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Mysticism thrives
Mysticism thrives
- by Asim Butt
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The mystical form of religion espoused by Sufi saints for hundreds of years
continue to thrive in Pakistan despite opposition from religious hardliners and
the authorities. As the sun sets on a Thursday evening, hundreds of working
class people descend on a shrine to the eighth-century mystic, Abdullah Shah
Ghazi, in Karachi. The shrine is located on a hill in the up market Clifton
district of Pakistan's financial capital, flanked by swanky shopping malls and
the posh residential area of Defense.
In the grounds below the shrine gather electricians, plumbers, construction
workers, vagabonds, prostitutes, transvestites. Encircled by a cheering crowd,
men take turns in a weightlifting competition. Another circle dances to the
drumbeat of the shrine's dhol players. Devotional singing, or "qawali", emanates
from an enclosure adjacent to the open grounds, yet another crowd swaying under
its spell.
The men, for this public space is overwhelmingly male-dominated, belong to all
the ethnicities and sects that make up Pakistan, mixing freely in a city rife
with divisions. Food stalls, bonfires, stereo-players, huddles of ganja-smoking
men, smaller ones of heroin users, others local brews, make up this multi-ethnic
weekly party that rocks.into the early hours of the morning. Although Thursdays
are traditionally holy nights when devotees pray at Sufi shrines, the revelry at
Shah Ghazi seems to have little to do with prayer. Music, dance and drugs,
though proscribed by orthodox religion, are the traditional vehicles of devotion
here - as they are at most shrines in Pakistan.
Sufism has historically provided with an alternative to orthodoxy and has won it
most of its converts. Sufi saints created mass appeal through their merging with
pre-existing faiths of the region and their ability to align themselves with
popular interests. The mass appeal of saints like Shah Ghazi and others persists
in spite of 200 years of opposition from puritanical reformers and the state.
From the late 19th century on, reformers sought to purify religion by rejecting
elements they believe had crept in through Sufism. Under the colonial regime,
although landed Sufis were used as intermediaries between government and
subjects, ascetics were seen as a threat and criminalized. Similarly, while
ancient Sufis were viewed as genuine agents of spirituality, living mystics were
dismissed as frauds. The 19th Century Sufi, Mewa Shah, also buried in Karachi,
was jailed and eventually exiled by the British. According to legend, Mewa Shah
alighted the ship taking him into exile, said his prayers on the waves of the
Arabian Sea and mounted a large fish, which took him back to the shores of
Karachi.
Post-colonial Pakistan has had a schizophrenic policy towards Sufi shrines. By
subsuming them under the Auqaf department, the state has sought to weaken the
powers of the spiritual heirs of the saints. Established under Ayub Khan in
1959, the Auqaf department received its charter from Javed Iqbal, the son of
Pakistan's founding visionary poet, Mohammad Iqbal, who actually bemoaned the
superstitions of his community. The pamphlets published by the department
expunged the miraculous from the legends, repainting the lives of Sufi saints in
a modernist light. The powers of the department are expanded further under
Pervez Musharraf's rule of "enlightened moderation".
Meanwhile, state functionaries and politicians have continued to seek legitimacy
from the shrines by turning prayer visits into public appearances and photo
opportunities. Although tributes paid by devotees are siphoned through the Auqaf
department, the dozen also receives alms or so kitchens that run along the front
of the shrine. The money is used to provide two daily meals to anyone in need.
The most destitute thus encamp outside the shrine, among them glue-sniffing
runaway children, heroin addicts and other homeless men and women.
The Sufi shrines offer the underclass spiritual sustenance, a social valve of
entertainment, and a safety net of free rations. It is a bond that has not been
loosened by militant religion.
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