XV. The Cult of Women Saints in Modern Islam

It remains to consider the effect of the development of mystical faith and the cult of the saints upon popular Islām to-day. Throughout the Muslim world, the dervishes are the modern exponents of Islamic mysticism, but while the Sufi, as we have seen in the foregoing pages, developed a philosophic doctrine concerning God and His relation to His saints, the dervish is contented rather with a particular manner of life. The foundation of religious orders goes back to a very early date in the history of Islām, and some of the early Sufi teachers were reputed to have been responsible for the founding of such orders, but probably this was due to the desire of later Sufis to derive their spiritual descent from such great teachers. Among these was Ibrāhīm b. Adham, who died in A.H. 161 (= A.D. 777) and who was accepted by such great leaders as ‘Abd al-Qadir and Sīdī Sanūssī as their spiritual ancestor. Another leader claimed as founder of an order was the great Sufi teacher and poet Abū Sa’id b. Abi al-Khayr, but there is no historic evidence for the statement. The number of orders now in existence is very great and it is possible to mention only a few of the most important here. The most widespread of all, with adherents over almost the whole of the Islamic world, is that of the Qādiriyya, founded by Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jilānī, who is considered the patron saint of Baghdad, where he died in A.H. 561 (= A.D. 1166). He had forty-nine sons, who carried on his work after his death. His most devoted followers went so far as to ascribe to^1,2 him powers almost divine. This order has separate zāwiyas (cloisters), and a central institution in Baghdad. These dervishes are known for their philanthropic principles and mystical exaltation, but, in spite of this, the Mahdi and his troops belonged to this order. The main order of the Qadiriyya has produced many subsidiary branches and dervishes of this school are to be found spread over Islām from Morocco to Malaysia. Among the orders which, while not world-wide, cover a considerable part of the Muslim world, is that founded by Ahmad al-Rifā’ī, who lived near Başra and died in A.H. 570 (= A.D. 1182). He carried asceticism to an extreme degree and was a great lover of animal life. He was said to have great power over venomous snakes and his followers claim the same power. He was noted for his humility and his love for his enemies. He has been called the St Francis of the dervishes, and by his followers he was made almost into an emanation of the Divine. Members of this order are found throughout the Arabic-speaking Near East, and in Turkey. An order of considerable importance found mainly in the east of the Islamic world is that of the Khalwatiyya, who derive their name from their practice of going into retreat. This practice was undoubtedly derived from the Christian recluses, and was adopted by the leaders of the mystic orders for themselves and their disciples as being more adapted than any other means for realising complete sanctification in this life,^3,4 and the absorption of the individuality of man in the Essence of God. Junayd, who died at Baghdad in A.H. 298 (= A.D. 910-11), is said to have founded an order on these lines, but the real founder of the existent order was one ‘Umar al-Khalwati, also a Persian, who died A.H. 800 (= A.D. 1397). The adherents of this order are ascetics and mystics, practising retreats and great austerities. They have spread beyond Persia into Asia Minor, European Turkey, the Hijaz and the Indies. Another order, of limited extent, is that of the Suhrawardiyya, founded by Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi, a Persian by birth, and well known as a writer on Sufism, who died in A.H. 632 (= A.D. 1234-5). He represents the Pantheistic development of Sufism, and his teachings are purely mystical. The adherents of this school are found chiefly in Persia and India. An order which had its origin in Asia Minor is that of the Mevlevis, founded by the great Sufi poet Jalāl al-Din Rūmi, born in Balkh, who died at Konia in A.H. 672 (= A.D. 1273). They are known as the “Brethren of Love”, because the whole principle of the order has been the love of God. The headship of the Mevlevi Order is still in the family of Jalal al-Din and it still has its headquarters at Konia. Certain orders have remained purely local. Such is that founded by Sīdī Ahmad al-Bedawi, who is said to have been a wild youth, fond of horsemanship, and then to have suddenly become a recluse. After visiting the tombs of ‘Abd al-Qādir and al-Rifa’i he went to Tanta (Lower Egypt), where he died in A.H. 675 (= A.D.^5,6,7,8,9

