Sufis in Sri Lanka: A Fieldwork Story

Multi-religiosity in Contemporary Sri Lanka Innovation, Shared Spaces, Contestation Edited by Mark P. Whitaker, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake and Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Mark P. Whitaker, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake and Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran, individual chapters, the contributors The right of Mark P. Whitaker, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake and Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-367-86234-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-10487-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-02922-9 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003029229 Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books 13 Sufis in Sri Lanka A fieldwork story Dennis B. McGilvray Stumbling upon Sufism In the early pages of a diary I kept during my PhD fieldwork in 1970, I took special note of the ritual flames, bells, and conch peals at my very first Hindu temple pu-ja in Akkaraipattu, the Tamil-speaking agricultural town in Ampara District where my research was centred. My Tamil hosts eagerly demonstrated how to perform the gestures of a Hindu worshipper, and this was all they required of me. A number of my Muslim (Moorish) acquain- tances, on the other hand, steered me away from the mosque, preferring to proselytize me in a discussion of Christianity vs Islam. They soon found me to be a reluctant convert, someone who was not even an authentic Chris- tian – of which only two varieties were known to exist: Catholics and Methodists. Thus, Hindu and Muslim spiritual life seemed to conform easily to the academic distinction between “orthoprax” and “orthodox”, the contrast between ritual-centred and theology-centred religions. In theological con- versations, Moors in Akkaraipattu would often begin with the Abrahamic tradition (“People of the Book”) and a list of shared Old Testament pro- phets, leading up through Prophet Jesus (ı-sa- nabi) to the final revelation of the Holy Quran to Prophet Muhammad. In contrast, the Tamils never posed an argument of any kind to me about their Hindu doctrines or “beliefs”. They simply invited me to attend their temple pu-ja rituals – and also fire- walking vows and sorcery exorcisms – which I did with eager ethnographic curiosity. Pleased with the clarity of my theoretical classification, I was certain I had grasped the essential contrast between Sri Lankan Hinduism and Islam – until I encountered the local Bawas (faqı-rs, professional Muslim religious mendicants). On the main road at the north edge of town there is a small Muslim shrine and saintly grave for an itinerant holy man from India named Miskin Alishah Mahboot who was remembered as a wild-haired faqı-r of the north Indian Tabaqatiya or Madari order (tariqa-), a follower of the 15th- century saint Zinda Shah Madar buried in Makanpur, U.P. (Fallasch 2004). The site was also a meeting place for local Bawas under a leader (ka-lifa-) DOI: 10.4324/9781003029229-22 208 Dennis B. McGilvray whom I got to know fairly well: Cader Mohideen Bawa. I had seen small groups of Bawas from time to time beating their one-sided dakira (or daf) drums and soliciting alms from Moorish households, but it was only when I attended one of their Rifai ra-tib performances at the Beach Mosque shrine 20 miles north of Akkaraipattu that I realized there existed an orthoprax and ecstatic form of Islam as well, one that featured drumming, singing, and self- mutilation with knives, needles, and sharpened steel dabus (spikes) (Spittel 1933, 312–321). I eventually gathered a good deal of information about Bawa initiation rituals, organizational ranks, and tariqa- affiliations (McGilvray 2008, 297– 304), but the Bawas seldom described themselves as “Sufis”. Instead, they emphasized their identity as faqı-rs, devotees of the medieval Iraqi saint Ahmad ar-Rifa-’i. Similarly, the term “Sufi” never emerged when I learned that vows were made at the tomb (ziya-ram) of a local Muslim holy man located in Akkaraipattu’s Periyapalli Mosque. I was told that such buried holy men were Muslim saints (avuliya-, sometimes also described as iṟai ne-car, “friends of God”) who had performed miracles and who could still answer personal prayers and vows from within their graves, where their bodies remained preserved as if still alive. At the same time, I was learning about the two greatest