accessibility of God. 4) Once one is ready, one takes a vow of poverty – to
possess nothing other than what is needed as daily necessities. 5) Patience
was a requisite part of self-discipline. 6) Gratitude for the mercies of God
was accompanied by: 7) The fear of God. 8) Hope is the expectation of
filling by the Divine nature. 9) Contentment with one’s spiritual stature is
followed by 10) submission to the Divine will. At this stage it was believed
God had now filled one’s person with the Divine presence. In a sense, one
had become Alla ̄h and Alla ̄h had become one.^22
Such an affirmation was not always popular with the orthodox Sunnı ̄
‘ulama ̄‘ and, on occasion, Su ̄fı ̄ interactions with the ‘ulama ̄‘ were prickly.
While some Su ̄fı ̄s remained on good terms with orthodox Islamic ‘ulama ̄‘s,
others were more eclectic. Indeed, many Su ̄fı ̄s borrowed freely from certain
forms of Hindu devotionalism (especially from the Na ̄t.ha sect of S ́aivism and
from Vais.n.avism).^23 They appropriated indigenous musical forms, even came
to create their own indigenous forms of music, known as the g
̄
h
̄azal. In fact,
insofar as Su ̄fı ̄ sheikhs lived in areas where Buddhism had been decimated
and Hinduism underdeveloped, the sheikhs were found to be attractive
spiritual leaders and teachers by common folk, who scarcely cared as to the
religious label they or their guruhad. Needless to say, this eclectic form of
Su ̄fı ̄sm attracted followers in such areas as Kashmı ̄r, Bengal, and Panja ̄b and
was also instrumental in carrying the message of Islam into Southeast Asia.
It is clear from this sketch that Islam took many forms on the Indian
subcontinent and a Muslim in India could assume many identities at once.
A Muslim could be a H.anafı ̄ Sunnı ̄ Muslim, but she may celebrate festivals
of the Shı ̄ites and rites of passage that reverberate with the customs of her
Hindu counterparts. She may have visited the local dargah
̄
and Hindu
women may have done so too; she may have visited a pilgrimage site where
Hindus also went. Not only that, Muslim families usually continued to speak
the vernacular language – for example, Tamil or Benga ̄lı ̄; and may have
identified themselves by occupations that virtually assumed the character of
a caste – for example, rowthers(growers) or panjanˆku ̄t.is(cotton-spinners). In
fact, many converts to Islam retained their caste identities. These Muslims
may even have come to affiliate themselves with a Su ̄fı ̄ order or pı ̄ror Sunnı ̄
council (‘ulama ̄‘) that represented the place of their birth and upbringing.
Those local and regional identities often took precedence in Muslim families
over any “global” or transnational religion called Islam. It is impossible, as
a result, to speak of any single form or strategy that characterizes Islam in
India. But by at least the sixteenth century and, in many cases, much earlier,
Islam was a fully “Indian” phenomenon.
The Coming of Islam 135