By Rizwan Qureshi

The Sufi Council was formed in October 2006 with the aim of popularizing pristine Sufi music and disseminating Sufi thought among

Sufism

In a dream Sain Zahoor saw a hand beckoning him to a shrine. He could not shake off the dream and eventually at the age of 13 left home traipsing from one Sufi shrine to the next. At Uchh he recognized the shrine of his dreams and stayed there, spending his days learning Sufi music and singing. Sain is unlettered, but has memorized hundreds of Punjabi Sufi songs by sketching images on paper. When he started singing at the age of five, his first lessons were in the Sufi kalams (verses of devotional spiritual love). Now nearly sixty, he himself looks like a Sufi saint when he comes onstage clad in long kurta and tightly bound turban with beads dangling down his neck and ghungroos – (bells) tied to his ankles. His is such a compelling presence onstage and so close to what a Sufi really looks like, that Sain Zahoor is adorned on our cover. Playing the centuries old three-string lute,he delivers kalams of Sufi poets like Baba Bullay Shah, Shah Hussain and Mian Muhammad Bakhsh with ecstatic joy and intensity which ends up in a dhamal – a frenzied dance. His first onstage performance only came in 1989 when he was invited to the All Pakistan Music Conference. In 2006 he received the award for the best singer in the Asia-Pacific category at the BBC World Music Festival.

Sain Zahoor is one of the hundreds of singers who spend their lives singing and playing at the shrines of Sufi saints following the way of the Sufis. Sufis are revered in the subcontinent and have an appeal for people from all walk of life, says Yousaf Salahuddin, vice chairman of the National Sufi Council which was launched in October last year. “At the urs [death anniversary] of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai around 600 musicians gather delivering Sufi kalams on the streets with hundreds of people listening. It’s a treasure trove in need of a wider audience. Sufi philosophy has the strongest appeal to the people of Sindh and southern Punjab. That’s the reason mullahs don’t get elected from there.”

The Sufi Council was formed in October 2006 with the aim of popularizing pristine Sufi music and disseminating Sufi thought among the younger generation. It was the openness of Sufism, its preaching of peace and coexistence that attracted people to the first Sufis that came to the subcontinent before the conquests of Muslim armies began. A majority of the people in the subcontinent were converted to Islam at the hands of these Sufis.

“Sufism preaches equality, harmony, tolerance and respect for all religions – the values that are needed in our society now more than ever before. You might be a sinner in the eyes of the world but the Sufi will accept you wholeheartedly,” says Yousaf. Thus Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti is called ‘Gharib Nawaz’ or ‘Comforter of the Poor’. Rumi’s words explain this philosophy beautifully: “Man is not sinful but forgetful.” The Indian writer Kushwant Singh writes in A History of the Sikhs, “The battles of Islam were won not by Muslim iconoclasts but by peaceful missionaries.”

“Sufis portray the true soft image of Pakistan,” says Yousaf. “Those people have got it all wrong who think that the westernized side of Pakistan shows the soft image of the country. How many people want to be westernized and adopt a western way of life? Ninety percent of the people of Pakistan are religious – they are not narrow-minded but are close to their religion. During General Zia’s regime the mullahs were made so powerful that they are now trying to force their writ on the ordinary person.”

The Sufi Council was launched at a concert in the famous Mughal Lahore Fort where young singers were invited to deliver Iqbal’s verses. The setting was awesome. (The DVD of that concert is enclosed with this issue of Blue Chip). Allama Iqbal, called the Poet of the East and acknowledged in his lifetime as the most influential poet in the subcontinent, gave the vision of an independent Muslim state in British India. “We invited the singers who are popular among the younger generation and have a fan following and are therefore the right kind of catalysts to popularize Sufi music and poetry among the younger generation.” At the same time the Council wants to bring to the fore the traditional street singers who sing at shrines and do Sufi concerts at the provincial and divisional levels. He is also trying to encourage multinationals to sponsor these events which would provide a better livelihood to these singers, most of whom are just fakirs. Singers like Allan Fakir spent twenty years singing Sufi verses at the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai before he was introduced on radio and gained popularity. “The fantastic flute player Ghaus Bakhsh Brohi was also plucked out of Bhit Shah, the shrine of Shah Latif.

Many people are first introduced to Sufism through the poetry of these Sufi saints that challenges the listener to come to his or her own spiritual understanding. This expression of poetry and music is found in the other mystics of the subcontinent like Kabir, Tulsidas and Gurunanak. In the subcontinent these mystics and the Sufi saints have had an influence on people of all faiths. Kabir is not easily categorised to any faith and his poetry is a synthesis of both Hindu and Sufi philosophy:

If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world belong?
If Ram be within the image which you find upon your pilgrimage, then who is there to know what happens without?