1276). His order was based originally on the union of the true believers in the “holy war” against Louis XI. His disciples are called Ahmadiyya locally, and are found all over Egypt. To him especially was ascribed the power of giving children to the barren and this may account, to some extent, for the excesses which mar the celebrations of the saint’s Mawlids around his tomb, but it is probable too that in him were crystallised the old Egyptian beliefs in the sun-mysteries, since the dates of his festivals appear to coincide with the old feasts. The saint is widely venerated and prayers are addressed to him all over the country, while there are numbers of shrines bearing his name. A Spanish Muslim, Abū Madian, born in Seville, was the first to bring the doctrines of Sufism into Morocco and was responsible for their spread throughout Algeria. He was a mystic of a high order and one who practised great humility in his outward life. His followers are called Madawiyya and they represent rather a philosophic school of Sufism than the popular religion of most of the modern orders, and they are found only in small numbers. The characteristics of this school are the constant invocation of God, renunciation of the world, vigorous piety, the practice of the contemplative life and research into mysticism. An order limited to India is that of the Chishti, founded by Mu’in al-Din Chishti, who died at Ajmir in A.D. 1236. It is a Sufi brotherhood and is widely disseminated in India. A modern order, also local, but of great importance, is that of the Sanūssī, founded in 1835 by Sidi Sanūssī. Its adherents profess the Sufi doctrines and a return^10,11,12 to the Qur’an and the Sufism of the early centuries of Islām. They maintain the necessity of the Imāmate, and they uphold the superlative excellence of the contemplative and devoted life. They are strongly represented in Tripoli. Like the Wahhabites, though primarily religious reformers, they have had a considerable effect upon political events. All of these orders have their silsila, or chain of links, shewing how they were founded, and this chain is of two kinds, one shewing the series of saints from whom the founder of the order received instruction, and this chain usually claims to go back to Abū Bakr or ‘Alī, this derivation being due to a desire to link up extra-canonical foundations with orthodox Islām and to give to associations which in many respects resemble Trade Guilds, a definitely religious sanction. The other chain shews the series of Shaykhs who have held the headship of the order and through whom the baraka or blessed influence, of the original founder, has been passed on. Each of these orders has at its head a Shaykh, under whom are his Khalifas or Nā‘ibs, and under these again are those known variously as muqaddam in North Africa, murshid in Persia, ‘am or shaykh in Egypt, and in the Sudan simply shaykh. These latter are the heads of the various local groups and engage in the work of propaganda and management, enrol new members and initiate them. The members are known variously as khouan, fuqarā ’, ashab or dervishes. There are regular meetings at stated intervals called badras, and in some parts simply dhikrs. From an early period the orders have established convents for themselves, sometimes a ribāt, for communal life, or the rawiya for the secluded life; in Persia this is called a khanāgāh, and in Turkey a tekye. It may be only a place of residence^13,14 and a meeting-place for the order, but it sometimes includes a mosque and not infrequently the tomb of a saint. Initiation is administered to the murid or novice, usually by the muqaddam, who has himself received his investiture from the Shaykh. The orders have their own special liturgies, and mysticism is an essential part of the religious faith of the votaries. Among the dervishes are to be found “walīs ” or saints, usually credited with miraculous powers, and there are also wandering faqīrs, like the friars of the Middle Ages, who travel through the villages, preaching the doctrine of repentance and urging their hearers to renounce their sins. In addition to the regular adherents there are tertiaries or lay members, who continue to follow their trade and to lead a normal life as members of the community. The great mass of the peasants and artisans in Islamic countries are members of one of the dervish orders. The Muslim child, taught in the village school, most probably receives his instruction from a dervish, who first leads his pupils towards the Way. The apprentice learns still more from the journeyman in his trade, and very often the head of a trade is the spiritual director of those who work in it, while all may learn from the travelling teachers already mentioned. Most of what has been said applies to women as well as men. There are large numbers of women dervishes, the majority of whom are lay-members. These are sometimes received into the order by the local leader, a man, but are frequently instructed and trained by women and almost always hold dhikrs by themselves. These women dervishes in North Africa are called Khiwat¹⁵ (= sisters) if they are adepts, accept the