Daily Times

Near the overpopulated locality of Dharampura, Lahore, amidst dilapidated buildings and congested lanes lies the impeccable tomb of 17th century Sufi-scholar Mian Mir. He was also the spiritual master of Mughal prince and heir-apparent to Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh. Lahore is largely recognized as Datas nagri, people who visit Lahore often feel compelled to visit Data Sahib to pay their respects or at the very least have a look at the landmark from afar. Mian Mir’s mazaar makes no loud advertisement about itself but it greets one ever so warmly almost to the point of arresting the visitor’s heart and telling it to let it all go.

I am often confronted by religious Pakistanis about my affinity for these dead dervishes, they lament ‘What can a dead man possibly give you? He is helpless himself… this is shirk’. What they don’t understand is that sometimes cemeteries can hold more serenity than our bustling world, the dead seem to know something about life that we can’t wrap our head around while alive. Mian Mir was a heretic belonging to the Qaddirya chain in Sufism, the other two prominent ones being Chishtiya and Naqshbandi. However, to the heart seeking God’s path and his qurbat (closeness), sects and sub sects don’tmatter much neither do rituals or religion.

Maybe this multi-faith reality and acceptance of others is what is most attractive about Sufism. Unlike other strands of Islam which tend to be exclusive, inclusivity of Sufi saints needs to be celebrated and acknowledged especially in current times. Unfortunately today Sufism has mostly been reduced to listening to Coke Studio on loop or using words such as maula, malang frequently in one’s language to give off an air of mystique. Brand Sufism is a corrupt one because it is interested in making money out of the remembrance of God and therefore majority of what one encounters today termed as Sufi comes from an insincere place in the heart. Real Sufism had a lot more to do with the emptying of the ego, giving away of the riches, nourishing the hungry and maintaining harmony among people.

Mian Mir enjoyed popularity not only within the Muslim community but with Sikhs as well, he was a close friend of Guru Arjan dev, the fifth Guru, and often accepted invites from him to engage in spiritual discourses. The revered Sikh Guru also urged Mian Mir to lay the foundation stone of Harmindar Sahab, also known as the Golden temple of Amritsar. Many religious heads of the time reacted adversely to Mian Mir’s participation in the construction of holy place belonging to another faith but he would hear none of it-it was important to him to honour his friend. He would often laud the intention of the Sikh gurus and their faith, particularly their efforts for unifying the bickering Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs of the time.

There are very few places that subtract from you all of your words and render you truly speechless as well as thoughtless, forcing you to free thy self; I found Mian Mir’s resting place to have the same therapeutic effect as emerging in a hot pool of water after a long tiring day. In the middle of its wide courtyard is a small khanqah, a room housing his remains, tiny shutters stick out from each side of the wall as pigeons stand guard over the roof, women are not allowed inside so they offer their salutations from outside peeking in thru the lattice.

There is also a mosque in the vicinity reminding visitors to not forget the worship of Allah even as they make use of a waseela for their hard-pressed desires. Most of the conversations that falls into the ears while at the dargah revolves around people praying for jobs-money and an adequate amount of it being a dire necessity and reality of today. One also encounters childless couples praying for their heir, someone to pass their genes and all their goodness on to.

Awlia are regarded as friends of Allah, nearer to Him, because of their self-atonement, practice, devotion to a holy life and self denial as well- a concept that sounds alien to our ears now. They simply cannot be compared to the televangelists of our times, whose sole purpose is attaining fame by conning people and minting money using religion Mian Mir had patrons belonging to the Mughal clan, from Emperor Akbar to Shah Jahan and his secular minded Dara Shikoh, all sought his advice on worldly and spiritual matters. However, he himself walked around in the simplest of clothes, fasted for many days and avoided mingling with people as much as he could. Maybe that is the reason his mazaar is a little concealed from the public, veiled almost by nature’s design, I suppose we carry our essence with us even in death — his being quietude.

Personally for me, a visit to any dargah means a visit to a spiritual friend, I may have initially started going to these places out of greed for fulfilling a vow or two but those desires soon faded away. The hunt for inner peace emerged after encounters of the terrible kind with people, everyone has an agenda up their sleeves, finding a sincere companion can be really daunting so I yearned to find my center every once in a while, which these places offered. Some dargahs are more commercialized than others, with religious hawkers looking to sell you your own spiritual experience, while other shrines lie in some corner waiting to be discovered only when the time is right-this one in Lahore is definitely for the keeps.

The writer is a freelance columnist with a degree in Cultural Studies and a passion for social observation, especially all things South Asian. She tweets @chainacoffeemug