INDIAN MUSLIM WOMEN SAINTS

DAY 10

INDIAN MUSLIM WOMEN SAINTS 

The article first appeared as a full article in Zariya-Women’s Alliance for Dignity and Equality

How are we to look at the category of women saints in a country riddled with misogyny? 

Yes and narrowing down to Muslim women saints, it is even more unpalatable for many that  a community which more often than  not   demolishes women’s rights ensured by God itself, has a plethora of women saints spread across the length and breadth of the country.

Dr. Amina Wadud gives a framework[1] under which we can further explore this issue. While the classical framework envisages[2] the man as the direct receiver of grace and knowledge from the Almighty and hence superior, she gives a framework which supersedes and replaces that framework in consonance with the value of equality.

Going by the new framework, it then is established that women and men both are capable of receiving grace and knowledge from Allah, the universal power. Both are equipped with intelligence, insights and capacities to know and understand the transcendent. Women are no longer dependent on men to know their Creator.

Aren’t there many different ways to reach Allah/God?

Institutionalized religion has created structures, frameworks, rituals and prayers to establish a connection with the Creator. While a whole lot of us are comfortable with ritualistic and laid down methods of aligning with God, many find that confining and too narrow a path. There are also many who do not wish to confine themselves to only one religious path. For them all paths lead to the same ultimate reality.

Sufi Islam  seeks to align its soul with its origin and source through meditation and prolonged prayers which are more an inward journey of the soul rather than a set of bodily movements or chants. And in spite of its esoteric and mystical orientation and its assertion of being closer to Allah through intense prayers, they have not been able to escape the cruel hands of patriarchy.

How do we use the sacred texts to establish gender equality?

Dr. Amina Wadud, also called the Lady Imaam, says in an interview to Caroline Suineer [www.ruskeattytot.fi], ‘As a Muslim I use the Islamic sacred sources to talk about human beings as persons created by a Creator with the intention of being the khalifa of God on earth. The Khalifa is an agent, the one who fulfills the divine will and the divine will is to live in harmony with all of the creation and creator. So, both women and men are created to be moral agents on the earth.’ It is the duty of women and men to do good and resist evil and spread the word of God which is to live in harmony with one another despite the diversity.

Having said that, should there be any doubt in anyone’s mind that women are incapable of being deeply spiritual? But as we know, history has been written by patriarchs and all experiences of women, spiritual or otherwise have never been duly acknowledged. 

What is the feminist perspective of gender equality in Islam? 

Islam recognizes the equality of women and men at the very genesis as both having been created from a single cell [4:1 “O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single nafs, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- reverence God, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for God ever watches over you.”]. This itself establishes the equality of status at the time of creation. Additionally, both are considered as protectors of each other ["They (your wives) are your garment and you are a garment for them" (Noble Quran 2:187)].

What is the status of shrines of women in India?

Chandan Gowda narrates in his article[3] that the city of Bangalore which has shrines of about two dozen sufi saints, hardly knows its own treasures. More regrettable is the lack of acknowledgement of women saints, since the ‘official annals do not easily recognize women as sufi saints. Indeed, the sufi is usually imagined as a male saint’. In his own words, ‘the leadership of the various Sufi orders, where disciples learnt the techniques of attaining the mystical experiences of the divine, tended to reside in men. When women did become, on a rare occasion, the head of a Sufi order, their powers were curtailed in various ways (for ex. they could teach but not initiate disciples, or, initiate only female disciples). The Bektashi order in Ottoman Turkey was the lone exception: men and women had equal rights of spiritual apprenticeship and organizational leadership’.

The Indian subcontinent is replete with shrines of women saints but nearly no records of their achievements exist, although they are known and revered locally. Gowda writes, ‘in his major study, Karnatakada Sufigalu (The Sufis of Karnataka, 1998), Rahamat Tarikere, the literary critic, identifies several women Sufi saints in the state: Niyaamatbi of Gauribidanur; Zarinaabi of Kadur; Bibi Fatima of Gulbarga; Saiyadani of Ramadurga; Mustanima of Harapanahalli Bagur’. And this is only one state of the country. 

I would start this journey of acknowledging Muslim women saints from my own hometown, Kudchi, Karnataka, from my father’s side.

Hazrat Makhdooma Maa Saheb in Kudchi, Karnataka is a revered sufi saint. She is also referred to as our very own Rabiya Basri. She was a follower [murid] of Hazrat Shaikh Sirajjudin Junaidi Baghdadi. All saints and spiritual souls of the Deccan region have taken blessings from Maa Saheb. She is known as Shahzadi Balkh Makhdooma Hazrat Sayyeda Ma Saheba Ashrafe Do Jahaan RA. She is a revered saint of the Deccan region and is visited by all irrespective of their religion or denomination. She came from the Balkh region of Afghanistan but carried the soil of Baghdad. She was asked to choose that place in India soil of which matched in weight with the soil from Baghdad. The soil of Kudchi matched with the soil from Baghdad. And hence she settled here.

I could find very little information about her life. But interestingly half a dozen qawwali videos are done on her, eulogizing her as a mother, a patron of the poor and someone who fulfills the wishes of all those who visit her and ask for blessings. She was known for her anger for which she was also called Jalali. Coming from my elder sister who in turn heard it from her cousin, Hazrat Sirajuddin had to wash her heart 7 times to calm her down. 

And another woman saint from my city, Maa Hajiani 

Another women saint who generally is overshadowed by her brother is Maa Hajiani. Given the name it is assumed that she was the mother of Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, but some accounts say that she was his sister. Both were travelling to Mecca from Uzbekistan, their home place. Their ship wrecked and they were found at the exact spots where their tombs were later built. Whatever may be the actual history, the spiritual significance of Maa Hajiani cannot be undermined.

The dargah itself is a site of three tombs, one of Maa and another of Haji Ismail Hasham Yusuf and his son Sir Mohammed Yusuf. The family, which was largely into shipping, trade and philanthropy built this dargah in 1908 in the memory of Maa. The dargah is managed by the Ismail Yusuf Trust. The plaque at the dargah reads, ‘This mausoleum was built on the grave of Saint Ma Hajiani in the year 1908 as a token of devotion and reverence to glorify her pious name and sacred memory by Haji Ismail Hasham Yusuf, ship owner and pioneer of Indian shipping who died on 20th September, 1912 and was buried according to his last wishes in the west side of the grave in this tomb’. 

There is not much known about the architects, the artisans although the dargah was built just over a hundred years back. Much less is known about the saint herself, her life, her contribution, her piety. All said and done, this dargah is a haven of peace and tranquility and forms an indelible part of memories of scores of Indians and Mumbaikars, including the author.

Reference:

1 & 2. Ethics of Tawhid and Qiwamah, Article by Dr. Amina Wadud in ‘ Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority In Muslim Legal Tradition, pg.270/271

3. Case of Women Sufis, Bangalore Mirror Bureau, 2016, Chandan Gowda