Hari is in the East: Allah is in the West. Look within your heart, for there you will find both Karim and Ram;

All the men and women of the world are His living forms.

Kabîr is the child of Allah and of Ram: He is my Guru, He is my Pir.

In the same vein Sufi poet Baba Farid, who is recognised as the first acclaimed poet in the Punjabi language, is also considered one of the holy saints in Sikhism. His verses are compiled in the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib under the chapter ‘Farid’s Sayings by Guru Nanak Dev’.Sufi Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, whose shrine is in Sehwan and who incorporated the whirling dance of the dervish of mevlevi semas introduced by Jalaluddin Rumi in Turkey, was also called Jhoolay Lal by the Hindus of his area believing him to be an avatar of Hindu saint Jhoolay Lal.

Two years ago when a young Indian singer, Rabbi Shergill, made a debut with the kalams of Baba Bullay Shah, the eighteenth century Punjabi Sufi mystic of Kasur, his main number, Bulla ki jaana maen kaun, topped the charts. Some of its verses are:

Na maen bhed mazhab da paaya

Na maen aadam havva jaaya

Na maen apna naam dharaaya

Na vich baitthan na vich bhaun

Bulla kee jaana maen kaun

Secrets of religion, I have not known

From Adam and Eve, I am not born

I am not the name I assume

Not in stillness, nor on the move

Bulla, I know not who I am!

(translation source: wikipedia)

Rabbi, whose father was a Sikh preacher, dropped out from college to focus on music. His music has been described as a fusion of rock, folk and Sufiana. He explains the thought behind the lyrics: “Bulla Ki Jana is all about us not knowing who we are, of thinking of life in terms of boxes, until we are enlightened. And then you realize how meaninglessly you’ve compartmentalized life” (source wikipedia). The name Sufi Rock was first attributed to the Pakistani band Junoon when they sang Iqbal’s verses.

Sufi orders began to get organized around the 12th century with hospices emerging from Morocco to Central Asia. These hospices were presided over by the successor of the founder of each Sufi order. Sufis also evolved the techniques and disciplines like dhikr or zikr and sama to induce transcendence. Dhikr is contemplation with repetition of God’s name. While during the sama poetry, music and dance were used as an aid to reaching an ecstatic state. Some Sufi orders banned music and dance, and preferred contemplation. Others used music and poetry as a medium of expression. Rumi and his followers, the Mevlevis, completely integrated music and dance (the rhythmic dancing of the whirling dervishes) in their rituals. According to tradition, Rumi’s companion, goldsmith Salahuddin Zarkub, was working in the goldsmiths’ market in Konya. Rumi passed by and on simply hearing the sound of the goldsmiths’ hammers coming from his workshop began to dance in a whirling movement. Explaining his enthusiasm for dance, Rumi said: “It’s not dance that induces ecstasy, but ecstasy that arouses the dance. The body that moves for pleasure will surely burn in hell. But the hands of Sufis that rise in Sama’ will reach paradise, for we are danced by God the Exalted.” (source: A Moth to the Flame – The Life of the Sufi Poet Rumi, written by Connie Zweig)

When Sufis came to the subcontinent they adopted the local languages in their poetry since poetry and music have played a big part in Indian culture and religion. Thus Sufis also adopted the local music as their mode of spiritual expression. This kind of integration drew criticism, that Sufis changed their beliefs according to the direction in which the spiritual wind was blowing. Ibn ‘Arabi provides an answer: “The Sufi must act and speak in a manner which takes into consideration the understanding, limitations and dominant concealed prejudices of his audience.” John Baldock elaborates: “The outward form belongs to the phenomenal world. As such it is transient, and so is its semblance of stability. The Sufis know that the outward forms taken by their teaching, beliefs and organizations are transient too… The outward form adopted by Sufi teaching therefore changes so that it is presented in such a way that its audience can comprehend it. Sometimes the method appears subtle, sometimes confrontational. It all depends on which method is most appropriate for a particular audience at a particular time. Once it has served its purpose, the outer form adapts itself to suit new circumstances.”

An interesting synthesis of Indian classical form and Sufi music came from the legendary classical singer and composer of music, including one raag, Taansen. Mian Taansen is considered one of the greatest composer and musicians in Indian classical music. Taansen is said to have been influence by the Arabic and Persian music of Mohammed Ghaus of Gwalior, his spiritual guide. The interaction with Ghaus in the Sufi tradition and the earlier training with Swami Haridas in the Bhakti tradition led to a fusion of these streams in the work of Tansen. The word Bhakti in Hinduism is used exclusively to devotion to a particular deity. Certain traditions of Hinduism recommend that a person chose a deity for worship or reverence for one that attracts them most and suits their personality and intellect. The Bhakti tradition also inspired Ghaus, who devotes several chapters to Yoga practices in his text Bahr-ul-Hayat (Ocean of Life). There are many legends attributed to Tansen. An interesting legend of improvisation is that a musician composed an improvisation of Tansen’s Todi after Tansen’s death at the wake itself and Tansen’s corpse moved one hand in approval of the new melody. Another legend is that Tansen could bring down the rains by singing the raga Megh Malhar and could start fires with the legendary raga Deepak and that when he would sing for his lover Tani flowers bloomed.

