Abdal Hakim Murad – Nizam alDin Awliya Paradigms of Leadership

Abdal Hakim Murad
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The Shisayid culture is a fundamental Christian faith that is a fundamental Christian faith. The message is to try to melt hearts and try to melt hearts. A former culture shock member's death was highlighted as a death by a former culture shock member.

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			So we're in
		
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			Ramadan.
		
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			Is it the 6th day already?
		
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			Time flies.
		
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			And I thought that rather than do my
		
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			usual
		
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			slightly bookish thing, I do something a little
		
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			more,
		
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			gentle
		
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			and,
		
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			focus on
		
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			reading,
		
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			and
		
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			hopefully getting some blessings from the pages of,
		
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			certainly a leader from a time
		
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			long gone by.
		
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			Focusing in particular on this leader's reflections
		
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			on
		
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			Ramadan,
		
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			Taraweeh,
		
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			hunger,
		
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			detachment,
		
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			service, charity, those virtues
		
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			which we try to cultivate in this, blessed
		
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			time.
		
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			I thought initially it might be interesting to
		
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			focus on if I'm looking at a spiritual
		
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			figure rather than an alim
		
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			or
		
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			a political leader,
		
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			to look at the life of, Shahidullah Faridi,
		
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			died in 1978.
		
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			So we've just passed the 40th
		
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			anniversary of his death, and
		
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			perhaps particularly because he was English
		
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			began as,
		
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			John Gilbert Leonard,
		
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			might be particularly relevant, perhaps.
		
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			An inspiration to those who think that if
		
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			you're born in this wind blasted Northern Isle,
		
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			you're unlikely ever to join the caravan of
		
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			the saints, but he was certainly revered as
		
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			a as a saint and somebody whose oros
		
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			is actually coming up. It's in Ramadan. He
		
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			has a big Mazar
		
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			in Karachi and it's interesting to see how
		
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			he was able to uphold the highest traditions
		
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			of asceticism,
		
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			sanctity
		
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			in an age which had set its face
		
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			against it. His father was a very wealthy
		
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			millionaire
		
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			paper manufacturer
		
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			who was quite horrified by the fact that
		
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			both of his sons,
		
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			not just John but William from this, very
		
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			elite family
		
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			had gone east
		
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			and has become dervishes in the Chishti Sabri
		
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			Tariqa.
		
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			And in fact, if you go to
		
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			the mausoleum
		
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			of
		
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			Al Hujwiri
		
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			Datasab, which is like the spiritual hub of
		
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			Lahore, which was sadly in the the the
		
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			press
		
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			recently, you'll find that amongst the lesser
		
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			mausoleums there, there's the mausoleum
		
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			of Farooq Saab who died
		
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			1945,
		
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			the twilight of British
		
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			rule in India, who was actually William Leonard
		
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			and convert who became so revered as a
		
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			man of God that he achieved the honor
		
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			of being,
		
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			interred in that
		
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			very special place. But his brother,
		
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			Shahidullah
		
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			ended up after partition with his own Durga
		
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			in Karachi,
		
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			where he attracted
		
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			thousands of disciples.
		
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			You can still meet some of them.
		
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			And was particularly known for 2 things
		
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			that I want to focus on,
		
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			which was the Czisti
		
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			Tariqah's
		
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			famous
		
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			hospitality,
		
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			feeding
		
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			the poor.
		
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			Even though there's lots of stories about Shahidullah
		
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			once, and he went back to England and
		
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			his father took him to Oxford Street shopping,
		
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			trying to get him to look a bit
		
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			smarter
		
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			and had a famous,
		
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			argument with him in in Selfridges to the
		
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			amazement of the shop girls.
		
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			He didn't want this coat but he didn't
		
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			want that
		
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			coat. He didn't want the other coat. Which
		
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			coat did he want? He didn't want a
		
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			coat at all. He'd already bought some kind
		
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			of tatty thing with him from India and
		
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			that was
		
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			fine. A clash of 2 worlds.
		
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			But very much in the Shishti Zahid tradition,
		
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			they have resurrected
		
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			this ancient original meaning
		
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			of sof.
		
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			What is this word, tasawuf,
		
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			which we hear banded about,
		
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			usually by the ignorant on all sides. Well,
		
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			it originates with the custom of the holy
		
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			prophet
		
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			to wear
		
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			wool
		
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			And very often, if you look at the
		
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			cases where that's specifically mentioned in the Sira
		
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			and the Hadith,
		
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			you find that it's associated with his his
		
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			tarka dunya, with his abandonment of
		
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			worldly comforts and pleasure. Because in a desert
		
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			climate
		
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			wool is a lot cheaper than cotton or
		
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			linen, but it's kind of hot and uncomfortable
		
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			and
		
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			but this was what he wore. And so
		
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			to wear Buolodun bin Surf as the Holy
		
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			Prophet did
		
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			has been the bad,
		
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			if you like, of the mystic, but it's
		
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			a rather vague and perhaps unhelpful word, but
		
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			of the the one who sets his face
		
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			against
		
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			worldly things.
		
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			And that is the real meaning of Tasolwov
		
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			and the Sofi,
		
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			the one who is associated with
		
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			Tarkudunya.
		
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			And this is perhaps
		
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			nowadays the least popular aspect of the sunnah
		
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			with everybody
		
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			rushing after material goods. Al Hakum Ut Teketh
		
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			or the radical example of the holy prophet
		
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			who didn't just piously
		
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			urge feeding the poor, but was poor himself.
		
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			Binding that flat stone,
		
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			across his stomach because of the pangs of
		
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			hunger
		
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			without a coin spending the night in his
		
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			house. These are neglected Sonan.
		
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			Let's face it.
		
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			But part an axiomatic
		
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			part of his life. Giving,
		
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			not taking,
		
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			making sure that nothing remains
		
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			with you,
		
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			at the end of the day. If there's
		
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			a coin,
		
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			if there's food, you go out and find
		
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			somebody to give it to. Radical Tawakkol.
		
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			That's the sonnet
		
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			of wearing soof, which is
		
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			not terribly popular nowadays. Which of us seriously
		
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			does it? Let's be honest. But in the
		
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			month of Ramadan,
		
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			when we are hungry and the stomach starts
		
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			to hurt and we are amongst the hungry
		
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			rather than just moralizing about them. We perhaps
		
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			get some kind of tiny taste of what
		
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			it is
		
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			actually to practice what we preach and to
		
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			experience,
		
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			that
		
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			radical reliance on divine providence, which was the
		
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			the most challenging aspect of the Seerah of
		
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			the chosen one, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
		
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			I thought about doing, you know, shahidullah Faridi
		
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			for so many reasons, and he's feeding the
		
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			poor still
		
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			regularly at his,
		
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			Langar and Karachi, the poor are fed.
		
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			But also,
		
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			the fact that most of his disciples turned
		
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			out to be women,
		
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			even though he had no connection with anything
		
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			that we might nowadays
		
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			understand as feminism.
		
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			There's a particular tradition amongst the Chishtia for
		
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			being particularly,
		
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			appealing to female disciples.
		
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			So,
		
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			what I want to do instead of looking
		
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			at Shahidullah Faridi who's really never talked about
		
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			his life, It was totally amazing. And if
		
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			you meet surviving disciples as I've done, you
		
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			hear,
		
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			most incredible
		
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			anecdotes, a very saintly miracle working,
		
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			self giving
		
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			fakir, a man who just lived in a
		
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			single room and just gave all the time.
		
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			That because there's so little information about him,
		
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			I'd like to turn to one of his
		
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			spiritual forebears.
		
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			Very much in the same tradition
		
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			of fasting, of hunger, of asceticism, of tarka
		
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			dunya. And that's the great, Saint of Delhi
		
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			Nizamuddin
		
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			Auliya.
		
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			There's just more information about him.
		
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			Largely because his, one of his, disciples, Amir
		
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			Hassan Sijazi,
		
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			wrote a book
		
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			for why it all for add
		
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			the benefits of the heart,
		
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			which,
		
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			relates
		
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			a kind of diary after each Majlis of
		
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			the sheikh,
		
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			Sijdi would write down what the sheikh has
		
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			said in that particular Majlis. And so we
		
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			have that and it's even in English.
		
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			Bruce Lawrence did a perfectly serviceable
		
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			translation.
		
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			Translated as morals for the heart, which is
		
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			fine, fahe de is kind of the benefit,
		
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			the moral benefit of a particular
		
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			discourse. And it only covers a few 100
		
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			out of the thousands and thousands of discourses
		
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			that he gave during his life, but it
		
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			gives a good,
		
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			quite,
		
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			granular
		
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			explanation of what it was actually like to
		
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			sit at the feet of a great,
		
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			Zahid,
		
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			a great Wali.
		
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			So I'm gonna be doing some readings from
		
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			that text. Well, I'm just boring you with
		
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			historiographic
		
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			details,
		
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			and
		
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			reflecting on ways in which this can help
		
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			us to contextualize
		
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			our experience of
		
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			renouncing the world during this fasting month of
		
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			Ramadan.
		
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			So, is
		
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			medieval Delhi.
		
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			And if you've been to Delhi or even
		
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			if you haven't been, you'll know that
		
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			his Mazar is kind of the, in many
		
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			ways, the spiritual hub of the city. There
		
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			was a Hindu shrine that really competes with
		
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			it in terms of the gigantic press of
		
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			people who go there every Wednesday Sunday. They
		
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			have the langar
		
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			with the dhikr and the free food for
		
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			everybody. And very often, a majority of people
		
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			who go are actually Hindus or people from
		
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			other religions because of the famous, shall we
		
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			say, pre
		
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			BJP, pre ideological Indian love of holiness
		
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			wherever or whatever it might be
		
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			manifested in. So, somebody who still dispenses
		
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			blessings and benefits and hospitality
		
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			to a vast number of people irrespective
		
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			of creed.
		
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			It's an extraordinary place. They have a website
		
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			now.
		
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			So someone who after 7 centuries is still
		
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			exerting
		
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			an influence
		
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			and
		
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			somebody who,
		
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			ref
		
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			invites us to reflect on what Islam did
		
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			in India, in Hindustan.
		
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			We do formal history and it sounds like
		
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			just a bunch of Sultans fighting each other,
		
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			fighting for conquest and
		
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			often not very edifying.
		
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			Even though the Sultans brought in many ways
		
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			many benefits
		
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			in a kind of imperial way.
		
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			So the main Sultan in the time of
		
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			his al Muidin, Auliya Allah edin Khaji, even
		
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			though he lived through many,
		
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			many reigns,
		
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			was
		
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			not just famous for endlessly conquering places from
		
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			rival sultans and bringing the booty back to
		
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			Delhi and building new wonders,
		
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			but also
		
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			for public works.
		
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			Delhi was one of the biggest cities in
		
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			the world.
		
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			And because of the seasonal nature of the
		
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			monsoon, needed a reliable supply of water.
		
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			So the great reservoirs around Delhi, the Hals,
		
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			the greatest of them is the Hals I
		
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			Alai, which he built.
		
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			He said in order to build something bigger
		
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			than his predecessor, which is the Haus e
		
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			Shamsi, they were always vying with each other,
		
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			but vying in good works.
		
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			And the population benefited,
		
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			the presence of a police force, the presence
		
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			of
		
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			city walls, night watchmen, a postal system, decent
		
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			roads.
		
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			These were,
		
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			something that were new in the Indian experience.
		
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			The
		
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			I've recently been looking at Ian Almond's new
		
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			book. Can't remember if I've already mentioned him.
		
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			He works a bit on Islam and German
		
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			Romanticism and has some interesting things to say
		
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			about,
		
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			Nietzsche's interesting relationship to Islam. And his new
		
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			book is on Niraj Chaudhry, who is one
		
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			of India's great 20th century authors. He died
		
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16
			back in nineties, I think. He's buried in
		
00:12:16 --> 00:12:16
			Oxford.
		
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21
			And a very cross grained but brilliant person
		
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24
			who knew just about every language you could
		
00:12:24 --> 00:12:25
			imagine.
		
00:12:25 --> 00:12:26
			Very Europeanized
		
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28
			Bengali intellectual.
		
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31
			It tends to be from Bengal, the Calcutta
		
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34
			area that the real thinkers of India have
		
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37
			come from in the 19th 20th century,
		
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40
			even before Ram Mohan Roy and that movement,
		
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43
			the first indigenous Indian stirrings of a kind
		
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46
			of literary and philosophical renaissance in the face
		
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48
			of the fact of British,
		
00:12:48 --> 00:12:49
			imperial rule.
		
00:12:50 --> 00:12:51
			Somebody like Rabindranath
		
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54
			Tagore would be from that world, Narayan, the
		
00:12:54 --> 00:12:55
			short story
		
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59
			novelist. Other custodians of the Indic conscience,
		
00:13:00 --> 00:13:03
			usually Hindu and Niraj Chaudhary was also from
		
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06
			a Hindu background, but really an independent thinker.
		
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10
			And he had some interesting things to say
		
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12
			about the Muslim presence.
		
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15
			He kind of has the beginnings of a
		
00:13:15 --> 00:13:15
			Hindu
		
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19
			resentment complex here and there, but he does
		
00:13:19 --> 00:13:19
			say
		
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22
			some interesting things about
		
00:13:24 --> 00:13:25
			the the monotheistic
		
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28
			ethic and what that did to India. He's
		
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31
			generally quite contemptuous of Hinduism
		
00:13:31 --> 00:13:32
			Because he sees,
		
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36
			rightly or wrongly Hinduism as a tradition that
		
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38
			because of the idea of Samsara and reincarnation,
		
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42
			doesn't really have a sense that human suffering
		
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44
			is real rather than deserved.
		
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47
			If my child gets sick, that's because it's
		
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50
			the reincarnation of some other being that did
		
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53
			something bad, and this is karmic suffering. It's
		
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55
			just right and proper in the nature of
		
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57
			existence. And this is often
		
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00
			a charge that, say, Christian polemicists will lay
		
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02
			at the door of of Buddhism as well.
		
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04
			It can't really deal with the the shocking
		
00:14:04 --> 00:14:05
			fact
		
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08
			of of suffering and therefore, good works, charity,
		
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10
			and so forth tend not to exist. Instead,
		
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11
			you have an immensely stratified
		
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15
			vision of society. And because of this
		
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18
			moral reluctance, according to Choudhry, at any rate,
		
00:14:18 --> 00:14:19
			Islam reinvigorated
		
00:14:20 --> 00:14:24
			the civilizational life of the subcontinent. So he
		
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26
			writes things like this.
		
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32
			The conquest foregrounded the Muslim over the Hindu
		
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35
			as a triumph of virility over effeminacy,
		
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37
			of courage over cowardice,
		
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39
			of the lust and desire for life over
		
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41
			the fear and resentment of it.
		
00:14:42 --> 00:14:45
			And then Alman goes on, This sentiment becomes
		
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47
			so focused it makes even the non Hindu
		
00:14:47 --> 00:14:48
			reader uncomfortable
		
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51
			when Choudhary writes, quote, how amply the Hindus
		
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52
			of the 12th century
		
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55
			deserved to go down before the virile and
		
00:14:55 --> 00:14:56
			living Muslims.
		
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01
			So there is a certain sense in which
		
00:15:01 --> 00:15:04
			there was a a kind of injection of
		
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06
			testosterone and of adrenaline
		
00:15:07 --> 00:15:08
			in the very static,
		
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11
			and hierarchical world
		
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14
			of cast Hinduism and that Islam
		
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17
			prophetically turned things upside down with necessarily,
		
00:15:18 --> 00:15:18
			considerable
		
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21
			disruption with the introduction of a new spiritual
		
00:15:21 --> 00:15:22
			principle,
		
00:15:23 --> 00:15:24
			The sage
		
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27
			who can sit with people from any social
		
00:15:27 --> 00:15:27
			background
		
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31
			was something that necessarily introduced a new alchemy
		
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35
			into the enormously profound spiritual life of the
		
00:15:35 --> 00:15:36
			subcontinent.
		
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39
			I had a colleague who
		
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42
			was very a great Sanskritist
		
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44
			and studied with a with a Pandit in
		
00:15:44 --> 00:15:45
			India.
		
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48
			But they said, this is an American guy,
		
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49
			you know, I had to sit at the
		
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51
			guy's garden gate
		
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53
			with my hair wet.
		
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57
			Because if a hair from my head fell
		
00:15:57 --> 00:15:59
			into the land of the Brahmin,
		
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01
			it would have to be ritually cleansed, and
		
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03
			this was a huge inconvenience because I'm just
		
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06
			a Westerner. I'm unclean. I'm below the untouchables.
		
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10
			He still liked the pundits and, admired
		
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13
			the literature that he was studying, but that
		
00:16:13 --> 00:16:14
			is how things were.
		
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16
			And in some places in India still are,
		
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19
			so the introduction of the monotheistic principle remember
		
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22
			the holy prophet, Ali Salat, he has Ethiopians
		
00:16:22 --> 00:16:23
			and Persians and everybody
		
00:16:24 --> 00:16:26
			in his entourage and it doesn't make a
		
00:16:26 --> 00:16:28
			difference. He's overcoming the tribal system of the
		
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30
			ancient Arabs, represented
		
00:16:31 --> 00:16:31
			an extraordinary
		
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35
			breath of oxygen into that static world and
		
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37
			a new spiritual type
		
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40
			emerged. And certainly Nizamuddin Awliya is an example
		
00:16:40 --> 00:16:41
			of
		
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44
			how the greatness of Indian
		
00:16:45 --> 00:16:46
			Indic spirituality
		
00:16:46 --> 00:16:47
			is,
		
00:16:48 --> 00:16:49
			reinforced, but also massively
		
00:16:50 --> 00:16:50
			reinvigorated
		
00:16:51 --> 00:16:52
			by a new sense of,
		
00:16:53 --> 00:16:53
			human
		
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57
			unity. And very frequently, we find him adverting
		
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58
			to the fact that
		
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01
			all human beings are from Adam, if you
		
00:17:01 --> 00:17:02
			have that idea.
		
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08
			Be slaves of Allah as brothers.
		
00:17:10 --> 00:17:10
			And this,
		
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15
			despite certain stratifications that you find amongst Muslims
		
00:17:15 --> 00:17:16
			of subcontinental
		
00:17:16 --> 00:17:16
			origin,
		
00:17:17 --> 00:17:18
			remains the the Sharia
		
00:17:19 --> 00:17:20
			principle.
		
00:17:20 --> 00:17:20
			So,
		
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25
			the Muslims arrive in India,
		
00:17:26 --> 00:17:27
			and this spiritual
		
00:17:28 --> 00:17:30
			tradition arrives as well.
		
