A syncretic vision to heal our divided world
This week, I felt the urge to revisit a Sufi bridge-builder between Hinduism and Islam just to see if I still felt hopeful about his syncretic ideas. Bulle Shah (1680–1735) was born into a noble family of Syeds at Qasur, now in Pakistan. As a child, Bulle Shah, colloquially known as 'Bulla' and 'Bulleya' in Punjabi, was reportedly lost in thought frequently, which worried his family.
In the course of his restless youth, Bulla was tormented by inchoate spiritual longings while urged by his concerned family to live his life as a nobleman with all its attendant pleasures and privileges. One day, he went on a long ride to clear his head and get away from home for a bit. He happened to notice a line of ants diligently carrying grain to their anthill. He paused, his attention caught, and wondered, "All that industry just to feed oneself?" Why was every living creature, from insects to birds, animals and human beings, relentlessly driven by the same mission-–to find food, to sustain life, to perpetuate its species? The mystery of Creation beckoned strongly to him, and he set out to find a spiritual guide.
Bulla found his spiritual master by chance in a vegetable garden of all places. His name was Inayat Qadiri, from the Qadiri order of Sufis. It was a historically influential order, for it was a Qadiri Sufi who had taught Prince Dara Shikoh and led him to explore attempts to syncretise Hinduism and Islam – as in the work Majma ul-Bahrain, meaning The Mingling of Oceans. However, that well-meant book had not reached the ordinary people; it had stayed in high-class circles, where it had little or no influence. It was not for the hoi polloi, just as albums of miniature paintings were not for ordinary folk those days, but were expensive collectables for kings, nobles and wealthy merchants.
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