ajmal maharaj's Page

THE SUFI HUMANISM
[The unity and diversity of culture]


Sufism is the timeless Humanism of hope, culture and philosophy, initiating the culture of the Cave-person as an evolutionary jump from its savagery into the creation of all ancient civilizations across time and space, forming not only some of the most popular world cultures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but also Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.
Sufism has now been popularly recognized more Islamic than anything else, because Islam as culture is almost entirely influenced by Sufism.
The cultural religiosity that begins with the mythical concepts of humanity as Adam and Eve and concludes it with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as a historical fact is well documented in the Koran.

The differences in cultures are absolutely natural, and stretch out all the way from the collective unity as a whole upto the individual person. That is, an individual exists only in relation to the whole as a collective unity of all of Humankind. By arriving to this understanding we reach the end of the circle, realizing the collective within us to see the complete circle of humanity within. It is thus we are able to see the unity in diversity of the collective into the individual as Divine.

Sufism as humanism of hope culture and mystery is therefore the essential divine base for all cultures, which is defined as Religion.

Islam therefore if understood from a larger context as Religion includes by its own defines not only Judaism and Christianity, but also Hinduism, and Buddhism, as a unity of all cultures. To give the most deserved attention would therefore be to understand our own basic humanism in the Islamic context and consider it as the true faith underlying all of humankind, whereby cultural practices may vary! In a similar way if we are to interpret Hinduism as religion in its cultural context it would be no different from Islam!

Sufism is defined values of Peace Love and humanity as Religion, while at the same time the most profound esoteric practice and wisdom as a creative humanity.

Islam provides the possibility of an organized form of cultural unity that spells a collective of esoteric practices, while Sufism is the order being exercised over a creative indulgence into the realms of mysticism.

. Sufism and Islam are inter related; reciprocating each other by the unifying elements that may well be expressed through esoteric practices, both simple as well complex, which towards the end culminate into a more profound spiritual maturity. Therefore, almost all forms of simple esoteric practices that recognize the presence of a divine energy in the form of Humanism is to be considered equivalent and therefore as part of a broader unity in diversity of cultural traditions!

Therefore Sufism and Islam are a history of progressive humanity by which the traditions of Judaism and Christianity are revived to a final religion of the east. It is only by reorganization of a new tradition of Humanism defined in the spirit of Sufism, that we may bring Islamic culture and tradition to a more international context.
By this point we may elaborate the role of Islam to include almost all cultures of the world including not only those of the still prevalent traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, but also sail across time and space over all ancient cultures of the world.
Sufism and Islam in this light will better be defined as Humanism, as the circle of cultural diversity in complete unity.


God as Unity
The Koran is based on the uniqueness [La-ila-ha-illallah] of a Creator, Truth, and Beauty [Allah, Haq, Noor]. [Satyaum, Shivum, Sunderum,]
Defined in more simple terms, we share the values of love, peace and creativity as Humanism or Sufism that is in its most visible form identified, celebrated in the liveliness of socio-political institutions as Dargahs, Guru Dwaras, Temples and Churches etc.

Therefore the spread of Islam or any other culture around the globe is justified in a positive context of the will to power by just means of unifying humanity under one common Truth, with a Humanist-Sufi touch of unity in the diversity of cultures.

The Human and the Absolute

We could continue existing in our cultural context as Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, provided we reach an understanding into the insight that harmonizes the gap between the human and the absolute.
Humans have always tried to resolve the mystry of life and creation by imaging ideas with its own human self, that is we cannot but help ourself define values of our nature of existance apart from our own feelings as humans. While in truth such applications may not be relevent to the actual nature of reality![the absolute!]
The point here to realize is that the human element as long as is understood from a profound insight into the obvious behavior of the Human psyche as also the absolute existence of the nature of objective truth, must be acceptable as cultural diversity as long as it keeps itself connected with the rational of the divine!
Therefore we may also understand the implication through a purely scientific rational that spiritually has no gender, for example. This is what will take us back towards the real purpose of Islamic nature of rebelling against blind faith and political abuse of the human element, by critical overthrow of any form of social evil that created a hierarchy by way of making gender differences! This commonly may be reflected in all cultures by similar forms of rebellious movements, for example the Shivaite movements around 1100 A.D.in southern India through mystical poetry created rebellious movements for a progressive Hindu society.


The concept of God to be understood humanly in any absolute terms is Unity by way of a holistic, collective nature of the spirit that exists within each individual. This defination solves the puzzle and mystery of the individual soul that keeps encircling around this labyrinth of chaos and its own existence in relation to the whole.

The human element has always defined Divinity through expressing itself by the same form of human imagery, from the cave-persons writings/drawings on the wall to the sophisticated calligraphic art expressing this divinity!
To abuse this form of expression whether by the human element or the absolute for the power of the negative is where we have origins of most socio-political troubles. It is to be well understood that it is only within this context that Islamic traditions became more rational towards a world that cleared the social evils by eradication of blind faith and exploitation of the common people by the clergyman’s irrational fears of God into a corrupt practice of social evils such as killing of the girl child, untouchablility, racism and extremism.
On the other hand, extremism itself became a negative element that was unable to see the absolute nature of Divine reality as something interrelated to the human element defining all cultures, including Sufi-Islam as against the Wahabis or the Catholic saint worships as against the extremist ‘Witnesses of Jehovah’. Within the Islamic traditions of Judaism and Christianity, we may quickly recognize the abuse of these differences between the factions of the Sufi-value following populace, a majority, and the extremist element, a troublesome minority.