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34
			And, in the case of Nizamuddin Auliya, already
		
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36
			this is in the 7th century of Islam,
		
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38
			so, there's been a presence for for some
		
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40
			time. But it's it's through these
		
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43
			these zahids, these ascetics,
		
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46
			that Islam actually starts to spread in the
		
00:17:46 --> 00:17:47
			populace.
		
00:17:48 --> 00:17:50
			In the original conquest and it goes back
		
00:17:50 --> 00:17:51
			to Umayyad times,
		
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52
			at least in Sind,
		
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55
			in the far west of the subcontinent,
		
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58
			didn't really produce much by way
		
00:17:58 --> 00:17:59
			of
		
00:18:00 --> 00:18:00
			Islamization
		
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04
			because the soldiers and the onomat just kept
		
00:18:04 --> 00:18:05
			to themselves in cantonments,
		
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09
			rather like the British in India didn't mix
		
00:18:09 --> 00:18:10
			with the natives very much.
		
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13
			The olamat were speaking their own languages and
		
00:18:13 --> 00:18:14
			engaging with
		
00:18:15 --> 00:18:16
			Muslim issues.
		
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17
			But once you have
		
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21
			particularly tariqas like the tariq of Muayneddin Chishti,
		
00:18:22 --> 00:18:23
			whose Khalifas
		
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26
			become masters of indigenous languages
		
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29
			and who develop forms of Dawa that reach
		
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31
			out to the very poorest people and are
		
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33
			of the poorest people, rather than stuck in
		
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36
			the nice house of the Mufti or the
		
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39
			the the governor's palace, but of the population.
		
00:18:39 --> 00:18:40
			Then you find
		
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43
			Islam really spreading, and not just as is
		
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45
			conventionally understood amongst the
		
00:18:45 --> 00:18:48
			untouchables and the sudras and the people at
		
00:18:48 --> 00:18:49
			the bottom of the
		
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52
			the the social food chain, but, some
		
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54
			elite people as well. And they are attracted
		
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57
			by the the new spiritual principle that is
		
00:18:57 --> 00:18:58
			at work.
		
00:18:59 --> 00:19:00
			So,
		
00:19:02 --> 00:19:03
			the,
		
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07
			information that we have about museum Nizamuddin Auliya
		
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09
			represents kind of the maturation
		
00:19:10 --> 00:19:10
			of,
		
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13
			Islamic spirituality in India,
		
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16
			largely comes in modern times from the work
		
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19
			of an Indian historian Khaled Ahmed Nizami,
		
00:19:20 --> 00:19:21
			whose book on Nizami Di Auliya,
		
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25
			naturally, we have in the CMC library upstairs.
		
00:19:25 --> 00:19:26
			He was a very,
		
00:19:26 --> 00:19:30
			significant historian of mid late 20th century, India
		
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32
			who also has a book on Baba Farid
		
00:19:32 --> 00:19:32
			and on,
		
00:19:32 --> 00:19:33
			the 12th century
		
00:19:34 --> 00:19:35
			administrative
		
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38
			system of, the Muslim subcontinent.
		
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41
			So what I'll be doing for the rest
		
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43
			of this morning is basically
		
00:19:43 --> 00:19:44
			tracing, the narrative,
		
00:19:45 --> 00:19:46
			that he outlines,
		
00:19:47 --> 00:19:47
			and
		
00:19:48 --> 00:19:48
			benefiting
		
00:19:49 --> 00:19:50
			from his scholarship.
		
00:19:52 --> 00:19:54
			Nizamuddin Auliya is from
		
00:19:54 --> 00:19:54
			El Limbeid.
		
00:19:57 --> 00:19:58
			He is,
		
00:20:00 --> 00:20:03
			descended from the Imam Ali An Naki.
		
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06
			One of the 12 Imams that we usually
		
00:20:06 --> 00:20:09
			identify as the Shi'i Imams, even though they're
		
00:20:09 --> 00:20:10
			venerated by the
		
00:20:11 --> 00:20:12
			Sunnis as well.
		
00:20:13 --> 00:20:13
			And
		
00:20:14 --> 00:20:15
			Ali al Naki had two famous sons. 1
		
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17
			was Hassan al Askari, who went on to
		
00:20:17 --> 00:20:20
			become the next Imam, and the other was
		
00:20:20 --> 00:20:21
			Jaafari Sani,
		
00:20:21 --> 00:20:24
			Jaafar the second, who is the ancestor
		
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27
			of the the of Khojad Nizamatdin
		
00:20:28 --> 00:20:31
			Auliya. And they settle in Central Asia in
		
00:20:31 --> 00:20:31
			Bukhara
		
00:20:32 --> 00:20:32
			in
		
00:20:32 --> 00:20:34
			the 2nd 3rd centuries of Islam.
		
00:20:36 --> 00:20:36
			And then,
		
00:20:37 --> 00:20:38
			as so often happens,
		
00:20:39 --> 00:20:40
			they become refugees,
		
00:20:40 --> 00:20:41
			asylum seekers.
		
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44
			They have that experience of disruption which often
		
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46
			turns out to be spiritually very,
		
00:20:48 --> 00:20:49
			very bracing.
		
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52
			So it's the same Mongol invasion of Central
		
00:20:52 --> 00:20:54
			Asia that drives Bahad Din Walad
		
00:20:54 --> 00:20:57
			with the little boy who becomes Juleluddin Rumi
		
00:20:58 --> 00:20:59
			to the west,
		
00:20:59 --> 00:21:02
			to, Anatolia and they're settling Konya,
		
00:21:02 --> 00:21:05
			that drives the family of the descendants of
		
00:21:05 --> 00:21:06
			Imam Ali al Naki
		
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08
			south to the subcontinent
		
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10
			escaping the scourge of the Mongols. And they
		
00:21:10 --> 00:21:11
			get out of Bukhara
		
00:21:11 --> 00:21:13
			just in time, and maybe 35,000,
		
00:21:13 --> 00:21:16
			40000 people are immediately put to the sword
		
00:21:16 --> 00:21:17
			And the
		
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20
			remainder, particularly people who have professions,
		
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24
			leather workers and calligraphers and so forth, are
		
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27
			carted off in servile captivity to the Mongol
		
00:21:27 --> 00:21:30
			capital of Karakoram. And the city of Bukhara
		
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32
			is deserted, having been one of the great
		
00:21:33 --> 00:21:34
			metropoli of Islam.
		
00:21:34 --> 00:21:37
			Central Asia, in many ways, never really recovers
		
00:21:37 --> 00:21:40
			from the Mongol invasions because it's everybody is
		
00:21:40 --> 00:21:41
			dead.
		
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43
			Everybody is dead. There's just crows
		
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46
			and the land is there's still parts of
		
00:21:46 --> 00:21:49
			Uzbekistan that hadn't been properly repopulated,
		
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52
			following the Mongol catastrophe
		
00:21:52 --> 00:21:54
			8 centuries ago. So,
		
00:21:54 --> 00:21:55
			the family
		
00:21:56 --> 00:21:57
			moved to
		
00:21:58 --> 00:22:02
			at a town in India called Badaun, usually
		
00:22:03 --> 00:22:04
			badaun,
		
00:22:05 --> 00:22:06
			sometimes badaun.
		
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11
			And this was at the time about the
		
00:22:11 --> 00:22:14
			2nd most distinguished Center for Islamic scholarship in
		
00:22:14 --> 00:22:15
			Hindustan.
		
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21
			And it was absolutely full of madrasas,
		
00:22:21 --> 00:22:22
			hospices,
		
00:22:23 --> 00:22:24
			hanakas,
		
00:22:25 --> 00:22:25
			bridges.
		
00:22:27 --> 00:22:27
			It was
		
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30
			a wonder of early Islamic
		
00:22:30 --> 00:22:33
			India and a home of very many saints.
		
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36
			So both of, Khwaja
		
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38
			Nizamuddin Auliya's grandfathers
		
00:22:38 --> 00:22:41
			settled her. That's Khwaja Ali and Khwaja
		
00:22:41 --> 00:22:42
			Arab
		
00:22:43 --> 00:22:44
			to this little town which
		
00:22:45 --> 00:22:47
			is called Qubbatal Islam. It's not huge, but
		
00:22:47 --> 00:22:49
			it has so many scholars. It's called Qubbatal
		
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51
			Islam, the Dome of Islam.
		
00:22:51 --> 00:22:53
			It's near the river Ganges.
		
00:22:55 --> 00:22:56
			And it's still
		
00:22:57 --> 00:22:58
			a a mainly Muslim
		
00:22:59 --> 00:22:59
			town,
		
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02
			maybe 60% Muslim,
		
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06
			but a little bit forlorn because amongst the
		
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09
			many catastrophes of the partition was that the
		
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11
			kind of the Muslims who could afford to
		
00:23:11 --> 00:23:11
			leave,
		
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14
			middle classes and the elite left,
		
00:23:15 --> 00:23:18
			leaving the ordinary guys and and women behind
		
00:23:19 --> 00:23:21
			to survive as best they could. So even
		
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23
			though it's a mainly Muslim town, the kind
		
00:23:23 --> 00:23:23
			of
		
00:23:24 --> 00:23:24
			amazing,
		
00:23:25 --> 00:23:26
			spiritual and,
		
00:23:27 --> 00:23:28
			institutional
		
00:23:28 --> 00:23:29
			infrastructure
		
00:23:30 --> 00:23:31
			that was once
		
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33
			characteristic of the city is kind of all
		
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36
			cobwebby and broken down now. It's a a
		
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38
			melancholy kind of place. And that's the story
		
00:23:38 --> 00:23:40
			of much of the subcontinent, of course. Because
		
00:23:40 --> 00:23:41
			of the
		
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43
			right idea somebody had that the best thing
		
00:23:43 --> 00:23:45
			for the future of India's Muslims would be
		
00:23:45 --> 00:23:46
			to divide them into 3.
		
00:23:47 --> 00:23:48
			Well,
		
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50
			maybe it's worked out, maybe it hasn't. But
		
00:23:50 --> 00:23:52
			for places like Badaun, it's a kind of
		
00:23:52 --> 00:23:55
			shadow of its former self. But in those
		
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57
			times and in as the city in which
		
00:23:57 --> 00:24:01
			Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya spent the first 20 years
		
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02
			of his life, it was
		
00:24:03 --> 00:24:03
			astounding.
		
00:24:04 --> 00:24:05
			Saints and scholars
		
00:24:06 --> 00:24:07
			on every street corner.
		
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10
			It also tended to be known as a
		
00:24:10 --> 00:24:13
			place where you'd go if you really didn't
		
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15
			want to be too close to the government.
		
00:24:16 --> 00:24:19
			In this Shishti tradition and in the Sufi
		
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21
			tradition generally, you run away from the Sultan.
		
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24
			You don't have anything to do with political
		
00:24:24 --> 00:24:25
			power.
		
00:24:26 --> 00:24:27
			Firstly, you don't need the money. And what
		
00:24:27 --> 00:24:29
			else do they have to offer?
		
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33
			And secondly, they're involved in all kinds of
		
00:24:34 --> 00:24:35
			illicit acts.
		
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37
			Luxury is only the least of their sins,
		
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39
			but illicit taxation
		
00:24:39 --> 00:24:43
			and oppression and unnecessary wars, etcetera, etcetera. It's
		
00:24:43 --> 00:24:46
			not where the good Muslim wants to be.
		
00:24:46 --> 00:24:49
			So, the the pious and the devout, the
		
00:24:49 --> 00:24:50
			fastidious
		
00:24:51 --> 00:24:53
			tended to leave Delhi in the direction of,
		
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56
			this town Badawan, which made it an even
		
00:24:56 --> 00:24:57
			more kind of spiritual,
		
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00
			reclusive, ascetical, but, glittering
		
00:25:01 --> 00:25:02
			jewel in the
		
00:25:02 --> 00:25:03
			the Muslim
		
00:25:04 --> 00:25:04
			crown.
		
00:25:06 --> 00:25:07
			Certainly, Nizamuddin Auliya
		
00:25:08 --> 00:25:10
			always regards his roots as being there, even
		
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12
			though the age of 19, he leaves with
		
00:25:12 --> 00:25:13
			his mother for Delhi, and he never goes
		
00:25:13 --> 00:25:17
			back. He's always asking about the town. And
		
00:25:17 --> 00:25:17
			when,
		
00:25:18 --> 00:25:19
			Sijazi is,
		
00:25:20 --> 00:25:21
			the one who wrote this for
		
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24
			for Ad Mentions. I've been traveling from Bengal,
		
00:25:24 --> 00:25:27
			and we went through Badaun, and I visited
		
00:25:27 --> 00:25:29
			the tombs. And I visited the tombs of
		
00:25:29 --> 00:25:32
			your your father and your grandfathers. And
		
00:25:32 --> 00:25:35
			Nizamuddin Auliya is said to have wept copiously,
		
00:25:36 --> 00:25:37
			had a kind of nostalgia
		
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40
			for the for the city. And I was
		
00:25:40 --> 00:25:43
			also very proud of his identity in a
		
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45
			way that we need to remember as Muslims.
		
00:25:45 --> 00:25:48
			Islam, the universal religion, but being proud of
		
00:25:48 --> 00:25:50
			your roots and where you are from
		
00:25:50 --> 00:25:53
			is also really important. The holy prophet's yearning
		
00:25:53 --> 00:25:56
			for Makkah was not just a strategic desire,
		
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58
			but because that was his homeland where he
		
00:25:58 --> 00:25:59
			was from.
		
00:26:01 --> 00:26:02
			As the poet says,
		
00:26:15 --> 00:26:18
			I think it's from Eberl Morte's secular Abbasid
		
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22
			poet who says, however far in the world
		
00:26:22 --> 00:26:23
			your heart may travel,
		
00:26:24 --> 00:26:27
			your true love is the place where you
		
00:26:27 --> 00:26:28
			began
		
00:26:29 --> 00:26:31
			However many places in the earth, man may
		
00:26:31 --> 00:26:34
			settle, his yearning is always for the first
		
00:26:34 --> 00:26:35
			of those places.
		
00:26:36 --> 00:26:38
			This idea of nostalgia for where you originated,
		
00:26:41 --> 00:26:42
			not done to excess, of course, is a
		
00:26:42 --> 00:26:45
			natural human faculty. So he certainly has this.
		
00:26:45 --> 00:26:46
			In one of his interesting,
		
00:26:47 --> 00:26:48
			discourses,
		
00:26:48 --> 00:26:51
			he says, it's such a fantastic place that
		
00:26:51 --> 00:26:52
			the dialect of that place
		
00:26:53 --> 00:26:55
			is the language I used when I said,
		
00:26:55 --> 00:26:58
			yes. I bear witness at the day of
		
00:26:58 --> 00:26:58
			Alastobiram
		
00:26:58 --> 00:26:59
			Bikom,
		
00:26:59 --> 00:27:02
			when I was initially pledging my allegiance to
		
00:27:02 --> 00:27:04
			my lord, when all the nations were assembled,
		
00:27:04 --> 00:27:05
			this is the great verse in the Quran,
		
00:27:06 --> 00:27:08
			and everybody bared would bore witness to their
		
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10
			own nature and the divine nature in that
		
00:27:10 --> 00:27:12
			first primordial covenant,
		
00:27:12 --> 00:27:14
			he said, yes. I testify
		
00:27:14 --> 00:27:17
			in the dialect of that town. So,
		
00:27:18 --> 00:27:20
			the universalism of Islam also,
		
00:27:21 --> 00:27:24
			relates to people's particular patriotism, if you like,
		
00:27:24 --> 00:27:26
			love of place, which is certainly,
		
00:27:26 --> 00:27:27
			a fitri
		
00:27:28 --> 00:27:29
			human impulse and something,
		
00:27:30 --> 00:27:32
			which the saints
		
00:27:33 --> 00:27:33
			can manifest.
		
00:27:34 --> 00:27:35
			So
		
00:27:36 --> 00:27:37
			2 grandfathers,
		
00:27:38 --> 00:27:39
			and the
		
00:27:40 --> 00:27:42
			Khwaja Arab gives his daughter Bibi Zuleikha
		
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45
			to, the other Khwaja Ahmad.
		
00:27:49 --> 00:27:51
			And the father is born. The father dies,
		
00:27:51 --> 00:27:53
			we're told, when Khwaja Nizamuddin
		
00:27:54 --> 00:27:55
			Auliya is
		
00:27:56 --> 00:27:58
			still young or a baby or perhaps yet
		
00:27:58 --> 00:28:01
			unborn. The sources don't really give us a
		
00:28:01 --> 00:28:02
			sense of it. We know he was basically
		
00:28:02 --> 00:28:04
			half an orphan rather like, you know, the
		
00:28:04 --> 00:28:07
			holy prophet alaihis salatu salam and is brought
		
00:28:07 --> 00:28:08
			up by his
		
00:28:08 --> 00:28:10
			mother for a while. She is,
		
00:28:12 --> 00:28:15
			from this, obviously noble family, prophetic family,
		
00:28:16 --> 00:28:18
			very aristocratic
		
00:28:18 --> 00:28:19
			in her bearing,
		
00:28:20 --> 00:28:20
			hospitable,
		
00:28:21 --> 00:28:22
			very devout,
		
00:28:23 --> 00:28:25
			but absolutely penurious
		
00:28:26 --> 00:28:29
			after the father dies, the absence of anything
		
00:28:29 --> 00:28:31
			like a social support system for people who
		
00:28:31 --> 00:28:34
			are still refugees. They don't have larger family
		
00:28:34 --> 00:28:35
			in the neighborhood.
		
00:28:35 --> 00:28:39
			She subsists on almost nothing. And Khwaja Nizamuddin
		
00:28:39 --> 00:28:41
			Auliya's being accustomed
		
00:28:41 --> 00:28:44
			to real poverty and hunger is something that
		
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46
			comes from the necessities of
		
00:28:47 --> 00:28:48
			his childhood.
		
00:28:51 --> 00:28:51
			She
		
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54
			hopes for great things for her son and
		
00:28:54 --> 00:28:56
			sends him to the great scholars of the
		
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58
			city of of Badaun.
		
00:28:59 --> 00:29:01
			One of them is called Shirdi Mokri,
		
00:29:03 --> 00:29:04
			who was originally,
		
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07
			the slave of a wealthy Hindu
		
00:29:07 --> 00:29:08
			who
		
00:29:09 --> 00:29:11
			bought or purchased his own
		
00:29:11 --> 00:29:12
			freedom
		
00:29:12 --> 00:29:15
			and was a Quran specialist. He knew the
		
00:29:15 --> 00:29:16
			7 qira'at.
		
