This lazy Sunday afternoon while i was going through the news, the poignance of the recent tragedy of data darbar was quite evident in the already hopelessness-laden news mediums. In addition to being informed about the security lapses, policy failures, blame games and all the ‘newsworthy’ itemization of the different components of this hostile milieu, i also came across different interpretations of the shrine culture in Pakistan (not only in the news but otherwise as well). Some of them only reflected the already existing flagrant and abhorrent judgements of this culture by the radical segments of our society, which, sadly enough, extend to well educated and ‘cultured’ people.
The thought motivated me to go visit some of these shrines here in Multan again, and i went down there with a friend to reaffirm the reality of these shrines created by my idealistic-western-pragmatic education, and to my satisfaction, the result was the same.
The idea here is not to take sides and justify any school of thought, but to provide the dogma ridden person with a new perspective which accommodates some better standards into the equation, rather than the ritualistic clash only (which is the bone of contention in most of the cases). The situation with the different sects and schools of thought is extreme hostility towards each other with implications as severe as justification of deaths of their counterparts. What such radicals so ignorantly ignore is the fact that the faith of an average shrine goer is intrinsically twined with that of, let’s say, a typical orthodox Muslim, or more particularly, a ‘Wahabi’. We are aware of the fact that Wahabi interpretation of Islam employs rigid principles in several issues of critical significance with regard to faith, while the shrine culture being one of them. Many hardliners even rank shrine goers into infidels and suggest immediate remedy or death for them.
The general interpretation of the shrine culture
The radicals refer to such cultures as un-Islamic while a big majority just goes for the word of some self-proclaimed or Madrassah-porclaimed hardliner ‘Maulana’ against the shrines. On the other hand, there is a wide perception among the educated class, which is significantly ‘oblivious’ towards the beliefs shared by shrine goers, that most of the shrines manifest the sufi culture or at least widely categorize these shrines to be belonging to old sufi legends. Multan, for instance, is considered as the city of saints, hence, the perception that sufi culture could be witnessed at the famous shrines here, wrong!
When i went down to the shrine of Shah rukn-e-alam this Sunday, to my somewhat anticipated discomfort, i saw a man entering the main building with an old woman (her mother) held up in his arms suffering from excruciating pain due to God knows what illness, which was manifest in her agonized eyes and a mouth constantly open to let out a silent scream, but the feeble woman could not be heard due to her lack of energy. The man obviously had brought her to the ‘Baba’ (term used for the saint buried in there) to be cured of whatever she was suffering from, while inflicting a lot of pain upon her in doing so. To my further disappointment, he brought her to another shrine we visited (belonging to Bahaudin Zakariya, grandfather of Shah rukn-e-alam) and only added to the misery of the poor woman.
This is not sufiism, orthodoxy, idealism or any other school of thought for that matter, its sheer ignorance. Such people act instinctively in blind faith based upon hope. This is the manifestation of hopelessness in our society and how the dogmatic beliefs of people plunge them down into darkness. Such people should be pitied, and educated in the appropriate dimension, rather than being deemed to be killed, as suggested by many religious hardliners. It might not strike as a surprise for that matter that the attack on Data Darbar be a plot to further such an ideal of religious extremism rather than just an attack on the Pakistani state.
Orthodoxy vs Sufiism
With not much research, i also found out that Shah rukn-e-alam was not our everyday artistic, grass-smoking, poetic philanthropist (or any such synonymous categorization of sufis some of us generally make), rather his teachings were based on established traditions of Islam and his grandfather, thus categorizing him in the orthodoxy, which is obviously not necessarily a bad thing, and that’s not even the point. The point is the fact that such shrines and their legends are generally categorized by many as sufi hubs and the contemporary orthodoxies criticize such cultures and sufiism in general, while ignoring the fact that people like Shah rukn-e-alam were proponents of ideals that those very people stand for today. They don’t even know what the teachings of such legends were. They are critical of such cultures only by the virtue of the fact that some people like that man from the shrine engage in rituals (which can be very well defined as ignorant practices) which clash with their own rituals. The critical idea here is propelled by religious leaders of different schools of thought because followers of old ‘Gaddis’ (the title of spiritual leadership of shrines passed on to the next generation) would undermine their own leadership and control over the masses. Many people for that reason just join the shrine-hating club and some extreme variations among them attain the hatred level of as much as to kill.
