Nude mystic in bigot’s empire
Close to the eastern gate of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, there is a dargah painted half green, half red. The red colour signifies the martyrdom of the Sufi, Sarmad Shaheed, and the green colour is a symbol of the calm personality of his mentor Syed Abul Hasan, popularly called Hare Bhare Sahab. Inscribed on a board on the wall is a verse from the Quran, “And call not those who are slain in the way of Allah dead: nay, they are living, only ye perceive not…”
An Armenian Jew, Sarmad mastered the Judaic texts and then studied with famous Islamic scholars. He converted to Islam and took the name of Muhammad Saeed. Sarmad hailed from Kashan in Iran. The son of a rich merchant, he established himself as a successful trader. He set out for India to sell Persian ceramics. In 1631, AD, Sarmad arrived in Sindh. After a decade, his wanderings took him from Lahore to Hyderabad until he finally arrived in Delhi.
Sarmad was intolerant of authority, refusing to show respect even to emperor Aurangzeb. It was Sarmad’s nudity which deeply annoyed Aurangzeb. Once, as Aurangzeb’s procession was passing through the streets of Delhi, he saw Sarmad sitting by the roadside. The king ordered the march to halt and demanded that the mystic cover himself. The saint looked at him with wrathful eyes and said, “If you think I need to cover my nudity, why don’t you cover me yourself?” When the emperor lifted the blanket that lay beside Sarmad, he saw the bloodied heads of all the family members he had secretly murdered. Bewildered, Aurangzeb looked at Sarmad, who said, “Now tell me, what should I cover — your sins or my thighs?”
Another famous tale recounts how Sarmad would recite just the first part of the Muslim kalimah (declaration of faith), “La illaha illallah” (there is no god but God) and would leave out the other half affirming Prophet Mohammed as the Messenger of God. A board of state jurists questioned Sarmad as to why he refrained from completing the declaration. Responding to this accusation of heresy, Sarmad replied, “I am so engrossed in negation, I have not yet reached the spiritual station of affirmation yet.”
Found guilty of blasphemy, Sarmad was executed in 1660 AD in the compound of the Jama Masjid. His tomb lies on the steps adjacent to the mosque. According to one legend, after Sarmad was beheaded, his body seized the chopped head from the ground and ran up the stairs of Jama Masjid, threatening to destroy Aurangzeb’s kingdom. In another version of the same incident, the moment Sarmad’s head was severed from the body, it fell to the ground and everyone in the audience heard it recite the full kalimah. It is believed that had Sarmad’s Master not intervened and calmed the dead Sufi’s fury, Sarmad’s wrath would have destroyed Delhi.
Sadia Dehlvi is a Delhi-based writer and author of Sufism: The Heart of Islam.
She can be contacted at sadiafeedback@gmail.com
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