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Introduction: Spiritual Kinship and Globalization
Spiritual kinship has been-and continues to be-the central pillar of Indian Sufism. Cast in the mold of what Michael Frishkopf collectively terms "guidance relations" between sheikh (spiritual preceptor) and murid (disciple), this kinship also comprises affiliation with the sheikh's lineage and with the beneficence of its ancestral saints and ultimately the Prophet himself. A Sufi's spiritual lineage offers support, connections, and access to inherited assets that are spiritual but can also be social, as is expressed for instance in the form of lineage-derived family names like "Chishti". Perhaps most importantly today, Sufi spiritual kinship has long served to create and maintain living ties that extend across territorial and temporal distances. The question is whether it can become an anchor in the uncharted ocean of today's global discontinuities. To create a horizon of change that encompasses recent Sufi expansions from India into West Asian as well as Western environments, this paper contrasts two Sufi groups, representing 20th century transformations of Chishti Sufi practice in Pakistan and Canada. I focus on the role of spiritual kinship in each environment from a religious perspective and in the context of Muslim transnationality, while also pointing to issues of political economy.
Both these Sufi groups are branches of the Chishtiyya tariqa (order), the most widespread Sufi lineage in India. Both were founded within South Asian immigrant communities: one in Karachi, Pakistan after the 1947 Partition of Colonial India, the other in Toronto, Canada after the 1967 liberalization of Canadian immigration laws. Baba Zahin Shah in Karachi and Mirza Qadeer Baig in Toronto built their spiritual guidance relations on a foundation of established Sufi norms, invoking links to specific Chishti founder saints, and established a circle of disciples as well as ritual practices. They each adapted to a new environment, but the challenges they faced led them in different directions. Exploring the how and why of these differences is the goal of this paper. But appropriate assessment of how each spiritual leader responded to his particular social and religious environment needs to be seen against a spiritual practice that is profoundly meaningful and permeated with rich cultural expression.
Globalization is by definition a worldwide process. But it is far from being a uniformly global experience, especially...