By Mushtaque B Barq
We belong to the same parents,
Then why this difference!
Let Hindus and Muslims ( together),
Worship God alone.
We came to this world like partners.
We should have shared our joys and sorrows together….. Nurnama ,P. 42
Shaikh Nuru-din (R.A) as a pious representative of Islam aimed at bringing harmony among different sects as a strong message of Islam to be communicated to people on the basis of socio-religious inheritance against political atrocities. Islam as a socio-religious order is equipped with perfect mechanism which the saint of 14th century Shaikh Nuru-din Rishi, popularly known as Shaikh-ul- Alam or Alamdar-i- Kashmir, son of Shaikh Salar-ud- Din, a newly converted to Islam has propagated throughout his life. Among the non- Muslims who accepted Islam at the hands of Sayyid Husain Simnani was Salat Sanz, father of Shaikh Nuru-din. Despite the assumption of Muslim name by Salat Sanz, the tribal name was retained in his family as illustrated in family hierarchy by Shaikh Nur-ud din:
( My) forefather’s name was Ogra Sanz;
Who was killed in the battle field;
His Kin called him Gurza Sanz;
And he bore but few off spring;
Drupta Sanz was one born to him;
And Drupta Sanz’s children were- Salat and Solu;
One of the son’s Salat Sanz, was my inspirer,
( He) embraced Islam willingly;
His Guru was Hussain Simnani;
Who was a close relative of Haider of Kulgam.
Shaikh Nuru-din from his early childhood was endowed with socio-religious sensitivities which later evolved as a stage to promulgate religio- cultural behaviour which with passage of time became substratum of composite culture of Kashmir1. Religious cordiality and love resolved religious prejudices by virtue of this resolution people recognized the value of love and Shaikh Nuru-din who was keen to connect people owing to divine qualities expresses:
What qualities hast thou found on the world?
To allow thy body a free, loose rope.
The Mussalman and Hindu sail in the same boat,
Have thy play and let’s go home.2
The verses of Shaikh Nuru-din are copious with intrinsic attraction, hardly leaving anyone even a non devotee listener without nursing the heart. Most of the verses of the Shaikh vividly depict miseries of the oppressed sections of society. There is hardly any verse which is deprived of social, cultural and topographical context. His poetry is deeply rooted in a homogenous body of common experience and cuts across academic compartments of knowledge. The sociological imaginations not only aided his verses with metaphors, but also connect historical realities bedecked with Rishis and theologians and Imams 3. With the stretch of Islamic teachings, archaic words were replaced by Persain and Arabic words, the change in idioms suggest the growth of Kashmiri language into literature on reaching the growth of awareness. Shaikh Nuru-din’s poetry expresses the cultural style of Islamic civilization in a regional dialect 4. Shaikh Nuru-din discarded social ranking on the basis of religion or power and more particularly towards Ulema devoid of religious merit. He was conscious of these Ulemas who were keen to exploit innocent illiterate folk and declared them actual patterns of hypocrisy. Shaikh Nuru-din exposed their conventional hallow religiosity in these verses:
A spiritual guide seems like a pot full of nectar,
which may be trickling down in drops,
Having a heap of books beside him,
He may have become confused by reading them
On examination one found him empty in mind,
He may be preaching to others by forgetting himself.
Shaikh Nuru-din’s message was not confined to one race, but to entire mankind which worked as a cohesive force to bind and disapprove division on the basis of socio- religious status which further encouraged Shaikh Nuru-din to advocate total surrender before God and to be compassionate to all his creatures5. This fellow feeling sensitivity reminds us of Rabinder Tagore when he writes and shares the same thought in his ‘Song Offerings’:
Leave this chanting and singing telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path maker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower,
and his garment is covered with dust
Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!
