By S.Sarwar Malik

Emissaries and teachers, who travelled, during the early stage of Islam,almost fourteen centuries back, to the neighbouring lands of Arabia, played a great role in its propagation. Depending on their speciality they came to be called, hufaaz, mubaligs, muhaddis and muffasir etc that is memorizers/ reciters; propagators; narrators of the statements of the holy Prophet and commentators/exegesis-experts of the holy verses, respectively.

But there was another type of men, characterised by their impressive temperament, having distinctive character that commanded reverence, far and wide. They were the Sufi missionaries who traversed long distances and went as far as Africa, Persia, India etc. They did not merely sow the seed of Islam but impressed whoever came in contact with these meditating, contemplating, pacifists, mystics, who taught disciples in their own distinct teaching-sessions/sermons; initiating seekers to the gradual upward march.

Within Islam there was the orthodox element that saw the imbibing of local elements by the sprouting sufi schools as an alien element while as the Sufi’s cited the handful of men present in Mecca during the nascent stage of Islam, or those found ‘mostly seated within the premises of the Holy Mosque of Medina, usually occupying-the-platform / ahle-sawoof ‘ as the precursors while some even saw the overnight stays of holy Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) in the Hira cave, in the pre-prophethood-declaration stage, as the seed of Tasawoof but not all sects see it as a favourable strain. This mysticism was more popular outside Arabia, especially in Iraq, Persia, Central Asia etc, and grew in India too.

The conservative orthodoxy, at some places, gave lot of trouble to these mystics, opposed their philosophy vehemently, even persecuted many and hence we come across some names, who for having ‘offended powerful muslim clergy-nigh to corridors of power’; and suffered ill treatment, say for example, the most-talked about, Mansur al Hallaj, who pronounced Ana- al- haqq that cost him his very life.

Besides the clashes of the orthodox and the mystics, differences among the various sects within Islam(- 72 firqay) surfaced during the course of history, but glaring differences between the Shia/ Jafferi sect and the Sunni sects (- that led to the darkest and most sad event, karbala, within the very first century of Islam) have not been fully reconciled in these 14 centuries and not only no matrimonial ties are forged between the two, but ‘ mosques are different and so are aalims & moulanas and Paish-nimazi-imams as well as practices’.

During the course of Islamization of Kashmir, history has seen Shia Sunni clashes right from the date of advent of missionaries and religious figures, from 1480 AD onwards,right through Chak rule, when bigotry and intolerance,is said to have touched a new crescendo.

Shah Miris, who were ‘Dards of Swat’ ruled Kashmir. Sultan Sikander Shahmiri, the 7th Sultan, who ruled from 1389 to 1413 AD, has gone down in history as ‘the iconoclast’ and it is said that in his time a considerable section of the populace of Kashmir,had to adopt Islam. However the period of his........

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