The synthesis of Persian poetry and ghazals (love songs) and Hindu bhajans (devotional songs) also led to the development of the Sufi music genre, Qawwali. Its origins come from ‘qaul’ uttered in sema ceremonies (Mehfil-e-Sema) through poetry. The Samakhani, as it was called, is carried on without breaking the line of lyrics till a state close to unconsciousness is reached. The Qawwali in the form we know today was created by Sufi saint, poet and singer Hazrat Amir Khusro in the 13th century. Khusro was associated with rulers of several royal courts. His output was enormous in prose and poetry, which included riddles and songs. He represents a true multi-cultural identity writing in Persian and Hindvi and sometimes mixing them in a single poem like in the verse below:

wa roz-e waslat cho umr kotah
Sakhi piya ko jo main na dekhun

Long like curls in the night of separation
short like life on the day of our union

The invention of tabla is also attributed to him which he fashioned by splitting the traditional Indian drum. He is also said to have invented sitar but that’s disputed. Both instruments are very hard to master. A verse from Khusro’s most famous song is given below, which still remains very popular.

Chhāp tilak sab chīnī re mose nainā milāike
Bāt atham keh dīnī re mose nainā milāike

You’ve taken away my looks, my identity, by just a glance
By making me drink the wine of love-potion

Arguably the greatest exponent of Sufi music in our times was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Before him Sufi music had never reached a worldwide audience. Often his mesmerizing music would make the people leap to spontaneous outbursts of ecstatic dance. Yousuf Salahuddin, who has been working on Sufism for a long time, says, “Nusrat had been singing for a long time in Pakistan. Imran Khan sent him abroad as part of the charity events for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital and he quickly swept through Europe.”

The north Indian system is based upon the two major concepts of ‘rag’ and ‘tal’. The word ‘tal’ literally means ‘clap’. Thus the origins of qawwali. In traditional qawwali intensity is built up gradually and the singing is supported by the rhythmic handclapping and musical instruments like tabla and harmonium. Nusrat also did fusions in collaboration with Peter Gabriel, U2 and String and famously sang in the hit film, Last Temptation of Christ.

Judith Gabriel, a Los Angeles based journalist and playwright, says of Nusrat’s virtuosity, “For those who understand the language, the play of words is a symphony in itself, as the soloist and the chorus weave a kind of word-jazz, jumping to other poems to amplify a given verse, or stopping at one phrase or word to accentuate it with a cascade of repetitions, as in the Sufi practice of dhikr in which the name of God is ‘remembered’ by repeating it… It’s all geared to induce a properly ecstatic haal or ecstatic state in the audience. The gradual escalation en masse of the audience into such a state poses a major responsibility for the master of qawwali, who carefully monitors his ‘passengers’ as if he were an airline pilot. And, indeed, one of Nusrat’s favorite verses of Amir Khusro, is: ‘It is the courage of each, it is the power of flight; some fly and remain in the garden, some go beyond the stars.’”

Yousaf says Nusrat drew respect from all the top musicians of the world: “I met rock star Sting’s wife Trudie Styler at a dinner in Pakistan and told her about the Sufi Council. She said she and her husband were crazy about Sufi music. She said that Mick Jagger also took them to Nusrat’s concert and even came to Pakistan to listen to Nusrat. That concert was arranged at my house. He came with his daughter and we had an all-night concert with Nusrat. Pop star Madonna and Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti wanted to do an album with him. Nusrat had gone to Los Angeles for 5-6 months for medical treatment from where he called me and asked who Madonna was? So simple was he! He told me that she would come to visit him every day with her daughter telling him that she wanted to take out an album with him.”

An indeginous devotional dance form called dhamal also developed in the subcontinent. Dhamal was attributed fire-running dervishes whom Ibne Batuta also encountered during his travels. It now denotes Sufi trance dance and is less constrained to rules and regulations of movement of the whirling dervishes. One might encounter dhamal dance at Sufi shrines. Bells, gongs, cymbals and horns make a thunderous din, as dervishes, clad in long robes and beads dance in a frenzied and ecstatic swirl of the head and body. In the Sufi tradition both music and dance are first and foremost a devotional celebration of mystical Love and Unity with the Divine.

