UNKNOWN SUFIS WITH KNOWN SHRINES SIGNIFICANT ROLE OF MIRACLES
Keywords:
Sufi saints, Shrines, miracles, Gujrat, spiritual healing. Practices, Religious contributions, Social services, Mughal Royal family,Abstract
Sufism is an esoteric aspect of Islam and the person who practices Sufism
is known as Sufi. It is believed about Sufis that they have the capacity to
do miracles. People have strong beliefs on miracles of Sufis and
considered these Sufis as miraculous personalities. They give more
importance to miracles of Sufis rather than knowing about the life history,
teachings and contribution of Sufis in society. People venerate a person as
Sufi who could do miracles or famous for his miraculous deeds. In other
words Karamat or miracles are considered by people as a proof and as a
certificate to any person for being a Sufi and recognize them through
miracles. People do not care the historical authenticity of those Karamat
rather they could believe on Karamat based on oral accounts passed by
generation to generation. In fact their strong belief on miracles led them
to visit shrines. The aim of this paper is to study the contextual history of
miracles and people’s belief on Sufis miraculous powers and to analyze
the role of this belief as a major source behind the shrine visitation with
special reference to the shrines of two major Sufi saints located in Gujratto
show that people having no authentic information about Sufis’ lives and
works, venerate Sufis due to their miracles and visit their shrines to get
Barakah.
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