duties and practices of the order and in some cases, though these are rare, are present at gatherings with the men, keeping themselves a little apart. The most intelligent among them can attain to the degree of muqaddama, and in this case have the work of initiating the new women adepts and presiding at their gatherings or assisting the muqaddam, when he presides. If there is no muqaddama, the muqaddam initiates the women who ask for it in the presence of the other sisters, and, more rarely, in the gathering of the men. Among the orders which admit women are the Qādiriyya, which has between two and three thousand women members in Africa, the Rahmaniyya, with thirteen thousand women members, the Khalwatiyya, the Tidjania, the Heddawa, and the A’issawiyya. A writer on modern Turkey says that societies of pious women affiliated to dervish orders are found, and that these were called “Sisters of Rūm” by Hajji Bektāsh. She tells of the widow of a Shaykh of Cavalla, a woman of great intelligence who, after her husband’s death, presided over a society of female devotees, holding their meetings at her residence. Another Turkish lady, who was also a poetess, was known as the Dervish Hanum, but she proved unwilling to give information as to the Sisterhood of Mystics of which she was a member. A number of Turkish women of good education have entered on the Mystic Path and such are distinguished by the title of “Sufi Hanum”. The practices of the dervishes include renunciation of the world, the retreat or sometimes a solitary life,^16,17,18,19 vigils, fasting and the dhikr, or remembrance of God. The latter devotional exercise frequently consists simply of the repetition of the sacred name “Allah, Allah, Allah”, but whatever form it takes, its main purpose is to produce a state of mystic ecstasy. The dervishes usually hold a dhikr, under their local leader, once a week, and also on special occasions such as marriages, births and circumcisions both of boys and girls, and herein the women play their part. There are also dhikrs at the Mawlids. These Mawlids, held in honour of the birthday of a saint, occur almost nightly in such a great Muslim city as Cairo; they include the Mawlids of women saints also. The most famous of these is the Mawlid of Sayyida Zaynab, who is greatly revered in Cairo, and the festival is celebrated near her mosque there. Women visitors are allowed on this occasion into the enclosure round the saint’s resting-place, and others may make the circuit outside. There is music, reciting and dancing, at all these Mawlids, and in Syria, under Turkish rule, there was much firing of guns, with fatal results at almost every festival. The chief ceremony, in the mosque at such a Mawlid as that of Sayyida Zaynab, is the performing of dhikrs by bands of dervishes. The Mawlid of Lalla Imma Tifellūt is celebrated in the spring, when the whole tribe of the Beni Şalah, men, women and children, go in pilgrimage to the saint’s tomb. Thirty or forty goats and a number of calves are provided for the feast and what is not needed is sold by auction, the proceeds of which go to the guardian of the tomb. The poor of the district crowd to these free feasts. Weekly visits are also paid to the shrine by those who desire to pray there. The saint’s^20,21,22 blessing upon her tribe is still to be had for those who seek it. If a Kabyle loses a goat, he promises a kid to the saint if she will restore it to him. When the goat is found, the goat-herd selects a kid, rears it and when it has become a buck, he presents it to the saint, or rather to her Wakil, the guardian of the shrine. If the owner of a herd of goats wishes to preserve them against the attacks of jackals, he presents a he-goat to the saint and for the next year his herd will be safe from marauders. The Beni Şalah relate that in 1840 when the Amir ‘Abd al-Qādir was encamped with his troops in their country, he went to pray at the tomb of Lalla Imma Tifellūt, and there had a dream in which an angel made known to him that it was the last time he would pray in the country of the Beni Şalah. “It is written”, said the angel, “that the day of the French has come, and God, Who gives the earth to whom He will, Who sometimes bestows His gifts in unstinted measure where He wills and sometimes limits them, God, I say, has decided that they (the French) shall be masters of the country”. However that might be, it was as a matter of fact the last time that the Amir made his appearance in the country of the Beni Şalah. We have dealt already, in the preceding section, with the tombs of the great saints of the past, and have noted the veneration accorded to them by all pious Muslims. To these are added the shrines and tombs of modern Walīs and Waliyyas, which are to be found everywhere, not only in the great cities, but in every village, and all receive their tribute of respect and to all come petitioners, seeking the intercession of the