Sufi Islam Versus Wahhabi Islam By Asghar Ali Engineer (Islam and Modern Age, December 2011) Recently

a huge congregation of Sunni (Sufi) Muslims in Moradabad denounced Wahh abi Islam and the Spokesperson of the All India Ulema Mashaikh Board Syed Mohamm ad Ashraf and leader of the Sufi Islam said we do not accept leadership of Wahha bi Islam (hamen inki na qayadat na imamat qabool hai). Syed Babar Ashraf said, 80 % of Indian Muslims followed the Sunni Sufi tradition while Wahabis wielded cont rol over just 13-14% of the community But, he said, a large section of the Urdu pr ess has boycotted us. They are controlled by hardliners. Though there has been a serious difference between the two, it was for the first time that public denun ciation came surprising many and not so surprising some. For outsiders all Muslims are one in India. In fact they consider Muslims a mono lithic bloc. However, it is far from true. Indian Muslims are highly diverse, as diverse as India culturally, linguistically, regionally as well as theologicall y. Indian Islam, it must be noted has been thoroughly Indianised in terms of cul ture, local customs and traditions. This is reflected in various ways including celebration of festivals, marriage, birth and death rituals etc. Some purists of course opposed this Indianisation and worked for de-indianising Islam through medieval ages also. Mujaddid alf-e-Sani during Jahangirs time was o ne among them. He was opposed to Chishti school of Sufi Islam (which has been pr edominant in India) and which believes in what is known as Wahdat al-Wujud (Unit y of Being). This School demolished all walls of separation between religions. Mujaddid alf-e-Sani proposed the doctrine of what he called Wahdat-e-Shuhud (Uni ty of Witnessing). However, this school never becomes popular in India or even o utside India. It remained confined to a few religious elite. Some separatists in 20th century used Mujaddid as their icon of pure Islam and also for consolidati ng their separatist movement under Islamic garb. In fact it is too much to read political separatism in Mujaddids religious doctrines. We are mentioning Mujaddid alf-e-Sani here only to show there always have been s ome tension between pure Islam and Indian Islam which Chishtiyah Sufis preached. It is interesting to note that Hasan Nezami Sajjada Nashin (Keeper) of the Darg ah Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi, wrote a wonderful book Fatimi Dawat-e-Islam in wh ich he has documented in detail how Sufis adopted various Indian rituals, custom s and traditions to popularize Islam in India and how successfully they Indianiz ed Islam. Thus it will be seen that Sufi Islam reflects regional variations of cultures fr om Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Sufi Islam has always been pluralistic and inclusive and its emphasis has always been on spiritual aspects of religion (tariqat) than Shariat (legal path) though Shariat is not neglected. It is closer to what we c an call Bhakti Marg among Hindus. Sufi Islam lays more emphasis on devotion. Sufis, though they were great scholars of Persian and Arabic two languages in In dia in which Islamic literature was produced- they preferred to write in local l anguages. Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, a great Sufi saint from Punjab wrote in Punjab i and is considered as the first Punjabi poet and Guru Nanak has quoted his vers es in Adi Granth Sahib and hence Baba Farid is highly respected by Sikhs. Punjab University, Chandigarh, has also created a Chair in his name i.e. Baba Farid Ch air and also publishes a journal. ufi Islam being pluralistic in approach was tremendously popular among people of different religions, specially among Hindus. One can see large number of Hindus

