________________
232
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
OCTOBER, 1924
number of human beings." He was by birth, of the universe is based on love. It may, there. as it were, a Sufi Saint. "It was an ancient fore, be set down that the deeper a man's love of practice among the Sufis to seek annihilation in God, the greater is his spiritual knowledge in proone of the Divine attributes which coloured the portion." Here we have the teaching of Haji whole of wheir existence and became its predomi. Waris 'Ali. In this doctrine he became "effaced nant feature. The attributo in question involves from sell," even to the point of becoming "effaced the annihilation of self and the true recognition from offacemont"-the old Indian Hindu doc. of the everlasting nature of the Deity." The trine of reaching to Nothing, to the Nothing that attribute concerned with Haji Waris 'Ali was the exists as a reality. On his path of progress Haji name Waris, “one of the ninety-nine names of Waris 'Ali passed through the several stages of God ( used in the Koran) and indicating that spiritual progression till he reached tawakkul after everything else has perished, He alone will complete dependence on God and taslimu-raza, survivo." Here we have the key to this Saint's resignation to his will. life.
Unfortunately he disliked long discourses and He was initiated into Sufism by his brother
has left no systematic teaching behind him: only in-law, Haji Sayyad Khadim 'Ali Shah of Luck.
certain precepts and not many of them. His now, to whose mantle he succeeded at eleven years
teaching, however, illustrated certain Sufi doc. of age, and by the age of fourteen he had a number
trines: "God alone has a real existence ; every.' of disciples. At fifteen he started for Mecca,
thing else is 'non ons,'” and “the seat of God is and quite in his youth he became a Darvesh. He
not Heaven: you should look for him among then travelled for twelve years all over Western
yourselves," reversing thus the doctrine, "All is Asia, and in Europe to Turkey, Russia and Ger.
God” by making it, “God is all.” The Haji many, but there is no record of the journeys. In
had his own way of publicly admitting applicants Europe he is said to have been received by the
to the Order-admitting all alike, men and women Sultan 'Abdu'l-Majid at Constantinople and by
of every shade of thought and of every religion, Bismarck in Berlin. Altogether he made seven
with a different formula for different faiths, and he pilgrimages to Mecca and wandered always, re.
encouraged non-Muslims to follow their own faith turning to Dowa permanently only in 1899, when
" with greater zeal and sincerity." 80 years of age-& celibate ascetic all his life, which
His disciples were in two classes—those who lasted till 1905.
embraced the ascetic life and those who did not, There are many tales and doubtless some legends
while adopting his doctrine. Of the last class told of this remarkable Sufi Saint of our own time,
there were very many, even from distant parte but the interest in his biographer's account of
of Europe. He was, like all Sufis, practically him lies in the Sufism exhibited by Haji Waris 'Ali. To describe this, he enters into & very brief
accused of heterodoxy, & charge largely based
on his acceptance of all religions into his fold. history of the Sufis which is worth reading for the
At the same time, miraculous actions are novelty of the views expressed. He apparently
attributed to him. By his own wish he had denies their want of orthodoxy, and then he goes on: "Sufism is really & practical philosophy with an
no successor. ethical side. In order to obtain a real insight
The great pity of the life of this great man into it, it is essential to go through certain oxer is that he loft no real "Word " behind him, but cises and observances. Hence the need for & we are told that "an oxcellent treatise explaining spiritual preceptor or Shaikh' as the Sufis call his mystio doctrine has been published by an old him." Here the writer give us a remarkable disciple (9 in Urdu), Mirza Ibrahim Beg Shaida footnote : "The word (Shaikh) should not be of Lucknow, under the title of Minhaju'l Ishqia mixed up with the popular caste-name"-Another Irshadat Warisiya." Now, the reason I have instance of the power of the Hindu idea of casto dealt with this article at length is that it is very in India. The biographer then describes the fall important for English and European studenta of the Shaikhs from their original high moral po. to have an authoritative scoount of modern Su. sition, till they "trade on the credulity of the fism before them, and I much hope that a correct popular mind and offer to give you a passport to translation of the treatise will be forthcoming. Heaven if you can pledge your faith to them!" The issue winds up with one of Mr. W. H. More But all this does not create a bad system, and it land's excellent accounts of early European trado is contended that in Haji Waris 'Ali one finds In India--this time on the operations of the Dutch a man "who knows God as he ought to be known." | East India Company, from the W. Geleynssen
Of the three great Sufi schools in India-thede Jongh Collection in the Public Record Office Qadiriya, the Chishtiya, and Naqshbandiya, Haji at the Hague. This collection throws invaluable Waris 'Ali belonged to the first two. "The key. "sidelights on life in Agra, 1637-39," and Mr. note of his system was Divine and Universal Love." Moreland's method has further illuminated it. Again: "The Sufis claim that the eternal order
R. C TEMPLE,
