The Sufi Saint of Silsila Shattariyya - Shah Muhammad Ghaus Gwaliyari (RA)-- and His Significance Today!

By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam 13 May 2024 Gawaliyari Has Left Behind An Indelible Legacy Of Syncretic Indian Culture In His Vast Literature. His Spiritual Insights Will Continue To Guide The Lives And Thoughts Of Indian Muslims In Art, Culture And Literature, As Well As In An Experience Of Various Forms Of Yoga As A Philosophy And Practice Main Points: 1. The 16th-century Indian Sufi mystic—Hazrat Shah Muhammad Ghaus of Gwalior was a prominent proponent of Silisila Shattariyya— a branch of the Tayfuri Khanwada in the Indian subcontinent. 2. Indian Muslim mystics like Ghaus Gawaliyari and Dara Shikoh have extensively translated, interpreted and popularised Yoga texts in Persian and other Turkic languages. 3. He is worth revisiting in today’s India, as he is uniquely known a "Sufi Yogi"—a term that would not go down well with the fundamentalists and the orthodox. But his scholarly and spiritual credentials are too strong to dismiss him outright. -------- Etymologically, Shattar, an Arabic-origin Persian word means “lightning” and "the most radiant" which denotes a code of spiritual practices that lead to a state of “completion” in acquiring Noor, the Divine Light. No wonder then, the Sufi order of Shattariyya originated in Persia but was codified and completed in India, the land of thousands of enlightened Sufi mystics illuminated with the divine light. In the Indian subcontinent, Silisila Shattariyya emerged as a branch of the Tayfuri Khanwada and has been widely spread as an offshoot of the same Silsila called Shattariyya-Qadiriyya. The 16th-century Sufi mystic—Hazrat Shah Muhammad Ghaus of Gwalior was a prominent proponent of this Sufi Order in India. Founded first in Safavid Iran by 15th-century Persian Sufi saint Sheikh Sirajuddin Abdullah Shattar RA, significantly enough, the spiritual lineage of Shattariyya is a unique Sufi Order with a chain of transmission--Silsila--which is traced back to the holy Prophet (PBUH) through Sultan-ul-A'arifin (King of the Realised Ones) Hazrat Bayazid Bastami (753-845 CE)--one of the few Awliya who attained the state of fanā, complete immersion in and mystical union with the Divine. As the pioneer of Shattari-Sufism in India, and as the great mystic, musician, and an epoch-making poet and philosopher of Gwalior Sharif, Hazrat Shah Muhammad Ghaus Gwaliyari (RA) is worth revisiting in today’s India. He is uniquely known as a "Sufi Yogi"—a term that would not go down well with the fundamentalists and the orthodx. But his scholarly and spiritual credentials are too strong to dismiss him outright. His lineage goes back to the great Sufi Mystic Hazrat Khawaja Fariduddin Attar Nishapuri (RA) who deeply impacted the Sufi thought and Persian poetry the world over. One of the chief saints and Sheikhs of the Indian subcontinent in this Sufi Order, Shah Ghaus Ghaliyari's silsilah is also traced to Haji Hameed Hasoor of Gopalganj, Bihar. In addition, he also had spiritual guidance from Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani RA, and therefore, he attained the highest spiritual position (maqam) of Ghausiyyat through his grace. Shah Gawaliyari (RA) came to India from Nishapur and stayed here til his last breath serving Sufism and calling people to embrace divine love. He did not only advance the Shatari Sufi Order in the subcontinent but he also made it a well-established Sufi order of great prominence. At the same time, he was a great writer, poet, and philosopher as well as an eminent Yogic master who authored Jawahar e Khamsa and Bahr al-Hayat as his famous works explaining the ancient Yoga texts. Thus, Shah Ghaus Gawaliyari (RA) left behind an indelible legacy of syncretic Indian culture in his literature. His spiritual insights guided the lives and thoughts of Indian Muslims over a thousand years and are glaring evidence of how Sufi mystics engaged with India’s cultural practices, not only with their participation in art, culture and literature, but also through the experience of various forms of yoga. A lot of Indian Sufi practices based on self-awareness can