00:29:16 --> 00:29:18
			And as often happens with people who dedicate
		
00:29:18 --> 00:29:19
			their lives to the Quran,
		
00:29:20 --> 00:29:23
			all kinds of interesting miracles are attributed to
		
00:29:23 --> 00:29:26
			him. The kind of the fiery radiance of
		
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28
			the divine writ within one produces
		
00:29:29 --> 00:29:32
			interesting manifestations. So it was believed in Badawan
		
00:29:32 --> 00:29:34
			that if you sent your son to study
		
00:29:34 --> 00:29:36
			your kind of Qaida, your basic,
		
00:29:37 --> 00:29:38
			reading Quran,
		
00:29:39 --> 00:29:42
			to Shirdi Mokhret that one day somehow or
		
00:29:42 --> 00:29:44
			other, that child would certainly end up as
		
00:29:44 --> 00:29:44
			a Hafiz.
		
00:29:46 --> 00:29:49
			And actually, Nizamuddin Auliya becomes a Hafiz decades
		
00:29:49 --> 00:29:51
			later in his life, but he always attributes
		
00:29:51 --> 00:29:54
			it to that initial kind of tasting of
		
00:29:54 --> 00:29:56
			the Qur'anic ocean at the hands of this
		
00:29:56 --> 00:29:56
			shaddi mukri.
		
00:29:57 --> 00:30:00
			The other is a Mulla Allah edin Osoli
		
00:30:00 --> 00:30:01
			who is
		
00:30:01 --> 00:30:03
			a scholar who, again,
		
00:30:03 --> 00:30:04
			was
		
00:30:04 --> 00:30:05
			really impoverished.
		
00:30:06 --> 00:30:09
			And it's recorded sometimes he was so hungry
		
00:30:09 --> 00:30:12
			that he could hardly speak during his, during
		
00:30:12 --> 00:30:13
			his lessons.
		
00:30:13 --> 00:30:15
			But it's he who teaches him the basics
		
00:30:15 --> 00:30:17
			of Hanafi Firk. He studies the Hidaya, of
		
00:30:17 --> 00:30:20
			Orhanadin Marghinani, of course, mother Cholasani
		
00:30:21 --> 00:30:22
			and, Godori.
		
00:30:24 --> 00:30:27
			And there is a basic graduation ceremony, which
		
00:30:27 --> 00:30:28
			has to be really
		
00:30:28 --> 00:30:29
			austere.
		
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32
			Graduation ceremony in those days was quite a
		
00:30:32 --> 00:30:34
			magnificent affair. There was a special turban which
		
00:30:34 --> 00:30:35
			was wound by the
		
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38
			sheikh and placed on your head and it
		
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40
			had a line of silk in it and
		
00:30:40 --> 00:30:41
			it was a big deal. They had a
		
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43
			very simplified version of this, but he becomes
		
00:30:43 --> 00:30:45
			a scholar when he's still really just
		
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47
			a child.
		
00:30:48 --> 00:30:49
			But he wants to move on to Delhi
		
00:30:49 --> 00:30:52
			to study with the greater scholars there, so
		
00:30:52 --> 00:30:52
			he
		
00:30:53 --> 00:30:54
			asks his mother's permission.
		
00:30:56 --> 00:30:56
			And,
		
00:30:58 --> 00:31:00
			even though they don't know anybody there,
		
00:31:01 --> 00:31:03
			she agrees and they go together.
		
00:31:05 --> 00:31:06
			She's kind of in her forties by this
		
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08
			time. They travel to the city of Delhi,
		
00:31:08 --> 00:31:09
			and
		
00:31:09 --> 00:31:12
			they experienced also great poverty. They have to
		
00:31:12 --> 00:31:15
			move house several times in some of the
		
00:31:15 --> 00:31:18
			poorest slum quarters of the the great city.
		
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20
			On Sundays, there would be nothing to eat
		
00:31:20 --> 00:31:22
			at all, just nothing.
		
00:31:22 --> 00:31:24
			And on those days,
		
00:31:24 --> 00:31:27
			she is she would tell the son Nizamuddin,
		
00:31:28 --> 00:31:29
			today we
		
00:31:29 --> 00:31:30
			are duyufullah.
		
00:31:30 --> 00:31:31
			We are God's guests.
		
00:31:32 --> 00:31:33
			And you feel a special
		
00:31:34 --> 00:31:37
			blessing coming from that, just reliant upon the
		
00:31:37 --> 00:31:37
			creator.
		
00:31:37 --> 00:31:40
			And he would relate that, sometimes when
		
00:31:41 --> 00:31:42
			several days when they had had something to
		
00:31:42 --> 00:31:43
			eat went by,
		
00:31:44 --> 00:31:45
			he would kind of miss those days when
		
00:31:45 --> 00:31:47
			there was a special blessing of just
		
00:31:47 --> 00:31:48
			nothing in the house
		
00:31:49 --> 00:31:50
			at all.
		
00:31:52 --> 00:31:53
			She becomes sick.
		
00:31:53 --> 00:31:55
			It's possible that, you know,
		
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58
			that extreme hunger, malnutrition
		
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00
			contributes to this, but she makes a great
		
00:32:00 --> 00:32:01
			du'a
		
00:32:01 --> 00:32:02
			for him before
		
00:32:03 --> 00:32:04
			her death.
		
00:32:05 --> 00:32:07
			She has no family members to
		
00:32:08 --> 00:32:08
			entrust
		
00:32:10 --> 00:32:10
			her son to.
		
00:32:11 --> 00:32:13
			But she makes a Duat saying, Oh Allah,
		
00:32:13 --> 00:32:13
			I
		
00:32:14 --> 00:32:15
			entrust him to your cow.
		
00:32:17 --> 00:32:19
			And he always felt that the subsequent protection
		
00:32:19 --> 00:32:21
			that he'd received from the divine presence in
		
00:32:21 --> 00:32:24
			his life came from his mother's prayer. And
		
00:32:24 --> 00:32:27
			you find this quite often with the mothers
		
00:32:27 --> 00:32:27
			of
		
00:32:27 --> 00:32:29
			the the the Auliya and,
		
00:32:30 --> 00:32:31
			as we'll see
		
00:32:31 --> 00:32:33
			shortly, his own teacher, the one who came
		
00:32:33 --> 00:32:35
			to me, his teacher was
		
00:32:35 --> 00:32:35
			Fariduddin
		
00:32:36 --> 00:32:36
			Ganjeshakar
		
00:32:37 --> 00:32:38
			of Adrodan,
		
00:32:40 --> 00:32:42
			regarded his own mother as having been his
		
00:32:42 --> 00:32:43
			principal,
		
00:32:43 --> 00:32:47
			instructor in the spiritual way. This is this
		
00:32:47 --> 00:32:49
			is quite common, but a kind of veiled
		
00:32:49 --> 00:32:51
			phenomenon given the nature of Muslim society.
		
00:32:51 --> 00:32:53
			You know, we don't seek for
		
00:32:54 --> 00:32:57
			a public profile. We don't seek for
		
00:32:57 --> 00:33:00
			prestige or status. And the traditional,
		
00:33:01 --> 00:33:03
			charisma of the woman is to serve and
		
00:33:03 --> 00:33:06
			to make sacrifices for the sake of God,
		
00:33:06 --> 00:33:09
			behind closed doors. And that's how she
		
00:33:09 --> 00:33:12
			she transcends ego and that's her path to
		
00:33:12 --> 00:33:15
			sainthood. But recording that, most of it, it's
		
00:33:15 --> 00:33:17
			not recorded. And they didn't care because they
		
00:33:17 --> 00:33:20
			were doing it for God rather than
		
00:33:20 --> 00:33:21
			to be included in some
		
00:33:22 --> 00:33:24
			spiffy 21st century biography of
		
00:33:25 --> 00:33:27
			Indian saints. That was not their concern. They
		
00:33:27 --> 00:33:28
			were masturats
		
00:33:28 --> 00:33:31
			in all sense, veiled ones.
		
00:33:32 --> 00:33:33
			So in
		
00:33:35 --> 00:33:36
			Delhi, he used to go and sit by
		
00:33:36 --> 00:33:39
			the river, Jamuna, which has a big role,
		
00:33:39 --> 00:33:41
			even a symbolic role in the development of
		
00:33:41 --> 00:33:43
			North Indian Sufism.
		
00:33:43 --> 00:33:45
			And that's why he goes in order to
		
00:33:45 --> 00:33:48
			complete his hefs of the Quran, walks up
		
00:33:48 --> 00:33:49
			and down beside the river,
		
00:33:49 --> 00:33:50
			memorizing,
		
00:33:51 --> 00:33:52
			with a strong inclination to
		
00:33:53 --> 00:33:55
			seclusion. He doesn't feel at home really in
		
00:33:55 --> 00:33:58
			this great strange city, and he really wants
		
00:33:58 --> 00:34:00
			to be the kind of anchorite who just
		
00:34:00 --> 00:34:03
			lives alone, a solitary dervish.
		
00:34:04 --> 00:34:06
			And then as he was memorizing,
		
00:34:07 --> 00:34:10
			and this is a famous story, a very
		
00:34:10 --> 00:34:12
			beautifully dressed young man comes up to him,
		
00:34:15 --> 00:34:16
			tells telling him,
		
00:34:19 --> 00:34:20
			are you not afraid that you will be
		
00:34:20 --> 00:34:21
			ashamed
		
00:34:21 --> 00:34:23
			before the Holy Prophet on
		
00:34:24 --> 00:34:26
			the Day of Judgment when so many people
		
00:34:26 --> 00:34:28
			are flocking to him for help?
		
00:34:29 --> 00:34:30
			Do you want to be alone
		
00:34:31 --> 00:34:32
			and not follow his way?
		
00:34:33 --> 00:34:36
			Be focused on God through loving his creatures.
		
00:34:37 --> 00:34:39
			And this was the moment of his tallbo
		
00:34:39 --> 00:34:40
			when he realized that
		
00:34:41 --> 00:34:42
			his way would not be the way of
		
00:34:42 --> 00:34:45
			the, the hermit, but the way of one
		
00:34:45 --> 00:34:46
			who serves
		
00:34:46 --> 00:34:49
			others and exists in the crowd,
		
00:34:49 --> 00:34:51
			Daraju man, in amongst the masses.
		
00:34:52 --> 00:34:54
			And then he makes a symbolic gift of
		
00:34:54 --> 00:34:55
			all the food he has on him to
		
00:34:55 --> 00:34:57
			the young man who then leaves. So it's
		
00:34:57 --> 00:34:58
			just kind of symbolic
		
00:34:59 --> 00:35:01
			event, but it indicates something of the particular
		
00:35:01 --> 00:35:01
			temper
		
00:35:02 --> 00:35:03
			of Nizamuddin Auliya's,
		
00:35:04 --> 00:35:04
			spirituality.
		
00:35:05 --> 00:35:08
			So he doesn't want to live in the
		
00:35:08 --> 00:35:10
			city of Delhi itself because,
		
00:35:10 --> 00:35:13
			like just about everybody of a past disposition,
		
00:35:13 --> 00:35:15
			he's afraid that he'll just get caught up
		
00:35:15 --> 00:35:17
			in the entanglements of this, kind of, all
		
00:35:17 --> 00:35:18
			powerful imperial
		
00:35:18 --> 00:35:20
			state and be,
		
00:35:21 --> 00:35:23
			dragooned into the bureaucracy.
		
00:35:24 --> 00:35:26
			So he settles in a village near Delhi
		
00:35:26 --> 00:35:28
			called Rhiaspor, which is on the banks of
		
00:35:28 --> 00:35:30
			the river, which was then kind of just
		
00:35:30 --> 00:35:31
			a few poor people,
		
00:35:31 --> 00:35:32
			few fishermen living
		
00:35:32 --> 00:35:34
			there. Not much going on.
		
00:35:35 --> 00:35:38
			And the extreme hunger continues.
		
00:35:39 --> 00:35:40
			His mother is now dead.
		
00:35:41 --> 00:35:43
			And he sustains himself as a scholar just
		
00:35:43 --> 00:35:46
			by leaving a bowl outside his door, hoping
		
00:35:46 --> 00:35:47
			that by the end of the day, somebody
		
00:35:47 --> 00:35:49
			will have put some food
		
00:35:49 --> 00:35:50
			in it.
		
00:35:50 --> 00:35:52
			He continues to learn.
		
00:35:52 --> 00:35:54
			We tend to think Zomadin Auliya is the
		
00:35:54 --> 00:35:58
			great Sheikh Huhta Ors. Everybody goes to visit
		
00:35:58 --> 00:36:00
			in Delhi, but actually
		
00:36:00 --> 00:36:02
			he was, an alim
		
00:36:02 --> 00:36:05
			of a very considerable degree and his teacher,
		
00:36:06 --> 00:36:06
			Baba Farid,
		
00:36:07 --> 00:36:10
			insisted that you should only authorize somebody to
		
00:36:10 --> 00:36:12
			carry on the the path of Sufism.
		
00:36:12 --> 00:36:14
			You can only become a Muqaddam or a
		
00:36:14 --> 00:36:15
			Khalifa
		
00:36:15 --> 00:36:17
			if you've really got your Ijazah in the
		
00:36:17 --> 00:36:18
			key Islamic sciences.
		
00:36:19 --> 00:36:22
			Never authorize anybody into SAWUF who doesn't have
		
00:36:22 --> 00:36:23
			that
		
00:36:23 --> 00:36:24
			exoteric
		
00:36:25 --> 00:36:25
			armature.
		
00:36:27 --> 00:36:29
			And and he continues studies with a number
		
00:36:29 --> 00:36:32
			of significant scholars including Kamal Adina Zahid, who's
		
00:36:32 --> 00:36:35
			the best known Muhandid or Hadith scholar of
		
00:36:35 --> 00:36:35
			Delhi.
		
00:36:39 --> 00:36:40
			And then
		
00:36:40 --> 00:36:43
			the terrible time comes when he gets a
		
00:36:43 --> 00:36:44
			message from the Sultan.
		
00:36:44 --> 00:36:47
			He's been noticed, the last thing he wanted.
		
00:36:48 --> 00:36:48
			And,
		
00:36:50 --> 00:36:53
			the Sultan has been busy confiscating
		
00:36:54 --> 00:36:57
			things at random, confiscating land, confiscating property of
		
00:36:57 --> 00:37:01
			rich merchants in order to continue his campaigns
		
00:37:01 --> 00:37:04
			and his lifestyle. If you've been to the
		
00:37:04 --> 00:37:05
			palaces of India, you'll see,
		
00:37:06 --> 00:37:07
			if you go to the
		
00:37:08 --> 00:37:10
			palace in in Lahore, which I visited, they've
		
00:37:10 --> 00:37:12
			got all kinds of interesting
		
00:37:12 --> 00:37:15
			features like a spiral staircase for elephants.
		
00:37:16 --> 00:37:18
			The Indian Sultans really knew how to live.
		
00:37:19 --> 00:37:20
			So,
		
00:37:20 --> 00:37:23
			the Sultans were grabbing the the wealth of
		
00:37:23 --> 00:37:25
			the poor and of the scholars. And so
		
00:37:25 --> 00:37:28
			the sheikh sends back a message to him
		
00:37:28 --> 00:37:29
			saying,
		
00:37:29 --> 00:37:33
			you've taken everything away, everything else from me.
		
00:37:33 --> 00:37:35
			Do you want to take my prayer from
		
00:37:35 --> 00:37:36
			me as well?
		
00:37:37 --> 00:37:38
			Is that
		
00:37:38 --> 00:37:40
			all that I have left and you're going
		
00:37:40 --> 00:37:41
			to take that?
		
00:37:42 --> 00:37:43
			So,
		
00:37:43 --> 00:37:46
			he continues to study for a long time.
		
00:37:46 --> 00:37:49
			We have Ijazas that he has awarded from
		
00:37:49 --> 00:37:50
			Khamanadin Zahid,
		
00:37:51 --> 00:37:54
			Moshelek al Anwar famous Hadith collection, which you've
		
00:37:54 --> 00:37:54
			memorized,
		
00:37:55 --> 00:37:56
			when he's still in his for when he's
		
00:37:56 --> 00:37:58
			already in his forties.
		
00:37:58 --> 00:38:00
			So it's not the standard image of
		
00:38:01 --> 00:38:03
			you throw away the books and start clapping
		
00:38:03 --> 00:38:05
			your hands and be a mystical Sufi. No.
		
00:38:05 --> 00:38:06
			It's just an
		
00:38:07 --> 00:38:07
			the
		
00:38:08 --> 00:38:10
			Sufi path is a way of deepening
		
00:38:10 --> 00:38:14
			your understanding of exoteric scholarship and indeed, disciplining
		
00:38:14 --> 00:38:16
			yourself, so that you have more time
		
00:38:16 --> 00:38:18
			and capacity for memorization.
		
00:38:19 --> 00:38:20
			And he becomes,
		
00:38:20 --> 00:38:21
			particularly
		
00:38:21 --> 00:38:24
			known in the sciences of Fiqh and Hadith.
		
00:38:24 --> 00:38:25
			And you see that a lot in his
		
00:38:25 --> 00:38:26
			discourses.
		
00:38:27 --> 00:38:30
			Questions about some of the Ramadan discourses are
		
00:38:30 --> 00:38:32
			just about issues in
		
00:38:32 --> 00:38:33
			Fiqh, moon sighting,
		
00:38:34 --> 00:38:36
			Taraweeh rules, and so forth. A lot of
		
00:38:36 --> 00:38:37
			his classes are about
		
00:38:38 --> 00:38:41
			those things. He also becomes
		
00:38:42 --> 00:38:44
			really well known as a debater, of course,
		
00:38:44 --> 00:38:47
			in the Persian language, which is the language
		
00:38:47 --> 00:38:47
			of
		
00:38:48 --> 00:38:51
			Muslim scholars in North India at the time.
		
00:38:52 --> 00:38:55
			So he was known as Nizamuddin
		
00:38:55 --> 00:38:56
			Mahfil Shikan.
		
00:38:56 --> 00:38:58
			He's got so many titles, but,
		
00:38:59 --> 00:39:01
			Mahfil Shikan means breaker of gatherings.
		
00:39:01 --> 00:39:03
			When he was in a gathering where the
		
00:39:03 --> 00:39:06
			scholars were disputing, he could immediately shatter everybody
		
00:39:06 --> 00:39:09
			with a well chosen Dalil or a Hadith
		
00:39:09 --> 00:39:10
			expressed in a particularly
		
00:39:11 --> 00:39:13
			elegant and persuasive way. However,
		
00:39:15 --> 00:39:17
			the Sufi tradition and the Trishti tradition in
		
00:39:17 --> 00:39:20
			particular opposed this and regard it
		
00:39:20 --> 00:39:23
			as problematical. So you find that in his
		
00:39:23 --> 00:39:26
			in his majalis as recorded by Sijazi, you
		
00:39:26 --> 00:39:27
			don't get
		
00:39:27 --> 00:39:29
			scenes of a lot of argumentation.
		
