November 12 , 2010
Spate of Terrorist Blasts at Holy Shrines of Pakistan
Although Sufi shrines have been targets of terrorist attacks since 2005, when a suicide bomber killed 43 persons outside the Bari Imam complex in Islamabad, there has of late been a spate of such blasts and the targets have been the more popular sites. Two suicide bombers attacked the most revered and beloved shrine of the country, Data Darbar of Lahore, in July this year, killing 47 people and wounding 180. Early last month, on October 7 to be exact, the popular shrine in Karachi of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, an eighth century Sufi saint credited with spreading Islam in the coastal areas, was attacked, killing eight and wounding sixty-five. This was followed by a bomb blast on October 25 at the famous Sufi shrine of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar in Pakpattan. Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike revere this shrine of the 12th century saint.
Since December 2007, there have been at least 28 major attacks on shrines and other Islamic sites mainly of Sunni and Sufi persuasion. According to a tally from news accounts 643 people were killed in these attacks. Earlier, such attacks took place in remote areas mainly in the frontier province and were perhaps calculated to convey the message that the Sufi creed was sacrilegious and the Muslims of Pakistan should follow the puritan path shown by Abdul Wahab. Al Qaeda leadership had ingrained so deeply the Wahabi beliefs among the Afghan Taliban that they demolished in an ill-conceived zeal their country’s eminent monument –the Bamiyan Buddha statues.
The recent spurt in attacks at the most popular and revered Sufi shrines, perhaps conveys more than a purely religious message. Its political undertones are not far to seek for a pro-US state currently engaged in a war against the Taliban extremists. The October blasts have come amid tensions between Washington and Islamabad over NATO helicopter incursions into Pakistan territory and Pakistan’s retort by stopping the flow of supplies to the troops in Afghanistan through its border.
While the US wants both the civil and military authorities of Pakistan to remain focused on the war against the extremists and terrorists, the latter have been sowing seeds of dissension and causing diversions to blur that focus. Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, had this to say: “They want to convert the war on terror into a sectarian war. If they create a sectarian issue and things go that way, there will be bloodshed in the whole country, each city and street, and the government will be unable to concentrate on operations against the militants in their territories.”
It is difficult to endorse totally the above view of the Minister. For, how can the attacks at the shrines create a sectarian issue? All communities and sects, even Hindus and Sikhs, pay respects to the Sufi saints. No wonder, not a single voice was raised upholding the terrorist attacks. At the same time it has to be acknowledged that the aversion to supplication through saints is based on Qur’anic teaching. In verse 13-14 of the 35 th Sura, Al-Fatir, Allah says: “Thus is God, your Sustainer: Unto him belong all dominion -whereas those whom you invoke instead of Him do not own so much as the husk of a date stone! If you invoke them, they do not hear your call: and even if they could hear, they would not respond to you. And on the Day of Resurrection they will utterly disown your having associated them with God.”
In undivided India, the Muslim community got divided between Deobandis who adhered strictly to the above concept and a puritan path of worship, while the vast majority followed the Brailvi path that included a devotion to the saints and their teachings called Sufism. Ibne Wahab in Arabia, Ataturk in Turkey and Sardar Amanullah Khan in Afghanistan cleansed their societies of the superstitious beliefs and rituals. Only Sardar Amanullah did not succeed fully. In Pakistan, which inherited both the Deobandi and Brailvi paths, no such major operation has ever occurred. The spirit of tolerance preached by the Sufi saints has widely impacted the society. Only in the case of the Ahmadis, that spirit was abandoned and a virulent stance was taken leading to the riots of 1953 and the declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslim by Bhutto government and a subsequent Act against that community during the Zia era. It was indeed a deviation, not the norm. Wahabi influence and money might have played a role in this. And, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to suspect a role of that influence and money in what is happening now at holy shrines all over the country.
The attacks on shrines in Pakistan are undoubtedly baffling and wrong. They reflect the suicidal foolishness of a section of the Taliban.
Sufism has a long history and eminent figures from Abu Hurairah to Imam Ghizali and Abdul Qadir Jilani to Mueenuddin Chishti have adorned its ranks. Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-73) a poet, thinker and teacher is still widely read in both East and West and stands out in the Sufi mystic constellation as a highly luminous star.
Many of the Sufis did commendable work in Central as well as South Asia. Most of them followed the practices of Islam. Where they differed from the average Muslims or the Ulema was that while the former followed the tenets of Islam and the external commands, the Sufis emphasized the inner spirituality and sought to establish a relationship with God through Sheikhs, Halqa (circles of Sufis) and an indulgence in esoteric practices. They did not spurn even song and dance like Rumi who gleefully whirled for the embrace of God’s love.
The Sufis sought to improve mankind through their own spiritual way called Tariqat.
Two hundred years ago, Abdul Wahab, a religious scholar, launched a movement in Arabia to reform the society in accordance with his own conception of Islam. He abhorred pursuit of luxury in the Arab society, condemned the superstitions that had crept into the people’s beliefs and the worship at the graves of Saints, Imams and even the Prophet. He castigated these as ‘shirk’. He even objected to the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday. People should return to Qur’an and Sunna, he argued, and establish a society where everyone lived according to the principles of Islam. Also, he believed that his teachings be imposed by force, if need be.
Abdul Wahab faced considerable opposition, but ultimately he was able to get the crucial support of the Saud family, who used his influence and following to strengthen their own hold on the country.
The agents of Taliban and Al Qaeda are now in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are destroying schools, particularly for girls, music and video shops, picture houses and even the graves of saints. They consider all of this as un-Islamic heresy. Their attacks on the shrines of Pakistan, reminds one of the destruction of the graves caused by them in Medina almost a century back.
The failure of the authorities to trump them before they could kill large number of devotees at the shrines, reflect the utter failure of intelligence agencies in keeping track of the obnoxious elements masquerading as the true proponents of Islam.