at Sheikh Moinuddin Chishtis Dargah, Ajimer or Hazrat Nizamuddins Dargah at Delhi and so on. Thousands of Hindu women come and take vow for offering chador (shee t of cloth) if their problem is solved. It is interesting to note that Dara Shikoh, the elder son of Shah Jahan who was appointed heir apparent by him (Shah Jahan) was a Sufi belonging to Qadariyah Sc hool (which did not have much following in India) was great scholar of Hinduism and he learnt Sanskrit in order to understand Hinduism through original sources. He translated Upanishads into Persian and maintained that he found the concept of Tawhid after Quran only in Upanishads. He also wrote a seminal work Majmaul Bahrayn which is a comparative study of Hind uism and Islam and in which he shows how similar are these two religions. In fac t it should be a compulsory study for students to promote national unity and int egration. However, it has been totally neglected and hardly anyone knows even it s name. Instead books promoting serious misunderstandings, even downright animos ity, are taught in schools and colleges. It is Sufi Islam which not only brought Hindus and Muslims together but also cre ated our rich heritage of composite culture. It is highly necessary that our you ngsters know more and more of this rich heritage. The Wahhabi Islam, on the other hand, came into existence, in 18th century in Na jd, a part of what is called today Saudi Arabi. It was Muhammad Abdul Wahhab who was its founder. Abdul Wahhab was totally against Sufi version of Islam and he thought it is corruption of Islamic teachings. Sufi Islam believes in visiting graves of Sufi saints and reciting Fatihah (pray er invoking name of Sufi saint and taking vows in the name of Sufi saints. Abdul Wahhab denounced all this and thought Islam cannot permit this and this is agai nst the teachings of Islam as it believes in unity of God (tawhid) and is shirk (associating partners with God). Thus Sufi Islam is totally anti-Islam and must be rejected. The Wahhabi Islam is opposed to even invoking name of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH ) and opposes visiting Prophets grave and praying there. Here we are not trying t o judge who is right and who is wrong. I am only trying to portray what is what. May be Wahhabis are right from their own perspective but it would be equally wro ng to denounce Sufi Islam as corruption of Islamic teachings. No ideology in the world, be it religious or political, can remain pure as some ideologues would lik e to desire. Even Marxism drastically changed when imported to China. It is also interesting to note that those who desire to use any ideology for pow er insist on purity, even extremism and those who desire to make it pro-people tak e it closer to peoples culture and thus compromise its original purity. While Wahhabis desired to capture power which they subsequently did, Sufis kept their distance from power. Sufi Islam is inclusive and pro-people and hence does not want to aspire for power. In fact power becomes problematic as it is always exploitative and anti-people. Even democratic power structure tends to become exclusivistic for certain groups and communities and does not remain pro-people as it ought to be. Sufi Islam, t hough Muslim dynasties were ruling over India, maintained its distance from rule rs and ruling dynasties. It remained closer to common people rather than ruling classes. Thus among Muslims, all those who desired power were not much enthusiastic about Sufi Islam. Even poet Iqbal initially denounced Sufism as its teachings serious

ly interfere with the philosophy of what he called khudi i.e. elevation of self. I qbal at that stage thought Sufism leads to inkisar (humility) as against khudi s o necessary for a power wielding personality. However, Iqbal did realize later inner richness of Sufi approach and came to gre atly appreciate poetry of Hafiz, Saadi and Rumi and he calls Rumi as Pir i.e. spiri tual teacher and quotes him repeatedly in his poems. Indian soil was very fertil e for Sufi Islam and specially Chishtiyah Sufism which was founded by Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi on the philosophy of Unity of Being i.e. Being is one and we all are its manifestation. India had developed this approach in its own way and Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi in Spa in in his own way. When these Wahdat-ul-Wujudi Sufis came to India the two met a nd flourished. That is why Wahdat al-Shuhud of Mujaddid alf-e-Sani found no take rs in India and now it is only history whereas Wahdat al-Wujudi Islam is still f lourishing. Wahhabi Islam, as pointed out above, is essentially a political Islam and it fou nd some takers in 19th century when the Mughal rule declined and Muslims suffere d both politically as well as economically. Its history in India is much chequre d one. It began as a revolt against the British as well as against the feudal lo rds who exploited the peasants. In Bengal the peasantry was mainly Muslim and Da du Miyan and Titu Miyan, both described as Wahhabis led to revolt. However, in U .P. it acquired mainly anti-British tone. In India the Wahhabis are generally known as Deobandis as they had established t he famous seminary Darul Uloom Deoband in 19th century and from day one they had been opposing the British rule and played prominent role throughout freedom mov ement. They supported the Indian National Congress and its ideology of secular d emocracy and opposed Jinnahs two nation theory. Thus one finds this contradiction among Deobandis politically they have been progressive but religiously and theo logically rather conservative. The Deobandis though technically not the followers of Abdul Wahhab of Najd, are closer to Shah Waliyullah Dehlavi who tried to work out synthesis of Wahdat al-W ujud and Mujaddid alf-e-Sani wahda al-Shuhud to reconcile the two opposing ideol ogies. However, it did not succeed much. Shah Waliyullah, an eminent theologian did not reject Sufism but did not accept philosophy of Wahdat al-Wujud without r eservation either. But Deobandis of late have adopted hostile attitude towards Sufi Islam and both try to revile each other As Saudis are quite intolerant of Sufi Islam, Deobandis who are going closer to Saudis ideologically, are also becoming more and more i ntolerant of Sufi Islam. Saudis are pouring money in the Islamic world to popula rize Salafi Islam which is most intolerant and exclusivistic and wants to go bac k in history and practice Islam as practiced by the earliest Muslims. Of late due to Saudi influence Salafi Islam is spreading fast among Muslims and this leads to extremism. During anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan America also prom oted Salafi Islam as at that time Islamic extremism was thought to be American a lly. Today America is paying price for that. America never hesitates to exploit religious fanaticism, if it helps its purpose even temporarily. Thus America is no less responsible for spreading Salafi Islam. Again because of Saudi influence the Government also gives more importance to De obandis than to representatives of Sufi Islam though they are in great majority. Recently when our peace yatra from Ayodhya to Nizamuddin Awliya ended at the Ma usoleum of Hazrat Nizamuddin the Sajjada Nashin bitterly complained that we are not included in any governmental delegations though were most inclusive and peop le of all communities Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians visit this place. He