00:39:29 --> 00:39:31
			He's always looking for
		
00:39:31 --> 00:39:34
			something positive to say about, others. And this
		
00:39:34 --> 00:39:37
			comes up, as we'll see, in his relations
		
00:39:37 --> 00:39:37
			with,
		
00:39:37 --> 00:39:40
			non Muslims as well. So he's sitting
		
00:39:40 --> 00:39:43
			in his majlis one day and his disciples
		
00:39:43 --> 00:39:45
			are saying, look at that. Look out the
		
00:39:45 --> 00:39:47
			window. There's an idol worshipper. Look at him
		
00:39:47 --> 00:39:48
			going up and down this
		
00:39:48 --> 00:39:49
			crude statue.
		
00:39:51 --> 00:39:52
			And his response is
		
00:39:53 --> 00:39:54
			we can all learn something
		
00:39:55 --> 00:39:57
			not from his beliefs, but from the sincerity
		
00:39:57 --> 00:39:58
			of his devotions.
		
00:39:59 --> 00:40:01
			That's very characteristic.
		
00:40:01 --> 00:40:03
			You don't make concessions, but you look for
		
00:40:03 --> 00:40:05
			what is best in every situation,
		
00:40:06 --> 00:40:08
			in order not to feel proud, so that
		
00:40:08 --> 00:40:11
			you benefit rather than just end up feeling
		
00:40:11 --> 00:40:12
			superior.
		
00:40:12 --> 00:40:15
			So he moves away from the world of,
		
00:40:15 --> 00:40:17
			kind of, formal rhetorical debating society,
		
00:40:18 --> 00:40:20
			dispute amongst the olema and towards
		
00:40:21 --> 00:40:22
			a more characteristically
		
00:40:22 --> 00:40:23
			irenic
		
00:40:23 --> 00:40:25
			approach, which he becomes
		
00:40:25 --> 00:40:26
			well known for.
		
00:40:27 --> 00:40:30
			He still hasn't found his his sage, his
		
00:40:30 --> 00:40:30
			guide.
		
00:40:31 --> 00:40:33
			When he was still in the town of
		
00:40:33 --> 00:40:35
			Badaun, he had heard of the repute of
		
00:40:35 --> 00:40:39
			Baba Farida Din Ganji Shakaar of Ajordan, which
		
00:40:39 --> 00:40:41
			is now called Pakpatan, which is,
		
00:40:41 --> 00:40:42
			in Pakistan.
		
00:40:44 --> 00:40:45
			But,
		
00:40:45 --> 00:40:47
			one night when in Delhi,
		
00:40:49 --> 00:40:49
			he heard
		
00:40:50 --> 00:40:52
			Amu Azzin in the middle of the night
		
00:40:52 --> 00:40:54
			reciting the famous verse,
		
00:41:04 --> 00:41:06
			Has not the time come
		
00:41:06 --> 00:41:07
			for those who believe
		
00:41:08 --> 00:41:09
			that their
		
00:41:10 --> 00:41:11
			hearts should submit
		
00:41:11 --> 00:41:14
			to the remembrance of God and to the
		
00:41:14 --> 00:41:15
			truth that has been revealed.
		
00:41:16 --> 00:41:19
			So without any preparation, he just goes out
		
00:41:19 --> 00:41:20
			of his house and walks off and goes
		
00:41:20 --> 00:41:22
			to Adro Dan, which is
		
00:41:23 --> 00:41:25
			100 of miles away to the West. And
		
00:41:25 --> 00:41:28
			he comes into the presence of the sheikh,
		
00:41:28 --> 00:41:29
			who is now
		
00:41:30 --> 00:41:33
			around about 90 years old, the great Baba
		
00:41:33 --> 00:41:33
			Farid.
		
00:41:34 --> 00:41:36
			And Khaled Nizami also has a good book
		
00:41:36 --> 00:41:37
			about
		
00:41:37 --> 00:41:40
			Baba Farid, which is also worth
		
00:41:40 --> 00:41:42
			and some of you, if you're from Pakistan,
		
00:41:42 --> 00:41:44
			you may have traveled around Punjab. You may
		
00:41:44 --> 00:41:45
			even have been to the place. It's
		
00:41:46 --> 00:41:46
			quite,
		
00:41:47 --> 00:41:47
			quite phenomenal.
		
00:41:49 --> 00:41:50
			And so he comes into the presence of
		
00:41:50 --> 00:41:53
			the Sheikh and the Sheikh recites a poem.
		
00:42:02 --> 00:42:05
			The flame of being separated from you has
		
00:42:05 --> 00:42:06
			been burning our heart.
		
00:42:07 --> 00:42:09
			The tempest of yearning to meet you has
		
00:42:09 --> 00:42:12
			ravaged our lives. So the Sheikhs knows that
		
00:42:12 --> 00:42:15
			this particular disciple is on his way. It's
		
00:42:15 --> 00:42:17
			as if this is the star pupil that
		
00:42:17 --> 00:42:19
			he's been waiting for all his life, this
		
00:42:19 --> 00:42:20
			kind of tatty
		
00:42:20 --> 00:42:21
			guy who comes from
		
00:42:22 --> 00:42:22
			Delhi.
		
00:42:24 --> 00:42:26
			And he's really nervous in the presence of
		
00:42:26 --> 00:42:27
			the Sheikh.
		
00:42:29 --> 00:42:31
			And of course, there are tests.
		
00:42:32 --> 00:42:33
			1st test is,
		
00:42:33 --> 00:42:35
			you will spend the night with us
		
00:42:35 --> 00:42:37
			and you will sleep in one of these
		
00:42:37 --> 00:42:39
			beds, in one of these cots. And he
		
00:42:39 --> 00:42:40
			sees a lot of the dervishes are just
		
00:42:40 --> 00:42:41
			sleeping on the ground and
		
00:42:42 --> 00:42:44
			that the the cots are for the sort
		
00:42:44 --> 00:42:46
			of the scholars and the senior people,
		
00:42:47 --> 00:42:48
			guests and
		
00:42:49 --> 00:42:51
			but in the nick of time, he suppresses
		
00:42:51 --> 00:42:54
			any hint of protest and recognizes that, to
		
00:42:54 --> 00:42:57
			accept a spiritual guide means that you accept
		
00:42:57 --> 00:42:59
			the instructions of that guide.
		
00:42:59 --> 00:43:00
			So
		
00:43:02 --> 00:43:04
			he then asks Baba Farid,
		
00:43:04 --> 00:43:05
			I'm at a crossroads.
		
00:43:06 --> 00:43:08
			Should I give up my studies of Elmer,
		
00:43:09 --> 00:43:10
			and become a dervish
		
00:43:11 --> 00:43:12
			or should I continue?
		
00:43:13 --> 00:43:14
			Baba Farid replies,
		
00:43:14 --> 00:43:15
			characteristically,
		
00:43:15 --> 00:43:17
			in the Chishti lineage,
		
00:43:17 --> 00:43:19
			I've never asked anybody
		
00:43:19 --> 00:43:20
			to give up
		
00:43:20 --> 00:43:23
			the pursuit of sacred knowledge of Elmer.
		
00:43:24 --> 00:43:25
			Continue as a scholar
		
00:43:26 --> 00:43:27
			and as a dervish.
		
00:43:27 --> 00:43:29
			And in the fullness of time, one of
		
00:43:29 --> 00:43:32
			those qualities will prevail in you over the
		
00:43:32 --> 00:43:32
			other.
		
00:43:39 --> 00:43:39
			He
		
00:43:41 --> 00:43:41
			visits him
		
00:43:42 --> 00:43:43
			every year
		
00:43:43 --> 00:43:45
			in the month of Ramadan. This is his
		
00:43:45 --> 00:43:46
			Ramadan practice.
		
00:43:47 --> 00:43:50
			He leaves behind everything in Delhi and walks
		
00:43:51 --> 00:43:55
			to Adjordan and sleeps in the Hanukkah of
		
00:43:55 --> 00:43:58
			the sheikh who is teaching him to overcome
		
00:43:58 --> 00:44:02
			the residues of pride in his heart and
		
00:44:02 --> 00:44:04
			to cultivate the love of others.
		
00:44:05 --> 00:44:06
			Overcome pride,
		
00:44:06 --> 00:44:07
			love others.
		
00:44:07 --> 00:44:09
			And at the age of only 23, when
		
00:44:09 --> 00:44:12
			al Sheikha is 93, he becomes his chief
		
00:44:12 --> 00:44:13
			Khalifa and his
		
00:44:14 --> 00:44:15
			deputy.
		
00:44:16 --> 00:44:18
			But this only comes after some
		
00:44:20 --> 00:44:20
			sharp lessons.
		
00:44:22 --> 00:44:26
			Baba Farid's principal practice in his formal majelis,
		
00:44:27 --> 00:44:30
			was to read and teach from a book
		
00:44:30 --> 00:44:33
			called the Awarif al Ma'arif of Shehabit in
		
00:44:33 --> 00:44:33
			Surawardi,
		
00:44:34 --> 00:44:36
			which is one of the great classical texts
		
00:44:37 --> 00:44:37
			of normative
		
00:44:38 --> 00:44:38
			Sufism.
		
00:44:39 --> 00:44:41
			And he had a rather
		
00:44:41 --> 00:44:43
			defective manuscript
		
00:44:44 --> 00:44:45
			from which he was reading.
		
00:44:46 --> 00:44:47
			And on one occasion,
		
00:44:48 --> 00:44:48
			the young,
		
00:44:49 --> 00:44:49
			disciple
		
00:44:50 --> 00:44:50
			said,
		
00:44:51 --> 00:44:53
			Oh Master, I could get you a better
		
00:44:53 --> 00:44:54
			copy.
		
00:44:56 --> 00:44:58
			And this is taken to be an objection.
		
00:44:59 --> 00:45:01
			And Baba Fried says, Can't this poor dervish
		
00:45:01 --> 00:45:03
			not correct a bad copy by himself?
		
00:45:06 --> 00:45:06
			Nizamuddin's
		
00:45:07 --> 00:45:07
			horrified,
		
00:45:07 --> 00:45:10
			throws himself down in apology and then kind
		
00:45:10 --> 00:45:13
			of runs out and goes into the the
		
00:45:13 --> 00:45:13
			forest.
		
00:45:14 --> 00:45:17
			India is still full of wilderness areas at
		
00:45:17 --> 00:45:17
			the time,
		
00:45:19 --> 00:45:21
			in absolute despair.
		
00:45:22 --> 00:45:24
			And finally, a friend goes from him to
		
00:45:24 --> 00:45:26
			ask for Baba Farid's forgiveness.
		
00:45:27 --> 00:45:29
			And Baba Farid says,
		
00:45:29 --> 00:45:31
			what I do, I do to perfect you.
		
00:45:32 --> 00:45:33
			A peer,
		
00:45:33 --> 00:45:34
			spiritual guide,
		
00:45:35 --> 00:45:37
			is just a dresser of brides.
		
00:45:38 --> 00:45:39
			Interesting expression.
		
00:45:39 --> 00:45:40
			In other words, you ought to be,
		
00:45:42 --> 00:45:42
			presented
		
00:45:42 --> 00:45:44
			to the Lord in submission to the Lord
		
00:45:44 --> 00:45:46
			of creation. I'm just the one who gets
		
00:45:46 --> 00:45:48
			you ready for that role and that,
		
00:45:49 --> 00:45:50
			that experience.
		
00:45:52 --> 00:45:53
			So, in the year 664,
		
00:45:54 --> 00:45:55
			on 13th Ramadan,
		
00:45:56 --> 00:45:58
			he formally gives him the Khilafat to the
		
00:45:58 --> 00:45:59
			amazement of people who've
		
00:46:00 --> 00:46:02
			been in his Dargah all his
		
00:46:02 --> 00:46:04
			life. And he says, you will be a
		
00:46:04 --> 00:46:05
			tree.
		
00:46:06 --> 00:46:09
			A tree under whose cool shade
		
00:46:09 --> 00:46:10
			all humanity
		
00:46:10 --> 00:46:11
			will find
		
00:46:12 --> 00:46:12
			a cure,
		
00:46:13 --> 00:46:14
			will find healing.
		
00:46:15 --> 00:46:18
			This idea of the sage as a tree,
		
00:46:18 --> 00:46:20
			and in hot countries in particular, you know,
		
00:46:20 --> 00:46:23
			trees are pretty welcome refuges from the burning
		
00:46:23 --> 00:46:25
			of the sun. It's often used in the
		
00:46:25 --> 00:46:26
			sultans. So famously,
		
00:46:26 --> 00:46:28
			the dream of Osman, the founder of the
		
00:46:28 --> 00:46:31
			Ottoman dynasty, is that he saw his sheikh
		
00:46:31 --> 00:46:33
			touching his chest as he was sleeping and
		
00:46:33 --> 00:46:35
			a tree comes out and animals and human
		
00:46:35 --> 00:46:37
			beings of different kinds come to
		
00:46:37 --> 00:46:39
			take a shelter under that tree, and that's
		
00:46:39 --> 00:46:40
			his image of what his role as a
		
00:46:40 --> 00:46:42
			ruler is going to be. But for the
		
00:46:42 --> 00:46:45
			scholar as well, the tree which is just
		
00:46:46 --> 00:46:49
			indifferent in who it shades, Animals, human beings,
		
00:46:49 --> 00:46:53
			different denominations, different genders. A tree is a
		
00:46:53 --> 00:46:53
			generous,
		
00:46:54 --> 00:46:55
			generous
		
00:46:55 --> 00:46:57
			phenomenon, which is one reason why we use
		
00:46:57 --> 00:46:59
			the image of the tree for designing the
		
00:46:59 --> 00:47:02
			new Cambridge mosque, of course. So
		
00:47:04 --> 00:47:06
			it's time for him to return to Delhi.
		
00:47:08 --> 00:47:10
			Babafarid knows that he's got no money.
		
00:47:11 --> 00:47:12
			He's just wearing
		
00:47:12 --> 00:47:14
			a kind of rag and he doesn't even
		
00:47:14 --> 00:47:17
			have additional cloth in order to add patches
		
00:47:17 --> 00:47:18
			to his rag. This is extreme destitution.
		
00:47:19 --> 00:47:21
			Middle ages wasn't so unusual.
		
00:47:22 --> 00:47:25
			Babafarid gives him, a silver coin
		
00:47:25 --> 00:47:26
			for his journey.
		
00:47:27 --> 00:47:30
			Nizamuddin knows that this is the last coin
		
00:47:30 --> 00:47:31
			that Babafarid
		
00:47:31 --> 00:47:32
			possesses
		
00:47:33 --> 00:47:35
			and so he goes to him at Iftar
		
00:47:35 --> 00:47:35
			time.
		
00:47:36 --> 00:47:37
			There's no food.
		
00:47:38 --> 00:47:39
			And so he gives him back the coin.
		
00:47:39 --> 00:47:42
			He places the coin at the master's
		
00:47:42 --> 00:47:43
			feet,
		
00:47:43 --> 00:47:44
			and Babafarid
		
00:47:44 --> 00:47:47
			prays that Allah will give him some share
		
00:47:47 --> 00:47:48
			of the dunya
		
00:47:48 --> 00:47:51
			because he's so ready to renounce this coin
		
00:47:51 --> 00:47:52
			that he needs for his journey.
		
00:47:53 --> 00:47:55
			The prayer is that he will not
		
00:47:55 --> 00:47:57
			experience want. And Nizamuddin
		
00:47:58 --> 00:47:59
			says, I fear
		
00:47:59 --> 00:48:01
			that that would damage my heart.
		
00:48:02 --> 00:48:04
			Berber Farid says, Do not fear.
		
00:48:05 --> 00:48:07
			What you possess will not involve you in
		
00:48:07 --> 00:48:07
			any
		
00:48:08 --> 00:48:09
			attachment or misfortune.
		
00:48:14 --> 00:48:15
			And Nizamuddin says this before
		
00:48:16 --> 00:48:18
			departing, by appointing me as your Khalifa, you've
		
00:48:18 --> 00:48:20
			done me a very great honor and have
		
00:48:20 --> 00:48:21
			given me a treasure.
		
00:48:22 --> 00:48:23
			However, I'm a student.
		
00:48:24 --> 00:48:26
			I'm averse to dunya attachments.
		
00:48:28 --> 00:48:30
			The calling is high beyond my ability.
		
00:48:30 --> 00:48:32
			All I want from you is not khilafat,
		
00:48:33 --> 00:48:36
			but just your good opinion and your kindness.
		
00:48:37 --> 00:48:40
			But, Babafried reassures him, says he's got his
		
00:48:40 --> 00:48:41
			full confidence.
		
00:48:41 --> 00:48:43
			And Hazrat and Zomadin,
		
00:48:43 --> 00:48:46
			unwilling to disobey his master, accepts the role.
		
00:48:47 --> 00:48:49
			So he takes from him the symbolic prayer
		
00:48:49 --> 00:48:50
			rug and the staff.
		
00:48:51 --> 00:48:53
			And he gives him
		
00:48:53 --> 00:48:55
			2 pieces of advice as he's leaving.
		
00:48:56 --> 00:48:59
			If you must incur debt, try to repay
		
00:48:59 --> 00:49:00
			it quickly.
		
00:49:01 --> 00:49:01
			Secondly,
		
00:49:02 --> 00:49:04
			always try to please your enemies.
		
00:49:05 --> 00:49:08
			Know his parting words. And shortly afterwards, Bazarid
		
00:49:08 --> 00:49:11
			passes on to the abode of eternity.
		
00:49:11 --> 00:49:14
			Nizamuddin is back in Delhi, this enormous world
		
00:49:14 --> 00:49:16
			city full of need, destitution,
		
00:49:17 --> 00:49:17
			religions,
		
00:49:18 --> 00:49:18
			confusion,
		
00:49:19 --> 00:49:22
			the terror of the palace, and sets to
		
00:49:22 --> 00:49:22
			work.
		
00:49:23 --> 00:49:26
			Very difficult to do anything without engaging somehow
		
00:49:26 --> 00:49:28
			with the imperial bureaucracy,
		
00:49:29 --> 00:49:31
			but he still manages to set up a
		
00:49:31 --> 00:49:33
			vast network. This is one of the achievements
		
00:49:33 --> 00:49:35
			of the Chishtiya in particular.
		
00:49:35 --> 00:49:36
			He sets up,
		
00:49:36 --> 00:49:38
			a network of 100
		
00:49:38 --> 00:49:39
			of
		
00:49:39 --> 00:49:41
			centers and branches, as it were, of his
		
00:49:41 --> 00:49:45
			movement all over India, Muslim India and beyond
		
00:49:45 --> 00:49:45
			the boundaries.
		
00:49:46 --> 00:49:48
			His disciples are sent out
		
00:49:48 --> 00:49:49
			literally
		
00:49:49 --> 00:49:50
			everywhere.
		
