Sufism and Hindu mysticism

Sufism and Hindu mysticism
Khwaja Hasan Sani Nizami

To speak of Sufism and Hindu mysticism is indeed like entering into the domains of Sheikh Mohiuddin Ibne Arabi and Shankaracharya. For a layman and a commoner, it is not easy to obtain a visa to enter into this hallowed region.

The popular westernised terms òf40ó`Sufism' and `Hindu mysticism' are not capable of explicating òf40ó`Islamic tasawwuf' and `Hindu Spiritual Philosophy' even in a limited sense (of the words) through which these are generally explained and understood.

To define Islamic tasawwuf as Sufism is, in fact, restricting the phenomenon to personalities. This is a kind of fallacy which is often committed in calling a Momin and a Muslim as a Mohammadan. The West, despite its strong tradition of learning and scholarship, has not been able to deviate from labelling and fitting its conceptions into self-designed patterns, shapes, figures and structures of the other worlds, irrespective of their dimensions and parameters. And whatever images are thus created -- distorted or reverse -- are conceived by the Western world to be their real images. We must not follow the West, at least in this regard.

The spiritual legacy of the Indian subcontinent is indeed immense. It is old, profound and multifarious. The term `Hindu mysticism' can neither circumscribe nor comprehend the vast panorama of Hindu spiritual legacy. Where else have the different religions held together negation and affirmation, materialism and spirituality? Where is the outward so dazzling and the inward so luminous? Where is renunciation a state towards salvation, and living a full life also an aspect of spirituality? To limit such limitless and varied states of mind and soul by defining it merely as `mysticism' is indeed unjust, as there are many forms of an object, and every form has got various shades.

Even if one does not use the so-called terms of mysticism and Sufism to define and differentiate Hindu/Muslim spirituality, the problem still remains, as one does not know what to compare or contrast against. Agreement and disagreement, and variety and lack of it, are not the distinguishing features of Hinduism alone. The followers of Islamic tasawwuf are also divided on the ideologies of wahdatul wujood and wahdatush shuhood. The night draws to an end, but the tale remains untold.

Yet, those who know the travails of the way to God consider such destinations as only mid-stations. Since the destination lies far ahead, those who seek the way to God, to perfection, return to humankind again. The prophets have a higher station than walis because even after reaching God they are ever anxious to guide mankind. In the first ever khilafatnamah issued by Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia to Hazrat Shamsuddin Yahya, to which we have access, the Aulia gives his guidelines on following the tradition of the Prophet of Islam: ``If you like I can swear by God, in whose hands is my life, that those humans are nearest to God who love humanity for the sake of God, and love God through mankind.''

That, which we know as Hindu mysticism, presents karm marg in the same vein. The basic difference between Islamic tasawwuf and other spiritual philosophies in India is that most of the scholars and seers of ancient India consider the world only as an illusion. Everyone is aware of the concept of maya. It needs no elaboration. the Muslim Sufis, however, consider the phenomenal world as a tangible reality. In their view, Man is Truth, or the manifestation of the Truth. The Holy Quran also ordains that whatever apparently exists, be it outward or inward, related to time or space, Allah alone is the reality.

(Courtesy Iran Culture House)