As far as Malik bin Dinaar, I mentioned him as a Sahabi because it is well known that the mosque that was built in Kerala was built in 612 AD, well before the Prophet (S) passed.

As far as the diluted version of Islam, I don’t hold that to be true, at least not on a broad scale. Certainly isolated problems existed, but it was nothing the Awliyaullah weren’t keeping a close eye on.

-Yursil

Well Yursil, i normally enjoy reading your articles, but I have to say this one is both historically inaccurate, and tampered with revisionist history.

First of all Malik bin Dinaar (Ra) is mentioned as a tabieen, and not a sahabi, according to Kashf ul Muhjoob, and Tadkhirat ul awliyah and other accounts.

Secondly the younger generation somehow got brainwashed from turniing away from the so-called pluralistic Islam, is also inaccurate. The older generation practiced a diluted version of Islam. where Indian culture took precedent. Things such as celebrating the Birth of a son, by handing out sweets and mourning the Birth of a Daughter. Forced Marriages as opposed to arranged marriages. Practcing Islam once you reach the age of 40, prior to that just celebrating Ghyarwi shareef every month, and ignoring all the fardh acts of worship i could go on and on…So
I find it very strange you chose to ignore all these facts.

Superb article! Can we post this on http://www.indianmuslims.in as a guest post? Kindly reply to my email id.

Khwaja Moin’Uddin Chisti Ajmeri (RA) is indeed the Crown Gem of India.

Perhaps you should go on a tour of the Sub-Continent, so you can visit the many Shrines (Darbars) in that region. Due to a lack of education and proper authority some shrines can be like a shopping mall, but most are run according to the Sharia, such as the shrines of Sultan Bahu (RA), Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindh (Mujjadid Alif Thani) (RA), Imam Ahmad Raza Khan (RA) in Berielly, etc.

I don’t know about the US, but here in the UK, most people a aware of the pious personalities of the past, even though they may not alaways agree with them.

However, I think part of the reason why is that the nation-building project of muslim majority South East Asia coincides and borrowed with the crazy happenings of the muslim world in the Middle East during the 1960s onwards.

I’m a Finnish convert to Islam and I’ve found Indo-Pakistani Islamic culture very appealing after my Wahhabi days. Funnily, even back then I liked Qawwali and sometimes found myself singing “Kirpan karo maharaj Mu’inuddin” The emotional spirituality is what is most striking; the complete opposite of Finnish culture. By the way, I’m learning Urdu now, mostly through poetry and naat.

We all must know where we come from. I know people who have identity crisis. They are miserable and refuse to recognize it themselves. It hurts me because they’ve been blessed with Islamic education and culture and they’re not acting accordingly while my country has no Islamic culture that we sorely need. Spiritual wounds are healed through the company of the Awliya. How about someone who despises the Awliya? I’m afraid they are beyond our help.

As always, an interesting and thought-provoking post. Ma sha Allah!

We will never move forward until we honour what came before us, in a spirit of humility (with the expectation that we have much to learn).

Abdur Rahman

Thank you very much sophister!

Thabet – i did not get from Yursil’s article that there is commonality amongst south asian islam. There is a huge disjoint amongst the lot, but all of it nevertheless is left out of the discourse (some more than others).

Really nice article MashaAllah! I really agree with you when you say that we need to know and learn about the past saints of the Indian Subcontinent. There are many beautiful gems to uncover and to learn from, if only we would look deep enough.

I am from the UK and I think there is definitely a British Islam emerging from 2nd and especially 3rd generation Asians and converts. However, I do wish it would move towards the Islam of the saints of the Indian Subcontinent and the environments they created.

I believe that western culture and philosophy is so influential today that I feel it may be too much for an Indian Subcontinent type Islam to develop even though there are amazing scholars from the region among us still.

That is an excellent comment, and a perfect supplement to this article. It was good to hear about what is going on in Kerala.

I wouldn’t want it to be misunderstood that I believe any of the major current groups of South Asians (barelwi’s deobandi’s maududi-ites) truly hold on to the legacy of traditional South Asian Islam. Most of the above groups are defined solely by their level of enmity to the other. Traditionally South Asians were able to build relationships and work with those who might be considered idol-worshippers. It is necessary to rethink the separatism which was injected into South Asia to go from being able to live in that pluralistic society to one where even Muslims are at each others throats.