Tagore like Shaikh-ul-Alam presents core concern of religion and worship. He too like the saint of Kashmir believes that serving God means serving people and the aim of religion is to humanize the society and for the well being of the mankind. Shaikh-ul-Alam in a similar tune expresses:
The turban bulges of Mullas are beautiful temple adorning,
They flaunt themselves about wrapped in showy cloths;
With leathern sandals and flower garlands,
They carry five kilo bowls under their arms.
With no appetite they go on eating and
The remainder is carried secretly home…….( Kuliyat; p.126)
Shaikh-ul-Alam was severe like other Sufis of Islam in condemnation of the Ulama of contemporary society. It was Ulamas failure to bring exoteric ( Zahir) and esoteric ( Batin) aspects of religious life into a harmonious and balanced relationship owing to their malicious mind, arrogance, hypocrisy and mundane pursuits at the cost of spiritual wellbeing 6.
His verses stand for both transcendence and the immanence of God, for the understanding the message of Quran he advocates that one must create a desire to understand the principle of close correspondence between the esoteric and exoteric elements of religious life. In an attempt to make the Sharia structured social relationship intelligible to the unlettered folk, he praised undaunted spirit of four illustrious companions of the Prophet (SAW, Abu Bakr (R.A) as mentioned by Shaik-ul Alam in his verses has been lovable, Uthman ( R.A) who while compiling the Quran enabled men to distinguish between right and worng, Umar ( R.A) for his courageous spirit in subduing the snares of ego and Ali ( R.A) for his generosity and compassion in treating the hungry as his guests7.
There are evidences that Shaikh-ul-Alam’s thought is plentiful with tauhidic humanism and universalism, his verses are content of the Quran embedded with metaphors drawn from society, his imagery of flowers and foliage, of mountains and landscapes, of birds and animals, of fish and fowl, of seasons and weather, of rivers and springs making us to understand the poetic approach of dealing with natural phenomenon as essential for understanding the purpose of creation. For Shaikh-ul-Alam the entire world was suffused with meaning as referred: “Symbolic pregnance” by Cassirer. His teachings are grounded with the Quranic ethics of humanism and reciprocal love. According to Shaikh it was the cosmic love of nature which constituted the key point, vital for the understanding of Quranic universalism 8.
It was love and duty that brought Shaikh-ul- Alam from seclusion to society. During his long stay at Kaomoh cave came to know about multiple sufferings to common masses, especially unlettered folk at the hands of religious elites and feudal chiefs, besides social ranking and ethnic superiority among the new converts of Islam and this new socio- cultural order to unlettered folk of Kashmir seemed akin to Brahmantic socio- religious scheme, making the saint to come out of seclusion and he diffused his teaching into the society to combat with the new evolved order by religious elites9. The immense sense of disdain against a class of religious preachers who for their own benefit and selfish interests stressed upon dogmatic and ritualistic dimension of religion, thus both Lala and Shaikh-ul- Alam were equally concerned with the growing miscreants. He was opposite to the world and its social system but rather moved within the social order informing his personal relations with men as to enter into the contentment of God10. Thus Shaikh-ul-Alam ( R.A.) not only sustained rich Islamic tradition but also united the race to follow the right path without falling prey of ritualism. The religious thought which the verses of Shaikh-ul-Alam (R.A) unfold has both the precision of a discourse and coherence of a system. After spending twelve years in the cave, the Shaikh-ul-Alam (R.A) realized that physical seclusion associated with asceticism does not make up its essence, rather it lies in emulating the example of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW):
There are jackals and monkeys in the forest;
The caves are infested with rats;
Those who offer prayers five times a day to wash off the dirt of their heart;
Those who lead a family life, they are privileged
A dutiful household will be crowned;
The Messenger of Allah (SAW) led a marital life and won the Divine grace 11.
Mushtaq B.Barq is a Columnist, Poet and Fiction Writer. He is the author of “Feeble prisoner, “ Wings of Love” and many translation works are credited to the author like “ Verses Of Wahab Khar” and “ Songs Of Sochkral”
