"From the books of the sheikhs, it is evident that there are four thousand walis, or saints, they are called the maktooms, the ‘veiled ones’. They do not recognize one another and are oblivious to their own gifted status. There are another three hundred, vanguards in the court of the Almighty; they are called akhyar, the ‘chosen ones’; there are another forty called, abdal, the ‘deputies’ and another seven, called abrar the ‘elders’ and another four called autaad, the ‘fulcrums’, and another three called nuqaba, or ‘heralds’, and another two called imams, the ‘leaders’ and they sit to the right and to the left of the qutb or the ‘pole’ who is also called the ghaus or the ‘saviour’. They recognize one another and support one another.”
Thus begins Sakinatul Aulia, the book that Dara Shikoh wrote about Hazrat Mian Mir, the eminent Sufi saint of Lahore. The prince takes the quote itself from Hazrat Ali Hajveri’s Kashful Mahjoob (‘The Lifting of the Veils’).
Dara writes further in Safina tul Aulia:
“There is another community called the mufrids or the ‘individuals’. They are a most distinguished community and are free of worldly desire. […] Yours Truly is solicitous that the Almighty Allah gives him the blessings of this community, in this world and the next, gives him the strength to do good; gives him salvation, and gives him reprieve, and counts him among the lowliest of His friends, and raises him among this community, on the Day of Judgment, and gives him the fortune of faith with their beneficence.”
He writes in a couplet:
“I despair that my deeds will not be my salvation;
on your mercy, I do rely.”
***
Badshah e Buland Iqbal (“The King of Lofty Fortune”) Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, was born in 1615. After Shah Jahan took ill, an internecine war of succession broke out amongst the Mughal princes.
A depiction of Dara Shikoh and his wife Nadira Banu Begum
The armies of Dara and Aurangzeb faced one another in the battle of Samugarh, near Agra. Dara Shikoh managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when he stepped down from his howdah to come to the aid of his beleaguered soldiers. When they saw the empty howdah, the soldiers assumed that Dara had been killed and surrendered en masse.
Dara escaped to Thatta in Sindh and thence to Gujarat, after crossing the Rann of Kutch. He gave fight once more after rallying his forces, at Deorai, near Ajmer, in which he was roundly defeated. He sought refuge with a local chieftain on the escape route to Afghanistan. His host betrayed him to Aurangzeb.
Leading his army from atop an elephant - Dara Shikoh
Dara was brought in chains to the capital and paraded on an elephant around the city. He was a popular prince and was cheered by the crowd. This extinguished hope, if any, of his survival, and he was slaughtered by Aurangzeb after a show trial, having been accused of apostasy before the court – who found him guilty as charged.
His fate reminds me of our own Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the 20th century, who was released by General Zia-ul-Haq and undertook a train journey across the country, to a rapturous public welcome. This probably sealed his fate, as it aroused fear and anxiety in the military dictator and led to a judicial murder of the popular leader.
Dara is said to have been friendly with Sarmad, the naked mystic of Jewish Armenian antecedents who was also killed by Aurangzeb. It is said of Aurangzeb that he never missed a prayer or a brother (whom he did not kill).
Sheikh Mohammad, better known as Hazrat Mian Mir of Lahore, was born in Sewistan, now called Sehwan, in Sindh. He chose to make Lahore his permanent abode. Dara first met Mian Mir at age twenty. Dara had fallen ill and the court physicians had given up hope. He was taken by his father to see the sheikh, who gave him some water after blowing over it with a prayer. Dara drank it and was well within a week. He quotes Mian Mir as saying that a “Sufi is someone who is not”. i.e. a man of God is someone who has effaced his own being completely. He used to recite this couplet:
Shart e awal dar traeeq e ashiqi daani keh cheest? Tark kardan har do alam ra wa pusht e pa zadan.
(Do you know the first condition in the path of love? Kick away the desire for this world and the next)
Mian Mir and his mureeds (disciples) would go out out of the city after the morning prayers, to the woods and the wilderness. They would spread out and sit under the trees, except during prayer times, when they would come together in the congregation. After prayers, they would go back to their solitary meditations. At night the sheikh would retire to his own room and sometimes spend the whole night in prayer. He died in Mohalla Khafi, Lahore, in 1635 and was buried in the village of Hashim Pur in the suburbs, now near Lahore Cantonment. It was actually called Mian Mir’s Cantonment during the Sikh and British eras.
Dara is said to have been friendly with Sarmad, the naked mystic of Jewish Armenian antecedents who was also killed by Aurangzeb
These saints of yore performed miracles on a regular basis. Mian Mir is recorded by Dara to have performed the following miracles: talking to poisonous snakes, reviving dead birds, predicting the outcome of distant battles, forecasting stormy weather, curing patients on their deathbed, taking a nightly trip to remote places like Kashmir and Makkah, creating fruit-laden trees and fresh water streams in the desert and creating shops of luxury goods in the wilderness.
Dara was a keen learner of the Hindu religious texts. He had the Upanishads translated into Persian and had a famous dialogue with Baba Lal Beragi, a Hindu mystic, discussing the questions of philosophy and cosmology. This was published in book called Sual wa Jawab, (Questions and Asnwers).
Dara concluded that the Hindu belief system, at its core, was a monotheistic one, and therefore not incompatible with Islam. He brought together the synthesis of these two great religions in his book called Majma’a tul Bahrain (The Union of Two Oceans).
18th-century depiction of Sarmad and Prince Dara Shikoh
Although Dara placed himself squarely within the Islamic faith and did not try to rewrite the canon - as his great grandfather, Akbar had once done - he was not very popular with the orthodox, including those of the Qadiri order, with which he identified himself. On the other hand, the wily Aurangzeb was able to win their favour. Perhaps it says more about the power politics of the time than matters of faith.
Dara was a disciple of Mian Mir’s caliph, Shah Muhammad – who came down from Badakhshan in Afghanistan to be a disciple to Mian Mir. He was given a cold shoulder by the sheikh for three years. Eventually, the sheikh warmed to him and took him as his special acolyte. Dara says that Shah Mohammed, also called Mullah Akhund, never slept for thirty years. He was also unique in holding his breath so that would be able to stay up the night, praying, having taken only one breath. For his part, the mystic also wrote poetry praising Dara. silvera.lt - sidabriniai gaminiai internetu
Mughal miniature depicting Dara Shikoh with three sages (circa 1650)
Disciple of Mian Mir - a young Dara Shikoh
Dara concluded that the Hindu belief system, at its core, was a monotheistic one, and therefore not incompatible with Islam. He brought together the synthesis of these two great religions in his book called Majma’a tul Bahrain (The Union of Two Oceans)
In fact, Dara had wanted to build a grand mausoleum over the grave of Hazrat Mian Mir. For this, he had red sandstone brought in from Rajasthan. Alas, he did not live to carry out this project.
The stone was eventually used by Aurangzeb in building a magnificent mosque in Lahore, now called the Badshahi Masjid.
Athar Ahmed Saeed is a physician and lives in Durham, United Kingdom. Send him an e-mail: hakimhazik@gmail.com
