Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Today there are over 500 million Muslims throughout the Indian subcontinent, making it one of the largest population centers of Muslims in the world. Understandings of how Islam spread throughout this region is currently a contested topic in some circles. Hindutva and Hindu nationalists for example, insist that Islam only exists in India and beyond because of the “violent” Arab and Persian conquests.
But the historical evidence remains that, contrary to common assumptions about Muslim conquerors, Arab rulers had no particular interest in promoting conversions to Islam throughout the Indian subcontinent.
The Arab traders were in contact with India before the time of Prophet Muhammad in the 600s. Merchandise including spices, gold and a host of products from Africa were regularly traded along the west coast of India. They encouraged not only an exchange of goods but ideas. Naturally, when Arab traders began to convert to Islam, they brought their theological discussions and ideas with them. In fact, the first mosque of India was built in 629 in Kerala.
One of the most important elements of conversions to Islam in the subcontinent was Sufism.
Sufism is the mystical Muslim practice in which people search for truth, knowledge and closeness to God through meditation and prayer. Sufi expression is manifested in written form with accounts of saints and mystics, poetry, and descriptive literature to help adherents reach their ascetic goals of divine expression. Although not a separate sect of Islam, Sufi philosophy interacts with Islam very differently from traditionalist and ulemas and believers.
The Sufi movement started in Persia and evolved into the 11th century. It found its way into India during the later half of the 11th and 12th centuries when many Sufi saints arrived and settled in the country.
The Sufi movement was organized in various orders (silsilahs). The Chisti Order is the most popular one in India, although originating outside of the subcontinent by its founder saint Khawaja Abdul Chisti. The Suhravardi Order of the Sufis was established by a saint in Baghdad, and his disciples passed it on in the North Western part of India. There were also the Qadri and Naqshbandi orders- yet many more were established inside and outside the subcontinent.
The orders were led by prominent Sufi leaders who lived and practiced with their disciples (murids). A central philosophy of Sufism is to have a strong connection between the teacher and the murids as every teacher nominates their successor to continue their work.
According to sufism expert Dr Masood Bhutto, before they started preaching, Sufis set noble examples by sharing their message in a pragmatic and flexible way, contrary to the traditionalist ulemas who put more emphasis on the rigidity of rules. Sufis disliked formalities and ceremonial acts and preferred to lead simple lives.
They were triumphant in spreading their faith because they refused to impose their beliefs on non-Muslims. Their places of worship provided protection to wanderers and eventually millions across the subcontinent rallied round the ideology of Sufism which was simple to digest and easy to practice.
In Bangaladesh for example, Sufism contributed to spreading Islam and promoting religious harmony. Sufism reached its golden age between 1200-1500 A.D., as the aforementioned orders grew in numbers and socio-spiritual significance. During this period, Sufis of northern India sent their disciples to Bengal as representatives of the Islamic faith.
Driven by an increasingly irrepressible urge to spread Islam, religious teachers such as Mujaddid Alf Sani chose to leave their homes of northern India in an attempt to reach more non-Muslim audiences.
Before the arrival of these Sufi scholars in the Indian subcontinent, most of the local population was either Hindu or Buddhist. As Sufi scholars traveled across the region, their belief in living a simple life and their devotion to inner and social peace granted them wide success across the Bengal regions.
They promoted religious harmony, going beyond the familiarity and comfort of their confined places of worship to engage the wider social fabric of their respective societies in the quest for personal meaning and social peace.
At the center of their teaching was a humbling openness to diverse expressions of religion and spirituality, as well as a genuine commitment to advancing social equality and collective welfare.
Sufis followed basic principles to popularise Islam throughout the Indian subcontinent. Some of them included repenting for misdeeds and emptying of self orientation, and being content and grateful for the unbounded mercy of God. They lived a life of total surrender to the Divine, advocating that humans not care for trivial or worldly matters.
Although many Sufi mystics did not have political aspirations and disdained wordly power, the sultans in much of the Arabo-Muslim world paraded sufis mystics as inheritors of charisma derived through chains of succession from the Prophet himself. Their blessings were regarded as essential to a ruler’s power. Sufi leaders’ association with the ruling class of sultans allowed them to become more mainstream across South Asia.
Yet in contrast to the ruling class, Sufis appreciated the multi-racial and multireligious patterns of Indian society. Chisti Sufis for example cultivated an antipathy for royal associations and instead were keen on interactions with ordinary Indian Hindus. In fact, the influence of the Sufis became attached to popular South Asian culture “by confluence of the murshidi, marfati, and baul songs” according to professor Emadul Haq.
Sufi efforts across the subcontinent were directed toward the creation of healthy social order free from conflicts. They brought a new, liberal way of living and relating to the core Islamic messages.
And, most importantly perhaps,their insistence on the quest for personal meaning and individual closeness to the divine offered the masses a venue for raising their social status by questioning the caste systems.