00:49:52 --> 00:49:54
			He is back in Riaspur,
		
00:49:55 --> 00:49:57
			which is now where he's buried and is
		
00:49:57 --> 00:49:58
			the Hazrat Nizomidine,
		
00:49:58 --> 00:50:00
			which is a bustling district of Delhi. There's
		
00:50:00 --> 00:50:04
			even a Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station. It's just
		
00:50:04 --> 00:50:05
			another city quarter.
		
00:50:06 --> 00:50:08
			And lots of people are flooding in in
		
00:50:08 --> 00:50:10
			order to benefit from his teachings.
		
00:50:11 --> 00:50:12
			He is a,
		
00:50:13 --> 00:50:14
			a well known
		
00:50:14 --> 00:50:15
			ascetic
		
00:50:15 --> 00:50:16
			Zahid who enjoys
		
00:50:17 --> 00:50:18
			everyone's
		
00:50:18 --> 00:50:19
			confidence.
		
00:50:19 --> 00:50:21
			The pattern of his life, life is shaped
		
00:50:21 --> 00:50:23
			by the 5 daily prayers.
		
00:50:24 --> 00:50:26
			He eats very little.
		
00:50:27 --> 00:50:28
			At Suhor time,
		
00:50:29 --> 00:50:31
			once one of his friends heard him say,
		
00:50:32 --> 00:50:35
			there are many poor who sleep in the
		
00:50:35 --> 00:50:38
			corners of the mosques and patios of shops,
		
00:50:38 --> 00:50:39
			who have nothing to eat.
		
00:50:40 --> 00:50:42
			How could any more food go down my
		
00:50:42 --> 00:50:42
			throat?
		
00:50:43 --> 00:50:45
			So here, the kind of asceticism is linked
		
00:50:45 --> 00:50:47
			to a sense of social responsibility.
		
00:50:48 --> 00:50:50
			Most of the day was spent,
		
00:50:51 --> 00:50:52
			just receiving visitors,
		
00:50:53 --> 00:50:55
			High and low, they'd come to
		
00:50:55 --> 00:50:57
			see him. Except after Zohar, he would have
		
00:50:57 --> 00:50:59
			his hadith class. This is a kind of
		
00:50:59 --> 00:51:00
			formal
		
00:51:00 --> 00:51:01
			Darcey alim.
		
00:51:02 --> 00:51:05
			And at Iftar, he would eat a piece
		
00:51:05 --> 00:51:06
			of bread and some vegetables,
		
00:51:07 --> 00:51:09
			and the rest he would
		
00:51:09 --> 00:51:11
			distribute. And then he would go back to
		
00:51:11 --> 00:51:13
			where he lived, which was basically just a
		
00:51:13 --> 00:51:15
			wooden kind of shack on the roof of
		
00:51:15 --> 00:51:16
			the Dargah,
		
00:51:17 --> 00:51:20
			the retreat center which he built by the
		
00:51:20 --> 00:51:20
			river.
		
00:51:26 --> 00:51:29
			I mentioned that he has this strong aversion
		
00:51:30 --> 00:51:32
			to associating with rulers.
		
00:51:33 --> 00:51:35
			And this becomes part of his teachings.
		
00:51:35 --> 00:51:38
			Do not approach the doors of kings, he
		
00:51:38 --> 00:51:40
			says, seek no recompense from them.
		
00:51:41 --> 00:51:43
			If a letter came from the Sultan, he
		
00:51:43 --> 00:51:44
			would just leave it unopened.
		
00:51:45 --> 00:51:46
			He'd never open it.
		
00:51:46 --> 00:51:47
			The Sultan,
		
00:51:47 --> 00:51:49
			worried about this hugely popular
		
00:51:50 --> 00:51:52
			phenomenon down the road, and Rias Por would
		
00:51:52 --> 00:51:53
			send spies
		
00:51:53 --> 00:51:55
			to try and check him out. Is this
		
00:51:55 --> 00:51:56
			political? Is this,
		
00:52:00 --> 00:52:02
			one of the sultans, Sultan Jalaluddin Khaji,
		
00:52:03 --> 00:52:04
			made him a gift of some villages,
		
00:52:05 --> 00:52:06
			but he refuses.
		
00:52:07 --> 00:52:08
			Then the Sultan
		
00:52:08 --> 00:52:10
			tries to get him to come to the
		
00:52:10 --> 00:52:10
			palace,
		
00:52:11 --> 00:52:12
			but without success.
		
00:52:13 --> 00:52:15
			And his Omidyin Auliya says, that's why my
		
00:52:15 --> 00:52:17
			house has 2 doors. If he comes in
		
00:52:17 --> 00:52:19
			through 1, I run out through the other.
		
00:52:20 --> 00:52:23
			But a number of government disciples still become
		
00:52:23 --> 00:52:26
			government officials still become his disciples, and this
		
00:52:26 --> 00:52:28
			is how he exercises his influence on society.
		
00:52:29 --> 00:52:31
			Not through having some kind of political or
		
00:52:31 --> 00:52:34
			economic control of it, but just through transforming
		
00:52:34 --> 00:52:34
			individual
		
00:52:35 --> 00:52:37
			souls. And they say that the city of
		
00:52:37 --> 00:52:38
			Delhi acquired a different,
		
00:52:39 --> 00:52:42
			more devout, and more compassionate temper as a
		
00:52:42 --> 00:52:43
			result of his apolitical
		
00:52:44 --> 00:52:45
			lifestyle.
		
00:52:48 --> 00:52:51
			One of his teachings there's 3 kinds of
		
00:52:51 --> 00:52:51
			dervishes.
		
00:52:53 --> 00:52:54
			There's the Salic,
		
00:52:55 --> 00:52:57
			those who renounce the world
		
00:52:58 --> 00:53:01
			and devote themselves entirely to dhikr and ascetical
		
00:53:01 --> 00:53:02
			practice.
		
00:53:02 --> 00:53:03
			That's the Saliq.
		
00:53:04 --> 00:53:05
			There's the Waqif,
		
00:53:06 --> 00:53:07
			people who
		
00:53:08 --> 00:53:08
			have a certain,
		
00:53:10 --> 00:53:11
			balance
		
00:53:11 --> 00:53:12
			between
		
00:53:14 --> 00:53:16
			service in the world and service to God.
		
00:53:17 --> 00:53:18
			And the raja,
		
00:53:19 --> 00:53:20
			the hopa,
		
00:53:20 --> 00:53:23
			the vain hopa, is those who've achieved some
		
00:53:23 --> 00:53:25
			progress in their spiritual lives, but then become
		
00:53:25 --> 00:53:29
			complacent or lose interest and just hope that
		
00:53:29 --> 00:53:31
			God will somehow make things
		
00:53:31 --> 00:53:32
			better for them or
		
00:53:33 --> 00:53:34
			forgive them.
		
00:53:36 --> 00:53:37
			Many of the people who are coming for
		
00:53:37 --> 00:53:38
			blessings,
		
00:53:39 --> 00:53:41
			are women. And I mentioned this in connection
		
00:53:41 --> 00:53:41
			with,
		
00:53:42 --> 00:53:43
			Hazrat Shahidullah
		
00:53:44 --> 00:53:45
			Faridi. And I've been in touch with some
		
00:53:45 --> 00:53:48
			of his people who knew him. They're old
		
00:53:48 --> 00:53:50
			ladies now. And the majority of them are
		
00:53:50 --> 00:53:51
			women.
		
00:53:52 --> 00:53:53
			There's some interesting teachings.
		
00:53:54 --> 00:53:56
			Not a feminist by modern standards,
		
00:53:57 --> 00:53:58
			upholder of
		
00:53:58 --> 00:54:01
			a traditional vision of society and
		
00:54:02 --> 00:54:03
			dimorphism,
		
00:54:03 --> 00:54:06
			but somebody who thought that the upliftment of
		
00:54:06 --> 00:54:07
			society should come through
		
00:54:08 --> 00:54:08
			respect.
		
00:54:09 --> 00:54:11
			We've seen the importance of his mother and
		
00:54:11 --> 00:54:12
			of his teacher's
		
00:54:12 --> 00:54:13
			mother.
		
00:54:14 --> 00:54:17
			So he always taught that women were equally
		
00:54:17 --> 00:54:18
			able spiritually
		
00:54:18 --> 00:54:19
			as men.
		
00:54:22 --> 00:54:24
			And he once said, If a tiger comes
		
00:54:24 --> 00:54:26
			at you from its lair,
		
00:54:27 --> 00:54:29
			do you bother to check whether it's male
		
00:54:29 --> 00:54:30
			or female?
		
00:54:30 --> 00:54:32
			In other words, what counts is the creature
		
00:54:32 --> 00:54:34
			itself. And in the case of humanity, that
		
00:54:34 --> 00:54:37
			he had them. These gender differentials are not
		
00:54:37 --> 00:54:38
			a significant thing.
		
00:54:39 --> 00:54:41
			So, yeah, very many,
		
00:54:41 --> 00:54:44
			women are are coming to see him.
		
00:54:46 --> 00:54:48
			We know a little bit about where he's
		
00:54:48 --> 00:54:49
			staying, his Jama'at Khanan,
		
00:54:50 --> 00:54:53
			which is a large hall for the sunnah
		
00:54:53 --> 00:54:55
			ceremonies, the dhikr to be held
		
00:54:55 --> 00:54:58
			with lots of little rooms, small rooms, where
		
00:54:58 --> 00:55:00
			his disciples would stay,
		
00:55:00 --> 00:55:01
			opening onto it.
		
00:55:02 --> 00:55:04
			And visitors would come
		
00:55:04 --> 00:55:05
			all day.
		
00:55:06 --> 00:55:08
			He never refused to see a visitor
		
00:55:08 --> 00:55:11
			and he never refused anybody bea. Anybody who
		
00:55:11 --> 00:55:13
			wanted to be his disciple and would not
		
00:55:13 --> 00:55:16
			be turned away. And he had,
		
00:55:16 --> 00:55:18
			disciples from all religions,
		
00:55:18 --> 00:55:20
			not just Muslims. And this is a famous
		
00:55:20 --> 00:55:22
			aspect of many of the Shishti sheikhs,
		
00:55:23 --> 00:55:24
			that you don't have to be Muslim in
		
00:55:24 --> 00:55:25
			order to
		
00:55:25 --> 00:55:28
			benefit somehow from the sage. Although, clearly, his
		
00:55:28 --> 00:55:30
			way is the Mohammedan way. So,
		
00:55:33 --> 00:55:35
			these individuals are coming,
		
00:55:35 --> 00:55:38
			and a lot of gifts are coming, what
		
00:55:38 --> 00:55:40
			they call the futor in Nataretto, which is
		
00:55:40 --> 00:55:41
			gift of food,
		
00:55:43 --> 00:55:45
			Because of his
		
00:55:45 --> 00:55:47
			mission of sacred hospitality, which is the way
		
00:55:47 --> 00:55:50
			of Mohaina Deen Trishti of Ajmer himself,
		
00:55:51 --> 00:55:54
			Much of the sheikh's effulgence is passed out
		
00:55:54 --> 00:55:55
			not just through
		
00:55:55 --> 00:55:57
			words of wisdom, but through practical gift and
		
00:55:57 --> 00:56:01
			particularly gift of food. So wealthy people, people
		
00:56:01 --> 00:56:04
			hoping for the sheikh blessings, prayers, forgiveness, whatever,
		
00:56:04 --> 00:56:06
			act of tober, something to do before Hajj
		
00:56:06 --> 00:56:07
			or before you die, would give
		
00:56:08 --> 00:56:09
			a lot of
		
00:56:09 --> 00:56:10
			food to the Dargah,
		
00:56:10 --> 00:56:13
			which would then be, organized by officials who
		
00:56:13 --> 00:56:14
			were appointed there,
		
00:56:14 --> 00:56:15
			and,
		
00:56:16 --> 00:56:17
			distributed to the poor. So,
		
00:56:19 --> 00:56:21
			enormous kitchens. They said the kitchens of his
		
00:56:21 --> 00:56:24
			dargah were bigger than the royal kitchens in
		
00:56:24 --> 00:56:25
			Delhi.
		
00:56:26 --> 00:56:28
			And the rule of his changha was that
		
00:56:28 --> 00:56:29
			no gift could remain
		
00:56:30 --> 00:56:31
			for more than a week.
		
00:56:32 --> 00:56:34
			So one of the practices that he would
		
00:56:34 --> 00:56:37
			adopt before going for Junoir prayer, before leaving
		
00:56:37 --> 00:56:38
			his Chanukah, would be to go to the
		
00:56:38 --> 00:56:39
			storeroom
		
00:56:39 --> 00:56:41
			to make sure that there was nothing left
		
00:56:41 --> 00:56:43
			and everything had been meticulously
		
00:56:44 --> 00:56:45
			swept and
		
00:56:45 --> 00:56:46
			cleaned.
		
00:56:47 --> 00:56:47
			So,
		
00:56:48 --> 00:56:49
			this langar
		
00:56:49 --> 00:56:51
			fed a huge number of the poor of
		
00:56:51 --> 00:56:52
			Delhi.
		
00:56:52 --> 00:56:54
			And he liked to make it good food
		
00:56:54 --> 00:56:57
			as well. He would appoint appoint good cooks.
		
00:56:57 --> 00:56:59
			Well, just give people kind of the cheapest,
		
00:56:59 --> 00:57:01
			rubbishy stuff. Some of the food that was
		
00:57:01 --> 00:57:03
			donated was of good quality. So it was
		
00:57:03 --> 00:57:04
			known to be,
		
00:57:05 --> 00:57:05
			good
		
00:57:05 --> 00:57:06
			food.
		
00:57:06 --> 00:57:07
			And also,
		
00:57:08 --> 00:57:10
			when he noticed people coming regularly, he would
		
00:57:10 --> 00:57:11
			make inquiries
		
00:57:11 --> 00:57:14
			and would allocate a stipend for those people
		
00:57:14 --> 00:57:15
			once their circumstances
		
00:57:15 --> 00:57:16
			had been,
		
00:57:17 --> 00:57:19
			acknowledged. So once he was
		
00:57:19 --> 00:57:22
			walking by the river and he found a
		
00:57:22 --> 00:57:23
			woman who has
		
00:57:24 --> 00:57:26
			dug a well, was drawing water from the
		
00:57:26 --> 00:57:28
			well rather than from the river. And he
		
00:57:28 --> 00:57:29
			says, why didn't you get your water from
		
00:57:29 --> 00:57:31
			the river? We all drink from the river.
		
00:57:32 --> 00:57:34
			And she says, oh, the river river waters
		
00:57:34 --> 00:57:34
			tastes
		
00:57:35 --> 00:57:36
			so good that it gives me and my
		
00:57:36 --> 00:57:39
			children an appetite for food. We don't have
		
00:57:39 --> 00:57:41
			any food. But this water,
		
00:57:42 --> 00:57:44
			it it it doesn't give us any kind
		
00:57:44 --> 00:57:45
			of hunger.
		
00:57:45 --> 00:57:48
			So hearing that, Pete adds her to the
		
00:57:48 --> 00:57:50
			list of those who receive a regular stipend
		
00:57:51 --> 00:57:52
			from the Langa.
		
00:57:53 --> 00:57:55
			And it's still the case. Thursdays Sundays, you
		
00:57:55 --> 00:57:58
			get free food, from the Durga
		
00:57:58 --> 00:58:00
			of Nizamuddin Auliya in
		
00:58:01 --> 00:58:03
			Delhi. So the poor, the barefoot, ragged,
		
00:58:04 --> 00:58:05
			sick masses are coming,
		
00:58:06 --> 00:58:08
			But also people from the elites,
		
00:58:09 --> 00:58:11
			they're also interested in sanctity and salvation.
		
00:58:12 --> 00:58:14
			One of them is Amir Khosrow, who is
		
00:58:14 --> 00:58:17
			maybe the best known poet in India at
		
00:58:17 --> 00:58:18
			the time. Tauthi Ahind,
		
00:58:19 --> 00:58:20
			the songbird of India,
		
00:58:21 --> 00:58:24
			who is really even though he's of Turkic
		
00:58:24 --> 00:58:25
			origin, like a lot of these migrants from
		
00:58:25 --> 00:58:26
			Central Asia,
		
00:58:28 --> 00:58:30
			really one of the, maybe 4 or 5
		
00:58:30 --> 00:58:33
			greatest ever Persian poets with his famous Khamsa,
		
00:58:33 --> 00:58:36
			which is a huge volume with 5 extended
		
00:58:36 --> 00:58:39
			poems on various secular and religious
		
00:58:40 --> 00:58:40
			subjects.
		
00:58:41 --> 00:58:42
			Writes a lot of court poetry.
		
00:58:43 --> 00:58:44
			He has this Giran as Sardain.
		
00:58:45 --> 00:58:46
			It's one of the great monuments of Persian
		
00:58:46 --> 00:58:49
			literature, which is basically all about the splendor
		
00:58:49 --> 00:58:50
			of the court and the wonder of the
		
00:58:50 --> 00:58:53
			Sultan. It's kind of royal panegyric is in
		
00:58:53 --> 00:58:54
			that in that,
		
00:58:55 --> 00:58:55
			zone.
		
00:58:57 --> 00:58:59
			Educated in that not only did he know
		
00:58:59 --> 00:59:02
			Persian, but he could write in Arabic and
		
00:59:02 --> 00:59:03
			Sanskrit as well.
		
00:59:06 --> 00:59:09
			And he writes a book about Nizamuddin
		
00:59:10 --> 00:59:10
			Auliya,
		
00:59:11 --> 00:59:14
			which, has also survived, which is
		
00:59:15 --> 00:59:18
			very flowery and baroque and difficult really to
		
00:59:18 --> 00:59:21
			extract concrete information from. But he seems to
		
00:59:21 --> 00:59:23
			have been his closest friend.
		
00:59:24 --> 00:59:25
			It's interesting that
		
00:59:26 --> 00:59:29
			even though Nizamuddin Auliya is living this ragged
		
00:59:29 --> 00:59:29
			existence,
		
00:59:30 --> 00:59:32
			distributing food to the poor,
		
00:59:33 --> 00:59:35
			the guy who comes and and spends evenings
		
00:59:35 --> 00:59:37
			with him, and sometimes they talk late into
		
00:59:37 --> 00:59:39
			the night, is this very kind of fancy
		
00:59:39 --> 00:59:40
			elite
		
00:59:40 --> 00:59:44
			poet from the Royal Court. They just somehow
		
00:59:44 --> 00:59:45
			hit it off.
		
00:59:51 --> 00:59:53
			Yep, so this is how he
		
00:59:54 --> 00:59:55
			spends his time.
		
00:59:55 --> 00:59:56
			And
		
00:59:57 --> 00:59:59
			if you go there today, you'll see a
		
00:59:59 --> 01:00:00
			lot of
		
01:00:01 --> 01:00:05
			Muslims, non Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, everybody goes
		
01:00:05 --> 01:00:08
			there just to get something. Usually people from
		
01:00:08 --> 01:00:12
			the lowest orders of society. But, Hindus used
		
01:00:12 --> 01:00:13
			to come,
		
01:00:13 --> 01:00:16
			as well and there's some enigmatic stories. So
		
01:00:16 --> 01:00:17
			for instance, once,
		
01:00:19 --> 01:00:21
			he noticed that there were 6 Yogis,
		
01:00:21 --> 01:00:22
			the Hindu ascetics,
		
01:00:23 --> 01:00:26
			standing outside the door of the Hanukkah.
		
01:00:28 --> 01:00:30
			And the disciples said, well, they've come to
		
01:00:30 --> 01:00:31
			seek your blessings.
		
01:00:32 --> 01:00:33
			And then
		
01:00:33 --> 01:00:34
			the end of the day, they finish their
		
01:00:34 --> 01:00:37
			meditation, and And they're about to leave and
		
01:00:37 --> 01:00:39
			they're asked, why did you come? And they
		
01:00:39 --> 01:00:41
			said, we tried to understand
		
01:00:41 --> 01:00:43
			the spiritual place of the Sheikh, but we
		
01:00:43 --> 01:00:44
			couldn't understand.
		
01:00:45 --> 01:00:47
			So what that means, who knows? But there's
		
01:00:47 --> 01:00:48
			some kind of
		
01:00:49 --> 01:00:50
			inter religious
		
01:00:50 --> 01:00:51
			deep exchange
		
01:00:51 --> 01:00:54
			going on despite the fact that he is
		
01:00:54 --> 01:00:55
			Islam. He is,
		
01:00:56 --> 01:00:56
			axiomatically
		
01:00:58 --> 01:01:00
			embedded in his own Islamic tradition. But it
		
01:01:00 --> 01:01:00
			is through
		
01:01:01 --> 01:01:04
			these Shishti saints that so many, millions really,
		
01:01:04 --> 01:01:05
			have come into Islam
		
01:01:05 --> 01:01:07
			across the subcontinent
		
01:01:07 --> 01:01:10
			and the age of conquests and merchants,
		
01:01:10 --> 01:01:12
			gave way to the age of mass conversions.
		
01:01:12 --> 01:01:14
			And many of his disciples in
		
01:01:15 --> 01:01:18
			remote areas, would spread Islam specifically amongst
		
01:01:19 --> 01:01:20
			the Hindu populations,
		
01:01:21 --> 01:01:23
			through not adopting a kind of very elite
		
01:01:23 --> 01:01:24
			foreign discourse.
		
01:01:25 --> 01:01:27
			Unfortunately, this is not, tends to be said,
		
01:01:27 --> 01:01:29
			the way in which Tariqas function in the
		
01:01:29 --> 01:01:31
			modern West, where they tend to be bastions
		
01:01:32 --> 01:01:33
			of ethnic difference.
		
01:01:34 --> 01:01:36
			If you go to a Chishti place in
		
01:01:37 --> 01:01:38
			Luton now,
		
01:01:38 --> 01:01:40
			it's not going to be engaging much with
		
01:01:40 --> 01:01:42
			the non Muslim population and bringing in everybody
		
01:01:42 --> 01:01:44
			and speaking English, it'll be
		
01:01:45 --> 01:01:47
			a very mono ethnic, a kind of bunker
		
01:01:48 --> 01:01:51
			of somebody else's culture. So they're profoundly malfunctioning
		
01:01:51 --> 01:01:52
			here now.
		
01:01:53 --> 01:01:54
			But in their heyday,
		
01:01:55 --> 01:01:57
			in India, these are the ones who provided
		
01:01:57 --> 01:02:00
			the stepping stones to Islam for countless millions,
		
01:02:00 --> 01:02:02
			which is why Islam is a religion of,
		
01:02:04 --> 01:02:06
			30% of the population of the subcontinent,
		
01:02:07 --> 01:02:08
			if not more.
		
01:02:08 --> 01:02:10
			Compare that to Christianity, which came to India
		
01:02:10 --> 01:02:12
			long before Islam and had all of the
		
01:02:12 --> 01:02:13
			advantage of
		
01:02:14 --> 01:02:16
			British rule for centuries. Christians are only about
		
01:02:16 --> 01:02:18
			1% of the population of India. So it's
		
01:02:18 --> 01:02:20
			these people who live with the poor rather
		
01:02:20 --> 01:02:22
			than the kind of English sergeant major or
		
01:02:22 --> 01:02:24
			the missionary in his top hat. These people
		
01:02:24 --> 01:02:26
			get into the culture, live with the culture,
		
01:02:26 --> 01:02:28
			and experience the sufferings of the masses who
		
01:02:29 --> 01:02:31
			win the hearts of the population.
		
01:02:34 --> 01:02:37
			And so it was. So in 13/25,
		
01:02:37 --> 01:02:38
			he dies.
		
01:02:39 --> 01:02:40
			One of the last things he says is
		
01:02:40 --> 01:02:42
			that when he dies, he wants there to
		
01:02:42 --> 01:02:44
			be nothing left in his house or in
		
01:02:44 --> 01:02:46
			the Langar. So the food has to be
		
01:02:46 --> 01:02:46
			distributed
		
01:02:47 --> 01:02:50
			and everything's swept and cleaned. And he
		
01:02:50 --> 01:02:51
			designates
		
01:02:53 --> 01:02:56
			Khajun Nasiruddin Shirar as his,
		
01:02:58 --> 01:02:59
			disciple,
		
01:03:01 --> 01:03:02
			telling him that he has to stay in
		
01:03:02 --> 01:03:06
			Delhi and suffer the hardships of life there.
		
01:03:06 --> 01:03:08
			And the historians recall that when news of
		
01:03:08 --> 01:03:09
			his death
		
01:03:10 --> 01:03:11
			were was known,
		
01:03:11 --> 01:03:14
			every house in Delhi went into mourning,
		
01:03:14 --> 01:03:15
			Hindu and Muslim
		
01:03:16 --> 01:03:16
			alike.
		
01:03:17 --> 01:03:18
			And his Jenaiza
		
01:03:18 --> 01:03:20
			led by the grandson of the great,
		
01:03:22 --> 01:03:22
			Baha'i
		
01:03:23 --> 01:03:25
			Baha'i Zakhari of Multan.
		
01:03:25 --> 01:03:28
			Multan is the city of saints in Pakistan,
		
01:03:28 --> 01:03:31
			an amazing ancient place. And Baha'i ad Din
		
01:03:31 --> 01:03:33
			Zakaria's shrine is biggest,
		
01:03:34 --> 01:03:35
			edifice there.
		
01:03:35 --> 01:03:37
			And so it was that family that had
		
01:03:37 --> 01:03:39
			this particular honor. So,
		
01:03:42 --> 01:03:43
			let's now move to what I really wanted
		
01:03:43 --> 01:03:45
			to do, which is to hear the
		
01:03:46 --> 01:03:47
			the words of the tradition
		
01:03:47 --> 01:03:49
			directly. And I wanted to start with
		
01:03:50 --> 01:03:52
			advice from his own teacher,
		
01:03:52 --> 01:03:53
			Baba Farid
		
01:03:54 --> 01:03:55
			of, Pak Patan.
		
01:03:58 --> 01:04:00
			Now you'll notice with this tradition
		
01:04:01 --> 01:04:02
			that this is certainly not
		
01:04:03 --> 01:04:04
			the highly intellectual,
		
01:04:04 --> 01:04:05
			philosophical,
		
01:04:05 --> 01:04:08
			Gnostic Sufism of the Ibn Arabi school
		
01:04:08 --> 01:04:11
			that, also is coming into India at this
		
01:04:11 --> 01:04:11
			time.
		
01:04:12 --> 01:04:14
			The people like Mohammed, Burhan Puri, and so
		
01:04:14 --> 01:04:16
			forth, which becomes an enormously,
		
01:04:17 --> 01:04:18
			brilliant and sophisticated
		
01:04:19 --> 01:04:21
			tradition, which, of course, has its intrinsic legitimacy.
		
01:04:22 --> 01:04:23
			This is more
		
01:04:23 --> 01:04:24
			grassroots,
		
01:04:25 --> 01:04:26
			working with the masses,
		
01:04:26 --> 01:04:29
			compassion, feed the poor. It sees itself as
		
01:04:29 --> 01:04:29
			being,
		
01:04:30 --> 01:04:33
			closer to the original sonnet of sort of
		
01:04:34 --> 01:04:34
			selfless
		
01:04:34 --> 01:04:38
			asceticism and wool wearing. So these are not
		
01:04:38 --> 01:04:39
			complex sentiments. They are
		
01:04:40 --> 01:04:42
			straight from the heart. So from Baba Farid,
		
01:04:44 --> 01:04:45
			Busy yourself ceaselessly
		
01:04:46 --> 01:04:49
			with active discipline, or Jair Hader, struggling against
		
01:04:49 --> 01:04:49
			the ego.
		
01:04:50 --> 01:04:50
			Laziness
		
01:04:51 --> 01:04:52
			is the devil's workshop.
		
01:04:53 --> 01:04:56
			In our way of life, fasting achieves 50%
		
01:04:56 --> 01:04:57
			of success.
		
01:04:58 --> 01:04:59
			Educate yourself
		
01:04:59 --> 01:05:00
			and your dependents.
		
01:05:02 --> 01:05:04
			Avoid all sinful actions.
		
01:05:05 --> 01:05:08
			Always rectify your own faults before seeking to
		
01:05:08 --> 01:05:08
			rectify
		
01:05:09 --> 01:05:09
			others.
		
01:05:10 --> 01:05:12
			What you hear from me, commit it to
		
01:05:12 --> 01:05:13
			memory
		
01:05:13 --> 01:05:14
			and spread it widely.
		
01:05:16 --> 01:05:17
			If you have to
		
01:05:17 --> 01:05:18
			go into Eartikef,
		
01:05:20 --> 01:05:22
			seclude yourself for a period,
		
01:05:22 --> 01:05:23
			do so in a mosque
		
01:05:24 --> 01:05:25
			where the prayer at the namaz
		
01:05:26 --> 01:05:28
			is conducted in congregation.
		
01:05:30 --> 01:05:31
			Deactivate
		
01:05:31 --> 01:05:34
			your ego, your nafs. Make your nafs idle.
		
01:05:35 --> 01:05:38
			Consider the world as being something far from
		
01:05:38 --> 01:05:39
			you and as insubstantial.
		
01:05:46 --> 01:05:47
			Privacy or seclusion,
		
01:05:48 --> 01:05:50
			busy yourself with the worship of God.
		
01:05:51 --> 01:05:53
			If in such seclusion you grow tired of
		
01:05:53 --> 01:05:56
			large acts of worship, then try smaller ones.
		
01:05:57 --> 01:05:59
			Should you be troubled by your ego, then
		
01:05:59 --> 01:06:01
			gratify it with a little rest or some
		
01:06:01 --> 01:06:02
			sleep.
		
01:06:03 --> 01:06:06
			Shower your blessings and favors upon whoever may
		
01:06:06 --> 01:06:06
			visit
		
01:06:07 --> 01:06:08
			you. So these are
		
01:06:08 --> 01:06:10
			basic akhlaq of
		
01:06:10 --> 01:06:11
			the tariq.
		
01:06:12 --> 01:06:13
			There's nothing
		
01:06:13 --> 01:06:16
			hugely intricate about this, but it is through
		
01:06:16 --> 01:06:18
			these teachings that
		
01:06:18 --> 01:06:20
			India so substantively
		
01:06:20 --> 01:06:22
			became Muslim. And it said that,
		
01:06:23 --> 01:06:24
			but for partition,
		
01:06:24 --> 01:06:26
			which will more or less stop the conversion
		
01:06:26 --> 01:06:27
			process in India,
		
01:06:28 --> 01:06:30
			within 300 years, India would have a strong
		
01:06:30 --> 01:06:31
			Muslim majority.
		
01:06:32 --> 01:06:34
			But, of course, that that tradition with the
		
01:06:34 --> 01:06:35
			segregation of communities,
		
01:06:36 --> 01:06:37
			has come to an end.
		
01:06:38 --> 01:06:39
			So reading from the,
		
01:06:40 --> 01:06:42
			Foa Eid al Foa'ed of
		
01:06:43 --> 01:06:46
			Amir Hassan Sijazi, who is one of his
		
01:06:47 --> 01:06:49
			disciples and who writes down
		
01:06:49 --> 01:06:52
			what happened in some of the sheikh's informal
		
01:06:52 --> 01:06:53
			conversations.
		
01:06:56 --> 01:06:58
			I've just chosen a few of these, some
		
01:06:58 --> 01:06:59
			of which are Ramadan related.
		
01:07:07 --> 01:07:09
			This is Friday 5th Ramadan,
		
01:07:09 --> 01:07:10
			the year 707.
		
01:07:12 --> 01:07:14
			What is the preeminent form
		
01:07:14 --> 01:07:16
			of optional prayer? He asked.
		
01:07:17 --> 01:07:19
			Then he explained that according to the decree
		
01:07:19 --> 01:07:21
			of Mawlana Zaghir ed in Hafiz,
		
01:07:21 --> 01:07:24
			may Allah grant him peace, it was the
		
01:07:24 --> 01:07:25
			Tarawih prayer.
		
01:07:26 --> 01:07:28
			Every evening, recalled the master, he would also
		
01:07:28 --> 01:07:30
			urge me to read 3 sections of the
		
01:07:30 --> 01:07:31
			Quran.
		
01:07:32 --> 01:07:34
			So that after 10 consecutive evenings, I might
		
01:07:34 --> 01:07:36
			complete the whole of the Quran
		
01:07:36 --> 01:07:38
			and obtain the benefit of performing this task.
		
01:07:39 --> 01:07:42
			At his command, after the congregational prayer, I
		
01:07:42 --> 01:07:45
			would retire to observe the Tarawih prayers.
		
01:07:45 --> 01:07:47
			Good, he would explain to me. That is
		
01:07:47 --> 01:07:48
			a commendable thing
		
01:07:49 --> 01:07:50
			for you to do.
		
01:07:55 --> 01:07:57
			The Master once told the following story about
		
01:07:57 --> 01:07:58
			a certain chaste saint.
		
01:07:59 --> 01:08:01
			Many times, he used to say that all
		
01:08:01 --> 01:08:03
			virtuous deeds such as prayers, fasting, invocations,
		
01:08:04 --> 01:08:06
			and saying the tesbi prayer beads are a
		
01:08:06 --> 01:08:07
			cauldron.
		
01:08:08 --> 01:08:10
			But the basic staple in the cauldron is
		
01:08:10 --> 01:08:10
			meat.
		
01:08:11 --> 01:08:13
			Without meat, you do not experience any of
		
01:08:13 --> 01:08:14
			these virtuous deeds.
		
01:08:15 --> 01:08:18
			So finally, after hearing this many times, they
		
01:08:18 --> 01:08:20
			asked that peer, many times you've used that
		
01:08:20 --> 01:08:21
			analogy.
		
01:08:21 --> 01:08:22
			Please explain it.
		
01:08:23 --> 01:08:25
			Meat, replied the saint, is renouncing
		
01:08:26 --> 01:08:26
			worldliness.
		
01:08:27 --> 01:08:29
			While prayer, fasting, invocation,
		
01:08:29 --> 01:08:31
			as well as repetition of utespi,
		
01:08:32 --> 01:08:34
			all such virtuous deeds presuppose that the one
		
01:08:34 --> 01:08:36
			who does them has left the world
		
01:08:36 --> 01:08:38
			and is no longer attached to any worldly
		
01:08:38 --> 01:08:39
			thing.
		
01:08:39 --> 01:08:41
			Whether he observes or does not observe prayer,
		
01:08:41 --> 01:08:43
			invocations, and other practices,
		
01:08:43 --> 01:08:45
			there is no cause for fear if these
		
01:08:45 --> 01:08:47
			things are not obligatory.
		
01:08:47 --> 01:08:49
			But if friendship with the world lingers in
		
01:08:49 --> 01:08:52
			his heart, he derives no benefit from supplications,
		
01:08:52 --> 01:08:54
			invocations, and the like.
		
01:08:55 --> 01:08:57
			After that, the master observed,
		
01:08:57 --> 01:08:59
			if one puts oil, pepper, garlic, and onion
		
01:08:59 --> 01:09:02
			into a cauldron and adds only water, the
		
01:09:02 --> 01:09:05
			end result is known as pseudo stew. Don't
		
01:09:05 --> 01:09:07
			know what that is in Persia Persian. But
		
01:09:07 --> 01:09:09
			the basic staple for stew is meat. There
		
01:09:09 --> 01:09:11
			may or may not be other ingredients.
		
01:09:12 --> 01:09:14
			Similarly, the basis for spiritual progress is leaving
		
01:09:14 --> 01:09:17
			the world. There may or may not be
		
01:09:17 --> 01:09:19
			other virtuous practices. So what it's saying is
		
01:09:19 --> 01:09:22
			that our our forms of worship and our
		
01:09:22 --> 01:09:25
			avka and our sessions are just kind of
		
01:09:25 --> 01:09:26
			ingredients,
		
01:09:26 --> 01:09:28
			but the essence of the thing has to
		
01:09:28 --> 01:09:29
			be turning away
		
01:09:31 --> 01:09:33
			from our attachments to the world.
		
01:09:35 --> 01:09:37
			As the hadith says,
		
01:09:37 --> 01:09:39
			shunning the world of
		
01:09:40 --> 01:09:41
			beguilement, of distraction.
		
01:09:42 --> 01:09:42
			Well,
		
01:09:44 --> 01:09:46
			and repenting and going towards,
		
01:09:47 --> 01:09:48
			the abode of
		
01:09:48 --> 01:09:49
			eternity.
		
01:09:57 --> 01:10:00
			Monday, 25th, Jumad Al Ula, the year 708.
		
01:10:02 --> 01:10:04
			Conversation turned to the virtue of giving food
		
01:10:04 --> 01:10:05
			to others.
		
01:10:06 --> 01:10:08
			On the blessed tongue of the master came
		
01:10:08 --> 01:10:09
			these words,
		
01:10:09 --> 01:10:12
			there is no merit attached to providing food
		
01:10:12 --> 01:10:13
			just for your own people.
		
01:10:14 --> 01:10:16
			Then he began to talk of Khwaja Ali,
		
01:10:16 --> 01:10:18
			the son of Khwaja Rukund Deen, the Venerable
		
01:10:18 --> 01:10:21
			Chishti saint. May Allah bless both of them.
		
01:10:22 --> 01:10:24
			He was taken captive during the onslaught of
		
01:10:24 --> 01:10:25
			the unbelieving Mongols.
		
