Ginans are a vast collection comprising several hundred poetic compositions which have been a central part of the religious life of the Nizari Ismaili community of the Indian subcontinent that today resides in many countries around the world. Derived from the Sanskrit gyan, meaning contemplative knowledge, Ginans refer to the poetic compositions authored by Ismaili Da’is, known as Pirs, who were sent to the Indian subcontinent by Imams residing in Persia, beginning in the late eleventh or early twelfth century, to teach the message of Revelation to non-Arabic speaking people. The literature is also shared by the Imamshahi community in Gujarat, who are believed to have split off from the Nizari Ismailis in the sixteenth century.
At the time that Pirs went to the Indian subcontinent, the field of devotional poetry was flourishing, with figures such as Narasimha Maeta (15th century), Mirabai (1498-1557), and Narhari (17th century), Kabir (1440-1518), and Guru Nanak (1469-1539). Additionally, a tradition of mystical poetry was developing among the Sufis in the subcontinent.
Pirs integrated Ismaili thought within the Vaishnava (devotion to Vishnu and his many incarnations, avatars) framework without totally rejecting the conceptual and even social framework of the society, re-formulating the folklore with Ismaili perspectives. (More on Vaishnava framework here).
The specific form of Nizari Ismaili interpretation in the Indian subcontinent came to be known by the translation of sirat al-mustaqim, rendered as Satpanth (sat panth, or ‘true path’).
(See Satpanth Tradition)
The compositions of Ginans in local Indic languages “pre-suppose individuals aware of the existence of and acquainted with an already well-developed set of Ismaili beliefs and furthermore, possessing a degree of intellectual and spiritual sensitivity necessary to blend these beliefs with those current in the Indo-Muslim society of the time” (Nanji, The Nizari Ismaili Tradition p 134). Other communities, such as the Sufis, fostered interpretations of Islamic concepts that could relate to the indigenous religious and cultural contexts resulting in the development of parallel literary traditions” (Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment p 8-9).
The Pirs “adopted only those symbols which could be reconciled with the basic Isma’ili concepts…” (Nanji, The Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent p 117). For example, to explain that “to know the Truth, which can be done only through true faith, it is necessary to break once and for all, the relentless chain of karma… which make the wheel of re-birth spin on and on. In this way, the idea of re-birth is invoked not to promote it as an object of belief but to promote commitment to the true faith. The idea of myriad rounds of birth (eight hundred and forty thousand…according to ancient Indian belief), invokes the sense of a human ordeal on a formidable scale. This foreboding is turned into a case for seeking salvation through wholehearted commitment, a surrender of body, mind, and soul to the true faith” (Esmail, A Scent of Sandalwood p 66-67)
The assimilation of the local tradition of the Ismaili Da’is in composing Ginans “can be traced to a fundamental impulse within the community wherever it has manifested itself geographically and historically. The Ismailis, in their attempt to understand the central aspect of their faith – the concept of Imam – have called on the available tools of various philosophical and religious systems, making them highly adaptable to different political and cultural environments” (Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment p 7). In addition, the Ismaili community disguised their identity under various traditions in order to escape persecution.
Asani states “Ismailism has been able to respond to cultural diversity by tolerating, in the words of Paul E. Walker, ‘a surprising intellectual flexibility and leeway.’ The motivation to integrate, reformulate and acculturate to different environments is hence part of the Ismaili legacy” (A Modern History of the Ismailis p 96).
Serving as literary vehicles for conveying Ismaili doctrines that focus on penetrating to the inner (batin) significance of the Qur’an, Ginans comprise emotive enlightenment to transcend the material to connect to the Divine.
(See Satpanth Tradition)
(More on Ginans and Pirs)
Several Ginans emphasise the importance of understanding the batini (esoteric) aspects of the faith, including a composition Hum dil khalak by Pir Shams.
The Creator (Khlaliq) is in my heart and
in all else too; He has brought the
Eternal Universe into existence….1
He brought the whole world into being
out of clay…..3
[As per ayat 32: 7–9
He began the creation of man with clay…
He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit.
