Sufism is a controversial sect within Islam, which has no official sanction in the strict Islamic tradition. Since it talks of uniting with God, ana-al-haqq, ‘I am that’ on the lines of ahaṁ brahmāsmi it goes against Islamic spirituality; it advocates singing and dancing as a spiritual path in the strict Islamic spiritual pursuit it does not fit. Despite few controversial aspects, Sufism took deep roots in Islamic societies all over the world. After the growth of revivalist Islamic Wahhabism, the arsonists targeted the Sufi shrines and their followers. As late as 2017, a Sufi shrine of Lal Shahabaz Qalandar at Sehwan in Pakistan was bombed when more than 70 devotees were killed and several others were injured. Although the Sufis worship Allah and consider Prophet Muhammad to be the last prophet, Muslims following strict religious discipline consider Sufis to be wayward spiritualists. Although Sufis consider non-Muslims as Kafirs, the traditional Muslims treat them as Kafirs. That is the irony of fate for the followers of Sufism.
Unleashing Conversion Agenda
After the advent of Sufism from Iran in Bharat, soon it took roots in Bharat and attracted gullible Hindus to their version of Islam. Alim Wakil, a writer and Islamic thinker, pointed out that Sufis adopted spiritual methods of Siddhas and Nāthapanthis while propagating their version of Islam among the Hindus. They borrowed many spiritual tenets from the Upanishads and ideas of esoteric spiritual existence in the life hereafter. Sufi masters developed several scenarios of life in the hereafter, which attracted naïve Hindus to get converted. A prominent example of such mass conversion was adopted by most prominent Sufi master Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. He was the contemporary of Prithviraj Chauhan, then the ruler of Delhi. When the Sufi Master started conversion and converted even Hindu spiritual leaders of the time, Mahant Ramdev and Jayapal Jogi, renaming them Shadidev and Abdulla respectively, Prithviraj sensed danger to the Hindu society and his kingdom. Moinuddin conducted mass conversions which were objected to and obstructed by Prithviraj. That incensed Sufi master. He sent an invitation to Shahaboddin Ghori from Afghanistan to invade Pruthviraj. After a few attempts, Ghori won victory over Prithviraj, who was killed and his wife Sanyogita was violated in the open and killed by a Sufi mob. Inviting a foreigner for attacking local Hindu kings continued till the time of the third Panipat war fought by Marathas in 1761 against Ahmadshah Abdalli who again was in Bharat on invitation. Shahaboddin Ghori demolished a Hindu temple and built a mosque at Ajmer. It took two and half days to demolish the temple. Hence, it was called adhai din ka zopada – a hut of two and half days; it is still to be seen there. One of the top historians who was expert in Farsi and Urdu languages, Setu Madhavarao Pagdi noted this incident and further stated that defeats of Prithviraj Chauhan and many other Hindu kings were not just military defeats but there were undercurrents of internal dissent triggered by the controversial conversions of Hindus. After the defeat of Prithviraj, there was a massive drive of conversions and the population in Ajmer and Delhi was converted to Islam.
Decoding the Sufi Mystics
Testimony of mass conversion to Islam comes from no other than Moinuddin’s close disciple Kutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, “After he (Moinuddin) reached Ajmer, the whole city was full of Hindus, there were no Muslims. After Moinuddin’s feet touched the city, so many people converted to Islam that there was no end (to conversions).” It is worth noting that both Moinuddin Chisti and his preceptor Usman Haruni considered a person not following the rigour of daily namaz and Sharia, as a Kafir. This kafirophobic feeling remained despite all the so-called equality before the god and love for humanity. Moinuddin was a good organiser also. In order to spread Sufi version of Islam, he appointed many of his close disciples as Khalifas – masters. Their names are enlisted in a Sufi text of ‘Bazm-e-Sufiya’. They were accorded official recognition as Sufi masters and whom he sent all over Bharat to spread Sufism. Bazm-e-Sufiya further corroborates that while the Delhi-based Sultans were busy with establishing political hegemony all over Bharat, Sufi masters were impressing Islam on the minds of masses. In due course, two parallel kingdoms were established, one held a sword in hand and the other held the Quran to spread religious injunction and non-attachment to the material world. It was through these religiously armed masters that the glory and hegemony of Islam got established in Bharat.
Khwaja Kutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki was trained under Moinuddin. He continued with the tradition of training disciples to convert Kafirs to Islam. ‘Bazm-e-Sufiya’ lists numbers and names of the disciples of Kaki whom he deployed to convert Hindus to Islam. One of his disciples, Faridoddin followed his preceptor. He too trained disciples and deployed them. One of the prominent Sufi masters, whose tomb is known all over the world, is Nizamuddin Aulia at Delhi. He spent about five decades in Delhi and time to time deployed his disciples to convert. It is documented that during the early 14th century about 1400 disciples reached Maharashtra to convert the local Hindus. Conversion of Hindus on a large scale in Maharashtra is attributed to this lineage of Nizamuddin. The tradition continued.
At times these converters were converting Hindus under the edge of swords. Richard Maxwell Eton in his book Sufis of Bijapur 1300 to 1700 (published in 1978) has systematically documented these battles and listed the Sufi who were killed. Eton stated that these disciple hoards were charged with the idea of Jihad and ruthlessly converted the local Hindus under duress. One such extremist Sufi was Sayyad Husamuddin. He settled in Pune around the middle of the 14th century. He was known for killing sprees of Hindus. The local Hindus named him “kittal” i.e. killer. He too had assumed a name for himself as ‘Teg-barahana’ meaning naked sword. In due course, the Sufis aligned with Sunnis and were antagonistic towards Shias. Aurangzeb was under the influence of Chisti master Khwaja Naksabandi Hujatulla. On instigation from the Sufi masters, Aurangzeb attacked Shia kingdoms of Golkonda and Vijayapur. It points to the sectarian feud within Islam.
Many of the Sufi masters, who during their lifetime hated, tortured and killed Kafir Hindus, were made into saints and their majestic size mausoleums were built. Not only Muslims but hoards of Hindus started visiting them seeking the blessing of the dead Sufi souls. One wonders that those Sufis who during their lifetime hated Hindu Kafirs, from their place in Barzak would ever bless Kafirs? Only naïve Hindus can go seeking their blessings.