Therefore the unity of religious commonality becomes forever more clear and we can derive more rational from our insights to bring humanity closer to itself.
..
In the above mentioned insight it would be to better understand the Sufi phenomenon and how it made Islamic ideas more palpable and its meaning better understood around the world, as nothing specifically Arabic, but the same primal divine forces, transformed in different hues of culture, eternally leading humanity towards its proper destiny.

The Destiny of Humankind
The destiny of the humanist ideal would of necessity be oriented towards a holistic completion of a cultural circle that which in one understanding rather artistic has been described as paradise.

It would now be possible to understand the much Sufi-reinforced culture that Islamized the remnants of an ancient Indian culture with similar ideas of the uniqueness of a creator, rebelling social evils, of the many but one Sivaite cultural movements in rebellious tones, as mystical poets, being persecuted by the established order of the orthodox priest: Therefore from a more realistic insight we may be able to construe how although certain populace may have opted for an Islamic culture by mere seduction of its creativity, while another part of the Indian population would still have remained thanks to the humanist tendencies of Sufism, as a Hindu culture alive with its own rationality and Humanism. We may be able to understand equally how although majority of the black, white and yellow world population have maintained its rationality as Humanist-Sufi Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists etc, glorifying the humanist rational and its human elements as defined above, there are still some disturbing elements of extremisms commonly found amongst all these cultures, destruction of which in the form of as a last resort out of self defense would be no act of violence. It is important to point out here with great care though that to kill as stated in the Koran is justified only from the leadership of such a condition as mentioned above of a last resort of self defense against inhuman and sickly criminal extremism to the point of a mental illnesses of the Hitler kind, only then is Killing justified, whether on a individual or a collective level! Destruction in such a case is imminent and comes from the divine forces as fateful consequences in any form of excuse as war, as accident or almost any ultimate act of violence. Absolute non violence cannot exist within a context of a world that needs to be made better so that we may arrive at our destiny.


Therefore each situation has a possibility of opposition as defense for life preservation by peaceful and creative means, while only as an extremely essential step of eradication of social evils by deliberate means of destruction, [for example, within medical terms the inevitable amputations of a certain body part if the life of the person needs to be saved!] This may hardly be termed negatively as destruction or as violence.
Thus the Nobel Prize for Peace that was rightfully awarded to President Obama, although he was apparently warring in Afghanistan! Now we are able to see how justified it was and still is, as this war in Afghanistan tried in the most minimal manner as possible to eliminate the presence of extremism of the Taliban, with not only the western power sacrificing its life but also much of Afghanistan’s civil population, as also, even worse so the innocent killings of the people in Pakistan. But since this is for a just cause, the whole phenomenon turns to a positive destruction, like amputing of a limb to remove poison! The proof of the effectiveness of this Obama and his team’s insightful instigated war in Afghanistan, is the marked end of Taliban conspired terror attacks in India! It is interesting to note that the Taliban was being sold weapons by the Chinese, for the Chinese it was killing two birds with one stone... as they not only made the fast buck from selling weapons to the poppy-cash- powered-Taliban but also revelled at the idea of causing deliberate destruction through the indirect means of a Taliban terror in India, adding fuel to fire of the insurgencies created by the terrors of the Maoists and the Naxalite movements in India! Therefore the Obamas changes bring about in a way the much awaited true world order from the western world power. Through the uncanny coming into powere of the leadership of an American President as symbolism of this very Humanism, as representative of the American psyche through the coming up of the personality of a mixed race and culture of Obama as opposed to the pure Nordic race or Aryan ‘untouchabilty’ of the Hitler kind! Note that similarly what dramatically reversed the brahmanic dynestical rule in India by bringing in once again a mixed cultural human in the form of a Sikh as the prime minister and enforced by an Italian revolutionary feminine energy as Sonia Gandhi!


The point here to be understood is the fine difference that divide the human element of worshiping God in the ideal replicas of a human symbolism whether through resemblance or otherwise, than through the much too abstract idea of god whereby human emotional attachment is completely lost and also there is no grasp of any meaning with the human mind, while at the same time abstractions of ideas of god are based on short sightedness of understanding the complex nature of the human psyche. Sufism and its sister movements, in order to give a rational, balanced with the human element, concept of God, therefore became a popular means by which religious ideal were laid down as progress of humanity.
The applicability of these ideals, whether Islamic or otherwise, becomes universally valid, as artistic enchantments, to combat psychological sicknesses as opposed to violence and war. Wisdom here plays up strategies of warring and putting rebellions as a civilized follow-up, through peaceful means. In fact the art of making war by wisdom and creativity is the second step after much blood has been shed.
Have we then, shed enough blood as yet, in the manner the most inhuman of cruelties? Has much been abhorrently the most heinous sicknesses of crimes and genocides been committed? It would seem to the sensitive heart of the though vulnerable but strong, the absolute humanity, that enough has been endured and now is the time the earth may cry for healing from its bleeding hearts! It is here that spiritual powers become the most sought after and the Sufi becomes one of the most visibly unifying human element that the fallen humanity may take a helping hand in order to rise again. There buried under the illusionary time of historical passing is an energy eternally alive and potently stirred by the emotions of a screaming humanity, that the divine energy may once again be invoked, that makes evil eventually disappear once and for ever from this earth, call it Sufism or anything you may !

The concept of Paradise

We exist in two worlds; a world that we experience that make us recognize life in the form of the visible, audible, touchable etc, and another world which is parallel, the dream world, which functions on different levels of sensory perception, during which we can neither see, hear, touch, see, or smell consciously. We have termed either of these worlds as worlds of the conscious and the subconscious.

