THIS is apropos of Mushtaq Sufi’s column ‘Punjab Notes’ (March 29) in which he, while writing on Mela Chiraghaan, comments on Shah Hussain: “His life bewilders us. The way he lived his life stunned both the patricians and plebeians. He mocked what was revered.”

From the information on Shah Hussain (1538-1599), which has come down to us mostly as oral tradition and must have changed with time and with every narrator over the last 400 years, it appears that he was quite a unique Sufi. The learned writer has provided us with a summary of the commonly described salient events of his life.

There is a description about his erratic behaviour whereby he starts laughing in the middle of prayers when he (as Hafiz of the Holy Quran) recited the Quranic Ayah (6/32): “Wama alhayat addunya illa la’aabun walahwun” (translated by Muhammad Asad as “And nothing is the life of this world but a play and a passing delight”) and later shaving his head off, indulged in substance abuse, dancing and singing away in the streets, may appear as sudden ‘psychotic mental breakdown’ to a medical man.

After some time, he was called by his spiritual mentor, Shaikh Behlol, and asked to mend his ways and lead the prayers. Again when he came to recite this very Ayah, he started laughing, left the prayers in the middle and went away, never to return to the madressah.

In Shah Hussain, we are looking at a gargantuan personality, who was an outstanding Punjabi poet, pioneer of the poetic genre ‘Kafi’ and who had mastery over the language, its thought content and spiritual message.

He was also particular about the specific classical subcontinental Raag in which each of his poetic compositions were to be recited.

And yet, despite his seemingly unusual and unacceptable behaviour to the norms of culture, he was one of the most revered men of his time.

He was fortunate enough to have lived during Emperor Akbar’s liberal period and not during Aurangzeb’s period of religious extremism, otherwise he might have met the same bitter fatal end as Murad (Aurangzeb’s younger brother) and Dara Shikoh (Aurangzeb’s elder brother).

There was a time even during Akbar’s rule when for some period the citizens of Lahore were in revolt and the emperor was apprehensive of Shah Hussain’s popularity. Yet he revered Shah so much that apart from secretly spying on his activities, he took no other measures.

This enigmatic Sufi appears to be quite different in his ‘tareeqat’ (ways of spiritual living) as compared to most other Sufis. He does not particularly get involved in the conventional rift between Sufis and orthodox clergies.

What really explains Shah Hussain’s persona is his being a follower of the Malamatiya Sufi sect. In fact, he is the most noted example of the sect in the subcontinent.

The Malamatiya order (from Arabic word ‘malama’ meaning ‘to blame’) of Sufis believe in the value of self-blame and emphasise on hiding any overt exhibition of knowledge or piety, lest they stand out and exhibit worldly pomp and show. They want their faults to be known so that they are aware of their imperfection.

Ibn-i-Arabi (1165-1240) called the Malamatis ‘the ultimate Sufis’: those who know but are not known.

Ibn-i-Arabi reiterates his view by stating that anyone who believes that he is pious, in fact, has ‘pious hypocrisy’ which constitutes a formidable barrier to seeking genuine self-realisation.

According to German Orientalist and scholar Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003) : “What appears to the masses as sin is, in fact, only the outer shell of the Malamatis’ being; their kernel is, undoubtedly, full of unquestioned faith.

The Malamatis do these unlawful acts not to attract attention, but wishing that the public rejects them.”

PROF HASAN AZIZ Karachi