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ISLAM IN SOUTH ASIA IN PRACTICE

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Chapter One

Ali S. Asani

Among the Muslim communities of South Asia, the Nizari Ismailis constitute a distinctive minority. As Shia Muslims, they believe that after the Prophet Muhammad authority over the Muslim community was inherited by imams who are direct descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661). Currently, they acknowledge Shah Karim al-Husseini, Aga Khan IV, as their forty-ninth Imam, or spiritual leader, on account of which they are sometimes referred to as Aga Khanis.

Residing predominantly in western India (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and in southern (Sind) and northern Pakistan, they have also settled in East Africa, Europe, and North America. The Nizari Ismailis and the Aga Khanis are well known in contemporary South Asia for their philanthropic activities and their prominence in the financial and commercial sectors. In the political sphere, the present Aga Khan's grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III (d. 1957), played a leadership role among Muslims in pre-Partition India and in the creation of Pakistan. In addition, he served for a short time as president of the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, also has his ancestral roots in this community.

This chapter examines two literary genres of this small but influential Muslim community: the ginan (a hymn of wisdom, from the Sanskrit jnana) and the git (a song of praise). The ginans are attributed to one of several medieval preacherpoets, referred to as pirs and sayyids whom, traditions assert, Ismaili Imams, then living in Iran, sent to the subcontinent in order to propagate Ismaili doctrines from the tenth century onwards. In the process, they composed songs as a way of providing instruction on a variety of doctrinal, ethical, and mystical topics. Eventually, these songs crystallized into the corpus known as the ginans. Today, the corpus is "frozen," with the last ginans being those composed in the mid-nineteenth century by the female sayyida, Imam Begum. Although written several hundred years ago, ginans are recited daily in jama'at khanas (houses of congregation) wherever Nizari Ismailis from the subcontinent have settled. In contrast to the ginans, gits are songs composed by individual Ismailis to express their devotion to the imams and are usually sung during religious celebrations and festivals. They are a less formally constituted genre representing a "living" tradition of devotional expression.

Background

The strand of the Nizari Ismaili tradition primarily associated with the ginans and gits developed in the western regions of the subcontinent, specifically in Punjab, Sind, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. In this area, the pirs and sayyids preached their doctrines under the name satpanth, an Indic term meaning "the true path," rather than "Nizari Ismaili" or "Ismaili," both terms being conspicuously absent in their compositions. Historically, the Satpanthis, as they were known, came to be further divided into various caste-like subgroups such as the Khojas, Momans, Shamsis, Nijyapanthis (Nizarpanthis), and Imamshahis. Over the centuries, Satpanthis have defined and redefined their identities, beliefs, and practices. The most significant redefinition took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when various Satpanthi groups realigned their religious and caste identities within the new frameworks prevalent in colonial and postcolonial South Asia. Today, most Khojas, for example, identify themselves as Nizari Ismaili Muslims, while those who broke away in the "reform" movements in the early twentieth century consider themselves to be Ithna Ashari (Twelver) Shia or even Sunni Muslims.

The central concern in the propagation of Satpanth was the expression of Nizari Ismaili beliefs and rituals within local religious and cultural frameworks. Wherever the Ismaili tradition has developed, it has engaged itself with the tools of various philosophical and religious systems as a means of articulating fundamental aspects of its theology. Consequently, the tradition has been remarkably adaptable to different religious and political environments. It is true that acculturation may have been a form of taqiyya (dissimulation of religious beliefs) traditionally used by Shia groups in order to avoid persecution. And yet, the impulse to acculturate seems to have been innate in the ethos of Ismaili tradition. Thus, in the ninth and tenth centuries, when Ismaili Imams ruled over the Fatimid Empire centered in Cairo, Ismaili philosophers drew on elements from the Gnostic, Neoplatonic, Manichean, and Zoroastrian traditions to formulate their conceptions of the imam.

Not surprisingly, in the subcontinent, the pirs and sayyids exhibited the same ethos when they presented the Satpanth tradition within the frameworks of a variety of indigenous religious and philosophical currents-such as the Bhakti, Sant, Sufi, and yogic traditions. The classic example of this formulation was the creation of an ostensible equivalence between the Vaishnava Hindu concept of avatara and the Ismaili concept of imam. Kalki, the messianic tenth incarnation (dasa avatara) of Vishnu, renamed in the Satpanth tradition as Nakalanki, "the stainless one," was identified with Ali, the first Shi'i Imam. The pirs represented themselves as guides who knew the whereabouts of the long awaited tenth avatara of Vishnu, meaning the Ismaili Imam, thus portraying their path as the culmination of the Vaishnavite Hindu tradition. In this manner, they were able to create a synthesis that was uniquely Satpanthi. Although drawing from seemingly disparate traditions, the worldview of the ginans is remarkably coherent. However, in contemporary South Asia religious identities have been so highly politicized and cultural differences between Hindus and Muslims so rigidly polarized that pluralistic doctrinal formulations such as those of Satpanth have been difficult, if not impossible, to sustain.