In a way these two world from the point of view of the world of spiritual penetration may well be experienced already as in continuation of a paradise eternal towards which the golden destiny is to be worked out…and in order to make way for the dream world reality we have to create paradise on earth through perfection of our own self by creation of art music and poetry, as along with a background of love peace and humanity!
Somewhere along we get a glimpse of this real paradise on earth itself!

Paradise is the spiritual magic realised in this life by way of art culture and divine.
Therefore all art and culture relates to this divine energy that wants to make paradise more visible. All spiritual exercises also are designed to culminate towards this climax of creating a magical moment that contains an eternity within. Art therefore in all context may be defined as that which in our conscious world brings us in harmony with the subconscious, inorder to experience the totality of existance! Visual art, architecture, music, poetry, perfumes, sensuality and love, all these add up to a positive culture of raising consciouseness to a supreme level of experiencing what is described as heaven.

Nothing really makes sense if it continues forever in the negative chaos of a labyrinth. Infinity in time and space as an absolute cannot exist.
Therefore although we may not mentally be able to accept ideas of rebirth, or see it more rationally as rejuvenation of the spirit through the procreation process of Nature through simple child birth, at some point we will arrive by this mathematics of the spirit towards a final end that will mark the beginning of eternity!

Now coming back towards our two worlds of consciousness, as the world that is visible to the world that is invisible, even away from the reality of the dream world, if you prefer, there is a definite, in more rigid form of scientific thinking, the world of organic air that we cannot see or sense but still exist and exert influences over us, as an example.
Humans have always resorted to influensing of its senses to stirr the wells of the subconscious. Depending upon the level or kind of need felt at any given situation for any individual different methods may be adopted. A very powerful means of employment is by the way of using directly substances available in nature under the supervision of a cultural background and genuine Masters of an established school of thought. Reember that the illusionar nature of life compels us to slip like sands of time into passe, and therefore be awre of this disillusionment! ubless we acquire the insight of being able to escape this duality of time and eternity we may remain stuck somewhere and therefore not advance further.
Another means of influencing the senses are by way of Art and other means, of creating sensory perceptions, by way of smell through perfumes, music through vibrations, poetry through the heart, love through the sensuose...
To be more human in clarity, we experience, paradise as a glimpse through the illusion from these two worlds of dream and reality, through the sensations created from Art, Love and Peace.
The spiritual practice of esotericism as education to begin with and to end with as the merging of these two worlds as one holistic total experience of life as we exist now is what is the final entrance, or the beginning of the promise into paradise eternal.

The Universe
The universe is a constant which in an absolute and abstract sense provides meaning of our existence without depending upon any human idea of creation and destruction! It is therefore hardly any geographical territory and stretches well beyond our sense of physical existence, and therefore extends also into our inner worlds as much so in the dream world of art, fantasy and pleasure!

The Sufi sanctuary

Each major part of the Islamic culture and civilization over the times was being controlled by a centrally organized form of institution, in the popular form of the Sufi sanctuary, expressing in its Art, Architecture, music and poetry, comprising, the Sufi school of thought or ideology. Thus the Sufi sanctuary came into existence as a powerful place that ruled by virtue of its cultural, intellectual and spiritual dictates, to form a holistic basis of a social class meant to unify the whole world as one. Thus the words from Koran were being fulfilled into historic reality by the intellectual strength of a collective intelligence, which must be recognized as Sufism, crossing all barriers of race, culture and kind, giving Islam truly a universal face.
Although Islam was created as a way of life meant specifically to react against the evil times of the then Arab culture of ignorance and social evils, it at the same time was meant to assume a universally applicable system for all of humanity. This is where Sufism gained importance and helped the universal adaptation of the basic Islamic concepts nearly all over the world.

HISTORY OF ISLAM
But we have now rapidly come to an intellectual metamorphoses that puts away the whole of human history in a nutshell only to be able to come to face with the real intellectual values realized as real world power, and all of history as not eastern or western, nor black and white nor Islamic or Christian as religious differences, but rather a human history, once and for all truly based on values most humane, unified by an open minded spirituality, which the symbolic circle of time comes to from one end touch the other end, which is the ancient world that still exists with all its culture from bullock carts, camel carts to all that is visionary and holistic and open-mindedness and progressive in the form of Humanism, to begin and to end with, completing the eternal circle of existence and come towards a final halt towards a unification of human values and cultural co-existence the world over.

THE CONTEMPRORY WORLD
We find our selves today in a world spiritually realized, intellectually profound and clean, and instead of a stand of cowardly embarrassment, to a pride in accepting the truth and getting over and out instead of getting stuck. This is not sheer optimism but a genuine insight based on experience from both within and without. In this there will be a freedom and an eternal blessing to have lived a just and a moral life.


Sufism naturally is not something that any one really can define quite easily nor does it become anything of a cut and dry mystic foolery. It is a collective of values, theory, and practice which may well extend from scratch civilizing man from the natural wilderness that he is born of, to the attainment of perfection to a holistic development of a society and the individual.


