As the sun slowly descends in the west and the breeze blows, a maja’awar  (caretaker) at the graveyard starts his preparations.  He fills a bucket from the hand-pump and showers water across the entire floor to settle the dust.  He then sweeps the courtyard and covers it with straw mats.  Finally, he sets up a stage at the centre and  spreads husk leaves over it.

People begin to stream in.  Young and old alike,  from different walks of life:  political activists, bankers, advocates, businessmen, graduate students, low-paid employees, labourers and many more.  There is no distinction of class here as they sit together on the floor mats.  Every person who comes in puts his palms together and shouts, Haq maujood  (Truth will prevail), while the rest reply in a chorus, Sada maujood  (It shall prevail forever), also raising their hands up in the air .

            The singers, attired in orange shirts, donning Sindhi caps, tune their instruments – the dholak, the harmonium, the tanboor, the chapri.  Within no time, the courtyard echoes with the sounds of wah fakir wah, in appreciation of the singers.  Everyone is moved, yet lost within oneself.  All are listening to the music;  some smoke hashish, while others sip a cup of tea.  Others, who reach the stage of wajd  (trance), start dancing.  Their colleagues shout, “Raham fakir, raham” to calm them down, but they return to a normal condition only after becoming completely exhausted.  The gathering continues for several hours and it is only called off when the singers tire.

            This is a scene enacted every Thursday evening at a place called Qadrin-ja-quba  (graveyard of the Qadris), located in the heart of Larkana town.  And there are countless other places in Sindh where similar rituals draw crowds on a regular basis.  At every step, one encounters the dargah of a dervish (mystic) in Sindh, which is also known as the “land of 124,000 saints and sufis.”

            While the dargahs have been there from times immemorial, they are now beginning to draw a different kind of devotee: the one-time leftist and liberal political worker, seeking refuge in mysticism, perhaps to replace his lost belief in socialism.

            At the same time that the humane and peace-loving philosophy of mysticism continues to flourish, another brand of religious observance is also making its own inroads.  The number of madrassas has increased manifold and young men from Sindh have found their way to the jihad in far away places like Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya, some never to return.

            Many of the leftists turned sufis undertake regular pilgrimages to the shrines of saints, travelling over rough terrain to reach places such as Lahoot in Lasbela.  Says an observer, “Until a few years ago, the sufis were people who often had no formal education or material possessions. Now we find even the college educated and well-to-do taking refuge in mysticism.”

            While some term mysticism an escape from reality, others believe that it is a way of life that brings out the best qualities in a human being, bringing a person closer to his Creator.  The mystics think of the nafs  or five senses as a ‘a dog that must be tied up.’  “Burn your desires and improve the person  inside.  Those who are up to it will finally be delivered,” promises Sikandar Shah, a leftist- cum-sufi from Tando Adam near Hyderabad.

Jam Saqi, central leader of the Communist Party of Pakistan, is one of the prominent hard core leftists who has followed the sufi path.  Jam Saqi, who remained behind bars and under house arrest for years for his political beliefs, launched the ‘sufi tehreek’ in Sindh after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  He now declares that those who don’t know about mysticism can neither perceive the real world nor become true communists.  Saqi believes that mysticism “gives you peace of mind. It opens your mind to all schools of thought.”

            Nisar Shah, a veteran  who is believed to have  first translated communist manifesto in Pakistan, has also turned mystic.  He sits at the dargah of Shah Naseer at Nausheroferoz, attired in the mystic’s orange garb, smoking hash and reciting poetry.

            Sadiq Rajpar, another well known Communist party activist who used to write pamphlets for the party and was a source of inspiration for many of his colleagues, has also joined the band of mystics, travelling from shrine to shrine with the fakirs.  Hafiz Mohammed Bakhsh Khaskheli of New Jatoi village, who marched with Jam Saqi from Reti to Karachi in 1992, can also be seen attired in orange clothes, preaching the cause.  Comrade Shabbir Solangi, yet another convert frequenting the shrines, draws attention to a griddle slunk over his neck.  The message written on the griddle reads: ‘Tao ghalhai tho’  (The griddle speaks).  Also jailed in the past for his beliefs, Solangi now says, “This world is illusion and the more you think about it, the more you trap yourself, but once you become a mystic, you are free of it.”

