Pir Sadardin
Pir Sadardin or Pir Sadruddin was a fourteenth-century Ismaili Da'i and is regarded as the founder of the Khoja Ismaili sect, also called Satpanth. Born in Persia, Sadardin later travelled to the Indian sub-continent, settled in the Sindh area, founded the Khoja community and developed the Khojki script.
History
Birth and genealogy
Pir Saryyid Sadruddin Al-Husayni, the Ismaili missionary of the 15th Century, is also designated as Bargur, Pir Sadar Din, Sohodev, Vasimuhammad. and Haji Sadar Shah. He was born on Monday 2nd Rabiul of the year 700 after Hijra in the village Sabzwar in Persia. His year of birth is uncertain and sources differ from between twenty and fifty years. For example, Tawarikh-e-Pir gives the year as 650 A.H. whereas the Shajara, from which Professor W. Ivanow derives his information as published in his paper "The sect of Imam Shah in Gujrat" (1938) places his birth in 689 A.H. or 1,290 of the Pir Sadar Din, who traces his descent from Imam Ja'far-as-Sadiq (d. 148/763), arrived in India during the period of Imamat of Imam Kasim Shah (bet. 1310 C.E. and 1370 C.E.) and was raised to the dignity of Pirship by Imam Islam Shah - the 30th Imam in the traditional genealogical list of the Nizari branch of the Ismaili persuasion. His name appears in the 26th place amongst the authorised Pirs mentioned in the Former Holy Gujarati(Khojki) Du'a(Prayer). His father's name, as given in the Gulzar-e-Shams and corroborated by "Satveni Moti" and "Satveniji Vel" both alleged to have been written by Sayyid Muhammad Shah Bin Imam Shah, was Pir Shihabuddin or Sahebdin, to whom five of the Ginans are attributed and his mother was Noor Fatima bi'nt Ibrahim Sabzawari.
List of genealogy of the Pir according to the Gulzar-e-Shams
- Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq
- Sayyid lsmail Arizi Akbar
- Sayyid Muhammad Arizi
- Sayyid Ismail Sani (Imamuddin)
- Sayyid Muhammad Mansur Khakani
- Sayyid Ghalibuddin.
- Sayyid Abdul Majid.
- Sayyid Mustansirbiiiah.
- Sayyid Ahmed Hadi.
- Sayyid Hashim
- Sayyid Muhammad
- Sayyid Muhammad Sabzawari.
- Sayyid Muhammad Mohibdin
- Sayyid Khaliqdin alias Sayyid Ali
- Sayyid Abdui Momin Shah
- Sayyid Noorbaksh lmamdin
- Sayyid Salahuddin
- Sayyid Shamsuddin Iraqi or Sabzawari
- Sayyid Nasiruddin
- Sayyid Pir Shihabuddin
- Sayyid Pir Sadardin
Training and preaching
Tradition maintains that Pir Sadruddin trained as a preacher under Pir Shams Sabzawari (d. 757 A.H.) and accompanied the latter during his visit to Sindh, Punjab and Kashmir. Pir Sadruddin was not the pioneer Ismaili Da'i, who preached Ismailism in India, but it was mainly because of his preaching, courage and endeavours that the present Khoj'a community exists. The appellation "Khoja" derives from the Arabic word "Khawaja" meaning master which in course of its use by the natives has assumed the present form which has acquired international recognition. The first "Jamatkhana" − the prayer house for the new converts or Khojas was established by Pir Sadruddin at "Kotda" − a village in Punjab, Pakistan. The following translation of the verses from the work "Jannat Nama" or "Jannatpuri", composed by his grandson Sayyid Imamshah bin Pir Hasan Kabiruddin, reflects this fact:
Pir Sadruddin organised the community (Faith) and openly established the Khana" (Jamatkhana) in a house. Having arrived in the village "Kotda" he established the first "Khana." Pir Sadruddin became manifest and changed Hindus into Muslims; Having converted "Lohanas" into "Khojas" gave them the True faith.
Call Khoja - a bondman of Shah Ali, he is devotee of his Aal (successors). There (in Kotda) having organised the community he established the "Khana" and well indoctrinated them.
Formerly there was the "Khana" of Surjarani but that was secret; know ye, the True Pir Sadruddin recited Ginans (preached) in the village Kotda.
In the village "Kotda" there lived Trikam' He openly professed faith and adopted the name "Khoja". Thus spread the "Deen" of the Preceptor and this was the age of Shri Islamshah'. To day, the place called Uchh - and there lies our abode."
Writings
Pir Sadruddin worked for the promulgation of Islam and through it Ismailism in India. Having mastered the literature, beliefs and mythology of the Hindus and comparing the tenets and doctrines of Hinduism with those of Islam, he has shown that the advent of Islam is predicted in the Hindu scriptures like Atharv Veda, Allopanishad and others. Pir Sadruddin composed hundreds of hymns and verses in the dialects of different provinces of India which are popularly called "Ginans (Cf. Sanskrit "Jnyanam") meaning knowledge. In one of the Ginans it is found:
"We have explained in thirty-six languages and forty-two melodies and yet, The deaf would not listen, oh my brother!"
The Ginans are polyglottic and melodious. The Ginans minister to all the spiritual needs of a man. Pir Sadruddin, like all other Pirs and Sayyids, often included Hindu mythology and religious beliefs in the Ginans in order to spread Islam through love and peace. In the task of preaching Ismailism in an alien country, Pir Sadruddin was assisted by twelve people who were knowledgeable in religious matters.
Pir Sadruddin was man of strong character and self-abnegation. For sixteen hours a day, he was absorbed in meditation and prayers. During the period of Pirship, when he travelled in India twice, he visited Persia and saw the Deedar, the Imam of his time, openly. Description of his second visit to Imam Islamshah, and the impediments encountered, are narrated in the work Nav Chhuga by his son and successor Pir Hasan Kabir-uddin.