THE DUAL NATURE OF LIFE
The whole of our universe is nothing but a passage of this illusion. From this insight stem all the ideas of Reality of an eternal life that is to come through out all of the ancient worlds. In that sense we extend our ideas of life and existence to a greater form of reality and psychology that our ideas of spirituality are no more shallow but become one with the holistic nature of our realty comprising of the illusion that we go through body, mind and soul, and also the dream world that exists simultaneously as our subconscious world. Most religions as ancient cultures of the world are nothing but an attainment of a perfection in evolving a philosophy of creating a holistic life system that merges these two worlds.
Islam is most significantly an empowerment of this original idea of merging this world into perfection so as to reach the higher nature of Truth itself. Thus we have the Koran set in the very heart of this idea of existence as dual reality, in which eventually the world to come is what dictates the righteous mode of existence in this life, which if when lived accordingly is the morally most sound world and also a correct way of existence in which what is right and the wrong are almost in perfection to the best of our human abilities.
Sufism is spiritual power of its own merits and righteousness of an open hearted majority, it resonates the same sound of Truth emanating from the Koran, starting from the most immediate, in our Islamic context, Imam Ali [R.A], the son-in-law of the Prophet himself, whose whole life became a living example of the correct most interpretation of the Koran! He is professed to be the first true Muslim! At this point let me put up a vital question to all, who or what is a true Muslim?
Is it not the same as the first? The primal mirror-reflection of Adam as the first Koranic prophets!
So it may correctly be pointed out that given the historical context of Islamic spirituality, Ali was the prime example of the Sufi Ideal who began the great unifying culture of Sufism and its liberal ideology which helped Islam to become a world power in the most peaceful manner possible, though not without the inevitable sacrifices, tragedies and martyrdoms. In the pathways of truth we may conclude there are surely many a painful transitions and difficulties as tests of life which may make the best out of us lose out though never give in!
Sufism although took a freeform to include alien cultures it dissipated into the original divine energy of mystery that it came from, just as much as the religion of Islam that claimed itself as the original monotheist religion since the beginning of time. Therefore Islam was revival of the religion of truth, knowledge and social justice based on primal ideas of existence, and eventually came down in its most contemporary form from the background of socio-spiritual chaos of the Arab history of ignorance!
The background during this time as may well be imagined was evident through the social class that developed from a fundamentally incorrect spiritual ideology, which Islam held responsible only on a superficial level to which it belittled it, and returned to its original ideas of one single Supreme Being.
Humankind is a very strange mystery if left to exist in chaos; it would on definite folds turn into evil or would find it a hard struggle to evolve, as a matter of fact, into something that would make life endurable more than anything else. Though once endured, it immediately wants to jump into the sky and enjoy the taste of freedom and is ready to accept anything save the fact that mentally it is satiable while it goes through everything, all the pains and the pleasures entwined. It is at such a point that we like to hang on to our hopes of spiritual rejuvenation and should as instinct take the correct decision of aligning ourselves with what may seem as the most suitable culture of spiritual adaptation, which along the individual spiritual gratification also becomes a unifying social existence, that reassures us a world of a more organized form of energy. This would perhaps explain the rapid expansion of Islamic ideology in some way, apart from many other reasons of it claims, its being internally strengthened by its spiritual powers from non other than the Sufi element that it found rightfully a majority of acceptance the world over.

Good and Evil
Were we to define good and evil by the measure of our ignorance and knowledge, we would define the world as truly religious by only those parts of cultures that act according to knowledge and not ignorance

THE SUFI SANCTUARY OF AJMER
 
The Sufi sanctuary is an island of beauty, peace and eternity, symbolizing a “fortress” of love that rules the world by its spiritual powers.
A universe of wisdom and truth divine; it is here where wanderers of dreamlands and of the unknown and seekers of Truth will find their spiritual solace and guidance.
The Sufi sanctuary of Ajmer is founded around the sacred tomb of one of the greatest Sufi Spirits of all times, popularly known as Gharib Nawaz [R.A]. It is a place of pilgrimage for people of all faiths to visit the holy shrine seeking a blessing that will bring them good fortune and spiritual enlightenment.
It also heads all the Sufi sanctuaries in the Indian subcontinent ever since its establishment, as an organizing power, inspiring the whole nation with it’s’ ideas.
It is also a sacred space of the Sufi intellects to make their communions, ceremonies, and rituals through performances expressed through the Sufi trance or musicals, or by simply being silent in prayer and meditation.
The Sanctuary is the sun whose light shines in all direction, in colors of a rainbow divine, reflecting value of a collective energy that is truly cosmopolitan, drawing people around the majestically crowned dome, into a Mecca of its own kind! The energy of the religious flow then becomes a rare manifestation of the human spirit, so strong and eternal, pulling you into its current. Flocking around thus all these people as birds of feather, into a peaceful bubble of humanity, make the Sanctuary a living legend of all times!

THE VALLEY
The Arravalli Ranges visibly form an unexplored area of nature’s many treasures, full of scenic beauty in the raw, yet still alive, mysterious spirit of the wild and wonderful. These hills of Rajasthan magnificently stream their way through the desert of the region to form magical valleys that generate great natural spring wells and water holes. It is nature’s own retreat, lined with wonderful caves that spread the valleys interiors. This is conclusively a naturally formed paradise which at one time had planted mango groves as well as other important kinds of fruit orchards all as if designed for the reclusive valley for meditation purposes of the Sufis. It is at one tip-end spring-wells of the valley that the great Sufi sanctuary is founded upon.
The Sufi sanctuary is the center of the Sufi Order, known as the “Chishtiya Silsila.” It is one of the most important schools of Sufism that became popular as cultural founding in the spiritually fertile land of India, which welcomed the community with its cultural diversity.
The Great Syrian mystic Khwaja Abu Ishaq Chishty [R.A], [d.941] founded the Chishtiya order. The name “Chishtiya” stands for the place of his residence in the town of "Chisht in Afganistan. Later, Khwaja Muinnuddin Chishty [R.A] took this order to India where he established a center in Ajmer, which in later times became one of the most popular and influential Sufi sanctuaries in the subcontinent.
The sanctuary has since become the climax and a magnetic force to a collective who seek the divine shadow and be illuminated with the spirit and philosophy of the Sufi. The cultural impact inspired from the Sufi order is something to reckon with, as it is still vibrant with all its energy such that, to the person who may go through the experience, time comes to a standstill.