            Many other erstwhile political activists have joined the ranks.  Parvez Pechoho, who was a consultant to then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for Overseas Employment during Bhutto’s last stint in power, is a case in point.  Parvez, who shared a house with Jam Sadiq Ali in London when the two were in self-exile during the Zia years, is known as “Fakir” among his friends and old party colleagues.  He has no interest in politics now.  He says, “As souls, we are trapped in our bodies.  To me the whole world seems to be a cage.  I feel trapped, restless and I have to make a spiritual connection to come out of it.”

             Tasawar Hussain Shah is a journalist-cum-teacher-advocate-cum-sufi.  Once a western music buff, Tasawar had an interest in English Literature.  He can now be seen dancing in a trance at an otara (gathering place for the sufis.)  Tasawar was a correspondent of the Frontier Post in Larkana, and also ran an English coaching centre.  He switched over to the legal professsion, came across the sufis and now dons an orange shirt with his blue jeans.  To explain his new state of mind he says,  “This is nothing but a reflection of God.  I am nobody to battle with His reflection.”       

            From bankers to businessmen to young graduates, many are now bound to the shrine while others are disciples of living murshids  (spiritual mentors).  Says Manzoor Jagirani, a fresh convert, “Money will bring you nothing and this is the only path that can lead you to peace of mind.”

            The popularity of the mystic tradition in Sindh can be judged by the number of institutions, business concerns and industries that bear the name of well known mystics.  Wherever you go in Sindh the chances are you’ll encounter signboards such as the  Sachal Sarmast Service Station, D olih Darya Khan Academy, Bhitai Petrol Pump and Makhdoom Bilawal restaurant. 

            Even though  madrassas have been set up in every nook and corner of Sindh, their brand of religious fervour has not taken the place of the traditional love of mysticism.  Says Ahmed Ali Lakho, a local of Nasserabad subdivision, “The religious zealots are more visible because they are united, and get together to fight for their cause.  They also seek publicity and make sure the names of their parties and leaders are projected through wall chalkings and pamphlets etc.  The mystics, on the other hand, follow their own path.  Except at gatherings such as the urs  of some saints, they are not seen in large numbers and have no desire to seek publicity.

            In Sindh, there are followers of two mystic schools of thought – Wahdat-ul-Wujood  and Wahdat-ul-Shahood.  The followers of Wahdat-ul-Wujood  believe that ‘everything is God and God is everything.’  According to them, all is one when perceived with the inner eye while those who embrace the falsehood of duality are lost.  Argues a mystic, “Knots in the thread may look different, but the knots are made of thread after all.  The difference is just an illusion.”  The followers of Wahdat-ul-Shahood  believe in the  concept of duality.  They say that the “shadow of a man could never become a man and thus they remain two.”

Sufism represents an attempt by the individual to realise in personal experience the living presence of God.  “It is essentially a religion of love without a creed or dogma, while ‘Wahdat-ul- Wujood’ or the unity of Being means that God is the unity behind all plurality and reality behind all phenomena or appearances,” said the late  Dr. Tanveer Abbassi, a Sindhi scholar who devoted his life to research work on the mystics of Sindh.

            The‘Wahdat-ul-Wujood’  school claims more followers in Sindh.  The philosophy of Wahdat-ul-Wujood proved fatal for Sarmad in the subcontinent and  Al-Halaj in Iran.  Halaj made an important contribution to sufism in the 10th century AD.  He conceived the relation of God with man as the infusion of the divine into the human soul.  He provided the basis of the theory of Insan-e-Kamil (the perfect man), which was followed by subsequent mystics in this region.  He raised the slogan of Anal Haq (I am the truth) and was branded an infidel and beheaded for his beliefs.

Many mystics in Sindh are followers of Mansoor Al-Halaj.  Sachal Sarmast, the radical Sindhi mystic poet, raised the slogan: “O hi kam karejo jihn wich Alla aap baneji, mar nagara anal haq da sooli bhal sil sooli ta chareji”  (Do the work that will make you one with God. Raise the slogan of ‘I am the truth,’ even if it takes you to the gallows). Fakir Qadir Bakhsh Bekass addresses his maker thus:“Pa’an to peda kayo ya moon chai insa’an kar, ghurj hui panhji ghani ya moon chai ihsan kar.”   (Did you create me or did I ask you to create me.  Did you need me more or did I ask you for the favour of life?)