Aga Khan Case of 1866
Out of his most popular works and small Ginans is Das Avatar. This work was produced as an exhibit in the First Aga Khan case 1866 and was of tremendous help in falsifying the charges forged by the contending seceders who claimed to be the adherents of Sunnism and intended to prove that Pir Sadruddin was a man of Sunni persuasion and that the Khojas were Sunnis too.
The judgment given by Judge Sir Joseph Arnold in 1866 says:
"On the one hand says the learned judge: "The relators and plaintiffs contend that Pir Sadr-uddin (whom both sides admit to have originally converted the Khojas from Hinduism to some form of Muhammadanism) was a Sunni that the Khoja community has ever since its first conversion been and now is, Sunni and that no persons calling themselves Khojas who are not Sunnis, are entitled to be considered member of the Khoja community, or to have any share or interest in the public property of the Khoja community or to have any share or interest in the public property of the Khoja community or any voice in the management thereof. On the other side, it is maintained by the first defendant i.e., Aga Khani and by the other defendants who are in the same interest with him, that Pir Sadruddin was not a Sunni but a Shia of the Imami Ismaili persuasion; that he was a "Da'i or missionary of one of the direct lineal ancestors of the first defendant the Imam or spiritual chief for the time then being of the Imamie Ismailis; that from the time of the first conversion till now the Khoja community has been and still is (with the exception of the relators and plaintiffs and those comparatively few families among the Bombay Khojas who adhere to them), of the Shia Imamie Ismaili persuasion; that the said community (except as aforesaid) always has been bound in close ties of spiritual allegiance to the ancestors of first defendants, Aga Khan, the hereditary chiefs Imams of the Ismailis, whom the Khoja community always have regarded and (except as above) still regard as their Murshid or spiritual head."
Further on, Arnold said: "That conclusion is that the preponderating tradition of the Khoja community is substantially correct. that Pir Sadru-uddin was a Da'i or missionary of the hereditary Imams of the Ismailis (probably of Shah Islamshah) and that he converted the first Khojas to the Shi'a Imami Ismaili form of Muhammadanism."
This work - Das Avatar - was also referred to in the second Aga Khan case (1908). The plaintiffs tried to prove that the Ismaili Imams and the Khojas were the adherents of Ithnaashari faith.
Death
Pir Sadruddin died on 12th Rajab 91 8 A.H. at Utchh and was buried at Trinda Gorgej about 15 miles from Utchh in the Bhawalpur State where his mausoleum stands. Tawarikh-e-Pir gives the date of his death as 770 A.H. and accorchng to Shajara it is 782/1380. He had five sons - Pir Hasan Kabiruddin, Zaherdin, Saahuddin, Jamaluddin and Pir Tajuddin. Some sources give six or seven sons.
Works
- Buj Nirinian: (knowledge or cognition of God). In this work the Pir deals with the ways and means of attaining union with the divine Light.
- Aradh: (Worship or Adoration). It is a doxology. . In the later stages it develops into adoration of Hazrat Ali who manifested himself in every age ere the creation of aught.
- Vinod : (Merriment or bliss). Adoration of God who created the universe and ends in supplication to Hazrat Ali.
- Gayantri: (The work composed the supplant Gayeetri the sacred prayers of Hindus). It exhorts the followers to give up all the past things of Hinduism and adopt Islam.
- Athar Ved: It is an interpretation of the Ather Ved, the last of the four Vedas of the Hindus. It is chiefly the adoration of Naklank.
- Surat Samachar: (Information about appearance). It maintains giving illustration, that two good things are rarely found to co-exist simultaneously. It also gives descriptive comparison and discrimination between good and evil, admonitions to sinners, code of ethics, greatness of a true preceptor, etc.
- Girbhavali.- (Smaller) : (Secrets). It is an imaginary conversation between Shankar and Parvati about the universe, its contents, etc.
- Budh Avatar : This deals in detail about the story of the 9th incarnation i.e., Buddha of Vishnu.
- Das Avatar (Smaller:) Deals with ten incarnations of Vishnu and finally comes to Islam.
- To Munivarbhai Moti or Momin Chitveni (Knitting up of a Momin's mind or indication of the mind of a Momin): Deals with the creation of the world, the reason of Vishnu's taking incarnation, ethics, etc.,
- Bawan Ghati: (Fifty-two passes): Deals with imaginary fifty- two passes where the angels will question a soul about its different acts in the world.
- Girbhavali (bigger): Deals with a number of esoteric matters. (An enlargement of No. 7).
- Khat Nirinjan: (Six Nirinjans) deals with the creation of the universe, true way of adoring God, beauties and greatness of Islam and Satpanth etc.
- Khat Darshan: (Six Darshans) Darshan is a common designation assigned to the six schools of Hindu Philosophy. It touches various matters of Satpanth and can well be termed an encyclopaedia of Satpanth and Khojki literature.
- Bawan bodth, so Kirya and Sahi Samrani: (52 admonition. 100 rituals and real remembrance). Deals with behaviour, morality, cleanliness etc.
- Saloko (Smaller) (a Collection of Verses): Gives comparison and discrimination between good and bad. Giving an example prayers, devotion, speaking truth etc. Warns against hypocrisy and idolatry.
- Du'a: (Prayer). It is the prayer recited by the Khojas. Contains some verses from the Quran, names of Imams, names of Pirs, supplications etc.. etc.
- Ginan: (Hymns containing knowledge) There are more than 250 ginans dealing with a wide range of themes e.g., ethics, morality, devotion, religious rites, religious stories etc., etc.