Ahmad Sirhindi


Ahmad al-Fārūqī al-Sirhindī was an Indian Islamic scholar, a Hanafi jurist, and a member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the newly made religion of Din-i Ilahi and other dissident opinions of Mughal emperor Akbar. While early South Asian scholarship credited him for contributing to conservative trends in Indian Islam, more recent works, notably by ter Haar, Friedman, and Buehler, have pointed to Sirhindi's significant contributions to Sufi epistemology and practices.
Most of the Naqshbandī suborders today, such as the Mujaddidī, Khālidī, Saifī, Tāhirī, Qasimiya and Haqqānī sub-orders, trace their spiritual lineage through Sirhindi.
Sirhindi's shrine, known as Rauza Sharif, is located in Sirhind, Punjab, India.

Early life and education

Ahmad Sirhindi was born on 26 May 1564 in the village of Sirhind. He received most of his early education from his father, 'Abd al-Ahad, his brother, Muhammad Sadiq and from Muhammad Tahir al-Lahuri. He also memorised the Qur'an. He then studied in Sialkot, which had become an intellectual centre under the Kashmir-born scholar Kamaluddin Kashmiri. There he learned logic, philosophy and theology and read advanced texts of tafsir and hadith under another scholar from Kashmir, Yaqub Sarfi Kashmiri, who was a sheikh of the tariqa Hamadaniyya Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani Sufi Order. Qazi Bahlol Badakhshani taught him jurisprudence, prophet Muhammad's biography and history.
Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardī, the Qadirī, and the Chistī traditions, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Khwaja Baqi Billah, and became a leading master of this order. His deputies traversed the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won favour with the Mughal court.

Views

Ahmad Sirhindi's teaching emphasized the inter-dependence of both the Sufi path and sharia, stating that "what is outside the path shown by the prophet is forbidden." Arthur Buehler explains that Sirhindi's concept of shariah is a multivalent and inclusive term encompassing outward acts of worship, faith, and the Sufi path. Sirhindi emphasizes Sufi initiation and practices as a necessary part of shariah, and criticizes jurists who follow only the outward aspects of the sharia. In his criticism of the superficial jurists, he states: "For a worm hidden under a rock, the sky is the bottom of the rock."

Importance of Sufism in Shari’ah

According to Simon Digby, "modern hagiographical literature emphasizes Sirhindi's reiterated profession of strict Islamic orthodoxy, his exaltation of the shariah and exhortations towards its observance." On the other hand, Yohanan Friedmann questions how committed Sirhindi was to shariah by commenting: "it is noteworthy that while Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi never wearies of describing the minutest details of Sufi experience, his exhortations to comply with the shariah remain general to an extreme." Friedmann also claims "Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was primarily a Sufi interested first and foremost in questions of mysticism.". Sirhindi wrote a letter to mughal emperor Jehangir emphasizing that he is now correcting the wrong path taken by his father, emperor Akbar.

Oneness of appearance and oneness of being

Ahmad Sirhindi advanced the notion of wahdat ash-shuhūd. According to this doctrine, the experience of unity between God and creation is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the Sufi who has reached the state of fana' fi Allah. Sirhindi considered wahdat ash-shuhūd to be superior to wahdat al-wujūd, which he understood to be a preliminary step on the way to the Absolute Truth.
Despite this, Sirhindi still used Ibn al-'Arabi's vocabulary without hesitation.
Sirhindi writes:
I wonder that Shaykh Muhyī 'l-Dīn appears in vision to be one of those with whom God is pleased, while most of his ideas which differ from the doctrines of the People of truth appear to be wrong and mistaken. It seems that since they are due to error in kashf, he has been forgiven... I consider him as one of those with whom God is well-pleased; on the other hand, I believe that all his ideas in which he opposes are wrong and harmful.

Reality of the Quran and Ka'ba versus the reality of Muhammad

Sirhindi had originally declared the reality of the Quran '' and the reality of the Ka'ba to be above the reality of Muhammad. This caused fury of opposition, particularly among certain Sufis and ulama of Hijaz who objected to the Ka'ba having exalted spiritual "rank" than the Prophet. Sirhindi argued in response that the reality of the Prophet is superior to any creature. The real Ka'ba is worthy of prostration since it is not created and is covered with the veil of nonexistence. It is this Ka'ba in the essence of God that Sirhindi was referring to as the reality of the Ka'ba, not the appearance of the Ka'ba, which is only a stone. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the consensus of the Naqshbandi community had placed the prophetic realities closer to God than the divine realities. The rationale for this development may have been to neutralize unnecessary discord with the large Muslim community whose emotional attachment to Muhammad was greater than any understanding of philosophical fine points.

Sufi lineage

Naqshbandi chain

claim that Ahmad Sirhindi is descended from a long line of "spiritual masters" all the way up to prophet Muhammad.
  1. Muhammad, d. 11 AH, buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia
  2. Abu Bakar Siddique, d. 13 AH, buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia
  3. Salman al-Farsi, d. 35 AH, buried in Madaa'in, Saudi Arabia
  4. Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr, d. 107 AH, buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
  5. Jafar Sadiq, d. 148 AH, buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
  6. Bayazid Bastami, d. 261 AH, buried in Bastaam, Iran.
  7. Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani, d. 425 AH, buried Kharqaan, Iran.
  8. Abul Qasim Gurgani, d. 450 AH, buried in Gurgan, Iran.
  9. Abu ali Farmadi, d. 477 AH, buried in Tous, Khorasan, Iran.
  10. Abu Yaqub Yusuf Hamadani, d. 535 AH, buried in Maru, Khorosan, Iran.
  11. Abdul Khaliq Ghujdawani, d. 575 AH, buried in Ghajdawan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
  12. Arif Riwgari, d. 616 AH, buried in Reogar, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
  13. Mahmood Anjir-Faghnawi, d. 715 AH, buried in Waabakni, Mawarannahr, Uzbekistan.
  14. Azizan Ali Ramitani, d. 715 AH, buried in Khwarezm, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
  15. Mohammad Baba As-Samasi, d. 755 AH, buried in Samaas, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
  16. Amir Kulal, d. 772 AH, buried in Saukhaar, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
  17. Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari, d. 791 AH, buried in Qasr-e-Aarifan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
  18. Ala'uddin Attar Bukhari, buried in Jafaaniyan, Mawranahar, Uzbekistan.
  19. Yaqub Charkhi, d. 851 AH, buried in Tajikistan
  20. Ubaidullah Ahrar, d. 895 AH, buried in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
  21. Muhammad Zahid Wakhshi, d. 936 AH, buried in Wakhsh, Malk Hasaar, Tajikistan
  22. Durwesh Muhammad, d. 970 AH, buried in Samarkand, Uzbekistan
  23. Muhammad Amkanagi, d. 1008 AH, buried in Akang, Bukhara, Uzbekistan
  24. Khwaja Baqi Billah, d. 1012 AH, buried in Delhi, India
  25. Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī
References
  1. ʿUmdat al-Maqāmāt
  2. Zubdat al-Maqāmāt
  3. Ḥaḍrāt al-Quds, by Shaykh Badruddīn Sirhindī
  4. Silsiḻa Mashāikh Mohrā Sharīf
  5. Rauḍat al-Qayyūmiya, by Shaykh Muhammad Iḥsān Mujaddidī