Introduction
The muddled historical relationship between Sufism and Shiism remains as unexplored in the modem age o f academia, as it was unexplained in the era of medieval Islam. As we have seen in the last three chapters, the reason for this incomprehension between the two entities within Islam had more to do with dissimulation on account o f historical antagonism towards Shiism. The lack o f progress in understanding this relationship in modem scholarly circles has resulted due to the loss of certain spiritual concepts and related esoteric sciences common to Sufism and Shia Islam, which were traditionally only accessible to the initiated few. These still remain unexplored or properly understood within modern academia. Yet they historically provided a common metaphysical basis for the accommodation of Sufism within Shiism, and were also used in turn by the latter to establish its metaphysical superiority over Sunni Caliphal Islam.
The exegesis o f these spiritual concepts common to Sufism and Shiism, and the correlation o f both entities through them to the same Islamic personality and event will serve as the basis for clarifying this relationship in the context of this thesis. This correlation, at least in terms o f the Suhrawardi Order in the Indus Valley, is expressed through the astrological reckonings o f the specific Islamic event o f Ghadir-Khumm when the Prophet appointed Ali as his successor. The event has been found represented in dissimulation through symbols on Suhrawardi buildings. These symbols predominantly revolve around the Ghadir-Khumm connection to the Persian New Year i.e. Nauroz,346 which has already been seen in the ceremonies emanating from Shams’s shrine in Chapter Two. In the case o f the Suhrawardi Order the astrological disposition at Ghadir also serves as a template for the accommodation o f other religious ideas within its fold at a secondary level.
346 According to the Shia traditions the Prophet nominated Ali as his absolute successor in his last sermon on 18 Dhul Hijja 10 Hijri, i.e. Wednesday 14 March 632. Nauroz is the Persian N ew Year/spring equinox, when the Sun enters the sign o f Aries, see Chapter Two, ‘Chaharshamba-yi Suri, Ghadir and a Vedic Nauroz.4
This correlation between the event o f Ghadir-Khumm, when according to Shia Islam the Prophet openly announced his cousin Ali as his absolute successor in spiritual and temporal terms,347 and Nauroz, the Persian New Year, have long existed as reports in Shia hadith (sayings of the Prophet) narrations. Yet the event was never really fully understood for its conceptual implications on the transcendentalism o f Shia Muslim spirituality due to a dearth o f supporting material For similar reasons, it was never explored in terms o f Sufism either, or in the specific context o f this thesis, for the Ismaili da’wa connected to it in the Indus Valley. Shams’s ingenious use o f the Ghadir-Khumm Nauroz connection as an astrological template for representing Shia symbolism in a religious ceremony celebrated according to the local calendar by his Indian followers is unmistakably the first such example available in history. The evidence uncovered from the book Tarikh-e-Uch further ties the Suhrawardi Order metaphysically to Shams through the pre-Partition urs celebration o f Surkhposh, which was also reportedly celebrated in a similar format.348 Shams had invariably served as the progenitor for the transition o f these ideas from Khurasan to the Indus Valley, and their development and adaptation to the local system.
The generic explanation of the Ghadir-Khumm Nauroz event for Sufism within a Shia context undertaken in this chapter serves a twofold purpose in the thesis. Firstly, it cements the metaphysical link between the Ismaili da’wa and the Suhrawardi Order in the context o f the Indus Valley, within a clear process o f concepts and events connected through astrological representation. This process of astrological representation is an academically acknowledged characteristic o f the Fatimid era and later of medieval Ismailism itself, lending further credence to the argument here. The application of the Ghadir-Khumm Nauroz template in a variety o f ways, either openly as first used by Shams to adapt Shia religious ceremonial to native contexts, or through discreet symbols
347 The event o f Ghadir-Khumm is celebrated in the Shia world as a festival when the Prophet said about Ali ‘ Whosever’s master (m awla) I am, this Ali is also his master.’ Nasr 1988, p .160. According to Shiism this event is regarded as having a divine ordinance by being in obedience to the revelation recorded in Sura 5:71, and by also being simultaneously complemented by the revelation o f the last verse o f the Quran on the occasion. See Hollister 1953, p. 13.
on architecture by the Suhrawardi Order who needed to express their Shiism in dissimulation, does not lessen the indispensability of the framework for the expression of Shia-Ismaili beliefs.
Secondly, in less specific terms, the reconstruction o f the working concepts behind the process itself will demonstrate the hidden procedural connections that generally existed between Sufism and Shiism. This will show how Sufism could practically become a very convenient tool for the expression o f Shiism in times o f duress and dissimulation, which it invariably did in the shape of the Suhrawardi Order. The explanation lies outside the context o f Sufi ideas and aesthetics that were absorbed simultaneously to the above into Sunni imperial circles throughout the Muslim world to embellish court ceremonial, or were patronised by rulers to suit their agendas.