saints of all time in Sri Lankan eyes, popularly referred to in Tamil as Muhaideen Ān.t.avar (“Lord Muhaideen” referring to Saint Abdul Qadir Jilani (or Gilani), 1077–1166 CE, whose tomb is in Baghdad) and Nagoor Ān.t.avar (“Lord of Nagoor” referring to Saint Shahul Hamid, 1490– 1579 CE, whose coastal dargah shrine is in Nagore, Tamil Nadu). I met grown men with customary names like Nagoor Tambi (“Younger brother of Nagore”). The Nagore dargah itself was an Indian pilgrimage that few could make, but the “branch office” shrine known as the Beach Mosque (kat.aṟ- karai paḷḷi) in nearby Kalmunaikkudy was a popular destination for family outings during the annual festival. A pilgrimage to the tomb of Abdul Qadir Jilani in Baghdad would have been completely unheard of, but attendance at the saint’s festival at Daftar Jailani near Balangoda was for some Akkar- aipattu Moors an annual excursion (McGilvray 2004, 2016). Eventually I came to realize that local saints are found in practically all of the older mosques in Sri Lanka (Thawfeeq 2014; Hussein 2007), and that a kandoori festival (Tamil kantu-ri, equivalent to Hindi/Urdu u-rs) commemorating the saint’s death anniversary is a traditional event in most Moorish communities. In short, I accumulated a stack of disjointed and fragmentary field notes about Bawas, saintly tombs, and kandoori festivals without hearing very much from anyone about “Sufism”. In fact, most Moorish laypeople in Akkaraipattu seemed unfamiliar with the term, even though Colombo Muslim intellectuals such as M.C. Siddi Lebbe had been writing about Isla- mic mysticism with literary sophistication a full century earlier (McKinley and Xavier 2018). I was also vaguely aware of the transnational followers of Bawa Muhaiyadeen – popularly known as “Guru Bawa” – in Colombo and Philadelphia (Korom 2016; Xavier 2018), but they seemed to reflect a world  Sufis in Sri Lanka 209 of upper-class urban spirituality far removed from the religious life of Muslim fishermen and farmers living 200 miles away on the east coast of the island. Studying-up on Sufism On a fieldwork trip in mid-1993 during a ceasefire in the Sri Lankan civil war, I was fortuitously invited to attend a devotional singing performance in Kattankudy, the most densely populated Muslim town in Sri Lanka and a well-known centre of trade located 40 miles from Akkaraipattu, just south of Batticaloa. As with the Bawas, this performance was called a Rifai ra-tib, but it did not involve any implements of torture or acts of self-mutilation. It was conducted by eight Moorish laymen seated in two rows opposite one another before their leader (kalifa-) who led their singing and drumming in emotional crescendos that invoked the blessings of Saint Ahmad Rifai upon the inha- bitants of the private home in which it was held. It was one of those unex- pected fieldwork epiphanies that suddenly revealed to me a whole new dimension of popular Islam in Sri Lanka. Thenceforward, I resolved to explore this substratum of Sufi devotionalism throughout the eastern coastal region and beyond, later witnessing similar Rifai ra-tib lay performances in 2001 and 2014. Lacking much background in Islamic studies or Sufism, I asked my friends in Akkaraipattu to direct me to someone who could explain Sufi ideas to me in simple terms, and they came up with a very good tutor: Zain Master. He was a retired teacher who had actively organized the local chapter of Sufi Manzil, a middle-class organization of Sufi laymen that originated in Tamil Nadu and spread to Sri Lanka after the Second World War. Zain generously gave me several crash-course lessons in key Sufi concepts that have proved to be accurate as I have selectively sampled the vast academic literature on Sufism. He explained that Sufism is suited only to true wisdom-seekers. Such an especially qualified follower (murı-d) must not only obtain initiatory wisdom imparted by a Sufi preceptor (murshid, shaykh), but must also seek protection and inspiration from departed Sufi saints whose memory and “chain” of initiation (silsila) is recited in weekly devotional sessions (zikr) and at annual death anniversary festivals held at their tomb-shrines or else- where. A Sufi seeks to ascend through four stages of spiritual development from sharia-t (obedience to Allah’s laws and rules for living) through tariqa-t (initiation into a Sufi order) and haqiqa-t (grasping divine truth) to ma’rifa-t (gnosis). Although it is impossible to truly merge one’s soul