Terrorist Attack On Indian Sufi Cleric
By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi
09 March, 2014
Countercurrents.org
The late Maulana Usaidul Haq
One of the most acclaimed Sunni Islamic scholars of modern India, Maulana Usaidul Haq Qadri Badayuni, was shot dead early this month while on a visit to Sufi shrines in Iraq. His killing is no isolated event, for wanton killings of Sufi-minded, spiritually-inclined Islamic scholars at the hands of Salafists, Wahhabis and other extremist ‘Islamist' goons continue unabated.
I received the shocking news of the Maulana's killing just a few hours after he had posted some photographs of his visit Sufi shrines in Iraq on his Facebook page.
The Maulana was travelling in Iraq with his father, Hazrat Qazi Abdul Hameed Muhammad Salim Qadri (head of the Qadria Sufi shrine in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh), his younger brother, Maulana Mohammed Lateef Qadri, and several other companions. They were scheduled to return to India next week.
The group had reached the town of Sulaimania, around 300km from Baghdad, when a group of armed terrorists started firing at the car in which the Maulana was sitting, leaving him dead. The next day, the Maulana's body was brought to Baghdad, where it was buried in a graveyard adjacent to the shrine of Hazrat Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, one of the greatest of Sufi saints.
Also known as "Sheikh Sahab", the Maulana was a Sufi-minded theologian par excellence, spiritual poet, prolific writer, social thinker and, above all, a great humanitarian. He organised several conferences and seminars aimed at establishing religious harmony among the followers of different religions. In a historic peace conference titled organised by his Khanqah Qadriya in Budaun, on the occasion of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, he brought together prominent Muslim scholars, and non-Muslim leaders and clergy. These leading figures from different religions spoke in unison, on an Islamic stage, for establishing peace and eradicating the epidemic of terrorism.
Just last month, when he was preparing to travel to Iraq, I got a chance to meet the Maulana in New Delhi. He spoke about the importance of social work in Islam, spiritual solace, love for the prophets and the Sufis. He stressed the need to promote peace and harmony between people of all faiths and to speak up against acts of terror and violence in the name of Islam.
The wanton killing of the Sufi-oriented ulema is substantial evidence that those involved in global terrorism in the name of Islam and Jihad have no ideological endorsement from Sufi-minded Muslims. Terrorism has absolutely no ideological link with Sufi shrines and the Sufi understanding of Islam, which is based on universal brotherhood, global peace, inclusiveness and religious tolerance.
Today, the basic tenets and doctrines of Islam are being thoroughly misused, misinterpreted and radicalised by the Salafi-Wahabi extremists, exclusivists and totalitarians (who now falsely claim be the mainstream Sunni Muslims). But Sufi-oriented Muslims insist that the ideology that these terrorists stand for has nothing to do with Islam at all. Sufism and its followers represent the true version of Islam: peaceful, pluralistic and moderate. This is precisely why its followers, in general, and its ulema and ideologues, in particular, are suffering the gravest attacks from the terror ideologies and activities rampaging the Muslim world under the grab of Islamism.
Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is an Alim and Fazil (classical Islamic scholar) with a Sufi background. He has graduated from a leading Sufi Islamic seminary of India, Jamia Amjadia Rizvia (Mau, U.P.), acquired Diploma in Qur'anic Arabic from Al-Jamiat ul Islamia, Faizabad, U.P., and Certificate in Uloom ul Hadith from Al-Azhar Institute of Islamic Studies, Badaun, U.P. He has also graduated in Arabic (Hons) and is pursuing his M. A. in Comparative Religion from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
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