HISTORY

The historical art of preserving the energy of a great spirit may be found not necessarily through the conventional treatise of the court scholar, but rather through the artistic creations of folklore, music, poetry, performance, as mythologies and legends. 
 Indian people may be defined more of a culture than a political nation, reciprocating each time with creativity with its colonizers, which at times may have turned destructive. But whenever given a chance, the exploitation of the Indian culture brought out the very best of their talents and their intellectual contributions created a golden historical period such as was India under the Moguls. The environment created a fertile land for the Sufi community to thrive in and encouraged the growth of different Sufi branches, especially the Chishtiyah. It was this cultural atmosphere in India that Sufism pulled its grip over the whole of the country, whereby it was possible to live within your own culture having, at the same time, faith in the ideals of a universal spirituality. Phillip Vaughan, a historian of Indian Islamic art and architecture claims:
The sultans of Delhi welcomed the mystical orders and members of the court were counted among their followers. Many cultural practices specific to the subcontinent, such as music and poetry at Sufi shrines, received official sanction and remain part of the contemporary practice. The caliph was far away or reduced to a figurehead after the mogul invasions of the 11th century. Acceptance of the local elites of the ruler's right to the rule was of greater importance, and a blessing of the Sufi sheikh had its own political weight in the reorganization of its sovereignty.
The whole of India like the rest of the world, under classical times of Islam, was profoundly influenced by Sufi culture. The Sufis, and their sanctuaries in these circumstances, became the real inspiration and were in turn the actual "rulers" of the country, who by the might of their spiritual powers created a culture of love, beauty and the divinity, as values meant to rule eternally. These values faced no problem in being shared with the Hindu majority who understood and benefited from the Sufi apprehension of Ultimate Reality. Phillip Vaughan once again stresses:
With their origins in ancient Islamic mysticism, a number of Sufi orders had formed since the time of the Mongols, and had increasingly seen as part of their mission to try and shape the world a worldly rule in accordance with their own beliefs. The rules of the order by no means prescribed hermit like existence in a dervish monastery. They met together regularly, however, at their inn, [khanqa] or in an assembly house or a prayer hall [dhikr-khana] in order to participate in their communal ceremonies such as prayers, sermons devotional drills and night vigils. Thus it was thanks to the organizing power of the Sufi orders that central Asia under the Uzbeks developed once more into a region that was able to define itself clearly in terms of culture to the outside world (Vaughan, Islamic Art and Architecture).
 
The Sufis thus exploited the Indian people to celebrate creativity in diversity. The tolerant vocabulary of cultural unity sprang from non-other than this greatest of all Sufi-sanctuaries-which pictures a whole fleet of humanity of all classes and kinds from the most urban to the most remote rural, from dervishes, mystics, saints and peasants, eunuchs, workers, the middle class and the ruling upper class of royalties and celebrities! The social ideals of class, castes and other differences are silently questioned and redefined here. The Sufi culture stands out of its own class defining a superior system of cultural hierarchy from the spiritual attainments of an individual or a community rather than from its economic status. Therefore major sub-groups of Islamic traditions which formulated into one of the most affluent business communities within the Muslim world shunned away from the Sufi sanctuaries, as their bases of social existence was threatened by the spiritual hierarchy of the Sufis, more particularly in the later times!
Sufism was universal in essence and was culturally enticing, and had the magic of exploiting the potentials to a creative indulgence. Therefore it was always the cultural power seen as the effective bases of gaining world power that distinguished the Sufis from the rest of the world, be it Islamic or otherwise!
One of the greatest treasures of India from its past was its power in the form of music and folklore. It is the richness of poetry based on Indian classical music that flows out from the eternal spring of mystical lore of Sufi inspirations. The Indian Sufi poetic contents are from the great literary inheritance from Sufi cultures from all over the Islamic world, expressed in some of the most beautiful languages such as Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. The Sufi culture of India takes music as its main source of expressions, together with a poetic richness, culminating into an ecstatic Sufi Trance. Sufism is well equipped with all the timeless wisdom and sensitivity of a cultural design, and witnesses the creation of beautiful monumental symbolism such as the Taj Mahal, as Beauty and Love, representing divine ideals of a universal humanity and the state of the soul when being illuminated. Having said that, the Sufi culture was hardly an effort to follow; it simply flowed into the heart like a natural spring, as if from the eternal sources of life, filled with a song, poetry and a dance divine. This became the joys of celebrations that made life not just palpable and tolerable but enlightened the spirit, and revered it with gratefulness and prayer.
What then is this great Sufi secret that sets this cultural system which works wonders on the human psyche and is reflected within individual beings as well?
The Sufi is an intellectual par excellence; the most cultivated in a living style truly divine. Its origins remain in the purity of the human spirit and the sensitivity of a highly developed system of creating order of the mind, body and the spirit. The individual transformation of the soul is a model that the whole community follows and strengthens the unity of the Sufi society. Because every person is different and leads his of her own path to God, people develop certain personal needs during their spiritual path. This is where different orders and schools of mystical come in handy. Every Sufi order around the world is characterized by its own principles, values, and rituals that suit a vast pool of followers. This leads to the advancement of the human soul, impacting the outer shell of humanity: society. The diverse forms of Sufism are the true conditions for the successes of all human civilizations so far, as we can see them through the greatest of creative residues they left behind, and within the cultural visibility of an eternal truth that no one can crush out.
 It is precisely for these very patterns of primal wisdom absorbed by the Sufis that Islam was more of a cultural success, and did correctly exploit the human potentials around the globe. Islamic Art produced by the Sufi-inspired culture and wisdom, of architectural monuments and cities, fine art, crafts and some of the greatest spiritual wisdom of poetic beauty, literature, performing arts, and music, came to symbolizing the eternal spirit as well as state of the human soul at its different stages of the path.
 