with Allah, Sufi wisdom is said to be the closest approximation of this state. Because Sufism is an elite mystical calling, finding the correct Sufi teacher is a crucial first step in the process of gaining spiritual insight. Several murı-ds told me of their tenacious trial and error efforts to discover the particular shaykh who was destined to become their murshı-d. Enlightened by these lessons from Zain Master, I realized that I had been asking people in Akkaraipattu the wrong question all along. Instead of 210 Dennis B. McGilvray enquiring whether they were Sufis, I should have been asking whether they had a personal shaykh. Rephrased in this fashion – uṅkaḷukku she-ku irukka-? – my question quickly revealed that many Moors had some kind of personal connection with a saintly guide or preceptor, even if they had no idea they were practicing “Sufism”. It also turns out that many shaykhs, in addition to having been initiated into one or more recognized Sufi orders, also claim to be Sayyids, genealogical descendants of the Prophet or his immediate companions, a title that in Sri Lanka is usually rendered as Maulana but in Kerala and Lakshadweep is recognized as Tangal (or Than- gal, taṅṅal) (McGilvray 2008, 292–296). The nisba or extended titles of Sufi shaykhs may also include exalted terms such as Qutub, a cosmic axis or “pole” that connects the human world with Allah. However, because Sufi wisdom is imparted only through a personal pledge of discipleship (bay’at) to a shaykh, there may sometimes be disagreement or rivalry between shaykhs and Sufi tariqa-s. In the pre-independence period the two largest Sri Lankan Sufi orders were associated with rival Muslim gem-trading families and ethnic associations in the west coast region, the Qadiriya order allied with N.D.H. Abdul Gaffoor and the All Ceylon Muslim League, and the Shazu- liya order supporting M. Macan Markar and the All Ceylon Moors’ Asso- ciation (Wagner 1990, 83–85). Historic buildings of these two Sufi tariqa-s are still located only a few doors apart on New Moor Street, Colombo. Mapping Sufi orders in Sri Lanka There is no registry of Sufi orders and sub-orders in Sri Lanka of which I am aware. It is clear, however, that there are three major tariqa-s in the island, plus a number of smaller ones. As is true across South Asia generally, the most widespread Sufi order in Sri Lanka is Qadiriya, founded by the 12th- century Persian-born Sunni jurist Abdul Qadir Jilani. In my experience, it is common for Sri Lankan Sufis to proclaim Qadiriya membership before any other, and there are many limbs and branches to the Qadiriya tree. Virtually all Sri Lankan Muslims – whether Sufis or not – will recognize this saint, whose followers meet in a prayer house or chapel called a takkiya- (or taikka-). The Shadhiliya order (known in Sri Lanka as Shaduliya or Shazuliya) became well-established in the colonial maritime and gem-trading centres on the southwest coast such as Colombo, Beruwala, and Galle. Its North Afri- can founder, Abdul Hasan Ali as-Sha-dhili (1196–1258 CE) is buried not far from the Red Sea coast east of Aswan, Egypt, and the 19th-century sub- branch of the order to which Sri Lankan followers belong, founded by Muhammad al-Fassi (1803–1872 CE), is headquartered in Jeddah and Mecca (Tschacher 2019, 77–78). Members of Fassiyatul Shazuliya meet in a chapter house known as a za-via, and some of them, such as the Ummu Zavia (“Mother Zavia”) in New Moor Street, Colombo, are among the most lovely of colonial buildings. Although its founder was born in rural Morocco, the  Sufis in Sri Lanka 211 Shadhiliya order developed in the urban milieu of Alexandria and Cairo, and its message has always emphasized a pragmatic balance between spirituality and maintaining a comfortable lifestyle (Mackeen 1961, 166–173. This may help to explain its popularity and spread among wealthier urban Sri Lankan businessmen and traders. The third major Sufi order in Sri Lanka is the Rifaiya, founded by Ahmad ar-Rifa-’i (1118–1182 CE, buried in Iraq). The national office of the Rifai Thareeq Association (founded 1877) near the Grand Mosque in Colombo is currently headed by Ashik Tangal, a Rifai shaykh from Androth Island, Lakshadweep. There are several villages of Rifai laymen in southern Sri Lanka, most notably Kappuwatta near Weligama, documented in a PhD thesis by Llyn Smith (1997). A chain of Rifai Tangals from Lakshadweep and Kerala has also been coming to Kattankudy on the east coast since