The Islam I speak of is the one that largely lost its voice (yet not died out) due to political and Wahabi influences during and after partition. Yet, traces of it remain in the attitude of even ex-pats.

Much of what I believe needs to occur is a rediscovery of the South Asian saints, stories of their lives, their attitudes towards people, and any textual works that they left us with. When debating whether certain practices are permissible or not, all of this context is ignored and it stays on hold while we struggle to find a conclusion to debates on texts.

“But I think there equally needs to be caution not to recreate dysfunctional aspects of “South Asian Islam” in minority contexts which promote a ghetto mentality (perhaps this is more pronounced in Britain than the US).”

This is a problem that is really not existent in the US, so I have difficulty understanding and speaking to it. Yet, I think the fact that this mentality (or more importantly, its consequence) is not universal can speak to whether it is an aspect of South Asian traditional culture or something else.

Malays and others who identify more with Indian Islam and an Arab Islam, are also struggling with following South Asians down this sort of rabbit hole of defining Islam without a link to the past. We have yet to see where that will lead them.

Firstly with due respect to you all , my intention is not to hurt any buddy, What i find is that to what u say traditional Islam has majority of thing which has nothing to do with Prophet (S.A.W.S), Sahabas ,and Sahih hadiths and one more think is that this peoples have very less to do with sciences of Hadith which is very important in islam.

With due respect to you all I end myself with

Wa Akirud-Da’awanah, Al-hamdulillahi Rabil ‘Alameen.

Wa alaiKum as-Salaam

I concur almost totally with your comments here. There’s a complete disconnect between the oral traditions of the past and the more bookish/netish culture of today in Kerala. Much of the history of the Mapillas in Kerala and of Islam in general are transmitted through songs. These are frowned upon as Shirk by the anti-traditionalists and the people who *do* have them at their houses usually just pay some local Alim some cash to recite it at their house. They don’t really know or take part in the event.

This is partly because of the money that has flown into Kerala from the middle east. As people became more economically secure, the sounds of Quran recital after Maghrib have been replaced by blaring television sets. Small schools have mushroomed all over the place and local Madrassas are becoming more and more insignificant. This kind of neglect has cast a dark shadow over the “traditional” muslim community. They’re seen as people who don’t really practice what they preach. A vacuum was created for the youth and the anti-traditionalists like the Mujahid groups (Wahabis) get lots of people going over to their ideologies.

The net result has been a blow to the old ways. Very few children these days have heard of the Badr Salat while it used to be ubiquitous in my father’s time.

It’s not all lost though. Many of the local Ulema are creating a more holistic system which the youth are quite attracted to. The “debate over validity” stage is going down I think and a desire to mine the knowledge that the past handed down is growing. Mawlid books are being reprinted in modern fonts, gatherings where Nasheeds are sung are getting more popular. The general trend seems to be that the youth are realising that they’re part of a global community of Muslims. That looks like a good thing. They’re learning to appreciate aspects of Islam that their own communities are not exposed to. It looks good but Allah knows best where it’s heading.

Yursil,

I think you’re painting a rosy picture of “South Asian Islam” that just isn’t there. I agree that discovering aspects of this culture as intertwined with Islam would be beneficial for young Muslims to help them appreciate the emptiness of the “no culture, only Islam” argument of Wahhabis et al. But I think there equally needs to be caution not to recreate dysfunctional aspects of “South Asian Islam” in minority contexts which promote a ghetto mentality (perhaps this is more pronounced in Britain than the US). I do, however, wholeheartedly agree that the contribution to Islamic heritage (not just the disciplines of Islamic learning) from the subcontinent as a whole is overlooked by English-speaking Muslims.

Part of me also finds the need to rail against a label which cobbles together Punjabis with Malayalis, Bengalis etc. “South Asian Islam”, in this respect, is dominated by Urdu speakers, who I think tend to be more inclined to textualist arguments because of their access to the books of fiqh, aqida etc.

This is an extremely interesting subject. Though I’m interested to know which South Asian group you think is holding on to the Islam practiced by the saints of old who have been buried in that region.

Wouldn’t it seem to be the Barelvis, as they are the ones who focus less on the formal knowledge and more on what has been passed down to them by their elders through both verbal and spiritual transmission.