Chapter 6 Religions of South Asia 221texts known as the hadith (“traditions”), which became secondary texts to the
Quran in prescribing morality and social life for Muslims. Teachers (imams)
master these texts and instruct the faithful in Friday sermons and in religious
schools. Judges (qadis or qazis) resolve disputes based on several different
schools of Islamic law (sharia), all derived from interpretations of the Quran,
the hadith, and traditions of legal reasoning and consensus that have developed
over the centuries.Sufis, Saints, and Shahs
In later centuries, as Islam evolved in the Middle East and was adopted by
non-Arab groups like the Turks, Persians, and Mongols, new forms emerged.
In South Asia, traditions of religious practice such as we have already seen—
sanyas, yoga, and bhakti—may also have influenced Indian Islam. From the
tenth through the thirteenth centuries, Sufism became the dominant form of
Islam, especially as it developed in the Iranian Plateau and India; its impor-Box 6.1 Lament for Zaynab’s Sons
Zaynab, the daughter of Ali and Fatima, was the granddaughter of the Prophet. She
joined the army of her brother Husayn in the march to Kufa to claim leadership of the
Muslim community. However, Husayn and most of his army were slaughtered at
Karbala (in modern Iraq), and Zaynab also lost her two sons, Aoun and Muhammad.
The following text is a nauha, a poetic form chanted during gatherings in the Shia month
of Muharram, accompanied by highly emotional ritual chest-beating in mourning.
Wept the mother over her dead sons, O Aoun, O Muhammad!
Alas, I offer myself to save you O Aoun, O Muhammad!
You departed this world without wedding garlands O Aoun, O Muhammad!
I longed to see you wed, then live in peace O Aoun, O Muhammad!
But in the face of Fate my hands were tied O Aoun, O Muhammad!
In place of two grooms lie two corpses
Let me be taken instead of you.
With what eyes can I look at you in this state? O Aoun, O Muhammad!
In front of me, a mother, lie your corpses
How can I console my heart?
Why not beat my head in lamentation, O Aoun, O Muhammad!
You lived up to your uncles’ ideals
But darlings, tell me this—
Was your mother not worthy of your love, too? O Aoun, O Muhammad!
This was the mother’s lament, Baquir,
Over her sons’ corpses—
Let me be taken instead of you!Source: Syed Akbar Hyder and Carla Petievich, Shi’I Mourning in Muharram: Nauha Laments for
Children Killed at Karbala. In Islam in South Asia in Practice, ed. Barbara D. Metcalf. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2009.