Noorbakhshia is a school of
Islamic jurisprudence that emphasizes the Muslim Unity. Its very foundations rests on the belief in
Allah,
Angels
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...
,
Prophets
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
,
Day of Judgement, the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
and other
Islamic Scriptures revealed upon previous Prophets. While, practices include
Prayers
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...
(five times in a day) Fasting of
Ramadan,
Zakah and
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
journey to
Kaaba. These
Beliefs
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...
and
Practices have been excerpted from the books: Usool Aitaqadia (deals with Beliefs) and Fiqh ul Ahwat (deals with Islamic Jurisprudence), which were written by
Muhammad Nurbakhsh Qahistani. Nurbakhshia has its own
Silsila (
Sufi Order) : Silsila-e-Zahab (Golden Chain). This Silsila has Imam Haqiqi (Divinely Appointed 12 Imams): from Imam Ali to Imam Mahdi, and Imam Izafi (Deputy to Haqiqi Imam). The linkage of Imam Izafi stems from renowned Sufi saint
Maroof e Karkhi and it will continue until the day of Judgement. Noorbakhshia is the only Sufi order of Islam whose foundations have been laid upon the teachings of Aima Tahirreen (Fourteen Infallibles).
Doctrine
The most important sources of Noorbakhshi doctrines are included within three books: ''Al-Fiqh al-Ahwat'' and ''Kitab al-Aitiqadia'', both written by
Muhammad Nurbakhsh Qahistani, and ''Dawat-e-Sofia-Imamia noorbakhshia'', written by Ameer Kabir Syed Ali Hamdani, a Sufi preacher.
[Bashir, S: "Messianic Hope and Mystical Vision: The Nurbakhshiya Between Medieval and Modern Islam (Studies in Comparative Religion), "University of South Carolina Press", October 2003]
History
In its country of origin,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, the order became outright
Shi'a some decades after the
Safavid dynasty made
Twelver Shi'ism
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
the religion of the state in 1501. The same partially occurred in
Kashmir either during the lifetime of
Shams ud-Din Iraqi, who died in 1527, or in the following decades, during the brief interlude of the Chak dynasty's reign. In
Baltistan and
Purig, the Sufia Nurbakhshiya still survives as a sect with doctrines of its own that combine elements of both Shi'ism and
Sunni Sufi Islam.
Muhammad Nurbakhsh Qahistani was the 15th-century Sufi master to whom researchers have paid less attention. Although Nurbakhsh had many scholar-disciples, including
Shaikh Asiri Lahiji, none of his disciples made any serious effort to write Nurbakhsh's biography and to preserve his teachings. However, hundreds of thousands of his followers are still present in the most remote areas of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. They practise his teachings and are still the custodians of his works and teachings five centuries later.
Nurbakhshis believe that the practices are not an assemblage of his personal views but were originally conceived by him from
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
through the masters of the spiritual chain. They state that anyone who questions this connection is invited to travel on the long road through the history of
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...
and to compare it with that of Nurbakhsh's teachings.
Decline of Nurbakshi in Kashmir
The dominance of
Sunni Islam in the power corridors of Kashmir, after the period of Nurbakshi influence, was restored by
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat Beg ( Persian: میرزا محمد حیدر دولت بیگ c. 1499/1500 – 1551) was a Chagatai Turco-Mongol military general, governor of Kashmir, and a historical writer, He was a Turkic speaking Dughlat prince ...
when he conquered Kashmir. Dughlat sent ''Fiqh al-Ahwat'' to a Sunni council for its analysis, which resulted in a condemnatory ''
fatwa'' by the council to ensure Orthodox Sunni and Shi'a Islam and tried to limit Sufi influence.
Mir Danial Shaheed and other prominent figures were killed during the resulting clashes.
See also
*
Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani
Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani ( fa, میر سید علی همدانی; CE) was a Persian scholar, poet and a Sufi Muslim saint of the Kubrawiya order. He was born in Hamadan, Iran and preached Islam in Central Asia and Kashmir as he travelled to p ...
*
Mir Sham ud-Din Iraqi
References
{{reflist
External links
*
The Tarikh-i-Rashidi of Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Dughlát : a history of the Moghuls of Central Asia — Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat mentions the Nurbakhshis in his History.
*
Mahdism