Mir Saiyed Ali Hamadani- A Lodestar

Z. G. MUHAMMAD

It was a day of introspection. Sitting through a one-day seminar on Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani in Kashmir University, on Wednesday, I was reminded of my identity- Who am I?  Pat came the reply, I am an aborigine born   in a Muslim family. Brought up in a Muslim family in a very large a seminary- the “old” Srinagar city that   was adopted not only as the capital    by the Sultans of Kashmir but also as a great centre of Islamic learning. Even after the Sikh rulers in 1819, closed the five hundred year old Islamic institutions, the city lived to the tradition of being a large seminary- where almost everyone received education in basic tenets of Islam from the pulpits. I was reminded of my debt to Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani for bringing my ancestors into the fold of Islam and making me first among the equals.
I have not received any formal education in Islamic jurisprudence but being a student of Kashmir history, I do have an understanding how and why Islam became faith of overwhelming majority in Kashmir.  While listening to religious leaders from different schools of thought, scholars,  intellectuals and jurists speaking in the seminar organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Himayat-ul-Islam on ‘inculcation of moral values in the society as ordained by Shah-e-Hamadan’, a stream of random questions flashed through my mind. If this great man had not visited,    Kashmir how would be our   social, and cultural and economic landscape looking like?  Why discourses like Kashmiriyat are being conjured to compartmentalize the teachings of Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani and those of Sheikh-ul-Alam. Is there a scope for reading messages of the two benefactors of Kashmir differently? The anthem of Kashmir University stays as a barb in my mind- pricking me every now and then. Whenever it is played, it reminds me of deletion of name of greatest benefactor of Kashmir and Kashmiris from it. Is this a deliberate move to remove him from the contemporary Kashmir narrative? Why discourses, of author of the Zakhiratul Muluk, one of the best treatises on governance ruffle feathers of the ruling elite? For his role in redeeming Kashmiri Muslim of some of the un-Islamic practices that persisted with them for many years after their conversion, he perhaps does not fit in their doctrine of syncretism.
It is next to impossible to think of modern Kashmir without referring to the contributions of Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani. Through his massive and progressive program of introducing about two dozen crafts in Kashmir, he brought economic stability to the land. After his, first visit in 1371 AD, which  was four months, writes Abdul Majid Azami, ‘for six years during his discourses at a hospice in Khatalan he mobilized artisans for visiting Kashmir and deputing became a regular feature.  ’ ‘Training in one or other craft for which raw material was locally available was imparted to everyone who embraced Islam.’ “The madarassas also worked as vocational training centers, where beside Islamic education students were given training in different crafts.” ‘Believing in living on legal wages, he did not want his disciples to be parasites on the society but asked them to work for living an honorable life, he earning wages by making caps. ’ ‘He shunned ‘conventionally idle khanqah life- working hours in his khanqah were from 4 am to 6 am and from 6pm to 8pm. During daytime, they were busy in one or other profession.’ Six hundred years after his visit to Kashmir , handicrafts introduced by him continue to be second important contributing factor to peoples economy after agriculture.   According to Pakistani scholar Dr. Mohammad Riaz, Shah-i-Hamadan visited Kashmir thrice and in total stayed her for about five years. Two important historians Dr. Sufi and Mohib-ul-Hassan also hold similar while some of contemporary Kashmiri historian hold the view that he visited Kashmir only once. Some historians see his first visit during which he mostly remained confined to Srinagar as exploratory- it enabled him to establish contacts  and establish a centre for propagation of Islam in Srinagar.’ To reach to wider population he asked his disciples to learn Kashmiri language. Some of his disciples who had learnt Kashmiri language worked as his interpreters.  In this column, it may not be possible to answer all questions that bothered me during the seminar or to encapsulate all the contributions made by Shah-i-Hamadani for revolutionizing the Kashmir society but in fact, his ideas are potent enough to revolutionize the Kashmir society today as they were during his lifetime. His charter of duties, right for the rulers and citizens and dos and don’ts if followed and adhered to strictly- these will help in creating a just society.
How important is his life and teachings for contemporary Muslim society of Kashmir tormented by sectarianism and petty schism was yet another question that crossed my mind sitting in the seminar.   Sectarianism, for the murky role of some countries and kingdoms having become dangerous phenomenon- and in this bizarre scenario he continues to be lodestar for guiding chiefs of seminaries and Imams for ensuring inter-sectarian harmony. Dr. Riaz Muhammad writes that he followed Imam Shafi’i but in Kashmir people, overwhelming followed the Hanafi fiqh, he never asked people to follow the Shafi’i jurisprudence. In fact he emphasized need for not highlighting conflicting views of jurisprudence in religious books. He was against sectarianism. So far I have not come cross any reference where he pronouncedly expresses his allegiance to any particular sect.’
Seen in right perspective seven hundred years after his message for ensuring harmony and unity in Muslim Umah finds an echo in what has come to be known as Amman message- a 106 page declaration by Ulamas signed by 552 Islamic scholars belonging to different sect from all over the world in Amman in 2005.
The message addressed three important points, 1. Who is Muslim?, 2. Is it permissible to declare someone as apostate (kafar)?, and who has the right to undertake issuing fatwas (legal ruling)? After the great scholars who included Shaykh Al-Azhar; Ayatollah Sistani and Sheikh Qaradwi adjudicated the three points, they specifically recognized the validity of all eight legal schools, based upon this definition; they disallowed declaration of apostasy between Muslims. The three points were unanimously adopted at OIC meeting in Mecca in December 2005… For fighting sectarian schism, on which some vested interest have been fattening our religious scholars and Imams besides making Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani as their role model need to adopt Amman message as a new gospel.