01:10:26 --> 01:10:28
			They brought him toward before Chinggis Khan.
		
01:10:29 --> 01:10:30
			At the time, one of the disciples of
		
01:10:30 --> 01:10:32
			that noble dynasty
		
01:10:32 --> 01:10:35
			of Chishti saints was present, Not only present,
		
01:10:35 --> 01:10:37
			but in a position of authority at the
		
01:10:37 --> 01:10:38
			Mongol court.
		
01:10:38 --> 01:10:40
			When he saw that Khwaja Ali had been
		
01:10:40 --> 01:10:41
			taken prison, he was dumbfounded.
		
01:10:42 --> 01:10:44
			To himself, he thought, how can I procure
		
01:10:44 --> 01:10:45
			his release?
		
01:10:45 --> 01:10:47
			In what way should I mention his name
		
01:10:47 --> 01:10:48
			before Genghis Khan?
		
01:10:49 --> 01:10:50
			If I say that he comes from a
		
01:10:50 --> 01:10:52
			noble family and is himself a saint, what
		
01:10:52 --> 01:10:54
			will Genghis Khan care?
		
01:10:54 --> 01:10:56
			And if I mention his obedience and devotion
		
01:10:56 --> 01:10:58
			to God, that too will have no effect.
		
01:10:59 --> 01:11:02
			After pondering a long time, he went before
		
01:11:02 --> 01:11:03
			Genghis Khan and announced,
		
01:11:03 --> 01:11:05
			the father of this man was a saint
		
01:11:05 --> 01:11:07
			who gave food to people.
		
01:11:07 --> 01:11:09
			He ought to be set free.
		
01:11:09 --> 01:11:11
			Did he give food to his own people,
		
01:11:11 --> 01:11:13
			asked Genghis Khan, or to people who were
		
01:11:13 --> 01:11:13
			strangers?
		
01:11:15 --> 01:11:17
			Everyone provides food to his own people, replied
		
01:11:17 --> 01:11:19
			the courtier, but the father of this man
		
01:11:19 --> 01:11:20
			gave food to strangers.
		
01:11:21 --> 01:11:24
			Genghis Khan was very pleased with this reply.
		
01:11:24 --> 01:11:26
			A true saint, he noted, is someone who
		
01:11:26 --> 01:11:29
			gives food to God's people, and immediately he
		
01:11:29 --> 01:11:31
			ordered them to set Khwaja Ali free.
		
01:11:31 --> 01:11:33
			He also gave the saint's son a cloak
		
01:11:33 --> 01:11:35
			and apologized for having detained him.
		
01:11:36 --> 01:11:37
			'In every religion,'
		
01:11:37 --> 01:11:38
			concluded the master,
		
01:11:39 --> 01:11:42
			giving food to others is a commendable action.
		
01:11:49 --> 01:11:52
			Thursday 13th Jumrath Thurni 708. You have to
		
01:11:52 --> 01:11:55
			remember that Khwaja Nizamuddin is not just fasting
		
01:11:55 --> 01:11:57
			in Ramadan, but fasting the white days, the
		
01:11:57 --> 01:11:58
			3
		
01:11:58 --> 01:12:00
			moonlit nights at the middle of each lunar
		
01:12:00 --> 01:12:01
			month. And also,
		
01:12:02 --> 01:12:04
			very frequently at other times as well, observing
		
01:12:04 --> 01:12:07
			the fast of Dawud, which is fasting alternatively
		
01:12:07 --> 01:12:08
			alternate days.
		
01:12:09 --> 01:12:11
			So this assembly is a long discussion of
		
01:12:11 --> 01:12:14
			fasting with detailed reference to prophetic precedence and
		
01:12:14 --> 01:12:15
			their interpretations.
		
01:12:16 --> 01:12:19
			If someone fasts continuously, explained the master, the
		
01:12:19 --> 01:12:21
			pain of fasting becomes easy for him. The
		
01:12:21 --> 01:12:24
			reward is greater, however, for the person on
		
01:12:24 --> 01:12:26
			whose soul the act of fasting weighs more
		
01:12:26 --> 01:12:26
			heavily.
		
01:12:27 --> 01:12:29
			Hence, the fast of David is this, one
		
01:12:29 --> 01:12:30
			day you fast,
		
01:12:30 --> 01:12:32
			the next day you break the fast.
		
01:12:39 --> 01:12:42
			Thursday, 27th of Jamada Thurney 708.
		
01:12:46 --> 01:12:48
			When evening came, and it was Friday evening,
		
01:12:48 --> 01:12:50
			a woman presented herself to the master and
		
01:12:50 --> 01:12:53
			professed allegiance to him. She took her bea.
		
01:12:53 --> 01:12:56
			He then began to comment on the numerous
		
01:12:56 --> 01:12:58
			benefits that accrue from the virtue of women.
		
01:12:59 --> 01:13:01
			And here you have his
		
01:13:04 --> 01:13:07
			famous image. The Master then declared that dervishes
		
01:13:07 --> 01:13:10
			who ask saintly women and saintly men to
		
01:13:10 --> 01:13:11
			pray on their behalf
		
01:13:11 --> 01:13:13
			invoke saintly women first.
		
01:13:13 --> 01:13:15
			When a wild lion comes into an inhabited
		
01:13:15 --> 01:13:17
			area from the forest, he explained, no one
		
01:13:17 --> 01:13:19
			asks, is it male or female?
		
01:13:20 --> 01:13:22
			Similarly, the sons of Adam, whether they be
		
01:13:22 --> 01:13:25
			men or women, must devote themselves to obedience
		
01:13:25 --> 01:13:26
			and piety.
		
01:13:33 --> 01:13:34
			Thursday, 25th Charbon,
		
01:13:35 --> 01:13:36
			the year 708.
		
01:13:38 --> 01:13:39
			He then began to tell the story of
		
01:13:39 --> 01:13:40
			a certain grocer
		
01:13:41 --> 01:13:43
			who fasted for 25 years.
		
01:13:43 --> 01:13:46
			He informed nobody about his practice. Even the
		
01:13:46 --> 01:13:47
			members of his own household did not know
		
01:13:47 --> 01:13:48
			that he was fasting.
		
01:13:49 --> 01:13:50
			If he was at home, he would lead
		
01:13:50 --> 01:13:52
			people to believe that he'd eaten at his
		
01:13:52 --> 01:13:54
			shop. And if he was at his shop,
		
01:13:54 --> 01:13:56
			he would lead people to believe that he
		
01:13:56 --> 01:13:57
			had eaten at home.
		
01:13:58 --> 01:14:00
			The basis for spiritual endeavors must be a
		
01:14:00 --> 01:14:01
			sound intention,
		
01:14:02 --> 01:14:04
			observed the master. Because while people note what
		
01:14:04 --> 01:14:07
			you do, God almighty takes note of what
		
01:14:07 --> 01:14:08
			you intend to do.
		
01:14:09 --> 01:14:11
			When your intention is fixed on God, then
		
01:14:11 --> 01:14:12
			a little amount of work will be greatly
		
01:14:12 --> 01:14:13
			rewarded.
		
01:14:15 --> 01:14:16
			In this connection, he told a story about
		
01:14:16 --> 01:14:18
			the Friday mosque in Damascus.
		
01:14:18 --> 01:14:21
			It had a large Wakhf endowment.
		
01:14:22 --> 01:14:23
			The administrator of that place was such a
		
01:14:23 --> 01:14:26
			powerful person that he was almost equivalent to
		
01:14:26 --> 01:14:27
			a second emperor.
		
01:14:28 --> 01:14:29
			Indeed, if the emperor had a monetary need,
		
01:14:29 --> 01:14:31
			he would take out a loan from the
		
01:14:31 --> 01:14:32
			endowment administrator.
		
01:14:34 --> 01:14:36
			Now it happened that a Dervish who hankered
		
01:14:36 --> 01:14:39
			after those endowment funds began to practice obedience
		
01:14:39 --> 01:14:42
			and devotion in the congregational mosque of Damascus,
		
01:14:42 --> 01:14:44
			in the hope that he might gain fame
		
01:14:44 --> 01:14:46
			and be offered that religious trust.
		
01:14:47 --> 01:14:49
			For some time, he busied himself with acts
		
01:14:49 --> 01:14:51
			of worship and yet no one mentioned his
		
01:14:51 --> 01:14:52
			name.
		
01:14:52 --> 01:14:54
			Then one evening, the power of his worship
		
01:14:54 --> 01:14:56
			caused him to repent of his hypocrisy.
		
01:14:57 --> 01:14:59
			He made a pact with God almighty.
		
01:14:59 --> 01:15:02
			I will worship you for your sake alone.
		
01:15:02 --> 01:15:04
			I'm not making this pact in order to
		
01:15:04 --> 01:15:05
			obtain control of that trust.
		
01:15:06 --> 01:15:08
			He continued to busy himself with acts of
		
01:15:08 --> 01:15:09
			worship,
		
01:15:09 --> 01:15:12
			omitting no detail and performing everything with sound
		
01:15:12 --> 01:15:12
			intention.
		
01:15:13 --> 01:15:15
			Before long, some people approached him to take
		
01:15:15 --> 01:15:17
			the job of administering the mosque endowment.
		
01:15:18 --> 01:15:20
			No, he told them, I've left that. For
		
01:15:20 --> 01:15:22
			a long time I've been very desirous of
		
01:15:22 --> 01:15:24
			such a position, and it's only because I've
		
01:15:24 --> 01:15:25
			left it that they now offer it to
		
01:15:25 --> 01:15:26
			me.
		
01:15:26 --> 01:15:29
			In short, he continued to busy himself with
		
01:15:29 --> 01:15:32
			God Almighty and did not become tainted by
		
01:15:32 --> 01:15:33
			engaging in the occupation
		
01:15:33 --> 01:15:35
			of administering the waf.
		
01:15:43 --> 01:15:45
			Monday, 2nd of Safar 713.
		
01:15:48 --> 01:15:49
			1 of those present remarked,
		
01:15:50 --> 01:15:52
			some persons when speaking about you, it's it's
		
01:15:52 --> 01:15:54
			about Puja Nizam Ad Din, have ascended certain
		
01:15:54 --> 01:15:56
			pulpits in the city, and have gone to
		
01:15:56 --> 01:15:59
			certain places, and proceeded to say such unseemly
		
01:15:59 --> 01:16:01
			things that we cannot repeat them here.
		
01:16:02 --> 01:16:03
			The Master
		
01:16:04 --> 01:16:05
			replied,
		
01:16:05 --> 01:16:06
			I pardon them all.
		
01:16:07 --> 01:16:08
			What sort of place would it be were
		
01:16:08 --> 01:16:10
			men to be constantly engaged in hatred and
		
01:16:10 --> 01:16:11
			slander of others?
		
01:16:12 --> 01:16:14
			Everyone who speaks ill of me, I pardon
		
01:16:14 --> 01:16:15
			him.
		
01:16:15 --> 01:16:18
			You also must pardon slanderers and not harbor
		
01:16:18 --> 01:16:20
			any enmity towards them.
		
01:16:21 --> 01:16:23
			After that, he spoke about a certain chaju
		
01:16:23 --> 01:16:24
			of Indrapati.
		
01:16:25 --> 01:16:27
			Continuously you would speak ill of me and
		
01:16:27 --> 01:16:28
			wish me ill.
		
01:16:28 --> 01:16:31
			Speaking ill of others is one thing, wishing
		
01:16:31 --> 01:16:33
			them ill is something else still worse.
		
01:16:34 --> 01:16:36
			In short, the 3rd day after he died,
		
01:16:36 --> 01:16:38
			I went to his grave and offered prayers
		
01:16:38 --> 01:16:39
			on his behalf.
		
01:16:40 --> 01:16:42
			O Allah, I prayed, whatever bad thing he
		
01:16:42 --> 01:16:44
			said about me, or bad thought he harbored
		
01:16:44 --> 01:16:46
			of me, I forgive him.
		
01:16:46 --> 01:16:48
			Would you please not punish him on my
		
01:16:48 --> 01:16:49
			account?
		
01:16:50 --> 01:16:52
			In this connection he said, if there be
		
01:16:52 --> 01:16:54
			trouble between 2 persons, one of them should
		
01:16:54 --> 01:16:55
			cease the initiative
		
01:16:55 --> 01:16:58
			and cleanse himself of ill thoughts toward the
		
01:16:58 --> 01:16:58
			other.
		
01:16:59 --> 01:17:01
			When his inner self is emptied of enmity,
		
01:17:01 --> 01:17:04
			inevitably that trouble between him and the other
		
01:17:04 --> 01:17:05
			will lessen.
		
01:17:11 --> 01:17:13
			Wednesday 7th of Rajab, 715.
		
01:17:15 --> 01:17:17
			He began to speak about repentance.
		
01:17:19 --> 01:17:22
			Repentance is is of three kinds, past, present,
		
01:17:22 --> 01:17:23
			and future, he explained.
		
01:17:24 --> 01:17:27
			Repentance of the present means repenting and feeling
		
01:17:27 --> 01:17:29
			regret for whatever wrong one has done.
		
01:17:30 --> 01:17:33
			Repentance of the past means being reconciled with
		
01:17:33 --> 01:17:33
			one's enemies.
		
01:17:34 --> 01:17:36
			If someone, for instance, takes 10 dirhams from
		
01:17:36 --> 01:17:39
			another and then says, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
		
01:17:39 --> 01:17:41
			That is not genuine repentance.
		
01:17:41 --> 01:17:44
			Genuine repentance consists of giving back the 10
		
01:17:44 --> 01:17:46
			dirhams, and admitting that one has done a
		
01:17:46 --> 01:17:47
			wrong.
		
01:17:47 --> 01:17:49
			That is real repentance.
		
01:17:49 --> 01:17:51
			And if someone speaks ill of another, he
		
01:17:51 --> 01:17:54
			should go offer apologies, ask pardon of that
		
01:17:54 --> 01:17:56
			person, and be reconciled with him.
		
01:17:56 --> 01:17:58
			And if that person who has spoken ill
		
01:17:58 --> 01:18:01
			of died, before reconciliation was possible,
		
01:18:01 --> 01:18:02
			what to do?
		
01:18:02 --> 01:18:04
			One should act as if he were still
		
01:18:04 --> 01:18:06
			alive and had been spoken ill of. In
		
01:18:06 --> 01:18:08
			other words, one should say such good things
		
01:18:08 --> 01:18:10
			about him, even after his death, that he
		
01:18:10 --> 01:18:11
			will be well remembered.
		
01:18:13 --> 01:18:14
			And what to do if one kills a
		
01:18:14 --> 01:18:16
			person who dies without an heir?
		
01:18:16 --> 01:18:18
			One should free a slave.
		
01:18:18 --> 01:18:20
			That is to say, you cannot bring the
		
01:18:20 --> 01:18:22
			dead to life, and so instead you should
		
01:18:22 --> 01:18:23
			free a slave.
		
01:18:23 --> 01:18:25
			In freeing a slave, it is as if
		
01:18:25 --> 01:18:27
			one has brought a dead person back to
		
01:18:27 --> 01:18:27
			life.
		
01:18:28 --> 01:18:30
			And what to do if one commits adultery
		
01:18:30 --> 01:18:31
			with another man's wife?
		
01:18:32 --> 01:18:34
			There is no provision in Sharia that one
		
01:18:34 --> 01:18:36
			should go and apologize to the husband.
		
01:18:36 --> 01:18:38
			What to do then?
		
01:18:38 --> 01:18:40
			Go and seek forgiveness from God.
		
01:18:41 --> 01:18:43
			In the same vein, he spoke about a
		
01:18:43 --> 01:18:45
			wine drinker who decides to repent.
		
01:18:45 --> 01:18:47
			What should he do? He should give soft
		
01:18:47 --> 01:18:49
			drinks and cool water to the people of
		
01:18:49 --> 01:18:49
			God.
		
01:18:50 --> 01:18:52
			For every act of penance should be consonant
		
01:18:52 --> 01:18:54
			with the sin that was committed.
		
01:18:56 --> 01:18:58
			The second kind of repentance, he continued,
		
01:18:58 --> 01:19:00
			pertains to past sins,
		
01:19:00 --> 01:19:02
			that is what has just been described.
		
01:19:03 --> 01:19:05
			As for the third kind of repentance that
		
01:19:05 --> 01:19:06
			pertains to the future.
		
01:19:07 --> 01:19:09
			One makes the resolve never to sin again,
		
01:19:09 --> 01:19:11
			never again to commit such sins as one
		
01:19:11 --> 01:19:12
			previously committed.
		
01:19:13 --> 01:19:15
			On this point, he told a story about
		
01:19:15 --> 01:19:17
			the time when he professed allegiance to Sheikh
		
01:19:17 --> 01:19:19
			Islam Fari de Deen, Qadasallahu
		
01:19:19 --> 01:19:22
			Sirahu, and also repented of his former misdeeds.
		
01:19:23 --> 01:19:25
			Several times on his blessed lips came the
		
01:19:25 --> 01:19:28
			remark, 1 should be reconciled with 1's enemies,
		
01:19:28 --> 01:19:30
			and he kept stressing that one must make
		
01:19:30 --> 01:19:31
			restitution to those who have a
		
01:19:38 --> 01:19:40
			the and also that I had borrowed a
		
01:19:40 --> 01:19:41
			book from another and had lost
		
01:19:42 --> 01:19:44
			it. As the great sheikh, may God illumine
		
01:19:44 --> 01:19:47
			his grave, continue to speak about reconciliation with
		
01:19:47 --> 01:19:48
			one's enemies,
		
01:19:48 --> 01:19:50
			I realized that he was indeed the channel
		
01:19:50 --> 01:19:52
			for disclosing the world of secrets.
		
01:19:53 --> 01:19:54
			So he was
		
01:19:54 --> 01:19:55
			talking about me.
		
01:19:56 --> 01:19:58
			I resolved to return to Delhi in order
		
01:19:58 --> 01:20:00
			to settle my accounts with these 2 men.
		
01:20:01 --> 01:20:03
			On reaching Delhi from Adro Dan, I first
		
01:20:03 --> 01:20:04
			went to see the man to whom I
		
01:20:04 --> 01:20:05
			owed 20 gitaals.
		
01:20:06 --> 01:20:07
			He was a cloth merchant from whom I
		
01:20:07 --> 01:20:09
			had purchased a robe.
		
01:20:09 --> 01:20:11
			At no time did I manage to save
		
01:20:11 --> 01:20:13
			20 gittals that I might repay him.
		
01:20:13 --> 01:20:15
			It was difficult for me to make a
		
01:20:15 --> 01:20:15
			living.
		
01:20:16 --> 01:20:18
			Some days I would earn 5 jettals, other
		
01:20:18 --> 01:20:19
			days 10 jettals.
		