Getting back to the Sufi Council, Yousaf says that they were investing their own resources to promote their cause. “Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, chairman of the Council, funded the album’s production when they chose Iqbal’s potry and the task was given to me. It didn’t cost much though as the artists wanted to do it for free. The album was recorded at Mekal Hasan’s studio and was completed in a record time of 15 days. At that time I only knew Rahat Fateh, nephew of Nusrat. I wanted Rahat to do the Qawwali on Iqbal’s verse apna maqam paeda kar, which was chosen as the title of the album. In the traditional qawwali genere this poem was sung by his grandfather and brother and was the most popular qawwali during the freedom struggle for Pakistan and explains the whole philosophy of khudi. Most of the kalams I have chosen carry a message for young people. Allama had high hopes from the youth.” Iqbal’s chief doctrine was the idea of khudi, (Selfhood), that is the development of a dynamic personality and self assertiveness against the Sufi ideal of passive contemplation. In his later verses he delved on healthy development of the individual within a healthy community.

Yousaf, who is the grandson of Allama Iqbal, says, “Rumi was the spiritual mentor of Allama. After a lifetime of reading, corresponding and meeting with intellectuals and ulema, it was the Mathnavi of Rumi where he found his answers. So you can say that even the very concept of Pakistan or the ideology of Pakistan has a very strong link with Rumi.”

Yousaf doesn’t favour the asceticism of Sufis. His stress is on those Sufis who have also enlightened others that makes both Jinnah and Iqbal Sufis, he says, because they changed people’s lives and gave them a path. He also warns against the darker side of Sufism.AsSufi orders grew in influence they started receiving endowments from sympathetic rulers and rich citizens and became fabulously wealthy. Overtime, spirituality declined and the focus turned to superstition and miracles and the shrines became a place of wish-fulfillment. The gaddi nashin, or heir to the original Sufi, and therefore became the object of devotion. “Gaddi nashin like Shah Mahmood Qureshi would collect millions of rupees in just one visit to their places of influence. The spirit of Sufism is conveyed by the whirling dervishes – with one hand you receive and with the other you give. You are only a conduit. You are learning from Him and parting to others. Iqbal has criticized not only the Mullahs but Sufis also who went into greed. He believed that we have forgotten the spirit of Islam and have gone into ritualism – another kind of idolism,” says Yousaf.

The Sufi Council has also launched a book on Sufism and did a program with the Rumi forum on whirling dervishes. They are now launching the album on Iqbal globally. Similar programs will be done on other Sufi poets also, Yousaf says. Instead of personality worship the Sufi Council is focusing on the poetry of the Sufis, which conveys their philosophy and love of humanity. Their humane approach and flexibility in dealing with life’s big questions have drawn people from all walks of life. As Karen Armstrong writes in ‘The History of God’: “For the mystic the revelation is an event that happens within his own soul, while for more conventional people like some of the ulema it is an event that is firmly fixed in the past. Mysticism often claims that there are as many roads to God as people.”

Sufism

The name Sufi is said to have first come into usage about 150 years after the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The origin and meaning of the word Sufi is often debated. It is said to be derived from the Arabic word for wool, suf, after the simple woolen robe worn by the early Islamic mystics. Yet others claim that the name is derived from safa (purity) or safwe (those who are selected) and is often also linked to Greek Sophia (wisdom) and to Ain Sof (the absolutely infinite).

John Baldock tells about Sufi origin in The Essence of Sufism, “After the passing of the Caliphs disputes and disagreements developed and the three aspects of authority that had been united in the Prophet – the legal, theological and mystical – now divided between the jurists, the theologians and the mystics. Essentially these three fell into two camps – the jurists and theologians, and the mystics – which reflected the exoteric and esoteric aspects of Islam. The two camps were guided by the ulema (the religious authorities) and the Sufi shaykhs. Without the strong presence of the latter, the ulema would have imposed their legalistic and religious authority in whatever way they saw fit.”

Overtime Sufi philosophy took varied forms and new branches and orders appeared that would sometimes merge with each other. During the eighth and the ninth centuries an ascetic form developed in reaction to the opulence of the Muslim court life and recalled the simple life of the first Muslims. Louis Massignon, the late French scholar, elaborates on this: “The mystic call is as a rule the result of an inner rebellion of the conscience against social injustices, not only those of others but primarily and particularly against one’s own faults with a desire intensified by inner purification to find God at any price.”

The ascetics were the homeless wanderers. Then there were the anarchists with their deviant renunciation like Barak Baba who went about naked. There also developed the intoxicated school, also known as the drunken, inebriated or ecstatic Sufi who used drugs to reach an ecstatic state or coffee to help concentrate. But all along Sufi orders developed that advocated a more restrained approach than that adopted by the ecstatics and are often described as the sober school of Sufis. Some of them also set out to bridge the divide between Sufism and orthodox Islam.

From: Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 65.