The data darbar tragedy was followed by many such discussions as i mentioned earlier. One forum where we were having a similar debate left me shocked and ashamed when a school teacher here in Multan said that the devout followers of data darbar had it coming, and not because it was a prospective soft target for the terrorists, but because of what the people do in there, i.e. their rituals. What such people imply is the fact that it’s the divine power of God which struck down upon such sacrilegious and blasphemous people. And the saddest part is the fact that they are teachers, they are supposed to educate our youth, but Alas! Turned out he was apparently a very religious and ‘pious’ man who prays regularly.
Such unabashed and abominable sentiments of some of our contemporary orthodox Muslims are not even worthy of repetition and the condemnation of such perspectives is the least we could do in a society fallen victim to religious extremism, which stems from the same school of thought, except that the extremists are armed with a much deadlier arsenal of hatred and intolerance.
The ‘Intellectual’ Perspective
On the one hand we have ‘Peers’ exploiting the masses via the ‘Gaddi’ culture, while the religious hardliners on the other hand use their power of nuisance to spread the venom of hatred amongst the people which even pollutes the minds of ‘educated’ people. Talking of educated people, another obnoxious reference that popped into my mind is an epic. While i was preparing for my CSS exam, i came across a book by the infamous Ikram Rabbani (who published the most absurd book on Pakistan history for the ‘o’ level examinations) on Pakistan affairs. The moronic teachings of the man are not more than a folk legend of a creature in my village which eats up dead corpses by bringing them back to life first.
According to Mr. Rabbani, the ‘liberal sufis’ of 17th and 18th centuries ‘corrupted’ the moral code of the Islamic life and left the Muslims of that time estranged in the wilderness of their souls. That time was that of some great sufis like Baba Bulleh Shah, a renowned proponent of peace and inter faith harmony, but for Rabbani and sorts, the ‘liberal’ ideals of such people were socially and religiously unacceptable and they educate us today that how the association of Muslims with ‘evil’ Hindus was disastrous for us, along with a whole load of bull crap on several topics.
The pontificating doctrines of such dogmatic teachers and religious hijackers, coupled with a hopelessly corrupt and plagued system, leaves our naive man with options like seeking salvation at the feet of some dead saint about whom they virtually know nothing but the hope that he can solve all of their problems when they themselves, the system and the government have all failed miserably.
Points of Reflection
The need for the realization of the difference between sufiism and orthodoxy or any school of thought is a means to self realization, because our society defines people by what they believe. Surrendering to dogmatic values blindly which even lack a humanitarian perspective just renders us to fall victim to ritualism and its inherent evils.
Also, ignorant practices at some shrines do not reflect anything about the person to whom the shrine belongs, thus nothing can be generalized about Sufis (or any saint) and their teachings based on what people do at their shrines, but it absolutely does not give anyone the right to kill a person engaged in such practices as well. What’s imperative here is the rejection of any established traditions which directly contradict with humane values, like that of the man at the shrine or the idea of killing such a man!
The system of education here in Pakistan is also to be blamed for our problems, and it’s not only the formal education but any guidance one receives from various sources, what’s desperately needed is a significant paradigm shift in the education system. Rather than it being result oriented, it has to be knowledge oriented with the employment of pragmatism to see things as they are, rather than looking at virtual reality created by pontificating professors shoving their doctrines down our throats. It goes without saying that the religious extremists have to be denounced, but we also need to reject the belligerent perspectives of the likes of Rabbani and the school teacher i mentioned, as their despotic and abominable doctrines promote the element of intolerance in people, translating into a chaotic society, which does not rest until the consequences are extremely dire for everyone.
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