the early 19th century. The most visible members of the Rifai order, however, are the previously noted Bawa faqı-rs, who travel the island during the festival season giving spectacular self-mortifying ra-tib performances at shrines such as Jailani near Balangoda, Porvai (Godapitiya) near Akuressa, and the Beach Mosque in Kalmunaikudy. Interestingly, the same three Sufi orders – Qadiriya, Shadhiliya, and Rifai – also predominate in coastal Mozambique, suggesting a shared Indian Ocean pattern (Bonate 2015, 485–487). In addition to these three Sufi orders, there are also modern Sri Lankan Muslims in Colombo and Galle who have been attracted to the Naqsbandi order, a globe-spanning tariqa- led for many years by the well-travelled Shaykh Nazim of Cyprus. In contrast, a highly localized Sri Lankan Sufi order is the Mustafaviya (or Nabaviya), strictly governed by Shaykh Ahmad at the Buhary takkiya- in Beruwala, who is a fifth-generation descendant of his Sri Lankan predecessor, Shaykh Mustafa (1836–1888 CE). Members of the order live in 17 specific villages in the southwestern quarter of the island, the original and most historic of which is Malvana. The Mustafaviya order is also distinctive in requiring men to wear historic colonial dress (Western coat, white sarong, and red fez cap) for Friday zikr. Also sometimes men- tioned as part of the Muslim community in Beruwala are members of the Alaviya order, a line of Sayyids from Hadramaut, Yemen (Ho 2006, ch. 2), that has seen at least one prominent member in Sri Lankan politics. East coast Sufi lineages The Eastern Province is the only region where I have tried to trace the spiritual genealogies of contemporary Sufi leaders, and the following account must be regarded as only preliminary and partial. A key figure in the mid- 20th century was an Indian Tamil shaykh of the Qadiriya order named Abdul Qadir Sufi, or “Sufi Hazrat” in popular memory (1902–1982 CE). His place of origin was the historic coastal town of Kayalpattinam in southern Tamil Nadu, a recognized centre of Qadiriya Sufi devotion and literary achievement (Schomburg 2003) as well as a vital trading link between Sri 212 Dennis B. McGilvray Lankan Moors and their Marakkayar Muslim cousins in Tamil Nadu (McGilvray 1998; Samarawickrema 2018). His tomb lies today within a ziya-ram shrine in Kuppiyawatte Muslim Cemetery, Colombo. Sufi Hazrat was one of two shaykhs authorized to spread to Sri Lanka the ideas of his own Sufi master – confusingly named Abdul Qadir Sufi Hyder- abadi (1854–1937 CE) – a bearded and turbaned shaykh who preached in Tamil Nadu but came from Hyderabad, Telangana, where he is buried. The first of the Hyderabadi’s two main disciples was a Sri Lankan shaykh named Ahamed Meeran Sufi Velli Alim, who returned to the east coast of Sri Lanka and attracted local followers, but who never designated a successor shaykh to perpetuate his Sufi lineage. Velli Alim’s ziya-ram in Addalachchenai is still loyally maintained, but it is a quiet place today. However, the second of the Hyderabad shaykh’s two disciples, Sufi Hazrat, had a major impact all across the island. In the period after the Second World War, he initiated a number of Sri Lankan Sufi leaders who are influential today, teaching them the popular, quasi-pantheistic, and perennially controversial doctrine of wahdat al-wuju-d (unity of being) expounded by the Andalusian Sufi theologian Ibn Arabi (1165–1240 CE) buried in Damascus. His Sufi Manzil (“Sufi Home”) movement based in Kayalpattinam established local chapters in a number of south Indian and Sri Lankan towns, including Akkaraipattu, Kalmunai, and Eravur on the east coast of the island (https://sufimanzil.org). According to oral accounts, Sufi Hazrat nominated three ka-lifa-s to carry on his Sufi mis- sion in Sri Lanka, but his authorization (ija-zat) has not produced an agreed upon hierarchy of successors. At the same time, an alternate path of Sufi initiation deriving from the Hyderabad shaykh can be traced through Kerala and Lakshadweep. This is the line that culminates with the present-day Shaykh Abdul Majeed Mak- kattar (“Makkattar Vappa”) who is based in Akkaraipattu (McGilvray 2014). Makkattar’s predecessor was Hallaj Mansoor (“Maulana Vappa” 1927–2005 CE, buried in Androth Island, Lakshadweep), who in turn was the disciple of the Androth-born Jalaludeen Tangal (1910–1968 CE, buried in Aluva, central Kerala). Jalaludeen’s own shaykh, a man from Kottar (Nagercoil) in extreme southern Tamil Nadu, had