The Ginans: Hymns of Wisdom

The corpus of ginans consists of nearly one thousand compositions, of varying length, in a variety of languages indigenous to Punjab, Sind, and Gujarat. Employing local or folk poetic forms and meters, the ginans are meant to be sung in specific melodies or ragas. The ginans were composed during two periods: the first, from approximately the middle of the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century, is the period of the "great" pirs about whom there is, unfortunately, little reliable historical information; the second, the period of the sayyids, was initiated when the imam in Iran, Mustansir bi'llah II (d. 1480), designated a Persian book, the Pandiyat-i Jawanmardi (The counsels of chivalry) as a pir, rather than appointing a person. As a result, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, sayyids, respected as descendants of the family of the Prophet, guided Satpanth communities and continued the tradition of composing ginans.

Traditionally, many Nizari Ismailis have accorded the ginans a scriptural status, regarding them as conveying, in the vernacular, the inner meaning of the Arabic Qur'an. This understanding is reflected in their tendency, even today, to match ginan verses with Qur'anic ones. In this sense, the ginans play a role similar to that of "scriptural" vernacular poetic texts such as Rumi's Masnavi among Persianspeaking Muslims, or Shah 'Abdu'l Latif's Risalo and Bullhe Shah's poems among Sindhi and Punjabi speakers, respectively.

Singing ginans alongside the performance of prescribed ritual prayers is one of the principal forms of worship. Usually, a solo singer leads the singing with the congregation joining in so that the act of singing becomes a communal act of worship. A ginan recitation can evoke powerful emotions, particularly when there is a large congregation singing in unison. Indeed, community tradition records the redemption of one Ismail Gangji (d. 1883) of Junagadh, who on one occasion was so moved by this singing that he tearfully sought forgiveness of his sins. Frequently, entire ginans, or a selection of verses from specific ginans, are associated with particular rituals. Certain ginans are also designated for religious festivals such as the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, of imams, and so on. Finally, ginanic verses are often used by preachers as proof texts in their sermons. Ginans also permeate the daily lives of individuals. They are quoted as proverbs and sung while performing domestic tasks in the style of the Dakhni songs translated in Chapter 4. Occasionally, they are recited in informal musical gatherings, called ginan mehfils or ginan mushairas. In recent decades, recordings of ginans by various artists have been widely circulated by means of cassettes, CDs, and even over the Internet.

Key Themes in the Ginans

The ginans translated below exemplify two key themes. First, the role of the imams and pirs as guides to the spiritual or the esoteric (batin). Satpanth, in common with most traditions of Islamic mysticism, seeks to foster the spiritual development of a disciple (murid) through control over the nafs, or ego self, a task best accomplished under the guidance and supervision of a spiritual preceptor (pir, murshid). The goal is to realize the ultimate experience for Muslim mystics-the "face to face meeting with God" or didar, "seeing the Divine." Many ginans emphasize a form of inward spirituality by employing vocabulary from contemporaneous Indian religious movements, particularly that of the Sants, a group of lower caste "poet-saints" who represented a powerful anti-ritual and anti-caste movement that swept across medieval India. Challenging the efficacy of ritualism and rote learning as paths to salvation, these ginans urge the faithful to adopt a righteous lifestyle and recognize the transitory nature of the world (maya) in which the soul is entrapped in endless cycles of rebirth. Mindless performance of religious rituals is of no use in liberating the soul. The only means of breaking these cycles is through regular repetition/remembrance (sumiran) of the Divine Name (nam/shabd), which is given to those who follow the True Path by the Satguru, the "True Guide," ambiguously identified in most ginans as either the pir or the imam. The ultimate goal of this inward meditation is enlightenment (darshan) in which one "sees," spiritually, the light (nur) of the imam who is frequently referred to as Ali, the historic person and a symbol of all the imams.

A second theme is the relationship between disciples and the imam, who is a repository of knowledge and the inheritor of a pre-eternal and cosmic light. These ginans draw on love symbolism from the Bhakti tradition, the movement of devotionalism that swept across North India at approximately the same time as the Sant movement. In particular, they utilize the central symbol used to express love and devotion in Bhakti poetry-the virahini, the woman longing for her beloved, best exemplified by Radha and the gopis (cowmaids) in their yearning for Krishna. In the ginans, the virahini becomes symbolic of the human soul who is experiencing viraha (painful longing) for the Beloved, almost always identified as the imam. As a result, ginans often portray the believer as a virahini employing the feminine voice, although their authors are predominantly male. Some ginans mention a promise (kol) of love between the female bride-soul and the imam, represented as the promise of marriage and marital bliss (suhag). This may, in fact, be an allusion to the primordial covenant of love between creation and God that is so central to Sufi love mysticism. Notwithstanding the highly evocative language of unfulfilled love and waiting, the ginans emphasize that the True Beloved can only be found after searching within the depths of one's own soul.