 
THE SUFI CULTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT
 The esoteric seriousness of Sufism is in perfect balance with a culture in humor as also the indulgence in the passions of the senses, including the effects of music, poetry, art and architecture.
In order to understand the true values of a culture we must see with a different frame of reference, that is, realization of a culture with a different sense of historical time-perspective. This is not to recount what was historically factual but rather to point out what has been brushed aside by old make-believe excuses, as a study of culture of the underlying forces, as the actual content that necessarily must be the ‘human history of living times’, suppressed for some reason. Not merely a past, dead and gone by.  
The culture of entertainment that exploited the other side of the human talent to polish it with sensational delight, reached such heights that the whole circle of spiritual harmony was now complete. Although the cultural entertainment may visibly be there no more, the centric power of the germ of creativity in the form of a core culture is still alive, as undercurrent. The Sufi sanctuary is a complex of this very cultural pattern, which continues in growth as a whole people, full of creativity the human spirit.
 The sanctuary complex came by a succession of a whole fleet of socio-cultural dimensions of a complete system of human development, sustenance and celebration, enforced by a living community of Sufi tradition and cultural values. The living community is the essential traditional keepers of the sanctuary symbolic of a concise tradition based once again upon a well camouflaged Sufi pattern of culture formation.
 
ARCHITECTURE
The architectural complex that defines the physical as well as cultural space of the Sufi sanctuary has been created in the spiritual atmosphere of architectural elements, as may be defined by the fineness and sensitivity that encompass the activities inside its spatial complex. The scale of architecture is one of the highest, symbolic of the Sufi hierarchy, as symbolized by the Bulund Darwaza in The Great Door. The great cauldrons of the community Kitchen, the later-built Mehfil-khana (the great Music Hall), the three Mosques within the sanctuary, and centrally located, the majestically crowned in gold is the dome symbolically reminding people of Holy Mecca and Medina.
 The sanctuary is well defined and is proportionately designed according to the various religious and spiritual services it provides, plus as a creative spatial-exploitation, to influence the senses by elements of geometry and design. The geometric design that adorns the walls and grounds of the sanctuary is a direct representation of the state of the human soul, and is also a symbol of the great cosmos, God’s orderly creation. Therefore, to anyone who comes within the sanctuary’s property, the very entrance to the space produces, consciously or otherwise, a fine effect upon the person’s spirit, mind and his or her physical wellbeing.
The notion of golden proportion reflected in the beauty of architecture may be conceived as the parallel science of the spirits. Sufism may be defined as the holistic science that creates, heals and celebrates! The Architecture of this sanctuary reverberates the celebrating spirit of humanity. Here we begin to see that art is ultimately at its highest state when it is used for a divine mystical culture. Art produced by mankind so far has been created to represent the Divine qualities embedded in creation and within the spirit.
To the traditionally faithful, as his spirit is free and open due to such a revered traditional system inherited from generations, will get unconsciously influenced, together with the rest of the culture. This is an effect which will feed his spirit, leaving the premises with inner satisfaction, spiritually washed clean, pure and shining, after having ‘experienced’ being in the place. This goes to observe the fact that architecture, when seen as merely a cultural component, individualized and separated, with no contextual significance, will however make a meaningful contribution when in a harmonious relationship as a whole, inclusive of all the spirituality of the place.
One of the ideas found to be most inspiring as a background to the art and architecture of Sufi spaces is the idea of creating heaven on earth. Combined to this idea is also the living spirit of the great Sufi shrine here that established its own kingdom through spirituality. The sanctuary is therefore designed as a spiritual fortress, defined by doorways and gates that each time leads you from one space to another, moving each time to a more intense space till finally you come to the climax of the sanctuary that is the Tomb at its center, where the spirit is felt most alive. It is here where the ideas of Sufism take to a higher dimension, when an interjection takes place, the drop dissolves into the ocean, and emotions get high to the point of a spiritual ecstasy that is indescribable. One may interpret this as an initiation to Sufism.
The sanctuary itself is an architectural fortress within the outer historic fortress that surrounded the main city via three important gates, namely "Madar gate" from the north, "Delhi gate" from the eastern side and "Usri gate" from the west side, while in the south is the hills and valleys of "Taragar" and "Taqa-sayed". 
When you are enter the inner space, where reigns the Sufi Spirit in all majesty, it is truly a glory of the highest kind. The interior of the tomb is designed in a cubical to form an octagonal cornered top that meets into formation of a dome. The cubical shape is a representation of the orderly world which God has created and manifests its beauty within the interior as well as the exterior of the walls. The octagonal form that comes right before the dome symbolizes the link between earth and the heavens. Because this octagonal shape connects the two shapes, it is a representation of the path which can be known in this case as the Sufi way of spirituality. The dome that tops and later crowned and decorated, accompanies this intensely moving spirit, with rose fragrance, perfumes and incense, a silver canopy studded with precious stones, shading the tomb, and a gallery of calligraphic works in Persian, Arabic and Urdu. The immediate exteriors of the cubical space of the interior are on the main side a courtyard known as Begmani-Dallan, built by non other than the princess Jahan-ara, the eldest daughter of Shah-jahan, and a great Sufi.
