Indo-Muslim Interactions in the Mojaddedi Tradition: Observations on ʿAndalib’s Nāla-ye ʿAndalib

What is it about?

A variety of Sufi orders have contributed to the establishment of a hybridized mystical culture in Islamicate India. India has also witnessed Sufi dynamics featuring the counter-interaction. The reformist Sufi trend of Mojaddediyya founded by Serhendi (d. 1624), with the important characteristic of calling for pure Islam, is a remarkable example for such anti-hybridization dynamics. By means of textual and intertextual analysis, this article tries to shed light on the position of Mojaddedi Tariqa Mohammadiyya Khālesa towards the Indo-Persian and Indo-Muslim interactions. It shows how the Tariqa Mohammadiyya Khālesa on the one side participated in the process of cultural and religious adaptations in the Indian environment while on the other side it acted as a critic of Hindu culture, religion, and rituals and thus worked as a hindrance to the construction of the shared tradition. For this Purpose, considerable observations on the Nāla-ye ‘Andalib, the Persian masterpiece by the Mojaddedi founder of this path, Mohammad Nāser ‘Andalib (d. 1758), are propounded. This article also tries to make clear how Indian Sufi reformists criticized Muslims’ participation in Indian rituals and their adoption of Indian practices and behaviors in their daily life; and how those reformists questioned the pantheistic weltanschauung of wahdat al-wujud (“unity of Being”) in terms of “hama ust” (everything is He) that had prepared a potential ground for Indo-Muslim interactions.

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