Sufi Reform in Eighteenth Century India: Khwaja Mir Dard of Delhi (1721-1785)

This study is an investigation of the Sufi reform of the eighteenth century by means of analyzing the original works of a prominent yet understudied Indian Sufi reformer, Khwaja Mir Dard of Delhi (1721-1785). It considers the relevance of Mir Dard's ariqa Mu ammadiyya Khali a (Pure Muhammadan Path) against the backdrop of academic debates on the concept of Sufi reform and argues for a multifaceted transformation in early modern Sufism. The book examines four main characteristics of Mir Drad's thought, namely criticism of Ibn al-'Arabi's unity of being, Prophetocentrism, shari'atizing Sufism, and a worldly approach, and discovers a shift of emphasis away from the interior, intoxication, fatalism and ascent, toward the exterior, awareness, free will and descent. Employing a hybrid of conceptual-semantic and contextual-historical methodologies, it also shows the constructive role played by the longstanding Hindu-Muslim shared tradition in the reformulations of mystical Islam.