Two very important elements symbolize the equal presence of the feminine energy within this complex that tell us well of the tolerance of women in Sufic Islamic society. One is the Tomb of the daughter of the Great Khwaja, known popularly as Bibi Haafiz Jamaal, just besides, open to pilgrimage. The other being the Begamani Dallan, reminding us of the greatly popular princess Jahaan Aara, who not only left many beautiful stories and literature behind, but also left as though, the entire main area of entry, in front of the queens courtyard, reserved or taken over by and for woman in prayers and meditation. The fact that women and children as others including even eunuchs may enter the interiors of the shrine speak volumes of tolerance of the spirituality and its authenticity, and speak well about the uniqueness of the Sufi quality of Islam presented here, that no other place may compete with this freedom and acceptance. This is much to the credit of the Keepers,[the Khadims] the resident Sufi community, who till today kept up all the values and traditions strictly according to the highest ideals of Sufism, keeping the place under its control independent of outward agents including the government which strictly speaking makes its modest presence only to see if it can help!
While the rest of the other major Sufi sanctuaries within India are taken over under the government control, where ladies, for example, are not allowed to enter the inner parts of the shrine! This means that the Wakf commission under which the government takes care of all the Sufi sanctuaries, with the exception of the sanctuary of Ajmer, is necessarily made up of the anti-Sufi clergy men, a lobby formulated against the tolerant and secular quality of the real Sufi ideal. Therefore my main point here to stress out is that, not allowing women into the main shrine of the Sufi sanctuaries of, Nizamuddin Aulia, Qutub saab in Mehrauli, Delhi, and Saabir Paak in Kaliyar Roorki, north India, is a policy adopted by the extremist anti-Sufi wahabi kind of people that are being allowed to form the governing body of management of these Sufi abodes. This has nothing to do with the Sufi ideology as exemplified by the tolerant culture of the Sufi sanctuary of Ajmer, the center of all Sufi sanctuaries in the Indian region!
 In front of the two main entrances of the saint’s tomb, performances of Sufi music of the Chishtiya order popularly known as qawwali music, take place daily at the main entrances of the space to the shrine. There are gatherings called the "Karka" ceremonies, where this music in the form of Qawwali culminates into poetic recitals in a Hindi-Persian combination.
KARD-KAA
Hai tau sahi Mouinul Haq bideh sawara
Chishty chirague jug may oujyara
Hai tau sahi Mouinul haq bideh sawara
Chatar chatar avan baran kiyay
Baavan jatan haraa jogi ajaypal baja
Ouda chalo jab hee peer houkm kiya
Jab sar ko sambhal ko man outara
Hai tau sahi Mouinul haq bideh sawara
Tou thumb duniya may bhayo
Hindul wali noor-e-huda hoor-e-huda hardwara
Bhayo raja ghaire leuee ajmer
Jab kiyai islam toda kafara
Hai tau sahi Mouinul haq bideh sawara
Kufre jeun today islam kiya
jeunay guru nai shaan darbaar baja
Uttar, dakhin, pourab, pachchim,
Peero ki suni makkay aa-o eujaa
Deenki thumb muinuddin khwaja
Chatar dulha banay khwaja hasa daan
Aik hee mojiza daanad toubhara
Uttar, dakkhin, pourab, pachchim peero ki soti aawaaz
Rodi "mitthoo" par apnaa raham kijiyay
Dil ka dard dour kijiyay
On the other side of the compound, the foot-gate (Pai-tee) to the shrine is a space that also holds daily performance of Sufi-Music.
On entering the foot-gate towards the interior is another space includes the tomb of the daughter of the Sufi Saint, Saabzaadi-saiba, Bibi Hafiz Jamal. All these exteriors are decorated with a high quality of calligraphic works as well as geometric patterns and other Islamic motifs to adorn the sacred space.
Architecture in Islam includes symbolism through garden designs. A master genius of the Sufi culture of the time, created some of the most wonderful gardens along the lakes of the city known as The Treasure gardens, Daulat baagh. With pavillions built from the immpeccable marble, known as bara-dari, overlook the Anasagar Lake, which used to, until recent times, be an important part of the eco-system of Rajasthan. The importance of landscaping was an important feature of Islamic culture the world over. As the essential insight underlying all forms of Islamic Art and Architecture are the Koranic descriptions of paradise that have always been the driving forces of inspiration for the anonymous artists and architects:
. "There are gardens at both the beginning and the end of mankind's destiny-Garden of Eden and paradise-and this is equally true for Muslim Christian and Jews alike. The Koran gives detailed description of the eternal garden... Paradise appears to be a garden landscape enclosed by a wall, since both gates and gatekeepers are mentioned. Surah 55 tells of two, two similar gardens beside which lie another two, different gardens. All four of them possess flowing springs, shady trees, exquisite fruits, and beautiful horses. There are also tents and buildings in the heavenly garden: dwellings, houses, castles, and chambers among which streams flow. But all these buildings are scattered throughout the garden and in no way resemble a city.
Among the terms used in the Koran to denote paradise, Jannah (a direct translation would be ‘garden’) is the most common. There is frequent mention of the heavenly with various descriptive words such as the garden of delight (jannat naim), a garden of refuge (jannat al mawa), and garden of immortality (jannat al-khuld). The Garden has also been etymologically linked with the cemetery, almost from the beginning. Also attached to the immediate side of the sanctuary is a valley of orchards, water tanks, and rivulets that lead you to the wonders of forts and palaces in, now, ruins. The landscaping within the sanctuary’s complex that was well planned out according to the spatial elements of architecture, with aesthetics and functionality combined, contains important species of trees carefully selected for its aesthetic and spiritual importance.
Confirming to thel trends at the different historical times, the overall design of the spaces has been maintained in its architectural unity. The doors, the walls of the main sanctuary, interiors, etc. become strong architectural elements that define the subtle influence that work upon the minds of the people by way of inscribing upon them messages in poetic verses.

