Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

It could well be the most important book of the current century in research in Kashmiri literature.   G.N .Gowhar has already done so much for Sheikh-ul-Alam studies that no history of evolution of the discipline could bypass him. As he grows older his power and resolve to touch taboo areas has only increased. His magnum opus – gowhar - in this field was awaited by us from years and, despite his ill health, has come. Though bound to receive mixed and heated response, and generate debate both for and against some of his theses this Mu’taber Kulliyat-i-Shaikh-ul–Alam seems destined to reorient Sheikh ul Alam studies in a decisive way. It could well be the most important book of the current century in research in Kashmiri literature.       So far proper historical criticism hasn’t been applied to Sheikh corpus. Even the laity and not to speak of many important scholars of the Sheikh has been uncomfortable with what goes popularly in his name. It is diff...

It is perceived that we are today in the grip of a communalist politics. Let me hazard a prediction. It will not take roots in Kashmir because we have a long legacy of rejection of communalism. Anything that rejects the mystical or that imposes a sectarian or fundamentalist approach here can’t sustain. Historical and cultural forces are too strong to be appropriated into narrow ideological ends by any politician. It is commonly believed that during medieval times in Kashmir dialogue between Islam and indigenous religious traditions of Kashmir didn’t happen on any level and it was a question of either or with regard to acceptance or rejection of new religious identity. Communalist interpretations have coloured views of many scholars and common people because religions have been approached as exclusive categories. We need to revisit the Reshi tradition as a space where dialogue happened and keeps going on in Sufi poets until today to question usual exclusive and communalist views tha...

From the perspective of perennialism one could say that the term Reshi is Indian way of referring to Logos, the Light of Muhammad, and the Christ-Reality. If the first Reshi was Ahmad Reshi and the latter is synonymous  with the pole of Existence, the Universal Man, the envoy of the Absolute  as elaborated in Sufi metaphysics then Reshiyyat is an integral tradition and formulation of the Sanatana Dharma, the primordial Din, the Sophia perennis, javidaan khird.  This makes it truly universalistic. Reshiyyat’s history  doesn’t extend only to 4000 years as some have argued but to all eternity, to preeternity.  Specifying Muhammad as the first Reshi is not to restrict Reshiyyat to post-Islamic period. In fact the Prophet’s name is Ahmed in heaven in Islamic tradition.  Sheikh Nuruddin’s specification of the name as Ahmed Reshi seems to be an allusion to this heavenly or timeless transhistorical Muhammad. It is also established that Reshiyyat in Kashmir predat...