also been initiated by Abdul Qadir Sufi from Hyderabad. The Nurul Muhammadiya madrasa in Podakkudi, Thiruvarur District, Tamil Nadu, founded by Abdul Kareem in 1904 seems to be where the Hyderabad shaykh first encountered his southern disciples. Kattankudy: Sufi ground zero Having suffered a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam massacre in 1990 and the tsunami of 2004, the town of Kattankudy was thrust into the headlines yet again in 2006 when a simmering conflict between Muslim fundamentalist groups and Sufi congregations became violent (McGilvray 2011; Hasbullah and Korf 2013; Spencer et al. 2014). A premonition of this was seen in 2004  Sufis in Sri Lanka 213 when a mob destroyed the roof of a mausoleum protecting the graves of a leading Maulana (Sayyid) family (McGilvray 2008, 292–296, 349–352). The organized opposition to Sufi shaykhs and the veneration of saintly tombs comes primarily from the Tablighi Jamaat, the Jamaat-e-Islami, and a cluster of so-called Tawhid groups who view popular Sufism as idolatry (shirk) and as heretical innovation (bida-) (de Munck 1998; Nuhman 2007, 161–186; Faslan and Vanniasinkam 2015; Mihlar 2015). Two Kattankudy shaykhs in particular, Abdullah Payilvan and Rauf Maulavi, were condemned as here- tics decades earlier by the Muslim clerical association, the All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama (ACJU), but in 2006 their religious headquarters were physically besieged by mob force, destroying Payilvan’s mausoleum and causing Rauf to flee to India. To some observers at the time, this appeared to be the nadir of Sri Lankan Sufism despite the efforts of sympathetic Colombo middle-class organizations such as Hubbul Awliya (“Love of the Saints”) and Muslims across the island who loosely identify themselves as sunnattu jama-t (traditional Muslims). Since then, however, it has become clear that popular acceptance of Sufism in Sri Lanka – especially from core supporters of the charismatic Kattan- kudy shaykhs – has not waned, perhaps in part because of strong negative reactions to the excesses of the zealous fundamentalists. This revulsion was further amplified by the Easter 2019 church bombings carried out by jiha-di members of a small Kattankudy-based faction, the National Tawhid Jamat (International Crisis Group 2019). Indeed, some younger Muslims in Kal- munai nowadays openly claim to be Ahlus Sunnah wa Jama-t, a label that connotes the more Sufi-and-saint-friendly Barelvi (versus the Deobandi) identity in North India (see www.facebook.com/esfkalmunai). In Kattankudy, the seaside shrine of Abdullah Payilvan (1925–2006 CE) and his Thareekathul Mufliheen order has now been totally rebuilt and enlarged, including a minaret, a library, and two new green-cloaked sarco- phagi for Payilvan and his wife. Payilvan’s tomb is physically empty because his corpse was never recovered from the 2006 attack and the rumoured cre- mation of his remains (Handunnetti and Wamanan 2007, see www.mufliheen. org for a documented timeline of events). Throughout their trials and tribu- lations, the followers of Payilvan have successfully appealed to the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission for legal protection and redress of grievances against local authorities as well as against the ACJU. The other prominent Sufi shaykh in Kattankudy, Abdur Rauf Maulavi, was labelled an apostate (murta-d) by a fatwa of the ACJU back in 1979, a ruling that was only rescinded in 2007. Like many Sri Lankan shaykhs, Rauf was initiated into the Qadiriya order by Sufi Hazrat, the founder of Sufi Manzil and a dedicated exponent of wahdat al-wuju-d. According to accounts from several sources, the 1979 fatwa condemned Rauf for preaching pan- theistic ideas, but many people believe that local political animosities and rivalries also played a role in the controversy. A popular shaykh like Rauf can easily deliver a large block of votes for any candidate he endorses. 214 Dennis B. McGilvray Figure 13.1 Abdur Rauf Maulavi at his Kattankudy desk with a framed lithograph of the Khwa-ja Muinudeen Chishti shrine in Ajmer, Rajasthan Source: Author’s own photograph, July 2001.  