SELECTIONS FROM SALOKO NANO

FROM THE SECTIONS ON LOVE, FAITH, THE BELIEVER, AND WORSHIP, ATTRIBUTED TO PIR SADR AD-DIN (LATE FOURTEENTH-EARLY FIFTEENTH C.); IN HINDI/GUJARATI

The True Guide proclaims: When true faith is manifest in a heart, all negligence is dispelled; What room is there for the darkness [of ignorance] where the light of the True Master radiates?

The True Guide proclaims: Construct a boat from the name of Ali and fill it with Truth. When the winds of Love blow, the True Master will surely guide it to the shore of salvation.

The True Guide proclaims: Color yourself with the pigment of Truth; just like patola silk, Which may fall to tatters, yet its color remains steadfast.

The True Guide proclaims: Place your hope in the Truth; adorn yourself with the Truth; Apply the collyrium (kajal) of Love to your eyes, let the Beloved be the garland around your neck.

The True Guide proclaims: The entire world appears to be poor, no one seems wealthy; Wealthy, indeed, is one who is in love with the Beloved.

The True Guide proclaims: Distance yourself from the seemingly enchanting world, keeping your soul away from its delusion and allure; If you surrender your life to Love; you will find the Beloved.

The True Guide proclaims: When love rises on the horizon, one feels its wounds; When the sickness of love takes hold, no sleep comes to the eyes.

The True Guide proclaims: Love does not grow in a garden nor is it sold in a store; Love grows in the heart; a heart consumed by intense yearning [for the Beloved].

The True Guide proclaims: Whosoever has tasted the nectar of Ali, will never turn away from it; Whosoever dies a death of Love drinks the nectar of Love.

The True Guide proclaims: "Beloved! Beloved!" all cry out, but none finds the Beloved. If the Beloved were to be found simply by uttering His name, what need would there be to sacrifice one's self [literally, what need would there be for bargaining with heads?].

The True Guide proclaims: If you want to sacrifice your self (ego), then stay awake (in meditation) at night; If you dedicate your life to remembrance [of Him], then the true Creator will be with you.

The True Guide proclaims: "Beloved! Beloved!" all creatures cry out, but none finds the Beloved. If the Beloved were to be found by simply repeating His name with the tongue, then the heron would become a swan.

The True Guide proclaims: The heron and the swan are clearly different although they may seem alike; But the heron eats whatever it fancies, while the swan feeds on pearls.

The True Guide proclaims: Glass and gems are clearly different; only testing reveals their true value. Dealing in glass accumulates only poison; through gems comes enlightenment.

The True Guide proclaims: Those without and with a guide are clearly different; although outwardly they may appear to be alike; Those without a Guide lust for wealth; those with a Guide desire only His name.

"FROM HIS LIGHT HE CREATED THE EARTH"

ATTRIBUTED TO PIR HASSAN SHAH (D. 1470); IN GUJARATI

From His Light He created the earth and the heavens, suspended without any support.

He revealed His power, manifest in the imam (leader) of the faith.

Follow the path of the Five Holy Persons [Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, Husayn] and have faith in the True Path (Satpanth).

Believers, abide by the Truth and follow the Truth; keep your attention firmly on the True Path (Satpanth).

O careless one! Beware of the material world; you will not be misled if you follow the straight Path.

Countless foolish and helpless souls have blindly wasted their lives.

Pir Hasan Shah has recited this hymn of wisdom (ginan). Friends! Whoever seeks the Lord, finds Him.

"YOU COME FROM AN EXALTED PLACE"

ATTRIBUTED TO PIR SHAMS (LATE THIRTEENTH-EARLY FOURTEENTH C.); IN HINDI-GUJARATI

You come from a highly exalted place; why then do you pay attention to the low? Your stay in the world is as short as four days, why then do you accrue falsehood? What do you gain from sin?

Refrain: Do not be misled by the illusionary world; Walk the path of humility for, in the end, you have to die. Seek the intercession of the Messenger, the intercession of the Prophet. Fear evil, fear falsehood. Do not be misled by the illusionary world. Walk the path of humility, for in the end, you have to die.

Born naked into the world, you will be covered with cloth [when you die]. What you earn in one moment, why do you squander in the next? Why do you sin and abandon the true faith?

Do not be misled by the illusionary world ...

Those who abandon the true faith are ensnared by deceit; They stray from the true path and stand with sinners. Following their egotistical desires, they cast their lives into hell.

Do not be misled by the illusionary world ...

Only the few who are brave and courageous follow this path That Prophet Muhammad has shown; Pir Shams teaches true knowledge.

Do not be misled by the illusionary world ...

(Continues...)

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