The Concept o f Wilayat in Shiism and Sufism
The event o f Ghadir-Khumm plays a central part in the metaphysical superiority claimed by Shia Islam over the Sunni caliphal tradition. It is recognised by all Shia sub-sects as the point o f departure from Sunnism, each drawing upon it to legitimise its own respective tradition, which is always through lineal descent from Ali. The nomination of Ali by the Prophet as his absolute successor in terms divine and temporal at Ghadir is called the wilayat or vice-regency o f Ali.349 The word wilayat is derived from the Arabic root wila, which means power, authority or a right o f certain kind. In Shia theology, wilayat is the authority invested in the Prophet and then the Ahl al-Bayt (or Panjatan in Persian-Urdu), i.e. his original family including after himself, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husain, as representatives o f God on earth.350 In the (Ja’fari) fiqh o f Shiism (which
349 Among all the Shia sects which survive or have become extinct, Nizari Ismailism and Twelver Shiism have maintained this concept o f Imamate, or patriarchal lineal descent with both divine and temporal investiture as passed on from the event o f Ghadir through the act o f wilayat, more than all others. Others have lessened its status to just temporal guidance like the Yemeni Zaidis, or exalted it to extreme beliefs like the Alevis o f Syria and Turkey.
350 See Chapter Six ‘Wilayat and its Scope’ in http;//ww w.al-islarn.org/wilavat . The recent book Shiism:
Imamate and Wilayat by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi which deals explicitly with the notion o f wilayat and its
incidentally includes Ismailism and Twelver Shiism), wilayat has four different 1
dimensions of expression, yet the primordial dimension is that of universal wilayat of the imam of the time derived from Ali. Subsequently, this holistic notion o f temporal guidance and divine power being passing on to a descendant of Ali after him takes place through a process called nass.352 This is when an infallible Imam (Ali or one o f his descendants) nominates his successor publicly, and imbues him with divine secrets and credentials in private. In (Ja’fari) Shiism whenever the word imamate or imam is used it necessarily encompasses all four dimensions of wilayat.353 In essence the process entails the passing on of the holistic wilayat of Ali to the new Imam, as declared by the Prophet at Ghadir-Khumm, through blood lineage to his chosen descendants.
One o f the central concepts o f all Sufism is that of a spiritual guide, dead or alive, who initiates a disciple and transfers secret knowledge to him, in addition to esoteric and exoteric etiquette on how to live between God and man. In Sufism a saint is called a wall (i.e. waliallah or friend o f God) and sanctity itself is called wilayah. This is synonymous with wilayat in Persian Shiism and the root for both is the same (i.e. wila in Arabic). Some have even identified the two as being identical.354 Moreover, the acclaimed Sufi master’s initiated disciple is a khalifa or designate. A close examination o f the terms in use and their etymology suggests a parody in the process of becoming a Sufi, o f the event at Ghadir; where Ali was nominated to succeed the Prophet, yet the temporal right was usurped by a caliph. This is in the context of emplacing a Shia essence on certain Sufi orders as sought by this thesis. Hossein Nasr states that the Twelver scholar Murtada al-
format for each chapter in the above web link. The Family o f the Prophet i.e. the first five, are regarded as being commonly infallible by all the Shia sects, the divergence only comes with their descendants; hence the first wilayat i.e., that o f Ali at Ghadir, is likewise universally regarded.
351 The first dimension o f wilayat is love for the Ahl al-Bayt regarded as being stated in Sura 42:23 o f the Quran. The second dimension is o f A li’s spiritual guidance which is a commonly held b elief o f the Shia and the majority o f the Sufi orders. The third is the socio-political authority o f the Family, and the fourth is called the universal wilayat whereby the wali or holder o f wilayat exercises power over all that exists. In the words o f a recent clerical ruler o f Iran, ‘It is the vice-regency pertaining to the w hole o f creation.’ The last two are exclusively Shia concepts: Ibid.
352 The designation that makes one an imam on the death o f his predecessor: Hollister 1953, p.4I5. 353 See Chapter Six, ‘Wilayat and its Scope’ in httpyAvww.al-islam.org/wilayat.
Radi, who lived in Buwayhid Baghdad before the Seljuks, called the (early) Sufis ‘the real Shiites.’355
The initial orally transmitted traditions o f all Sufi orders narrate essentially that in the early era o f Islam, certain disciples within each order were taken on by Ali, who was a master of the esoteric knowledge of Scripture, its application to the natural environment, and to the forces o f nature. They were initiated with a pledge to transfer this secret knowledge to deserving individuals. This fact o f spiritual designation from Ali is accepted by all Sufi orders, except the Naqshbandi Order which sprang up in fourteenth century Uzbekistan in a Sunni Turkic environment. It purports to derive its spiritual lineage in a similar manner, but through the first Sunni caliph Abu Bakr, instead of Ali.356 It was favoured by the Ottoman Empire and latter day Mughals in India and became a political tool for countering Shia influence in imperial circles, in that its beginnings and rise can be ascribed political and temporal reasons.