Sufis in Sri Lanka 215 However, one of Rauf ’s closest allies in Kattankudy had been a Rifai shaykh from Androth Island (Lakshadweep) named Abdul Rashid Koya Tangal, last in a long line of Tangals connected by matrilineal succession (from brother to sister’s son) who travelled to Kattankudy each year starting with Farid Tangal in 1841. Rashid, who first arrived with his maternal uncle in 1947, promoted the lay performance of the Rifai ra-tib, the musical devo- tion I found so memorable in 1993. Rashid also installed a number of “poison stones” (vishakkal) in various Sri Lankan mosques that are believed to extract the venom from snakebites and to cure other bodily ailments as well. Two well-advertised “depoisoning stones” can be found today in Rauf ’s Badriya Mosque in Kattankudy. Rashid’s ancestral line of Tangal shaykhs from Androth are also said to have made numerous contributions to reli- gious life in Kattankudy for over a century, including the construction of the Mohideen takkiya- and the Madrasa al-Falah. Rashid himself initiated Rauf into the Rifai tariqa-, and it was Rashid who strongly defended Rauf against his detractors in Kattankudy. However, in the wake of periodic violence, and after fundamentalist mobs defiled Rashid’s home with excrement, he pulled up stakes and left Kattankudy, settling in the Kandyan hills in Batupitiya, near Gampola. He died in 1997 and is buried in a seaside grave in Kannur, North Malabar, Kerala. In his place, his sister’s son, Buhari Nallakoya Tangal, has begun to visit Sri Lanka, also based in Batupitiya, preserving this Rifai Sufi connection between Lakshadweep and Sri Lanka. Strengthening the Chishti franchise Looking back over my field notes since the 1970s, I spotted occasional references to a Sufi tariqa- that I did not recognize at the time: “Jisti”. Now I realize this to be the Chishtiya order, followers of Khwa-ja Muinudeen Chishti (1141–1230 CE) whose famous dargah – depicted with chromatic exuberance in popular lithographs – is located in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Makkattar Vappa, the Akkaraipattu shaykh about whom I have written a biographical profile, casually mentioned his membership in four tariqa-s – Qadiriya, Rifai, Naqsbandi, and Chishti – with primary emphasis on “Qadiri-Chishti”. Hearing no Chishti qawwali singing in Akkaraipattu, I initially assumed this to be an ornamental embellishment of his nisba and paid no heed to it at the time. Since then, I have learned that such a com- bined Qadiri-Chishti order is common in Deccan cities like Hyderabad from which a number of Sri Lankan shaykhs trace their silsilas (Scott Kugle, per- sonal communication, 2020). The famous Sufi shrine at Kondotti in North Malabar also had such a dual Qadiri-Chishti affiliation (Randathani 2007, ch. 4). When I first met Rauf Maulavi in the Kattankudy office of his All Ceylon Muslim Spiritual Movement in 1993 I noticed that the walls were covered with photos of 20th-century shaykhs and saints from Sri Lanka and south India, as well as a colour lithograph above his desk depicting the domed Chishti dargah in Ajmer Sharif (Figure 13.1.). In more recent visits to Rauf ’s 216 Dennis B. McGilvray Badriya Mosque in Kattankudy (2011, 2014, 2017) I have noticed unmis- takable signs of a heightened Chishti connection, such as a large assembly hall named in the saint’s honour, Ha-ja- Majlis Mandapam (Tamil ha-ja- from Urdu khwa-ja-, lord, as in Khwa-ja Muinudeen Chishti), and an Ajmer dome- decorated alms box beseeching “Oh my Ha-ja-, help me!” written in Tamil transliterated from Urdu. Additional evidence of a Chishti-centric turn at the Badriya Mosque comes from the prolific booklets, videos, and websites pro- duced by Rauf ’s publicity organization, Shums Media Unit (www.shumsm edia.com), whose motto is “the true voice of Sufis and Sunnat wal Jama-”). Rauf actively propagates his videos and sermons over Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Google Plus. He has even promoted a style of devotional singing in Tamil that could be compared (if only remo- tely) to genuine qawwali music. So, what might explain this increasing Chishti emphasis in Rauf ’s Sufi devotionalism? To appreciate his situation now, we must understand his difficulties in the past. For 28 years he endured a fatwa barring him as a heretic from entering mosques and from receiving Muslim blessings of any kind, and even now his opponents (whom he freely labels as “Salafis and Wahhabis”) speak against him publicly. In 2004 he was forced to flee Kattankudy because of funda- mentalist mob violence, and in 2006 he narrowly escaped assassination. It is reported that 21 bullet holes were later found in his Kattankudy office walls. Seeking safety beyond Colombo, Rauf fled to Ajmer Sharif in India, where he had first