pleaded with us to use our influence with the government to include them in offi cial delegations. It was in this background and frustration that Syed Babar Ashraf .spoke at a ral ly at Moradabad. It is unfortunate that Muslims while swearing by unity (Ittihad ) are indulging in sectarian fights. In this respect one must admire the efforts of Shah Waliyullah, a man of social vision, tried to reconcile the two schools of thought but his ideas have been marginalized and intolerance is growing. India is a land of diversity and tolerance and Sufi Islam prospered here because of this nature of Indian soil. Some Muslims may not accept Sufi Islam for ideol ogical reasons and there is nothing wrong about it but they should show respect for those who are devout Sufis and believe in praying at Sufi Dargahs. Sufi Isla m is after all more spiritual in nature and Sufis, though do not renounce the wo rld as renunciation has no place in Islam but they do believe in controlling des ires and keep their distance from power. That is why it is more inclusive and pl uralistic in nature. Institute of Islamic Studies, Mumbai. Source: The Moderates URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=6107

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COMMENTS 12/22/2011 11:05:26 PM ali misbai fantastic article. i do not want to blong unduely to sufis or hardliners wahabis i am simple muslim and belive in islamic doctrines that have clear teachings n ot to speaking foul for other religions. in today world we have to send out a ma ssege that islam is a truely pluralistic and inclusive religion. it has no boun dries of caste, creed and religion while catering human services to humanity. Th e Holy Quran says that "the whole univers is the family of God".

12/11/2011 8:22:10 PM Aiman Reyaz "Do not commit excess in your religion", God tells us in the Quran. I think both Sufis and Wahhabis are doing extremes. But this is my view, and I have construc ted these thoughts according to my study; similarly Sufis and Wahhabis alike hav e constructed their belief differently. The reason for diversity is because, may be God wants diversity. As God says in the QUran that "We have divided you into nations and tribes, and you shall not despise each other but recognise each oth er". So in a sense we are fulfilling what is written in the Quran. But we should not impose our version onto others. Let the other person follow wh at he likes to follow, to you is your way, to me is mine . At the same time I would like to say that if somebody is doing wrong, then it is also our duty to c orrect others. The Quran says "Proclaim the truth, giving hidya is in the hands of God".

12/10/2011 11:22:15 PM Rashid In the light of 30-32 etc, I for one can not accept as Islam any thing with tags

of prefixes and suffixes. It is this acceptance of intra-faith so called tolera nce among us that has perpetuated the religions industry and profession of priesth ood and each faction and denomination claiming monopoly in providing guidance to t heir flock. The poet quite rightly articulated 10-35

Falsehood loves duality, Truth has no associate (Hence) do not accept any association between Truth and Falsehood. For him, as for me, a Momin ( without any tag) there is no compromise to be made on this issue:

You are an infidel in my sight as I am an infidel in yours, Your religion is counting souls, mine religion is of pathos.(Iqbal, an Urdu poe t) Tolerance and protection of other faiths amongst us is an injunction of Quran, b ut among us any such isms are to be intellectually rejected and denied the tag of Islam, which is its important message to maintain unity.

12/10/2011 1:12:19 PM Raihan Nezami It is so painful to see the plight of the Islamic fraternity who are divided amo ng various sects, and are fighting , denouncing and blaming one others over the trifling issues of offering "Fatiha" or "Praying for the dead" or "visiting grav es". I dont agree with the opinion of the author, "only explaining who is what". We must try to rectify the mistakes if any, to save our brethren from transgress ion or deviation. It is our (particularly Islamic scholars) duty to warn our fam ily members, friends and fraternity if we have any authentic piece of informatio n.

12/10/2011 12:06:32 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin Excellent Article. Many Muslims do not see themselves as either Sufis or Wahhabi s. They see themselves as just Muslims. Whether one is a Sufi or a Wahhabi, it i s important that one does not try to force one s belief on others. It would be i deal if Sufis and Wahhabis can respect each other s belief, and can accept that what unites us is much greater than what divides us.

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