saint, man or woman as it may be. These shrines are of many types and are called by different names, but the modern saints are not honoured with the pretentious buildings and costly mausoleums²³ dedicated to the greater saints, which are venerated all over the land and visited by thousands at the annual festivals. The modern tombs take the form of the magām, which is usually a square building with a qubba or dome, generally shaded by a tree, which is itself sacred. In North Africa this title is given to a heap of stones arranged in a pyramid or circle, commemorating the sojourn in that spot of some revered marabout. The wali is so called in Syria and represents a more sacred class of shrine, a spot where miracles have been wrought, and this is usually under the care of a Shaykh. Its area is considered holy and may afford a refuge for those fleeing from the avenger of blood. The hawitha, found in North Africa and already described, is often no more than a heap of stones. The saints in whose honour such shrines are erected are not canonised by any superior authority of the Muslim community, their sanctity is rather the result of the vox populi, which in its choice acts freely and without constraint, hence the vast number and popularity of such shrines. All of them shew visible signs of the extent to which the aid of those they commemorate is sought. Nails are hammered into doors, with the prayer that the suffering to be relieved may remain where the nail is; an extracted tooth is left with the saint that the pain may not return to the owner. A shrine may be seen surrounded by small sticks thrust into the ground, to which are tied fluttering bits of cloth, taken from the garments of those who make their petition, or those on whose behalf the^{24,25,26,27,28} petition is made, and the faith of the petitioner is the same, whether she or he comes to the Bab al-Zuwayla in Cairo-behind which it is believed that the Qutb, the spiritual head of all the saints, has his abode-or whether it be to the tomb of the unknown saint who lies buried in the desert near the great mosque of Khartoum. From the Wali or the Waliyya, it would seem that these humble seekers after favour have more hope of response than from God Himself. Of the cult of the saints, women and men, in Baluchistān to-day, a modern observer writes: Saints or Pirs are invested with all the attributes of God. It is the saint who can avert calamity, cure disease, procure children for the childless, bless the efforts of the hunter or even improve the circumstances of the dead. The underlying feeling seems to be that man is too sinful to approach God direct, and therefore the intervention of someone more worthy must be sought. Anyone visiting a shrine will observe stones, carved pieces of wood, bunches of hair tied to trees, remnants of clothes, horns of wild animals, bells and various other articles of paltry value. They are placed at the shrines by devotees in the performance of vows. The mother who is blessed with a child will bring it to the shrine, where she will shave it and offer the hair and the baby’s clothes in performance of the vows made during the course of her pregnancy. The object is that the local saint may be induced to interest himself or herself in the welfare of the little one. The hunter brings the horns of the deer which he has slain, in the hope of further good sport; whilst those who are suffering from disease pass the stone or carved pieces of wood over the part affected, trusting that by this means the ill from which they are suffering will be removed. Not only the tombs of saints have this power, but in many parts of the Muslim world there are trees sacred to saints which have a similar virtue. This belief^29,30,31 in the sanctity of tree-shrines no doubt goes back to primitive and animistic religion, in which a definite cult of trees is found. M. Clermont Ganneau considers that most of the popular Muslim shrines in Palestine, with the trees near by, represent the hill sanctuaries and shady groves of the Canaanites and that their pagan origin has been concealed by placing them under the protection of Muslim saints, who are represented as giving their own names to the place, this close connection of names and places being characteristic of the Phoenician and Canaanite mythology. The fact that so many modern Muslim qubbas are consecrated to women, he thinks, is a remnant of the worship of female divinities among the Canaanites. The modern Wali is often venerated along with a Waliyya, who is considered as his sister or daughter, the original conjugal relationship having been changed by the Muslims into one of consanguinity. The Arabs also had sacred trees. Al-Tabarī speaks of the sacred date-palm at Najrān, which was worshipped by the Arabs at an annual festival, and upon which they hung beautiful garments offered as gifts, and ornaments; then they used to go out and devote themselves to it by