The great object of the mystic is to lose his own identity. There are many silsilas (concatenations) in Sufis, but they are all agreed in their principal tenet- submission to a murshid (inspired guide). Sufi - a man of the people called Sufiyah who profess the mystic principles of tasawwuf (mysticism). May the saints reward them suitably and provide them amply for their labour and for their sustained interest in the life and teachings on the Sufi saints. I am only too well aware of the labour that Mohammad Siraj put into typing the manuscript at personal inconvenience.
I wish in conclusion to acknowledge with love and joy the interest evinced by Khurshid Hasan and Mohammad Siraj in the life and teachings of the Sufi saints. Attention has been given to their antecedents, rituals, ascetic practices, initiation in the sufi Order, teachings sayings, and supernatural powers.
In the following pages an attempt has been made to describe and discuss in some detail the lives of the Sufi saints who have worked, preached, practiced, and died on the Indian subcontinent. The Sufi saints, belonging to various Orders, in particular the Qadiri, the Chishti, the Suhrawardi, and the Naqshbandi, came to the Indian subcontinent by way of Multan and Sind to preach and to propagate the Gospel of Truth.īy their personal example as well as their precepts and preaching, they transformed and transfigured society, endowing it with new concepts, new values, renewed vigour, and a new lease of life.Ī new type of society came into being which had no invidious distinctions of caste, class, creed, or colour, and had, as its foundation, a deep routed humanism, a belief in social equality, universal brotherhood, equality of opportunity, an insistence on women's rights, protection of orphans and the handicapped, the right use of money, a sense of contentment, trust in God, emphasis on inner purification, hope belief, and faith, tolerance, a reliance on meditation, self-introspection, self-realisation, self-effacement, a belief in an ascetic life, self-help, mutual-help, selfless service, the dignity of individual and, above all, on love, which alone can transform and individual in a way nothing else can. It conquered nations inturn and nations conquered it. Sufism, born in Arabia, was in course of time reborn in other countries of the world. The origin of Sufism was humble, its rise phenomenal, its development rapid, its influence widespread and its impact profound. The sifis sought not to be involved in wrong- doing, to nurturer a righteous spirit, and prayed for a clean heart and the renewal of the right spirit within. The Second century of the Hijra (AD 719-816) saw the emergence of a class of persons wearing garments of coarse undyed wool or Suf and came to be known as "Sufis" or the purified.