“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).
