Mahatma Gandhi and the Sufi Regime of Sheikh Muḥammad Uthman Abduh Al Burhani

Mahatma Gandhi, contrary to expectations, was not just a non-violent maestro who orchestrated a movement. It was Gandhi who propounded almost single handedly the entire spectrum of non-violent agitations observed throughout the world today. Thus the hunger strikers, the protesters in New York and London, the boycott movement and others owe a lot to Gandhi. It was the spiritual rigour of his regime of discipline that makes Gandhi unique in the history of mankind. 

Sheikh Muḥammad Uthman Abduh Al Burhani, a Sufi master from Sudan also had developed a regime of self-cleansing through spiritual practice. The observance of these rigorous spiritual exercises, resulted in the development of a sort of integrity that the followers of the Sufism or tasawuff aspired for. The rejuvenation of the self or nafs had an autobiographic element to it. Under Under the leadership of Sheikh Mohamed Osman, Tariqa Burhaniya gained many followers in Sudan and in Egypt.

Gandhi wrote a celebrated autobiography called ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’. Gandhian politics was a series of experimental methods that were deployed with reference to the self or atman and the society as a whole. For Gandhi, the Indian mystical tradition of Bhakti spiritualism was a source for spiritual strength. Spirituality enabled Gandhi to redeem the colonised Indian self intact. The spiritual self of India remained unbroken due to this spiritual strength that it possessed. Therefore, Gandhi stressed on the practice of a rigorous regimen of self-discipline. The Satyagraha (desire for truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence) were the twin strategies of Gandhi. The hunger fasts that Gandhi undertook was part of this spiritual regimen. The celebrated Gandhian Acharya Vinoba Bhave would later propound a movement where he exhorted the Indian elites to donate their lands to the landless poor. The cleansing of the self has a major role to play in the spiritual practice of Gandhi and his disciples. Vinoba Bhave later ritually embraced death through fasting. Gandhi’s hunger fasts had a major role to play in the redemption of the Indic self. 

Much like Gandhi, Sheikh Muḥammad Uthman Abduh Al Burhani (1904 – 1983), the Sufi master also established a rigorous practice of personal integrity. He stayed clear of puritanical elements outwardly. The spiritual cleansing of the self, was the technique that he developed. This had to do with remembrance or dhikr. The Burhaniyya adherents underwent this process of remembrance so as to exalt themselves in terms of spiritual accomplishments. This is similar to the practice of austerities by Indian saints. The birth of the prophet and similar occasions were commemorated with ceremonies of remembrance. This had an impact on the self, like the polishing of a diamond. 

Gandhi practised the spinning of the traditional Indian loom as a meditative mode of austerity. Turning the spinning wheel or charka is a major Gandhian meditative practice. Even today, the spinning wheel used by Gandhi occupies a centre stage in the Sabarmati Ashram he established. 

Collective ḏikr is also an important element of the procedure of ḥaḍra, a traditional sufi ceremony which is performed regularly by the disciples of Burhāniyya once a week, as well as on important occasions, such as the mawlid in commemoration of the birth of the Prophet and of Sufi saints. Today the participation in this ritual has a crucial meaning for the Burhāniyya adherents, as it represents the affirmation of their Sufi identity within contemporary Muslim world.

– Francesco Alfonso Leccese, The teaching of Al Burhani

Thus for Gandhi and Al Burhani, personal integrity and character had more to do with one’s own self that to the outside world and society. The Indian mysticism that inspired Gandhi was mostly drawn from the streams of Sufi Islam. Thus a confluence of spiritual thought can be found in Gandhi and Al Burhani.

Umar Nizarudeen is with the University of Calicut, India. He has a PhD in Bhakti Studies from the Centre for English Studies in JNU, New Delhi. His poems and articles have been published in Vayavya, Muse India, Culture Cafe Journal of the British Library, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, The Bombay Review,  The Madras Courier, FemAsia, Sabrang India,  India Gazette London, Ibex Press Year’s Best Selection, and also broadcast by the All India Radio.