day, and prayed to it. Yāqūt also speaks of sacred trees, one near Mecca, and another at Hudaybiyya, mentioned in the Qur’an, to which many people resorted and found a blessing thereby. Lest it should become an object of worship like Al-Lat and ‘Uzzā, it was cut down and destroyed, and when the people arose in the morning, there was no trace of it. Still in popular Islām we find traces of this cult. The favourite shrines of the Yunihs, of Asia Minor,^{32,33,34,35,36} are sacred trees growing by the side of the mountain paths, on which they hang as votive offerings bits of coloured rag, wooden spoons and other small articles. Formerly, it may be that the tree acquired sanctity because the local god or spirits were supposed to dwell in it and give it of their life, now it is associated with some Muslim saint. At Ahmadābād, near the tomb of an Indian Muslim saint-one Mūsā Suhāg, who dressed in woman’s clothes as a symbol that he was devoted to God as a wife to her husband, and whose followers still dress like women and live as celibates-is a sacred tree, the branches of which are covered with glass bangles, thrown by persons who pay their vows to the saint; if the bangles stay in the tree, they believe that their petitions will be granted. In Syria, in the oak-groves above the village of Bārūk, in the Lebanon mountains, can be found a sacred tree named Sitt (Lady) Sāra, owing its sanctity to Sarah the wife of Abraham, whose footprint, that of a veritable daughter of the giants, is still pointed out on the rock below the tree. To this shrine are brought rags torn from the clothing of sick persons, which are tied on to the branches of the tree, with a prayer to Sitt Sara for healing, for it is only on behalf of the sick that her mediation is sought. In the course of time these shreds have accumulated to such an extent that they literally hid the tree itself, and of recent years a daughter-tree dedicated to Sitt Rufka (Rebecca) has been adopted by those who desire favours for their sick ones, and prayers are offered now to Sitt Rufka for the same purpose, and the stream of worshippers never fails. It is hardly necessary to state that Abraham and his household are claimed by Muhammadans as good^37,38 Muslims, Abraham being known to them as Khalil, the Friend of God, and his reputed tomb at Hebron is a jealously guarded shrine. So, as to the women of the Prophet’s family, to the womenfolk of the “friend of God” also, is given the dignity of sainthood. As a modern writer on Islām says with truth, “Practically, the conception of the mystical, saintly life and the organization of dervish fraternities cover all Islām, and are the stimulants and vehicles of Muslim piety. The religious institutions tend to foster this. Above all comes the pilgrimage to Mecca and the many imitation pilgrimages all over the Muslim lands, to the tombs of celebrated saints.” He goes on to speak of the tremendous effect of the pilgrimage ceremonial on the pilgrim to Mecca and adds, “the same scenes are being repeated at saintly shrines over the Muslim world”. In conclusion, then, Mysticism, together with the worship of the Saints, living and dead, is still a real part, indeed the most real part, of religious life, to the men and women of present-day Islām and in so far as it leads the Muslim to seek for a direct experience of God, to shake off the formalism and traditionalism of orthodox Islām, and to strive ‘instead after the deepening of the spiritual life, and to seek to do the Will of God in love to Him and service to His creatures, so far its influence must be an inspiring and uplifting force. In so far, too, as the worship of the saints leads modern Muslims to look up to those who, like Rabi’a of Başra, were true saints of God, as their ideal and to seek to follow in their steps, this must mean progress in the religious life. The women saints, a great host, out of whom it has been possible to mention only a few of the most outstanding in the foregoing pages, certainly represent the³⁹ greatest height to which Muslim womanhood has attained, and in the reverence accorded them by Muslim men and the example which they offer to Muslim women, lies a real hope for the attainment of a higher standard, religious and social, for Muslim women of to-day. The Path of the saint, whether Christian or Muslim, lies through renunciation of self and communion with the Unseen, and the saint is impelled along the Way by the consuming flame of his love to God. He holds the faith that: That which thou lovest, O man, that too become thou must, God if thou lovest God, dust if thou lovest dust. The modern Muslim, woman even more than man, is outgrowing orthodox Islām. The tendency is, on the one hand, towards religious indifference, on the other towards mysticism, which offers a living religion. It may be that the real grounds of hope for the future, for those who are of the House of Islām, lie in this latter tendency.