Mosques, Madrasas and Khanquas

"The Mosque is not only a large space, it contains symbolic or functional features, each one of which has its own history. The minbar (stepped pulpit) dates back to the times of the Prophet. Originally a somewhat high, three stepped stool; it was used for sermons, proclamations, and readings. Very rapidly it acquired additional steps and in many cases, a seat at the top covered by a canopy; elaborate example with decorated sidewalls of carved wood or sculpted stone have been constructed, but the simple ones still remain. Two features of the mosque are as symbolic as they are functional. One is the mihrab, a niche indicating the Qiblah, the direction of prayer, and also commemorates the presence of the Prophet. Developed around 700 the mihrab is found in all mosques, and has become the decorated part of the building, often with lamps, symbolizing the Devine presence and the universality of Muslim message. Also, as it indicates the direction of prayer, it stresses the unity of Islam’s people when it comes to devotion. The other such feature is the minaret to call for the prayer. It is “a visual beacon indicating a Muslim community” {Grabar, Islamic Art and archtectur}
The Sufi sanctuary of Ajmer houses three important Mosques. The first and the most important, is the Shahjani mosque. Emperor Shah-Jahan, on ascending the throne, made the mosque as his inaugurating contribution towards an architectural monument, venerating the shrine of the great Chishtiy Saint. The mosque is exquisitely built in white marble with an architectural space created with facades from three sides that lead you into an open space giving a fantastic view of the crowned dome of the sanctuary. The location being prominent also makes it a space that gathers people at times for a spectacular performance of musical recitations of the spiritual lore [“zikre”]. The “code of conduct” within the architectural premises of the mosque is well observed. The basic purpose is hosting of the community prayer five times a day, the spiritual atmosphere within the premises of this Mosque is phenomenally calm. As soon as you enter from any one of the five facades, you enter into a space just as beautiful and pure as the marble holding it together. There is a huge open space within that houses the eleven-arched mosque, the central niche as the mehrab. The top part below the short roofing has calligraphic inscriptions in Arabic from the Koran. Mosques always contain inscriptions in Arabic from the Koran. Around other parts of the sanctuary are verses written in the Persian, especially inscriptions above the doorways.
The beauty of this mosque is unique, similar to the shrine; it is a complete spiritual world by itself. Not only is it a place for community prayers, but being situated directly in front of the Domed Shrine, it also becomes a place for performance of the Sufi-poetical recitations. During festivities, huge gatherings and assemblies gather to chant along with a central performer who leads the sacred recitations. This open space enclosure thus becomes an important space for performance, as the great hall of music, expressing Sufi-poetic recitations as groups of human voices chanting join in chorus as background to the leading voice. Compared to the Great Hall of music [The Mehfil-Khana], this Musical congregation is non-formal in a way, performance of music without musical instruments; there are no elaborate gestures of expressions, ecstatic, nor any trance. The audience is charged with a meditative discipline with concentration towards the inner self and the shrine. People sway gently together as they recite.
Within the Mosque as a general rule no one is loud, no elaborate movements, and people are expected to be clean and properly dressed. There are people who are reciting prayers, saying the individual Namaz, meditating in silence or simply sitting or in soft conversation or even lying down dozing off. During the time other than the community prayers woman are allowed to perform the namaz in any of the three mosques within the sanctuary. Ideally women are allowed to pray in a community prayer within the same mosque premises, provided a curtain divides them.
The Shah-jahani Mosque becomes the inner reflection of the beauty of paradise contained within the interiors of the sacred tomb space, as mentioned in Persian verses on the last door of entry to the shrine. This idea and interpretation is further encouraged by the fact that, the central facade of the mosques courtyard leads you directly in front of what is popular and sacred as the gate of heaven, [Jannati Darawaza] which is open only on special occasions.
 Relatively built earlier, the Akbari Masjid was built by the great Mughul Emperor Akbar, well known for his secular ideas. It is originally a red stone mosque, and was decorated all over with Islamic calligraphy and geometric designs inspired from the architectural structure.
The sandali masjid , also very importantly located and decorated with unique artistic creativity and also built with a unique building material, of fantastic arches that reach up to form geometrical surfaces forming inner ceilings  which along with the interiors are decorated in gold, including the Mehrab.

The Madrasas
The madrasa came into being at the beginning of the 15the century. The madarasa was a theological college in which the material sciences, including mathematics and astronomy were taught.
On the carved door an inscription was legible until recently that according to legend referred to a ruling by Ulugh beg: "To strive for knowledge is the duty of each every Muslim man and woman.” The Ulugh beg madrasa became the prototype for many madrasa in the future.
...The central rooms were the lecture halls of the madrasa whose students lived in the cells, or else halls used for the gatherings of the Sufi dervishes, thus forming part of a Khanqa. The combination of the mosque, madrasa, tomb, and khanqa in the same complex did occur in middle Eastern architecture a fact that can be illustrated by many examples.[Art and Architecture, Islam]
The Sufi sanctuary of Ajmer is a prime example of a powerful learning place that was in the form of great khanqua / monastry for the Sufi brotherhoods from all over the Indian subcontinent and therefore very power full an influence to the political inspiration just as well.

T