The mystic is essentially a restless spirit.  He advocates the improvement of one’s inner soul.  He hunts for his lost home in the heavens.  For him, ecstasy originates in both worldly love and the love of the divine. 

            These are the people who spend their lives in the elusive quest for truth, preferring to inhabit desolate places in the jungles, mountains and deserts, to travel from pillar to post.  But this journey, they say, is not on the outward plane alone, it is a journey of the soul as it evolves through the mystic’s devotion and effort.  “I am a stranger here and the earth is a parched desert.  Danger and sorrow stand round me, on every hand.  The heavens are my fatherland and my home,” says a verse by a mystic poet.

            In their journey to achieve union with God, mystics have to pass through several stages of spiritual development in which there is an excessive love and yearning for God.  Says a mystic, “As the lover longs for the company of one’s beloved, a sufi is inspired to seek proximity to God and forget everything else.”  The sufi voluntarily renounces all materialistic pursuits and shuns all desire.  Pacifism, non-violence and a love for humanity is his creed and the goal, “an emotional communion with God.”

            The mystics make a tradition between the Jalali school which has a more direct approach and the subtle Jamali school in which meaning is latent.  Of the great mystics of Sindh, he says, “Shah Latif of Bhit is a great symbol of the Jamali  trend of mystics.  He said all his poetry between the lines.  In the whole of the Risalo, he has quoted Mansoor Al- Halaj’s name only twice.  His poetry does not resonate to a quick pace, unlike that of Sachal Sarmast and other mystic poets.”

            The mystic is a rebellious character who doesn’t care for worldly authority.  Makhdoom Bilawal of Khudabad challenged Shah Beg Arghun in Sindh in the 17th century, saying that a foreigner had no right to rule the land.  In retaliation, Arghun initiated a plot against Bilawal, getting a clergyman to stitch a page of the Holy Quran inside his slippers.  Bilawal was asked what the punishment should be for a person who desecrated the Quran and when he answered, “ death,” showed the page of the Quran stitched in his slippers.  Ultimately he was ground to pieces in an oil grinder.

            Ghulam Hyder Shah, grandfather of the Sindhi nationalist G.M Syed, was a disciple of Makhdoom Bilawal.  Syed, who was also the Sajada Nasheen  (custodian) of his grandfather’s dargah, later formed Bazm-e-Soofia-e- Sindh, based on the mystic doctrine inspired by the sacrifice of Makhdoom Bilawal.

             Shah Inayat Langah of Jhok, also a follower of the Wahdat-ul-Wujood  school of thought, organised a revolt against the powers of the landlord.  He organised collective farming, denying a share of the crop to the landlords, saying that the land belonged to God and that only the one who grew the produce had a right to it. This movement is famous in Sindh as ‘Jo kheray so khai tehreek’  (The one who grows should eat).  This infuriated the Kalhora rulers and a crackdown was launched against Shah Inayat and his followers.  The sufis offered stiff resistance, but ultimately Shah Inayat was asked to appear in the court of the ruler, Farrukh Sher to avoid further bloodshed. He was assured of safety in the name of the Quran.  And this is how he was tricked and subsequently beheaded. When he was beheaded he is said to have uttered the verse, “My head fell down at the feet of my beloved and I paid my debt...”

            Many mystics are inspired by the movement of Shah Inayat Shaheed.  Fakir Imamuddin from Dakhan village near Shikarpur is one of his present day followers.  Imamuddin graduated from Bombay University before Partition.  Now attired in the garb of a fakir, he visits the grave of Shah Inayat every month.  “He recites the verse of mystic poets from morning to night as if he is praying,” says a local journalist.

            Most mystics in Sindh wear orange clothes, and their colour, they say, is a token of humility.  But the fakirs at the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai dress only in black.  A follower of Bhitai, Mohammed Juman, says, “It is the colour liked by my murshid.  It is a colour of protest against materialistic life.”

            From dawn to dusk every evening the fakirs of Bhitshah recite the verses of Bhitai, as they have done in an unbroken chain of devotion over the last three hundred years.  And as the years go by, the tapestry of mysticism in Sindh endures, with only its colours changing from time to time.