visited as a tourist in the 1980s. Rauf had already begun to celebrate the Chishti festival in Kattankudy in 1988, and in 2006 he found refuge with members of a Chishti saintly family in Ajmer who sheltered him for a year. As a gesture of gratitude, Rauf now invites delegates from this family to preside at the Chishti kandoori in Kattankudy each year. Recently, Rauf ’s nephew (his sister’s son) has returned from North India, where he was sent to study Urdu and Sufi literature. In the years following the anti-Sufi violence in 2006, it has become clear that the two controversial Kattankudy shaykhs, Payilvan and Rauf, have each retained a staunch core of loyal and affluent supporters willing to fund the extensive repair, reconstruction, and expansion of their mosques and tombs. In fact, all three of the east coast shaykhs I am familiar with in Sri Lanka, including Makkattar Vappa, have embarked upon the construction of major shrines or mosques intended ultimately to house their mortal remains. Such architectural planning for post-mortem Sufi sainthood seems fairly common: I have visited houses in Galle Fort and in Kalmunai where future saintly graves were already measured and marked-out inside the Sufi leader’s home! In the case of Rauf, his main project has been the replacement of his father’s original Badriya Mosque with a huge new three-storey con- crete and steel structure that, when completed, will feature an elevator and domes towering above all other buildings in Kattankudy. Also preserved within the new building is the tomb of Rauf ’s father Abdul Java-d (1908–1978 CE) and the miraculous “depoisoning stones” installed by Abdul Rashid  Sufis in Sri Lanka 217 Tangal. The entire enterprise is administered by a legally incorporated entity, the Alhaj Abdul Jawaadh Alim Waliyyullah Trust (ajawt.blogspot.com), which also supports philanthropic programmes for women and children through the Gareeb Nawaaz Foundation (another epithet of the Chishti saint), the al-Rabbaniyyah children’s madrasa, and a cluster of small neighbourhood Islamic schools in town. Conclusion Many Sri Lankan Muslims would be aware of Khwa-ja Muinudeen Chishti and the world-famous dargah of Ajmer Sharif. However, to my knowledge, Rauf Maulavi is the only Sri Lankan shaykh who has so tangibly intensified his Chishti connections and devotional celebrations in recent years. The annual festival cycle at the Badriya Mosque still commemorates familiar saints such as Abdul Qadir Jilani, Ahmed Rifai, and Shahul Hamid of Nagoor, as well as the popular Tangal from Androth, Abdul Rashid. The Chishti festival, however, has now become an especially extravagant event, with elaborate lighting displays and distribution of food to thousands of attendees. At the 2017 festival there was an electrified silhouette of a jet airplane mounted on the face of the Badriya Mosque that drew widespread curiosity and comment. Regardless of what it means spiritually to Rauf’s own followers, his con- spicuous celebrations and lavish devotional feasts for the Chishti saint send a clear message to Sri Lanka’s Muslim public at large that he is solidly connected to one of the wealthiest and best-known Sufi dargahs in India, and to a Sufi order whose qawwali musicians perform in global concerts and are even depic- ted in Bollywood films (see for example, Jodhaa Akbar, 2008). Given the endless attacks from his Tawhid and Salafi foes, it seems possible that Rauf’s enhanced Chishti connection could strengthen his religious credibility and prestige, thus rendering him some additional protection. This interpretation takes up a line of reasoning in the work of Nile Green (2011, 2012) who views the spread and divergence of Sufi orders from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Green’s market metaphor suggests that Rauf may have strengthened his local Sri Lankan Chishti “franchise” by enhancing his credibility and stature as the authorized agent of an internationally powerful and respected North Indian Sufi “brand”. Faced with stubborn opposition from Kattankudy’s entrenched anti-Sufi refor- mist groups, Rauf, who is now in his seventies, may be building a stronger Chishti franchise to safeguard his followers, and to secure his own saintly repu- tation, well into the future. Whether this presages a movement among other Sri Lankan shaykhs to pursue closer affiliations with other major South Asian Sufi saints and shrines remains to be seen. 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