Shaikh Nur-ud-Din Nooran: God Is both Immanent and Transcendent
By Dr Ashiq ul Islam
October 15,
2020
Charar-e-Sharief
shrine
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Kashmir
from times immemorial has remained seat of great Rishis and Sufis, owing to
this reason Kashmir is popularly known as Pirvir, the garden of spiritual
guides. In fact there lived saints in this land from the very beginning. But
the effective and systematic Rishi movement is attributed to Nundreshi, that is
15th century A.D. The great Rishi in his lyric has also made mention of the
earlier Rishis and has given even the names of few reputed Rishi who lived
before him, but the Rishi movement of Kashmir is attributed to him. He is
regarded as the patron founder of this movement. Besides being a leader of the
Rishi movement in Kashmir he was also a great Sufi poet. His fame as a saint
and glory of his spiritual attainments travelled far and wide attracting a
great number of followers. He uttered hundreds of sayings which furnish
Kashmiri literature with gems having both terrestrial as well as celestial
meaning, and are stamped in people’s memories
Shaikh
Nur-ud-din Noorani (R.A), celebrated saint of Kashmir, is known by many names;
for few he is the Alamdar-i-Kashmir (Flag bearer of the people of Kashmir), for
others he is “Nundreshi” the pious saint while others call him “Shaikh-ul-Alam”
the spiritual preceptor of the world. Shaikh Nur-ud-din Noorani (R.A) is
undoubtedly the top personage of the spirituality in Kashmir.
His poetry
at occasions appears interpretation and explanation of various verses of the
Holy Qur’an. He started his sojourns in caves and tried to reach the ultimate
truth by spreading the path of spirituality. Later on he travelled throughout
Kashmir and ultimately settled at Charar-i-Sharief which was his final destination. It was here
that he met with Mir Muhammad Hamadani and after some discussion received a
letter of guidance from him. Commonly known as Khat-i-Irshad, in which he was
asked to return with the principles of Islam and Sunnah. Thus he did not remain
confined to the cave, but took an active part in spreading the teachings of
Islam. He craved for a society which is based on ethical values of Islam and
justice. He was conscious about the social ailments, which the Kashmiri society
was suffering from at that time. He visited the greater part of the Kashmir
valley, and that a number of villages still preserves the tradition of his
visit in one form or another, testifies to his missionary role. His message is
universal and simple. Most of the verses of the Shaikh depict the transitory
nature of the world, intense love for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the
caliphs of the Islam, and brotherhood, irrespective of caste, color and creed.
His teachings included; say good, do good, think good, give charity, be honest
and upright, fight the evil, endeavor to search, and attain the truth, and live
life like a Muslim. The overall message is for the welfare, uplift, equity and
equality of mankind. His sayings not only provide a deep insight into history
or make one aware of the real teachings of Islam but these sayings act as a
source of soul purification and mental alleviation.
Because of
his charismatic and saintly personality, persuasive teachings and strong
abhorrence of worldly things, Shaikh Nur-ud-Din won many conversions to Islam,
the most significant being Bhum Sad, a prominent brahman ascetic, Zia Singh, a
descendant of the royal family of Kistwar and Ladi Raina, the chief of pargana.
Bhum Sadh was named as Bam al-Din, Zia Singh as Zain al-Din and Ladi Raina as
Latif-al-Din. It may be mentioned that Bam al-Din, Baba Zain al-Din, Baba Latif
al-Din and his other immediate disciple Baba Nasir al-Din became the four
prominent Khulfa of the Shaikh, who like their spiritual preceptor chose to
live away from the hustle and bustle of life and won many followers. Thus a big
brotherhood of Rishis was created who carried on the mission of the Shaikh
generation after generation.
Understanding
Shaikh Nur-ud-Din’s poetry means understanding the language of his times, says
Prof. Shafi Shouq. “The Shruk is grounded in the phonological, semantic and
semi logical structure of the 15th century Kashmir: no approach other than
linguistic, can, therefore, be reliable in understanding and evaluating the
Shruk”. He was very much concerned about
the artistic and aesthetic elements and chose complete, compact, crispy, clear
and proverbial style for his poetry.
Nur-ud-Din
gives evidence of his belief that God is both immanent and transcendent. He is
everywhere, not confined to one place or another. According to him, all the
branches of knowledge are nothing but the commentary upon the proclamation of
faith. “There is no God but Allah.” If one truly seeks for God, he says,
everything but Allah becomes worthless. One who recognizes himself, recognizes
God: ‘when I was able to recognize my own self, I was able to recognize God;
but loss and gain became identical to me and the distinction between life and
death disappeared. He once told his mother: “God was and is and shall be for
ever; he is independent of all other creatures; he lacks nothing.” Further, he
says: “There is no God but with a hundred names, there is not a single blade of
grass, which does not worship him.” He further says: “First I became certain
that there is no god but Allah, then I made myself (acquainted with) divine
revelations. First I forgot myself and yearned after God, then I reached
la-makan.
The Shaikh
also impressed upon the people that the more they learnt about the deeper
content of the kalima, the more they would become conscious of the sin of
worshipping a multiplicity of deities. It was in the context that while
criticizing the animistic beliefs of his compatriots, even though undergoing
the process of Islamic acculturation, the Shaikh remarked: “O Pandit, the
brother: O Pandits: How long will you remain wedded to the worship of stones
and springs? Your thoughtless search did not bear any fruit; Submit yourselves
to the Lord and his messenger; Aren’t your solicitous of (spiritual and
worldly) success?”
Nur –al
Din’s Shruk in which he defines the eminence of Allah: Suy ous ti suy aasy, Suy
suy kar zi ha zuwoo, Suy saari andesh kasy, Ha zuwoo payas peto (He was and He
shalt be, May for Him my dear-self be, Alone, He wilt remove thy fears and
doubts, Be perceptible to some extent O, me!). It proves that Shaikh was
promoting Islamic beliefs in a beautiful way to the people through Kashmiri language.
He at the same time was very much eager in reforming the beliefs of the people
in larger extent that can be noticed through his poetry.
Besides his
poetry, he discussed the word Ibadah in his poetry as well. When he says: “Kus
yi chey kun begarzi, Kash aasi dilas tiyout wusath, Jannatiki hawsi ti
dowzakhni bayai, Daiy chey karaan ibadat. (Who shalt invoke Thee with a
selfless supplication. Who would have a magnanimous faith. It is either with
the fear of hell or love of paradise. That all worship Thee, for their own good
My Lord).
Nur-ud Din
wanted every individual to inculcate in them good morals. He tried to mould the
character of his people upon ethical values. He says about the virtue of
sincerity in these following Shruks: Su chuni wechan qelas ti qaalas, Su chu
wuchaan dili kis halas kun, Zikr haq par zeou dith taalas, Dev raaz haenz yi
zaalas kun, (Gaze not He, by thy debates and discussions, The state of thy
heart does He observe, Let thou invoke Him with tongue compressed to thy plate,
possibly the phoenix may be entrapped).
While
concluding, it can be said that Nur ud-Din (R.A) was one of the greatest Sufi
poets and religious scholars of the sub-continent. His teachings are grounded
in the Qur’anic ethics of humanism and reciprocal love. He not only sustained
rich Islamic tradition but also united the race to follow the right path
without falling prey to ritualism.
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Dr Ashiq ul Islam teaches at Department of
Islamic Studies, GDC Pampore.. Excerpts taken from the book “Islam and Shaikh
ul Alam”
Original Headline: Sufi-Poetic Discourse of
Nur-ud-Din
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/shaikh-nur-ud-din-nooran/d/123149
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