Muhyidhin Mala and the Imagination of ummah (community) in early 17th century Kerala

Abstract

This paper attempts to read the 17^th century text, Muhyidhin Mala and explores how identities were imagined through a hagiography. The collective imagination of ‘people’ brought forth through this text, at the centre of which faith organises the Islamic moral order, sheds light on Islam in South India in the context of a multicultural society. The language of faith, as narrated through the miracles (Karamat) of Abdul Qadir Jilani (1077-1166) may be situated within the historical context of Bhakthi in 17^th century Kerala. But it also gives valuable hints about the ummah-the Islamic followers from the region, the kind of self-fashioning and disciplining aspired to be a follower of the religion. The reimagining and retelling of the saint’s life, distanced from the locus of its origin in Persia, also freeze temporalities, making the text important both as a site of memory and also as a contemporary experience in the socio-religious landscape. Qazi Muhammad, the author, inserts himself in the text urging the followers to listen and follow. However, the reception of the text also reveals the interconnected nature of the material in the text, since the Abdul Qadir Jilani had many textual representations in multiple performative practices of Muslim communities in South India. Muslims all over Kerala and other regions in the South continuously practised performances that praised the life of this sufi saint and the founder of the Qadiriyya order through Maulids and Ratheebs.  Reading this text through aspirations that shaped the community, I argue that linguistic identity is pushed to the background as a negotiable medium, whereas the politics of faith/ piety functions as the intermediary to bring people together.