Sarmad - the naked heretic

“When a heart is vulnerable to love, the darner’s needle acts as efficaciously as the executioner’s axe in slicing it down the middle… It seems that the simple Iranian trader, with an intensely lonely heart, was desperately looking for a buyer. When he felt the thrill of discovering one, he did not bother to find out who he was and what he offered in exchange. That a precious commodity (his heart) was desired by a pair of magical eyes, was enough reason for celebration. The deal was clinched.”

(Except from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s Urdu essay ‘Sarmad Shaheed’)

Contrary to the syncretic image which Sufi preachers enjoy, almost all without fail preached Islam, many fought Jihad for the Sultans and none parroted the Hindu belief of all religions being the same. What did set apart many of the Sufi preachers from their more puritanical counterparts was their relative benignity and unorthodoxy which in some ways, did not seem to conform fully to the Shariah.

What is noteworthy is that inspite of a popular imagery of conflict with puritanical Islam, hardly any major Sufi mystic was punished for heresy in India, even during the reigns of orthodox Sultans like Firuz Shah or Aurangzeb. Most of the times, the persecution of a particular Sufi mystic, e.g. Mansur Al-Hallaj of the Abbasid Caliphate followed more from political conflicts rather than on issues pertaining to religion. And why would it be? When right from the tenth century, it had been settled in Islamic jurisprudence that Sufi sects are true believers and act in conformity to principles of Islam.

Of the handful of Sufis who did not die on battlefield or of old age, the name of Muhammad Sa‘id Sarmad Kashani stands out. The tales around Sarmad are interesting for many reasons.

Probably born a Jew in the Iranian city of Kashan, Sarmad, in course of his trade, reached Thatta, a major port in Sind. There he fell in love with Abhai Chand, an inordinately beautiful sixteen year old son of a rich trader. Understandably horrified by the idea of a middle aged man seemingly lusting for his son, the trader sent his son away. Overcome by the shock of this act of Abhai’s father, Sarmad gave away all his belongings to the point of discarding his clothes. In his nude state, he sat at the door of Abhai’s house for days.

Abhai’s parents were touched by Sarmad’s act of renunciation. Convinced that his love for their son was genuine, they allowed Sarmad to take him under his tutelage. As surprising as this may sound today, this is what the tradition says.

Apparently, Sarmad never cared to cover himself ever again, let his hair and nails grow and became, at least in the physical sense, one of the many wandering mendicants of India. Accompanied by Abhai, he moved across India, to Lahore, to Hyderabad in Deccan before setting up his base in Delhi.

Dara Shikoh took a fancy to him and Sarmad proclaimed an impending victory to Dara in the war of succession. However, Dara lost, was captured, publicly humiliated and killed. Soon after his coronation, Aurangzeb put Sarmad to trial on 2 charges, nudity which was haram as per Islam and for refusing to recite the complete shahada. Sarmad would stop his recitation at “La Ilaha,” which means there is no God. He refused to recite the rest of it (Illallah, Muhammad-ur Rasul Allah) as he claimed that he was still absorbed with the negative part and won’t tell a lie.

For this heresy, Sarmad was beheaded on the steps of Jama Masjid. Miraculously, his cleaved head recited the complete shahada, indicating that he had completed his search and found God!

While this is the tale, more that the story itself, it is its treatment by many, which makes Sarmad Kashani such an interesting figure.

In popularity, Sarmad hardly stands anywhere even remotely close to the Chishtis and Aulias of India. His shrine is a small domeless structure, opposite Gate no 2 of Jama Masjid. Sarmad shares his resting place with Hare Bhare Shahm another Sufi mystic. The mazaar does not attract many visitors and even the locals identify the structure more with Hare Bhare Shah rather than Sarmad Shahid.

Sarmad has not left behind any order, any prominent murid or even any significant body of work. Though feted by Dara and probably respected well enough by the general public, there is little evidence that Sarmad was a very influential figure even in his prime. True, he was an accomplished poet and has left behind 300-odd Rubaiyyat in Persian. 

Exquisitely crafted, many of these can be read simply as a tribute of his love for Abhai Chand.

