Heritage: What the Sindhis believe?

[Gul Agha <agha@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

I sometimes find, among diaspora Sindhis, a misunderstanding about the
beliefs and world-view of Sindhis living in Sindh.  One example of
this I have encountered is some Sindhis, who have never lived in Sindh
but have encountered casteism elsewhere, ask 'how can you visit a
temple in Sindh, when we can't go to some of the temples in South
India?'  (Recall a well-publicized case in which Rajiv Gandhi was
denied entry to some temple because of his Parsi father).

Similarly, not too many people in Sindh, including those who call
themselves Muslim, think like the Afghan Taliban, Saudi Wahabis or
Iranian Ayatollahs.  Rather the mass of Sindhis are pantheists who
look to the Sufis of Sindh for inspiration, singing the hymns of Shah
Latif, Sachal Sarmast and Chenrai Sami.  This is a way of thinking
that bears a lot in common with 'Advaita' philosophy, and is at least
as distant from the fanaticism of the 'Shariah' of the Afghan
'Taliban', as the latter is from 'Manu shastr'.

As Saghir already posted, I would recommend taking a look at Saaiin
G.M. Syed's book for one exposition:

http://members.unlimited.net/~saghir/saeen/religion/

Another observer, Dr. Jotwani notes:

"Sufism in Sindh was at no time regarded as extraneous element for it
was more native in its character than Islamic orthodoxy... The
doctrine of 'wahdat al-wujud' never gives rise to any theocratic basis
of any state or ethnic superiority of any race or discrimination
between two individuals on any ground.   Shah Karim [1536-1623] says:

        "The desert-sand appears as the mirage-water from a
         distance. This world, too, is like that mirage-water.  What
         the people take to be an object is in reality He Himself."

Sankara said in his 'Brahma Sutra Bhasya',

        "Just as pot-ether, basin-ether, etc., are not different from
         ether-at-large, and just as the mirage water, etc., are not
         different from the desert-sand, etc., because they are of the
         nature of what appear and are subsequently sublated and
         because their nature cannot be defined, even so the aggregate
         called the world, consisting of objects of enjoyment and
         enjoyers, has no existence apart from Brahman."

'Advaita' and 'wahdat al wujud', though two different names, refer, in
their conception of God, to one and the same view: He is the one in
all of us.  And the mystery of this permeation is the Universe out of
Himself.  Shah Latif says [Sur Kalyan]:

  "From One, many to being came;
        'many' but Oneness is;
   Don't get confounded, Reality
        is 'One', this truth don't miss--
   Commotions' vast display--all this
        I vow, of Loved-one is."

.......

"Under the canopy of Hinduism and Sufism, man doesn't relate to God in
the manner he does under that of the Semitic religions.  Whereas he
cannot identify himself with God under the latter, he does so within
the former ('Tat twam asi' or 'thou art that'; hama oust or
'everything is He').  The real mystical experience is possible in the
monistic Hinduism and Sufism, for in both of them man identifies with
the universal being and is a part of the unity of existence.  Sachal
Sarmast laments the humble state man is reduced to and declares
himself to be Truth himself."

      -- Dr. Motilal Jotwani, Sufis of Sindh, 1986, Second. ed. 1996

---------
Haku mojuudu [the Truth abides],

Gul Agha