Shah Jalal
Sufi scholar of Sylhet
Shaykh al-Mashāʾikh Makhdūm Shaykh Jalāl Mujarrad bin Muḥammad Kunyāī (Arabic: شيخ المشائخ مخدوم شيخ جلال مجرد بن محمد كنيائي), popularly known as Shah Jalal, is a celebrated Sufi Muslim figure in Bengal. Shah Jalal's name is often associated with the Conquest of Sylhet and the spread of Islam into the region, part of a long history of interactions between the Middle East, Turkestan and South Asia.
Quotes about Shah Jalal
edit- He was a native son of Bengal and the successor of Sultan Sayyed Ahmad Yasavi. One day, he presented a request to his pir of shining essence. The request was that, just as by the light of the master’s guidance he had attained some degree of success in the greater jihad, [he hoped] likewise to achieve his heart’s desire regarding the lesser jihad with the help of [the master’s] wish-granting power. Everywhere there might be an Abode of War, by striving to [bring it into the Abode of Islam], he hoped to attain the rank of ghazi and martyr. The shaykh consented and bade seven hundred of his own elite companions accompany [Shah Jalal].41
- Mandavi, Gulzar-i abrar, quoted from Harry S. Neale - Sufi Warrior Saints_ Stories of Sufi Jihad from Muslim Hagiography-I.B. Tauris (2022) chapter 5.
- Through the might of God, wherever they battled unbeliever warriors (harbiyan), they unfurled the banner of victory, and God made the ghazis victorious over them. It is even more wondrous that, [during the time that Shah Jalal and his ghazis] roved far and wide [in the Abode of War] they had no daily bread, save for the booty [from their conquests], which allowed them to live quite well. Whenever they obtained low-lying land and livestock, [Shah Jalal], having given these to one of his elite companions, would appoint him [to remain there] and teach [the inhabitants] Islam.
So, in the end, [Shah Jalal] came to the village of Sylhet, in the province of Bengal,43 with three hundred and thirteen men.44 Raja Gour Govinda, who was lord of one hundred thousand foot soldiers and several thousand horsemen, was the ruler. [The raja] thought little of this group [of Muslims], for they could not compare with his great host. When the battle was hanging in the balance, the meaning of the divine words How many a small band overcame a large band with God’s permission?45 was made manifest, and, the idol-worshipping king having fled, [the ghazis pursued him and sent] him to Hell. In this way did the land [of Sylhet] fall into the hands of the ghazis.46 [Following their victory over the raja,] Shaykh [Shah Jalal] Mujarrad gave all [the ghazis] a share of the spoils and assigned them land, bidding each of them become a householder.47- Mandavi, Gulzar-i abrar, quoted from Harry S. Neale - Sufi Warrior Saints_ Stories of Sufi Jihad from Muslim Hagiography-I.B. Tauris (2022) chapter 5.
- [Those of the unbelievers] who were spared the sword (baqiyat al-sayf) became Muslims, and they took [Shah Jalal] as their king. Once [Shah Jalal] was satisfied that the light of Islam would evermore illuminate the kingdom, he relinquished his rule, having bestowed the kingship on one of his companions and the viziership on another. He embraced solitude and the path of God and dedicated himself to riyada and mujahada. It is said that the name of the companion to whom he gave the kingship was Sultan Sikandar Ghazi.
- Badakhshi, Thamarat al-quds,, quoted from Harry S. Neale - Sufi Warrior Saints_ Stories of Sufi Jihad from Muslim Hagiography-I.B. Tauris (2022) chapter 5.
- Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, an Indian scholar of Islam, also discusses Sufi involvement in the martial jihad. In his A History of Sufism in India , he devotes part of a chapter to consideration of “warrior saints.” Concerning the role of Shaykh Jalal of Sylhet (d. 1347) in the Islamization of Bengal, Rizvi relates that Shaykh Jalal’s pir blessed him that he might have success in waging war against unbelievers in the Abode of War “in the same way as he had directed him towards success in the higher (spiritual) jihad ” and then commanded a large number of his own followers to accompany Shaykh Jalal. Rizvi writes that the expedition of these Sufi s under the command of Shaykh Jalal was not peaceful and that they gained many spoils from their military victories. Regarding Shaykh Jalal’s efforts to convert the local population of the territories he had brought into the Abode of Islam, Rizvi relates that he would leave Sufi saints in each territory to propagate the faith. Rizvi’s discussion of Shaykh Jalal’s conquest of Bengal emphasizes the complementary nature of the different aspects of jihad, which Sufi s and Muslim scholars writing in Islamic languages discuss repeatedly and extensively.
- Neale, Harry S. (2017). Jihad in Premodern Sufi Writings. , Ch.2 .
- Badakhshi describes Shah Jalal’s coming to Bangladesh in somewhat more lurid terms: “He set out for the realm of Bang for the purpose of carrying out war (ghazā), and there he eradicated the unbelievers and cleansed that realm of the filth of that unclean folk.”
- Badakhshi, Thamarat al-quds, quoted from, quoted from Harry S. Neale - Sufi Warrior Saints_ Stories of Sufi Jihad from Muslim Hagiography-I.B. Tauris (2022) chapter 5.