My heart is again lost in love for a beautiful one;

It is lost in desire and grief for the sweet-faced one;

I’m old but my heart still has the strength of youth,

That is, in autumn it blooms like spring. (from Asiri 1950, No. 71)

At the same time, Sarmad also composed more sublime verses in praise of God

Though He knows about my sins well,

Yet He calls me every moment to the table of His bounties,

I contemplated much about my hopes and fears,

And [I found] He is kinder to me than to all others (from Asiri 1950, No. 125)

Yet, the fact remains that many of Sarmad has had very limited impact on evolution of spiritual thoughts in the Sufi order in India. Many of his contemporaries despised Sarmad’s devotion as naẓar ilā-l-murd, love for the beardless boy and today, hardly are people aware of him.

Hence, it is quite interesting to note that almost all works by foreign authors on Sufi traditions in Delhi, or those works which explore history of alternate sexuality, celebrate the tale of Sarmad Kashani.

For someone who lived his life in the most unorthodox of manners, it would be most galling to note that after death, each of the groups have moulded his tale to suit their own prejudices.

If we discount miracles, the story of the severed head of Sarmad reciting the full Shahada only serves to affirm that the killed was not an apostate but a true believer, that death showed him the truth which he could not comprehend in life. Sarmad did not hide his unconventional love anytime when he was alive.

In religion, o Sarmad, you have created a strange confusion,

As you have offered your faith to the intoxicating eyes (of the Beloved)

With all humility and politeness you approached

And offered all your gains to the idol-worshipper. (from Asiri 1950, No. 326)

Yet, in death, all those who have accepted him have morphed his life to suit their own sensibiities. For the conservative, his love for Abhai is the love of a father for his son (as per fakirs frequenting the shrine). Some prefer to align it more with conventional Sufi percepts where the God is loved as a lover. Hence, arch-conservatives like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad could navigate around his forbidden love through use of the following imagery - “Thatta was Sarmad’s Mount Sinai… it was a Hindu boy whose divine glance cast a spell over Sarmad.” (from Azad’s Urdu essay ‘Sarmad Shaheed’). For the self-professed liberal, he is a blazing symbol of same-sex love in medieval India while for some others, he is an emblem of diversity inherent to Indian people. Perhaps the most benign of all these assimilations is that of the lay devotee, who sublimely unaware of Sarmad's sexuality or politics, comes to his shrine with a simple hope of getting their wishes fulfilled.

In a history full of warrior Sufis, proselytizing Sufis, orthodox Sufis and Sufis who either waged Jihad themselves or invited foreign rulers to wage Jihad on al-Hind, Sarmad Kashani stands apart for being a mendicant who had little time for matters other than love. From all accounts, Abhai Chand remained a Hindu and Sarmad’s own verses were at times ambiguous as regards his own convictions.

O Sarmad! Thou hast won a great name in the world,

Since thou hast turned away from infidelity to Islam.

What wrong was there in God and His Prophet

That you hast become a disciple of Lacchman and Rama? (from Asiri 1950, No. 334)

Was Sarmad truly a saint? No, if we want proofs of miracles. His own prediction of Dara Shikoh’s victory was proven false and he tried to cover it up by proclaiming “God has given him eternal sovereignty and my promise is not falsified.”

But moving away from miracles, if we see conviction, absence of pretensions and renunciation as a proof of sainthood, then the mere fact that Sarmad Kashani remained steadfast to his beliefs even at the altar of death, makes him deserving for respect.

Among his last lines were:

There was an uproar and we opened our eyes from eternal sleep

Saw that the night of wickedness endured, so we slept again

The nakedness of the body was the dust of the road to the friend

That too was severed, with the sword, from our head

History is many a times a fantasy filled game of ‘what-ifs’. What if Dara Shikoh had won the war of succession? Would Sarmad then have enjoyed renown rivaling better known Sufis. Difficult to say, but unlikely. Sarmad was too much of a heterodox to be accepted whole-heartedly in any order.

In the words of American historian Waldemar Hansen, Sarmad is one of those profoundly disturbing mystics whom only the East could produce and perhaps only India could tolerate”

And toleration is far-far away from veneration.

The very reason why Sarmad’s story is fascinating is that it is one of its kind. Neither his philosophy, nor his acts and definitely not his life is a representation of Sufism in India. He should be studied, if for nothing, if only to confirm that India is indeed a land where even caricatures are real, where unbelievable gets believed in and where the impossible happens.

Reference: Sarmad: Life and Death of a Sufi by Natalia Prigarina (Institute of Oriental Studies, Russia).