Aa’ina-e-Hind—The Mirror of India and the Mystic of Bengal!

By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam 20 May 2024 “ الحق وی آئینۂ ہند بود کہ تمام ہند رونق ارشاد وہدایت بیفزود” "The Truth Is That He [Akhi Seraj] Is The Mirror Of India (A’aina-E-Hind) With Whose Wisdom And Guidance The Whole Of India Would Continue To Bask In Glory And Spiritual Light." ~Mahbub-e-ilahi Hazrat Nizamuddin Awliya R.A. Main Point: 1. The 14th-century Sufi mystic in Bengal, Syed Akhi Usman Serajuddin, popularly known as Akhi Seraj and greatly revered as “Aaina-e-Hind” (mirror of Hindustan) is extremely important. He spent all his life in the wider dissemination of syncretic Sufi teachings and Chishti spiritual intellect in the vast land of undivided Bengal…. Bengal—the vast land of ancient Vaishnavism, Shavism, Jainism and Buddhism— became the heartland of Syncrectic Sufism with the birth and emergence of Chishti Sufi sages like Sheikh Akhi Serajuddin Usman. Born in Gaur, a town in Bengal, Akhi Seraj became more popularly known as “Aaina-e-Hind” (Mirror of India) as well as “Sultan-ul-Mashaikh” (King of the Saints) among the prominent Caliphs of Chishti-Sufi master Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya RA of Delhi. Of course, all the Caliphs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya were of high spiritual ranks. But among them, Hazrat Sheikh Naseeruddin Chiragh Dehlvi, and then Aaina-e-Hind Hazrat Akhi Seraj gained great popularity and prominence. The Chishti Sufi lineage in the Indian subcontinent continued from these two elders of the Silsilah. In the words of Mahbub-e-Ilahi Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya who extolled Akhi Seraj among his chief disciples, as follows: "He is the mirror of India". He is reported to have said, as quoted in the celebrated work on Sufi Mystics in Persian “Rawdat-ul-Aqtab”: “ الحق وی آئینۂ ہند بود کہ تمام ہند رونق ارشاد وہدایت بیفزود” "The truth is that he (Akhi Seraj) is the Mirror of India (Aaina-e-Hind) with whose wisdom, spiritual presence and guidance the whole of India would continue to bask in glory and guidance." As a result, many Mystics were enlightened by the grace of this Bengali-Sufi sage. He became the disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya at an early age. After serving his Murshid for a few years, he went to his mother's service in Lakhnoti, presently known as “Gaur” in Bengal. When the time of his caliphate came, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya said that the first condition was adequate knowledge, but Akhi Seraj did not have that much knowledge. Then, Maulana Fakhruddin Zarradi took up the responsibility to make him a scholar in six months. So, Maulana Zarradi, before he started teaching him, wrote a book only for him, which he named "Tasrif-e-Usman" (Transformation of Usman). Only after he read and accomplished this book, he was honoured and bestowed with the caliphate and authority (Ijaazat-o-Khilafat) by Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya R.A who declared him the Spiritual Governor of the East (Wali-e-Diyar-i-Mashriq). Sheikh Abdul Haq Muhaddis Dehlvi writes in his famous work “Akhbar Al-Akhyaar” that the 14th century Sufi mystic of Bengal, Syed Akhi Usman Serajuddin was greatly revered as “Aaina-e-Hind” (the Mirror of Hindustan). One of the spiritual vicegerents of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia R.A, Akhi Seraj also attained closeness with Baba Fariduddin and acquired thorough spiritual knowledge from Shaikh Fakhruddin Zarradi. Akhi Seraj founded the Chishti Sufi tradition in Bengal which later became the beacon light for the entire subcontinent particularly in terms of religious and social harmony. The first Sufi hospice (khanqah) in Bengal was also established by Akhi Seraj. In Bengal, he had prominent disciples and successors like Hazrat Ala-ul-Haq of Pandua and Hazrat Amir Khurd. It is mentioned in Siyar-ul-Auliya, a Persian biography of India’s Chishti Sufi saints that Akhi Seraj “illumined the whole region with his spiritual radiance”. The local Bengali people had so much love and veneration for him that they called him “Piran-e-Pir” (the saint of saints), an epithet generally attributed to Baghdad’s greatest Sufi saint, Abdul Qadir Jilani. An extremely modest mystic and Sufi master, Akhi Seraj spent all his short-lived life in the wider dissemination of spiritual intellect in the vast land of Bengal. His teachings left an everlasting impact on the syncretic culture and beliefs of Muslims in Bengal. As a result, most Bengali Muslims adhere to the spiritual strain of Islam even today. As the true “mirror of India”, his spiritual light radiated from his discourses on divine knowledge and illuminated the whole region. Prominent saints of Bengal quenched their thirst from the spiritual fountain of Aa’ina-e-Hind. Some of his disciples belonged to aristocratic families with close relations to the government of Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah. But he taught them to live the modest life of a Sufi. He sought to change the elitist ways of his upper-class murids (disciples). For instance, Ala-ul-Haq whose father was the treasurer of the provincial government in Bengal was enjoined to humble himself by walking with a hot cauldron on his head. In his devotion to his master, Ala-ul-Haq would carry a cauldron of hot food on his head even though it would burn his hair. It is mentioned in Akhbar-ul-Akhyar written by Sheikh Abdul Haqq Muhaddis Dehlvi, a famous Persian treatise on Sufism: Once a dervish from Suhrawardy Sufi order came to spend time with Akhi Seraj. He noticed that after the night prayer (Isha), Akhi Seraj went to bed, while he was busy praying and supplicating all night. But in the morning, he was offering the Morning Prayer (Fajr) without Wuzu (ablution). Seeing this, the dervish said, “I am surprised that you were asleep all night and now you pray without ablution!” Seraj replied in a remarkable Persian couplet: Agar Ashiq Beh Masjid Dar Nayamad Dil-E-Ashiq Hamesha Dar Namaz Ast Translation: The heart of a true lover — ashiq — is always in worship, even if he doesn’t attend a mosque for a prayer. Among the close disciples he had, Sultan-ul-Murshidin Hazrat Alaul Haq Pandawi RA gained extraordinary popularity in the Bengal region. He is the one who trained his disciple and spiritual heir as the most notable Chishti sage of India—Hazrat Syed Ashraf Jahangir Samnani RA who reached the heights of “Qutb-i-Alam” (Pole of the World), Ghaus-ul-Alam (Head of the Saintly World) and Mehboob-e-Yazdani (Beloved of the Divine). Dr Abdul Lateef (Department of History at Aligarh Muslim University) who did his PhD entitled, The Muslim Mystic Movements in Bengal from the 14th to the Middle of the 16th Century A.D. writes: “The Mystic stream that trickled down to Bengal during the middle of the 14th century was never enforced after Sheikh Akhi Siraj. Consequently, no other important saint after him entered and worked in Bengal. The Qadiri, the Suhrawardy, the Shattari, the Firdausi, and the Naqshbandi Sufi orders which existed and exercised tremendous influence in other parts of India could not simultaneously extend the sphere of their activities in Bengal. Only the Chishti Silsila was destined to play an important role in the social, political and spiritual life of Bengal, and it produced saints like Alaul Haqq and Nur Qutb Aalam, who planted and popularized the mystic traditions in the region.” ---- A Regular Columnist with Newageislam.com, Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is an Indo-Islamic scholar, Sufi poet and English-Arabic-Urdu-Hindi writer with a background in a leading Sufi Islamic seminary in India. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-spiritualism/aaina-hind-mirror-india-mystic-bengal/d/132347 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism