Islam Is Non Violence -Unfortunately Sufi’s Islams
original mystics are succumbing to sectarianism too Sadia Dehlvi
April 19, 2016
The malaise
creeping into Sufi communities manifests in the recent violence and siege of
Islamabad that glorifies Mumtaz Qadri’s death. In 2011, he assassinated Punjab
Governor Salman Taseer for talking about reforming blasphemy laws that
victimise minorities. Mumtaz Qadri was aligned to the Qadri Sufi order, which
once produced the great Mian Mir who laid the foundation of the Golden Temple
at Amritsar.
Pakistan’s bold step in hanging Mumtaz Qadri has
set the cat amongst the doves. Many Sufi leaders are competing to claim his
political legacy, lauding the ‘ghazi’ or ‘warrior of Islam.’ Extremism feeds on
selective retrieval of sacred texts and history, creating irrational fears that
require urgent remedial measures. Terrorists employ this methodology to evoke
rage, Salafi Wahhabi groups to promise a return to some imagined historic
ideals as the only route to paradise.
Many Sufi leaders in the subcontinent are turning
political, extreme and as exclusionary as the groups they condemn for the same
reasons. At the culminating public rally of the recent Sufi event in Delhi
Sufis from India and Pakistan, with authoritative titles such as Pir Saqib
Shami, Shaykh ul Alam Alauddin Siddiqui and Shyakh ul Islam Tahir ul Qadri were
present. Most stressed on ‘ahle sunnat wal jamaat’, the aqeedah, creed,
describing Sunnis following Sufi traditions.
Distancing from Shias and other Muslim groups, they
reinforce the sectarianism they pledged to fight. Sectarianism is fuelling
bloodbaths in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Pakistan. Somewhere the strife is
Shia-Sunni; elsewhere it is Sunnis against other kinds of Sunnis!
Tahir ul Qadri and Saqib Shami are religious
figures from Pakistan with cult-like followings. While appreciating Qadri’s
fatwa against terrorism, Shami challenged him publicly to issue a fatwa
prohibiting Muslims from praying behind terror supporting Salafi Imams, even in
Mecca. In earlier videos Siddiqui takes similar positions, calling Salafis
kafirs for pronouncing other Muslims kafirs.
Shami is the new icon for the Bareilly Sufi Centre
that has long proclaimed Shias as kafirs, non-Muslims; recently closing their
mosques to Wahhabi Muslims. This contradicts Prophet Muhammad’s action of
facilitating the prayers of a Christian delegation at his mosque in Medina.
Tahir ul Qadri’s scholarship, efforts in interfaith
and Shia-Sunni unity and unequivocal condemnation of Mumtaz Qadri are
commendable. However, his political methodologies and positions on blasphemy
are questionable. On Pakistani television, Qadri says that blasphemers require
to be killed, claiming credit for helping General Zia creating the blasphemy
laws in 1985.
On foreign shores, Qadri tactfully denies this by
blurring the issue with legal jargon. Pir Shami held special prayer services
honouring Mumtaz Qadri’s martyrdom with thousands in attendance. Talk of
combating terrorism while legitimising violence for blasphemy is ridiculous.
Sufism is the modern word for Tasawwuf, Islam’s
mystic path. Sufis never called themselves Sufis but faqirs, indicating their
state of humility before God. Datta Ganj Baksh of Lahore wrote of Sufis in the
8th century saying, ‘Tasawwuf, once a reality without a name, is today a name
without a reality’. The ‘ism’ remains problematic for it turns an internal
spiritual quest into externalised religiosity and bubblegum spirituality. The
‘ism’ is commercialised, pickled and sold as Sufi Disco, Sufi Kathak, Sufi
Nights at bar clubs, and as the ‘Antidote to Terror’.
Historically, Sufis played key roles in providing
educative, philosophical and spiritual nourishment, enabling openings of both
mind and heart. Sufism gained strength in the 8th century as a reaction to the
Islamic Caliphate’s obsession with conquests and wealth; forgetting the
egalitarianism and simplicity of the Prophetic message.
Early mystics raised voices against stifling
religious freedoms, ensuring Islam not be confined to legalistic codes. Today,
frequent Deoband fatwas and Sufi advisories constrict the inherent flexibility
of Islam. Barring some mandatory rules, Quranic wisdom lies in its silence on
trivial issues; offering layers of multiple interpretations.
Sufis like Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, Baba Farid and
Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya brought new dimensions to Islamic understanding;
enabling it to blossom organically with the colours of the Indian soil; not
requiring local citizenry to commit cultural apostasies. This provided
nourishment to the synthesis of Muslim and Hindu mystics that produced the
Bhakti movement, when people across faiths came together against religious orthodoxies
and social divisions.
At the World Sufi Forum in Delhi, as expected,
enlightened Islamic narratives came from Sufis and scholars in Syria, Egypt,
Indonesia, America, Africa, Europe, and Canada. Contemporary Muslim rhetoric in
the subcontinent remains intellectually lethargic, failing to rejuvenate the
pluralistic traditions of Islam.
Perhaps the slogan ‘Islam is peace’ should change
to, ‘Islam is non-violence and non-coercion’. Some individuals and states find
peace through wars, suicide bombings, retribution, death penalties and other
ways of blood letting. Peace in the Quran flowers from the absence of ‘khauf’,
fear, and ‘huzn’, grief; achieved through denial of violence, coercion,
sectarianism, oppression, injustice and poverty. Prophets were not sent to
establish peace, but to alleviate suffering, establish law and preach the
Oneness of God.
Violence is an aberration of the human heart that
naturally inclines towards calm. Muslims requiring fatwas against terrorism
reveal the vulnerability, despair and defeat of Muslim communities. Until
issues such as heresy, blasphemy, apostasy, exclusion and gender justice are
addressed; the words ‘love, harmony and world peace’ remain candy floss. Be
they Salafis, Sufis, Deobandis, Barielvys, Shias or other, Muslim thinkers must
engage critically and creatively with canonised medieval laws; enabling Muslims
to negotiate today’s realities. Otherwise, violence in the name of Islam will
long continue.
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