The dancing fakirs

The air was heavy with sweat,the sweet scent of rose petals,and the waft from the chillums the fakirs smoked. It also throbbed with anticipation,dread,and disbelief.

But faith seemed infectious. It was as if the onlookers were awed by the feat,yet they all knew he would be fine. Nobody cared to probe further,to question the antics,to get into a debate.

The tempo had reached its peak with the fakirs,who had gathered at the Rifai Chowk,the site of the scared fire or the dhuni at Nizamuddin Basti,shouting “Mast Kalandar”. As they whipped themselves,Barshad stood up,and in a state of rapture,pulled out the dagger,smiled,and walked back to his seat,swaying wildly.

No,he never felt any pain. It was a sweet trance,he said. “I don’t think about the pain. It’s ecstasy. Jis wali ke dar par fakir na gaya toh Urs kaisa. (No Urs is complete without the fakirs),” he said. “We keep the faith and he sees us through. Khusro is a man of God.”

In addition to hundreds who came from all over the country and even outside,fakirs,too,converged at the shrine to pay homage to Khusro,a disciple of the 12th-century Sufi Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia,on the 705th anniversary of his death that Sufis celebrate as a union with God.

Urs,which means marriage or union in Arabic,is a celebration with qawallis,mushairas,feasts and also intoxication,both literally and spiritually,for the fakirs claim they are drunk on God’s love.

The wandering fakirs claim they are sent invites to come to the Urs and so they come,dressed in long robes,their eyes lined with kohl and with matted hair,chanting and dancing around the shrine as the faithful stick Rs 10 notes on to the swords they proudly brandish. And even though a certain disdain lines their faces because some feel the fakirs and their tricks are against Islam and Sufism,many step aside to make way for them because they dread their curse.

“A true Sufi would call himself a fakir. Faqr means poverty. But a lot of this is tradition and a way of earning. I wouldn’t think they are true mystics or Qalandars,” says Sadia Dehlvi,author of a book on Sufism. “The true Qalandars are all gone.”

Qalandar,whose name the vagrant fakirs invoke,was one of Pakistan’s Sufi saints who belonged to no particular order. The fakirs say he performed miracles,brought the dead to life.

The fakirs are ascetics who are either born into the order,like Barshad who said he was always a fakir,or are inducted,like Islamuddin Khalifa. “I got peace here. I found God here,” he said. But even though many have dismissed them as petty mendicants,the fakirs are as much part of the tradition of Urs as is the qawalli.

Flagellation is part of the mourning rituals on Muharram where Shias mourn and commemorate the death of Imam Husayn ibn Ali,a grandson of Prophet Muhammad,and other family members in the Battle of Karbala. However,fakirs don’t do it as mourning but as a celebration of the supernatural powers of their saints and believe that by piercing and flagellation,they prove they are so lost to the faith that pain ceases to exist. They also claim it has been part of the Urs tradition for many centuries. While the Rifai fakirs indulge in piercing and other tricks,the Jalalis shackle themselves in heavy iron chains,which sometimes weigh as much as 70 kg,says Islamuddin,who claims to be a fakir in the Qadiri-Rifai Sufi order.

At the shrine,nobody is shunned. All are welcome,says Syed Kabiruddin Nizami,who claims to be a Sufi scholar and a descendant of Nizamuddin Aulia. “The world comes here on Urs. The fakirs come too,” he adds.

Muslims can’t ask the fakirs to cure ills or fulfill their wishes. In Sufism,the boundaries of sainthood are defined. Khwaja Hasan Saani Nizami,the hereditary keeper of the shrine,said the fakirs are not real Sufis. “I don’t know who these people are,” he said. “They are just beggars who call themselves fakirs.”

The fakirs dismissed the criticisms. Even sinners have a chance at redemption in Sufism that teaches to tolerate,the self-styled mystics said. “Maybe we are sinners. But I have left all to be with God,” Islamuddin said. “We are here to be with our saint. He doesn’t despise us.”