the air. It js interesting to note that the crowd consists of people of all religions , united in their love for the Hazrat. Just outside the dargah lies the grave of MAK Ghalib, another symbol of religious syncretism, though of hedonistic excesses also.

The qawwali starts, note ascending  upon note, rising upto a fast crescendo.  As I listen to the singing, I realize with a jolt that the lyrics  contain several words of Sanskrit origin.

Syncretism. Synergy.  Brotherhood .Coadapt,don't compete. Love, don't hate. Create, don't destroy. That's the way of the Sufi for you. Sufism has its basis in Islam , but has borrowed heavily from Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and several other religions.

Today , this philosophy, which straddles the Subcontinent, is under attack. Notably in Pakistan , as he recent murder of the popular Sufi  singer Amjad Sabri shows. William Dalrymple notes ruefully that the great Sufi shrines are under attack and being toppled by ISIS/ Wahabi backed Madrassas. Even in India , the ISIS is gaining strength.

Sad state of affairs, indeed. This  country is the best example of synergism, syncretism and brotherhood, if there ever was one.

There is a story about Pir Mast Kalandar , the prominent Sufi saint of Sindh. The Pir , also known as  Lal Badshah, was travelling the desert with his disciple .  They had a discussion on the origin of hellfire . Lal Badshah turned himself into a falcon via his divine  powers , and flew to hell to check the fire burning there. At the end of it, he returned and reported faithfully, "  There is no fire in hell. We bring our own fire from Earth."

There lies the message of the Sufi. There is no fire in hell. We create our own fire by hatred, greed , lust and anger, and  carry it from Earth to Hell.Do the right thing, have a healthy love for humanity ( ISIS, Taliban, VHP and Bajrang Dal be dammed), worship the divine, and your place in heaven is earned.God and humanity are all the same. And this is what all religions teach us.

As Rumi put it so succinctly,

" The fellow feeling of the human race

Is the portrait of  His divine face

Your fellow traveller can feel your pain

He shares with you the sin and mark of Cain

If you can free yourself from jealousy

You and the world would venture free

And like the dove the trapper did untie

You can rise up and soar into the sky."

The way of the Sufi will never die as long as we continue to do the right thing, and that is, right thinking, right action  and right living. Long live the way of the Sufi, and the humanistic philosophy of Rumi.