Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Sufism for the Religious and the Secular in the Postmodern World It is mainly because of Tasawwuf that Islam became a world religion and nurtured a vivifying culture and enviable civilization. The world has been conquered for good by the Sufi poets and thinkers. Sufi argument for religion and God involves the attractive power of the Truth called beauty that everyone finds irresistible as Plato would note. In fact Arabs were caught in the net of the beauty of form and meaning of the eloquent Quran and the aesthetically oriented Persians found in Sufi metaphysics their heart’s voice.      None of the great world religions finds it difficult to engage with Tasawwuf . In fact they stand for certain variant of it as esoteric dimension is everywhere. No great philosopher or poet or historian or culture critic, Western or Eastern, could afford not to appreciate it. No secular mind and no religious genius could fail to be attracted to some aspect of it. The Sufis have been rulin...

Nothing in Islamic culture makes sense except in the light of Tasawwuf . It was not till the 19th Century, under the influence of Orientalists, that Sufism began to be considered non-indigenous to Islam. Let us unfold these observations. Sufism understood as inner/spiritual dimension of Islam/ Ihsan and defined in terms of key aspects by various Masters – “attention without distraction,” awareness of the present moment, doing everything in style or with an eye on beauty, sincerity of purpose, guarding against nafs and all its guises, exclusive attachment to the Real, cultivating love/gnosis, science of stations/virtues, science of realization of freedom, adab , giving everything its due, seeing everything in terms of beauty, journey within from the self/ego/psyche to the non-self/Self/Spirit, to be truly oneself or just to be and share the treasure of one’s being or presence – has been of vital importance for understanding Islamic culture and much of intellectual-religious-spiritual ...

Why Neo-Salafi and other Modernist Critiques of Sufism aren’t convincing? Some people can’t be satisfied with post-dated cheques or mere promises of future rewards. They can’t afford to wait after pledging to marry to postpone consummation to some future time or another life; they want immediate consummation. They can’t afford to just gaze through a veil on the object of their love and want to take their love affair with God seriously and live God, breathe God and not just talk about God. They want to witness first hand, on their own authority, what others are content to believe on other’s authority. They take the notion of heaven so seriously that they claim they have keys of it here and now and reside therein. These people don’t believe in being just good/decent Muslims but strive to be the best Muslims. They can’t afford compromise of any kind and seek to pursue perfection in every sphere. They live and die for beauty. They aren’t content to be mere slaves but seek audience of t...

Understanding Some Forgotten Lessons in Relationship with Animals in Traditional Cultures in general and Kashmiri Culture in particular. Why is it that children get ecstatic on seeing or contacting or playing with animals? Why is it that our dream imagery involves animals? Why is it that human history in general and sacred history in particular is also a history of our relationship to animals? What a misfortune that as we grow old our encounter with animals is often reduced to museum space only.       Animals humanize and sanctify. Our salvation is linked with them in many ways. If we fail to comprehend how and why of our fellowship with animals that we enjoyed as children or all normal children exposed to contact with animals enjoy due to our sharper perception of higher world, don’t be surprised. We have almost lost sense of a vital treasure of symbolism. Our Symbolism Illiteracy and Kashmir We fail to be humans invited for deciphering symbols. By being...

Recalling some insights of Prof. Saleem Iqbal Kashmir keeps producing some memorable personalities who die unsung. One such personality, Prof. Saleem Iqbal, left us last year. His death was a loss to Kashmir’s intellectual and spiritual culture. He was larger than life, a man of immense energy, indefatigable adventurer of mindscape, reasonably good reader of select classics, friend of the poor and the marginalized and a scholar-scientist attentive to violence of exclusion in dominant epistemes of science and theology. He was among the very few truly educated professors who had not sold soul to specialization (viz. knowing only “more and more about less and less”) and knew a wider world and with authority. He knew more and more about his history, culture and religion and the ideologies that summon us to abstractions or utopias. He minced no words in giving strong judgments though occasionally one could feel him courting extremes. What was especially impressive was his generosity o...

The Problem in Understanding Islam minus its great legacy of arts in the Curriculum of Universities and Seminaries. Almost everything that has to do with celebration of beauty and regard for many art forms is suspect today in the name of Islam. Aesthetic dimension of life/Islam has not been given due consideration by Madrassahs, Universities or other educational institutions and it is no wonder that our lives, our surroundings, our cities and other living spaces are largely bereft of beauty. Few know that cultivating beauty in every act is the fulfillment of Islam.       The Islamicate world has been a cultured world  with much emphasis on beauty, on poetry, on arts, on higher intellectual pursuits and so many applied/traditional sciences. Any  talk about study of Islam or revival of Islam bypasses  more than three fourth of Islamic legacy. It is law and some dose of theology and passing, often dismissive references to philosophy and esoteri...

حقیقت عظمٰی جاننے اور اس سے رابطے کے لئے انسان کے پاس چار طریقے رہے ہیں مذہب،فلسفہ، تصوّف(سرّیت)اور شاعری۔سریت یا تصوف کو سرے سے رد کرناانسان کے ایک حس کو معطل کرنا ہے۔ ان چاروں دبستانوں کو اپنی اپنی حد اختیار میں رکھ کر انکو حقیقت کے کامل عرفان کا ذریعہ بنانا انسانکی کامل تشفگی کا ضامن ہے۔ یہ سب ایک دوسرے کی تعبیر و تفہیم میں مدد دے سکتے ہیں۔مذہب کے ڈانڈے فلسفہ و سریت سے اور تینوں شاعری کے ہمنوا بن جاتے ہیں۔ اقبال دنیا کی ان چند بڑی ہستیوں میں شامل ہیں جو ا ن سب طریقوں سے اعتنا رکھتے ہیں اور یہ انکی عالمگیر مقبولیت کی ایک وجہ ہے۔آج ہم انکیے تصوّف کی جہت کے مطالعہ کے سلسلے میں چند اہم نکتے زیرِبحث لاتے ہیں۔       دوسرے اہم علوم جنمیں فقہ، حدیث اور فلسفہ و سائنس کی بہت سی جہات اور انکی ترقی شامل ہیں کی طرح تصوّف کے برگ و با ربھی عرب سے باہر ہی ظاہر ہوے۔تصوّف عجم میں پھلا پھولا۔تصوّف ہمیشہ سے دین کا حسن یا اسکی تکمیل یا اسکی اخلاقی و روحانی جہات کی بازیافت کے طور اسلام کا جزو لا ینفک یا مقصود گردانا گیا ہے۔اس کے لےٗ احسان کی اصطلاح مستعمل تھی۔ اکابرِ صوفیا...