Nizamuddin Auliya - Key Beliefs

Key Beliefs

Besides believing in the traditional Sufi ideas of embracing God within this life (as opposed to the idea that such partial merger with God is possible only after death), by destroying the ego and cleansing the soul, and that this is possible through considerable efforts involving Sufi practices, Nizamuddin also expanded and practised the unique features introduced by past saints of the Chisti Sufi order in India. These included:

• Emphasis on renunciation and having complete trust in God.
• The unity of mankind and shunning distinctions based on social, economic, religious status.
• Helping the needy, feeding the hungry and being sympathetic to the oppressed.
• Strong disapproval of mixing with the Sultans, the princes and the nobles.
• Exhortation in making close contact with the poor and the downtrodden
• Adopting an uncompromising attitude towards all forms of political and social oppression.
• A bold stance in favour of Sema, which some considered unislamic. Perhaps this was with the view that this was in consonance with the role of music in some modes of Hindu worship, could serve as a basis of contact with local people and would facilitate mutual adjustments between the two communities. In fact Qawwali, a form of devotional music, was originally created by one his most cherished disciples: Amir Khusro.

Nizamuddin did not much bother about the theoretical aspects of Sufism, believing rather that it were the practical aspects that counted, as it was anyway not possible to describe the diversified mystical experiences called spiritual states or stations which a practicing Sufi encountered. He discouraged the demonstration of Keramat and emphasized that it was obligatory for the Auliya (which roughly means the friends of God) to hide the ability of Keramat from the commoners. He also was quite generous in accepting disciples. Usually whoever came to him saying that he wanted to become a disciple was granted that favour. This resulted in him being always surrounded by people from all strata of society.