be considered yogic in nature, although yoga is defined differently from myriad perspectives. Besides being a Shattari Sufi pioneer, Hazrat Shah Ghaus Gwaliyari was one of the first translators of Yoga texts to Persian in the 16th century. Before him, Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangohi (1456–1537), who ranks as an eminent Sufi poet from the Sabiri order, was familiar with yoga texts and traditions in India like the yoga of the Naths — a Shaivism-related yogic practice that emerged around the 13th century. Like Hatha Yoga, the practice of Nath is particularly used to transform one’s body into a state of awakened self-identity with absolute reality (Sahaja Siddha). Through the lineage of the Nath yogis, the science of Kundalini Kriya Yoga has been preserved in India through the corridors of time. Sufi mystics like Sheikh Abdul Quddus Gangohi and Shah Muhammad Ghaus Gwaliyari endeavoured to uphold the age-old Indian legacy. They practiced and preached yoga, though it drew controversy from a few fundamentalist clergymen who considered yoga to be incompatible with their puritanical religious moorings. On an account of such syncretic ideas and practices, Hazrat Shah Ghaus Gwaliyari was vehemently opposed by the retrogressive clergy. But he did not give up. Rather, he carried on with his extensive translation and rigorous research on yoga texts into Persian. It was only because of him that the Indian Yoga texts were later rendered into Arabic, Turkish and Urdu and other Turkic languages. One of the most notable translations of yogic texts rendered by Gwaliyari is Bahr al-Hayat (The Ocean of Life) — a Persian translation and explanation of Amrtakunda — one of the key Sanskrit texts on yoga. This remarkable Persian translation was rendered in the city of Broach in Gujarat in 1550 and was aimed at explaining the Hawd al-Hayat (The Pool of Life), which is the first Arabic translation of Amrtakunda. It occupied a paramount significance in the oral traditions and teachings of the Shattari Sufis in India to the extent that it became a textbook for many of Gwaliyari’s followers. Another work by Gwaliyari that highlights close resemblances between the Shattari Sufi practices and yogic exercises is Jawahir-e-Khamsa (The Five Jewels), which was later translated to Arabic by a Mecca-based Shattari teacher, Sibghat Allah. In this treatise, Gwaliyari dwelled upon his mystical experience of ascension which enabled him to hold conversations even with the Divine. Some of his most celebrated works include Jawahir-e-Khamsa which contain five chapters including one on the worship of God and Bahr-e-Hayat (the ocean of life) which sheds light on the yogic secrets of life. These two offer jewelled lights in modern Sufi mysticism in India. Besides, Bahr-e-Hayat is his translation and extension of Hawd al-Hayat (The Pool of Life), an Arabic translation of a lost Sanskrit text on yoga, the Amrtakunda. This shows how Indian Muslim mystics like Ghaus Gawaliyari and Dara Shikoh have extensively translated, interpreted and popularised Yoga texts in Persian and other Turkic languages. Other books that Ghaus Gawaliyari wrote or compiled on various key issues of Sufi mysticism, include: (1) Awrad-e-Ghausiyya, (2) Me’raaj Nama, (3) Zamair-e-Basair, (4) Kaleed-e-Makhazin, (Kanz-ul-Wahdat), etc. Among his chief diciples and spiritual heirs and students were Gujarat’s great Sufi saint-scholar Sheikh Wajihuddin Alawi Gujarati, Bengal’s mystic Sheikh Ali Sher Bengali, Sheikh Wadudullah Shattari, Sheikh Shamshuddin Shirazi, Sheikh Sadruddin Zakir, Sheikh Lashkar Muhammad Arif, Sheikh Eisa Jundullah, etc. Shah Ghaus Gawaliyari (RA) died in 15 Ramadan 970 AH, and his famous and frequently-visted holy shrine called "Gwalior Sharif" is located in Madhya Pradesh, which is a living embodiment of this Urdu couplet: Darbaar-e-Shahanshahi Se Khushtar Mardaan-e-Khuda Ka Hai Aastaaa Translation: These shrines of holy saints and Awliya Allah [as they offer us a lot of spiritual learning] are far greater and more fascinating than the royal courts of the kings. ----- 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. 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