01:20:20 --> 01:20:21
			As soon as I managed to save 10
		
01:20:21 --> 01:20:23
			zitals, I went to the house of that
		
01:20:23 --> 01:20:25
			cloth merchant and called up to him.
		
01:20:26 --> 01:20:27
			He came out of his house to meet
		
01:20:27 --> 01:20:29
			me. I told him, I owe you 20
		
01:20:29 --> 01:20:31
			zettals, but I do not have the means
		
01:20:31 --> 01:20:33
			to pay you the full amount at one
		
01:20:33 --> 01:20:35
			time. I have brought you these 10 zettals.
		
01:20:36 --> 01:20:38
			Take them, I will bring the other 10
		
01:20:38 --> 01:20:40
			shortly, if God almighty wills.
		
01:20:41 --> 01:20:43
			When he'd heard me out, the man remarked,
		
01:20:43 --> 01:20:44
			fine.
		
01:20:44 --> 01:20:46
			You have come from a saint.
		
01:20:47 --> 01:20:49
			Then taking the 10 jutals, he told me,
		
01:20:49 --> 01:20:51
			I forgive you the 10 remaining jutals.
		
01:20:52 --> 01:20:53
			Next, I went to see the man whose
		
01:20:53 --> 01:20:54
			book I had borrowed.
		
01:20:55 --> 01:20:56
			When I met him, he did not recognize
		
01:20:56 --> 01:20:57
			me.
		
01:20:57 --> 01:20:59
			Who are you? He asked. Oh, sir, I
		
01:20:59 --> 01:21:01
			replied, I am the person who took a
		
01:21:01 --> 01:21:03
			book on loan from you and lost it.
		
01:21:04 --> 01:21:05
			Now I will seek to make another copy
		
01:21:05 --> 01:21:07
			of the book like the one you lent
		
01:21:07 --> 01:21:08
			me and I will bring it to you.
		
01:21:09 --> 01:21:11
			When he'd heard my pledge, this man replied,
		
01:21:11 --> 01:21:12
			fine.
		
01:21:12 --> 01:21:14
			You show the influence of the place from
		
01:21:14 --> 01:21:16
			which you came. I forgive you that book.
		
01:21:24 --> 01:21:25
			Saturday, 10th Ramadan,
		
01:21:26 --> 01:21:26
			716.
		
01:21:29 --> 01:21:31
			Conversation turned to Taraweeh prayers.
		
01:21:32 --> 01:21:33
			Do you say these prayers at home or
		
01:21:33 --> 01:21:36
			in the mosque? He asked me. At home,
		
01:21:36 --> 01:21:38
			I replied, but the prayer leader of the
		
01:21:38 --> 01:21:39
			mosque is a virtuous man.
		
01:21:40 --> 01:21:42
			Yes, noted the master. Once in the congregational
		
01:21:43 --> 01:21:45
			mosque, he completed a full recitation of the
		
01:21:45 --> 01:21:48
			whole Quran during Tarawih prayer.
		
01:21:49 --> 01:21:51
			Every evening, I added, that prayer leader whose
		
01:21:51 --> 01:21:52
			name is Sharafuddin,
		
01:21:52 --> 01:21:54
			reports a juz at the Quran.
		
01:21:55 --> 01:21:57
			The master, may God remember him with favor,
		
01:21:57 --> 01:21:59
			remarked, Indeed he does.
		
01:21:59 --> 01:22:02
			One evening I said prayers behind him. Even
		
01:22:02 --> 01:22:03
			though there had been heavy rains that evening
		
01:22:03 --> 01:22:05
			and the streets were full of mud, I
		
01:22:05 --> 01:22:06
			still went to say my prayers.
		
01:22:07 --> 01:22:09
			With such care did that man recite the
		
01:22:09 --> 01:22:11
			prayers that he seemed to pronounce each letter
		
01:22:11 --> 01:22:13
			as correctly as it is possible to pronounce
		
01:22:13 --> 01:22:13
			it.
		
01:22:14 --> 01:22:16
			In this connection, the Master began to talk
		
01:22:16 --> 01:22:17
			about a scholar from Sonam.
		
01:22:18 --> 01:22:20
			His name was Maulana Daulatyar.
		
01:22:20 --> 01:22:23
			He too would recite prayers so eloquently that
		
01:22:23 --> 01:22:25
			no one could succeed in reciting as he
		
01:22:25 --> 01:22:25
			did.
		
01:22:31 --> 01:22:34
			The Master then began to talk about Khwaja
		
01:22:34 --> 01:22:36
			Aziz, the chief police officer of Badaun.
		
01:22:37 --> 01:22:39
			He was a fine man, a disciple of
		
01:22:39 --> 01:22:41
			dervishes himself attached to Sheikh Dia ad Din
		
01:22:41 --> 01:22:42
			of Badaun.
		
01:22:43 --> 01:22:45
			From time to time, he would remember other
		
01:22:45 --> 01:22:48
			dervishes, and summoning them to an audience, he
		
01:22:48 --> 01:22:50
			would arrange a special event on their behalf.
		
01:22:51 --> 01:22:53
			There was in Badaun a youth who'd recently
		
01:22:53 --> 01:22:54
			converted to Islam.
		
01:22:55 --> 01:22:57
			He related to the master the following incident.
		
01:22:59 --> 01:23:01
			One day, I was proceeding towards the public
		
01:23:01 --> 01:23:02
			gardens of Badaun.
		
01:23:02 --> 01:23:05
			This noble officer was seated underneath a tree
		
01:23:05 --> 01:23:06
			and had set up a table.
		
01:23:07 --> 01:23:08
			When he saw me from afar he shouted,
		
01:23:08 --> 01:23:09
			Hello, come here.
		
01:23:10 --> 01:23:12
			I was afraid. I didn't want to disturb
		
01:23:12 --> 01:23:12
			him.
		
01:23:13 --> 01:23:15
			Yet I did approach him and he treated
		
01:23:15 --> 01:23:17
			me with extreme deference, extreme deference, seating me
		
01:23:17 --> 01:23:18
			next to himself.
		
01:23:19 --> 01:23:21
			After eating some food, I got up and
		
01:23:21 --> 01:23:21
			left.
		
01:23:22 --> 01:23:23
			This is another traditional
		
01:23:25 --> 01:23:25
			institution,
		
01:23:25 --> 01:23:28
			that one always treats with real deference. People
		
01:23:28 --> 01:23:31
			have recently converted to Islam. You don't patronize
		
01:23:31 --> 01:23:32
			them. You
		
01:23:32 --> 01:23:33
			look up to them.
		
01:23:36 --> 01:23:38
			Thursday, 4th of the blessed month of Ramadan,
		
01:23:39 --> 01:23:41
			in the year of the Hijra 717.
		
01:23:43 --> 01:23:45
			A disciple of the masters arrived and brought
		
01:23:45 --> 01:23:48
			a Hindu friend with him. He introduced him
		
01:23:48 --> 01:23:49
			by saying, this is my brother.
		
01:23:50 --> 01:23:52
			When he had greeted both of them, the
		
01:23:52 --> 01:23:54
			master, may God remember him with favor, asked
		
01:23:54 --> 01:23:55
			that disciple,
		
01:23:56 --> 01:23:57
			and does this brother of yours have any
		
01:23:57 --> 01:23:59
			inclination towards Islam?
		
01:24:00 --> 01:24:02
			It is to this end, replied the disciple,
		
01:24:02 --> 01:24:03
			that I have brought him to the Master,
		
01:24:04 --> 01:24:05
			that by the blessing of your gaze he
		
01:24:05 --> 01:24:06
			might become a Muslim.
		
01:24:07 --> 01:24:09
			The Master became teary eyed.
		
01:24:10 --> 01:24:11
			You can talk to these people as much
		
01:24:11 --> 01:24:13
			as you want, he observed, and no one's
		
01:24:13 --> 01:24:14
			heart will be changed.
		
01:24:15 --> 01:24:16
			But if you find the company of a
		
01:24:16 --> 01:24:18
			righteous person, then it may be hoped that
		
01:24:18 --> 01:24:20
			by the blessing of his company, the other
		
01:24:20 --> 01:24:22
			will become a Muslim.
		
01:24:25 --> 01:24:27
			And then in connection with sincerity and honesty
		
01:24:27 --> 01:24:29
			among Muslims, he told the following story.
		
01:24:30 --> 01:24:32
			There was a Jew who lived in the
		
01:24:32 --> 01:24:34
			neighborhood of Khwaja Bayezid Bistami,
		
01:24:36 --> 01:24:38
			When Khwaja Bayazid died they said to that
		
01:24:38 --> 01:24:40
			Jew, Why did you not become a Muslim?
		
01:24:41 --> 01:24:44
			He replied, If Islam is what Bayezid professed,
		
01:24:44 --> 01:24:47
			then I cannot attain it. But if it
		
01:24:47 --> 01:24:49
			is what you profess, then of such an
		
01:24:49 --> 01:24:50
			Islam, I would be ashamed.
		
01:25:05 --> 01:25:06
			Sunday, 23rd Muharram,
		
01:25:07 --> 01:25:07
			7/21.
		
01:25:09 --> 01:25:11
			Conversation turned to the morality of dervishes and
		
01:25:11 --> 01:25:14
			their dealings with those who harbor ill will
		
01:25:14 --> 01:25:15
			towards them.
		
01:25:16 --> 01:25:18
			There was a King named Tarani who were
		
01:25:18 --> 01:25:19
			called the Master, but they killed him in
		
01:25:19 --> 01:25:20
			an uprising.
		
01:25:21 --> 01:25:23
			Sheikh Sefed Din Baharazi, may God have mercy
		
01:25:23 --> 01:25:25
			upon him, had a great affection for this
		
01:25:25 --> 01:25:26
			Tarani.
		
01:25:27 --> 01:25:29
			After his death, they made another man king.
		
01:25:30 --> 01:25:32
			That newly installed king appointed a certain astrologer
		
01:25:32 --> 01:25:35
			in a position of favor, and that astrologer
		
01:25:35 --> 01:25:38
			harbored enmity towards Sheikh Saifeddeen Baharazi.
		
01:25:39 --> 01:25:41
			When the astrologer had the opportunity to address
		
01:25:41 --> 01:25:44
			the monarch, he said, the kingdom has been
		
01:25:44 --> 01:25:46
			entrusted to you. Drive out Sheikh Saifed Din
		
01:25:46 --> 01:25:49
			Baharazi for he is a master in toppling
		
01:25:49 --> 01:25:49
			kingdoms.
		
01:25:50 --> 01:25:52
			The king accepted his advice.
		
01:25:52 --> 01:25:55
			Go, he commanded his astrologer, and by whatever
		
01:25:55 --> 01:25:57
			means you have at your disposal, bring the
		
01:25:57 --> 01:25:58
			sheikh here.
		
01:25:59 --> 01:26:00
			The astrologer left, and when he called on
		
01:26:00 --> 01:26:02
			the sheikh, he showed obvious disrespect.
		
01:26:03 --> 01:26:05
			He took off his turban, wrapped it around
		
01:26:05 --> 01:26:08
			his waist, and did other similarly impudent things.
		
01:26:09 --> 01:26:11
			In short, when Sheikh Seifed Dean came to
		
01:26:11 --> 01:26:14
			the royal court, he stared so intently at
		
01:26:14 --> 01:26:16
			the king that the latter became embarrassed.
		
01:26:17 --> 01:26:20
			Immediately descended from his throne, and uttering profuse
		
01:26:20 --> 01:26:20
			apologies,
		
01:26:21 --> 01:26:23
			began to kiss the hands of the sheikh.
		
01:26:23 --> 01:26:25
			He offered a horse and other presents to
		
01:26:25 --> 01:26:27
			the sheikh. He implored his forgiveness saying, I
		
01:26:27 --> 01:26:29
			did not command that you be brought here
		
01:26:29 --> 01:26:30
			in this manner.
		
01:26:31 --> 01:26:33
			The sheikh departed the royal court and returned
		
01:26:33 --> 01:26:34
			home.
		
01:26:34 --> 01:26:37
			The next day, the monarch sent that astrologer
		
01:26:37 --> 01:26:38
			bound hand and foot to the sheikh with
		
01:26:38 --> 01:26:40
			a message, I have given the command for
		
01:26:40 --> 01:26:43
			this astrologer to be killed. Now I'm sending
		
01:26:43 --> 01:26:45
			him to you. In whatever way suits you,
		
01:26:45 --> 01:26:46
			kill him.
		
01:26:47 --> 01:26:48
			As soon as he set eyes on that
		
01:26:48 --> 01:26:51
			astrologer, the sheikh once freed his hands and
		
01:26:51 --> 01:26:51
			feet.
		
01:26:52 --> 01:26:53
			He made him put on the cloak that
		
01:26:53 --> 01:26:55
			he, the Sheik, was wearing.
		
01:26:55 --> 01:26:58
			Today join with me, he said, in remembering
		
01:26:58 --> 01:26:58
			God.
		
01:26:59 --> 01:27:00
			That day was Monday.
		
01:27:01 --> 01:27:02
			The sheikh went to the mosque to offer
		
01:27:02 --> 01:27:04
			his customary remembrance of God.
		
01:27:05 --> 01:27:07
			He took the astrologer with him, and ascending
		
01:27:07 --> 01:27:09
			the pulpit, he spoke the following couplet.
		
01:27:10 --> 01:27:12
			To though to those who do me wrong,
		
01:27:12 --> 01:27:14
			I would, if possible, do only good.
		
01:27:15 --> 01:27:18
			After narrating this story, the master observed,
		
01:27:18 --> 01:27:20
			every action that comes from man, whether good
		
01:27:20 --> 01:27:23
			or bad, the creator of that is God
		
01:27:23 --> 01:27:23
			almighty.
		
01:27:24 --> 01:27:26
			Hence, whatever is done is done ultimately by
		
01:27:26 --> 01:27:27
			God.
		
01:27:27 --> 01:27:29
			Why then should I be disturbed by someone
		
01:27:30 --> 01:27:31
			no matter what he does?
		
01:27:33 --> 01:27:35
			Tuesday 17th of Safar
		
01:27:36 --> 01:27:36
			7/22.
		
01:27:38 --> 01:27:40
			Conversation turned to the generous disposition of the
		
01:27:40 --> 01:27:42
			dervishes and their beautiful conduct.
		
01:27:43 --> 01:27:45
			One evening, he recalled, a thief entered the
		
01:27:45 --> 01:27:47
			house of Sheikh Ahmad Nahrawani.
		
01:27:47 --> 01:27:49
			May God grant him mercy and comfort.
		
01:27:50 --> 01:27:52
			And this sheikh Ahmad was a weaver.
		
01:27:52 --> 01:27:54
			The thief searched the whole house and found
		
01:27:54 --> 01:27:55
			nothing.
		
01:27:55 --> 01:27:57
			He was about to leave when sheikh Ahmad
		
01:27:57 --> 01:27:58
			cried out and made him promise that he
		
01:27:58 --> 01:27:59
			would wait a minute.
		
01:28:00 --> 01:28:02
			Sheikh Ahmed then looked into his own workshop.
		
01:28:03 --> 01:28:04
			He took a bundle of yarn that he
		
01:28:04 --> 01:28:07
			himself had made, and from it spun several
		
01:28:07 --> 01:28:08
			reams of yarn.
		
01:28:09 --> 01:28:11
			After separating these reams from the rest of
		
01:28:11 --> 01:28:13
			the yarn, he offered them to the thief.
		
01:28:13 --> 01:28:15
			Take them, he said. The thief took them
		
01:28:15 --> 01:28:16
			and left.
		
01:28:16 --> 01:28:19
			The next day, that thief, together with his
		
01:28:19 --> 01:28:20
			mother and father, returned.
		
01:28:20 --> 01:28:22
			Touching their heads to the ground before Sheikh
		
01:28:22 --> 01:28:24
			Ahmed, they repented of their thievery.
		
01:28:26 --> 01:28:27
			So those are some
		
01:28:28 --> 01:28:30
			drops from the ocean of
		
01:28:31 --> 01:28:33
			that small proportion of the sheikh's,
		
01:28:33 --> 01:28:36
			gatherings, which have been recorded by Amir Hassan
		
01:28:36 --> 01:28:38
			Sijzi. And they give us perhaps,
		
01:28:39 --> 01:28:41
			in a way better than just an academic
		
01:28:41 --> 01:28:43
			discourse could,
		
01:28:43 --> 01:28:46
			a sense of the perfume that attended those
		
01:28:46 --> 01:28:47
			amazing transformative
		
01:28:48 --> 01:28:50
			gatherings. And, what we find in them is,
		
01:28:51 --> 01:28:52
			an extraordinary
		
01:28:53 --> 01:28:53
			embrace,
		
01:28:54 --> 01:28:57
			of humanity in its difference of the sinner
		
01:28:58 --> 01:28:59
			and of the non Muslim
		
01:29:00 --> 01:29:01
			and of disadvantaged
		
01:29:01 --> 01:29:04
			classes of society, of women,
		
01:29:04 --> 01:29:07
			they're all welcome on his carpet.
		
01:29:07 --> 01:29:09
			And this was the way in which the
		
01:29:09 --> 01:29:10
			subcontinent
		
01:29:11 --> 01:29:12
			traded up to Islam,
		
01:29:13 --> 01:29:14
			not through the Muftis
		
01:29:14 --> 01:29:17
			and the Ullama I kiram and not through
		
01:29:17 --> 01:29:19
			the sultans, but through this kind of
		
01:29:20 --> 01:29:21
			humble teaching.
		
01:29:21 --> 01:29:22
			Simple,
		
01:29:23 --> 01:29:26
			loving, effective. So perhaps the moral of today's
		
01:29:26 --> 01:29:29
			lesson is, if we wish not just to
		
01:29:29 --> 01:29:29
			survive
		
01:29:30 --> 01:29:33
			in our Western diaspora, but to thrive and
		
01:29:33 --> 01:29:34
			to expand,
		
01:29:34 --> 01:29:36
			perhaps we should humble ourselves,
		
01:29:37 --> 01:29:38
			have more respect for our neighbors,
		
01:29:39 --> 01:29:40
			fuss less about
		
01:29:41 --> 01:29:41
			Islamophobes,
		
01:29:42 --> 01:29:44
			and try to melt hearts because that's the
		
01:29:44 --> 01:29:46
			most important part of the human being. So
		
01:29:46 --> 01:29:48
			may Allah, bless us in this month of
		
01:29:48 --> 01:29:49
			Ramadan
		
01:29:50 --> 01:29:52
			and send down his mercy upon us as
		
01:29:52 --> 01:29:54
			we remember those of past ages
		
01:29:55 --> 01:29:58
			who were such munificent distributors of his mercy.
		
01:30:05 --> 01:30:08
			Cambridge Muslim College, training the next generation of
		
01:30:08 --> 01:30:09
			Muslim thinkers.