(See Ginan swarag bhavan thi )]
My mind is my prayer mat, Allah is my Qadi
and my body is my mosque…..6
The true believer (mu’min) is one
who is aware of all the mysteries.
let knowledge (ilm) guide your path…9
[As per ayat 11:123
to God belongs the unseen [secrets] of the heavens and earth]
Only through complete concentration
can one achieve illumination.
Seek hard and you shall find…. 10
Heed what Pir Shams says,
how will you reach the shore
without a Guide….11
[The boat is a metaphor of the Pir representing the Imam, who will guide the seeker to traverse the vast ocean of struggle and land safely on the shore of true knowledge (Nanji, The Nizari Isma’ili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent p 124)].
(Ginan tr. Azim Nanji, Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent p 121)
Nanji states that “the tone of this Ginan is one of persuasion. The Ginan opens with an appeal to the listeners to consider the Omnipresence of the Creator. … Together with the doctrine of the Omnipresence is woven the basic mystical theme of the Divine Being residing within Man.” The Ginan emphasises “the unity of the Creation by the One Creator, Allah, and pinpoints the difference between Creeds that Man creates for himself, in what should otherwise be by definition a homogenous creation” (Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent, p 122).
[Ayat 4:1 – O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord, Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from the twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women.]
The Ginan emphasises the importance of the batini aspects of the acts of worship… the apt and succinct images convey the inner mode of mystical worship as against the two formal aspects of ritual of prayer; the rug and the mosque are given a personalized, spiritual meaning and become symbols that are contrasted with the formal acts of worship” (Ibid. p123). The true seeker (mu’min) “is defined as someone who is cognizant of all the mysteries (i.e. the batin) and who performs his duties in the light of the knowledge (ilm here should be taken to refer to an understanding of the haqa’iq, in Ismaili terms) that he has obtained. The emphasis in the Ginan … is on a path which is not based on formal outward acts of worship, but which stems spontaneously from a process of direct intuitive experience which through “illumination” brings about a new level of awareness. The awareness is seen as a continuing process …[which] comes only through a total absorption of the seeker in concentrated mediation. Awareness…springs from the state of having discovered the Divine within one’s self. …For this path, one needs a guide without whom it is not possible to traverse the vast ocean of struggle and land safely on the shore of true knowledge” (Ibid. p 124-125).
(See Presence of Divine in every heart)
Esmail notes “It is within the body, the temple of God, in which true worship takes place nature of this. Of this type of worship, the ‘fool,’ slave to externalities, will always be ignorant. The very nature of his ‘folly,’ his blindness, debars him from such knowledge.” (A Scent of Sandalwood p 57).
Esmail adds that the idea of ‘knowledge’ in Ginans “is very different from formal book-knowledge. It is far from enough to know about the truth. What is essential is to live it, and to know it by living it. This is vital knowledge. To know truly is to be one with truth. All else is vanity, and worse. To be complacent on the basis of scriptural learning, and punctilious observance of ritual codes, betrays an egotism, a vanity. Vanity in these two senses – conceit and sterility – is vanity also in a third sense: emptiness, absence of reality” (Esmail, A Scent of Sandalwood p 63).
(See Ego deterrent to soul’s progress)
[My Lord, increase me in knowledge” (Qur’ān, 20:114)]
“In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet [Salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa- sallam] and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Karachi, March 16, 1983
Speech
Sources:
Ali S. Asani, Ecstasy and Enlightenment, I.B. Tauris, London, 2002
Ali S. Asani, “From Satpanthi to Ismaili Muslim: The Articulation of Ismaili Khoja Identity in South Asia,” A Modern History of the Ismailis, I.B. Tauris, London, 2011
Azim Nanji, Nizari Ismaili Tradition in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent, Caravan Books, New York, 1978
Aziz Esmail, A Scent of Sandalwood, Curzon Press, Richmond, 2002
Tazim R. Kassam, Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance, Hymns of the Satpanth Isma’ili Muslim Saint, Pir Shams, State University of New York Press, 1995
Contributed by Nimira Dewji, who also has her own blog – Nimirasblog – where she writes short articles on Ismaili history and Muslim civilisations.
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