Zikrism (also Zikriyya)[1][2] is a MahdistShia minority Muslim group or sect found primarily in the Balochistan region of western Pakistan. The name Zikri comes from the Arabic word Dhikr.[3]
Like Shia and Sunni Muslims, Zikri revere the Quran. However, they follow different prayer practices and believe the Mahdi (the messiah figure and Final Leader in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice) has already come.
They already suffered sectarian attacks before the founding of Pakistan and more recent attacks and insecurity episodes have led some of them to migrate from Balochistan to Pakistan's cities.[4][5]
Their population is estimated to be somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000 individuals.[6]
Origins and beliefs
The Zikri faith developed in Makran in the late 16th-century.[2]
Zikris believe in a Mahdi figure known as Nur Pak, or "Pure Light." Zikris believe Nur Pak walked the earth before Adam and will return at the end of days to restore true Islam which has been perverted by the Sunnis.[7] According to Stephen Blake, an Afghan named Mulla Muhammad declared himself Mahdi and formed the Zikri movement which faced persecution from the Mughal authorities.[8] By the 18th-century, Zikrism virtually achieved the status of state religion in Southern Balochistan.[9]
A number of sources talk about how Sayyid Muhammad Jaunpuri is believed to be or thought to be by some, the founder of Zikrism.[note 1] According to at least two scholars (Robert Benkin and Sabir Badalkhan), this cannot be true. Benkin writes that outside observers have claimed the Mahdi figure of the Balochi Zikris was Muhammad Jaunpuri, but Balochi Zikris deny that Muhammad Jaunpuri visited Balochistan and insist their Mahdi is a different figure from a later period. Zikris believe Nur Pak was born in 977 AH, or between 1569 and 1570 AD.[15][16]
According to Sabir Badalkhan, the vast majority of Zikris, including their most influential leaders, reject the notion their Mahdi was Muhammad Jaunpuri, pointing to the different birth dates and deaths of Jaunpuri and their Mahdi, and that all Zikri sources record the Zikri Mahdi having died in Kech.[17] They state their ancestors have never heard of Jaunpuri, and that there are no relations between Zikri and Mahdavi communities, and that their beliefs and practices are distinct.[2]
Practices
Zikris make a pilgrimage (Ziyarat) to Koh-e-Murad, "Mountain of Desire" in Balochi, on the 27th of Ramadan in commemoration of their Mahdi. They observe this day as a sacred holiday.[3][15] The descendants of the original believers of the Mahdi continue to lead the Zikri community and are known as Murshids. Zikris refer to them as Waja as a form of respect.[3] Early that morning, Zikris observe Shab-e-Qadr, the commemoration of Muhammad receiving his first revelation from the Angel Gabriel.[3]
Zikris observe daily prayers called Zikr in place of Salah, the daily prayers of other Muslims. There are five daily Zikrs. Three prayers are obligatory and performed in group orally. Two are silent and generally performed only by older and more devout Zikris. Women perform only the spoken Zikrs.[2] The five prayer are known as Gwarbamay, Nemrochay, Rochzarday, Sarshapay, and Nemhangamay.[2]Rochzarday and Nemhangamay may be performed individually, with all others being said in a group.[2]
Zikri places of worship are called Zikr Khanas or Zigrāna (lit. "House of Zikr"). Zikris gather at three times a day at Zikr Khanas and perform a special prayer in a square formation with the leader in the middle. This prayer consists of formulae in Persian and Balochi, Quranic verses, and the repetition of God's name while standing, sitting, and prostrating. Zikri worshippers wear white or light-colored clothing, wash before participating, and cover their head with a scarf or handkerchief called a rumal. Non-Zikris are forbidden to attend Zikri worship services at the Zikr Khana. Zikr Khanas were often built on Astanas, places deemed holy by the Zikri community. This could be a place a Murshid meditated or the former home of a community leader.[3] Unlike Mosques, Zikr Khanas have no Mihrab (there is no need to mark the direction of prayer because God is everywhere), nor Minarets.[18]
Contrary to some popular beliefs, Zikri do not have a different holy book than the Quran or in addition to the Quran. According to Sabir Badalkhan, they keep copies of the Quran ("printed by Sunni Muslim printing presses in major Pakistan cities") in Zikr Khanas on shelves or in niches, "usually wrapped in clean costly cloth" and are treated with customary reverence, being kissed by Zikris after recitation of a verse.[2]
On special occasions, Zikris observe Chaugan, songs of praise for Muhammad, the Mahdi, Turbat and Koh-i-Murad, accompanied by ritual dance-like movements. Members stay up all night performing devotions. A female reciter known as the Shehr stands in the middle of the formation reciting devotions to which the male group calls back.[3][2]
Chaugans are sung in celebration of religious events such as the 27th of Ramadan, Shab-i-Barat (the 15th day of Sha'ban), and Eid al-Adha. Zikris believe the fourteenth day of the lunar month, if it falls on a Friday, to be auspicious, and may perform the Chaugan then.[2]
Persecution
Zikris have faced persecution from other Muslims for their beliefs.
Zikris faced persecution in the eighteenth century under the rule of Mir Nasir Khan the Great, the Sunni Muslim ruler of the Khanate of Kalat.[19] Their religious and historical records were destroyed and surviving information was carried on by oral tradition and non-Zikri writings.[4] Nasir Khan waged a war to convert Zikris to Sunni Islam, killing 35,000 Zikris, in a period known as the Zikri-Namazi war.[13] Sunni Islam became the dominant religion in Balochistan with modern Zikris living in more remote areas.[9]
In the 1930s, in Iranian Makran, an extremist called Qazi Abdullah Sarbazi declared jihad against Zikris, "which resulted in a major massacre" and the driving out of Zikri from that area.[20] Also in that era, "hundreds of other Zikris were killed" in periodic pogroms by "fanatic Sunnis at the instigation" of their religious leaders "in the areas of Farod, Baftan and Kishkaur (in Balochistan), according to Abdul Ghani Baloch.[21]
After the establishment of Pakistan, Sunni Muslims attacked Zikris and subjected them to forced conversions. With the general rise of Islamic extremism and jihadism in the region since the 1980s, Zikris have been discriminated against, targeted, and killed by Sunni militants in Pakistan.[22][23][24] Under the military government of Zia-al-Haqq, Sunnis sought to have Zikris declared as non-Muslims.[19] In the 1990s, Zikris were harassed, and protestors called for the destruction of their shrines.[25]
The persecution of Zikris by Sunni militants as of 2014 has been part of the larger backlash against religious minorities in Pakistani Balochistan, targeting Hindus, Hazaras, Shias, and Zikris, resulting in the migration of over 300,000 Shias, Zikris, and Hindus from Pakistani Balochistan.[19] The militant groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Pakistani Taliban were responsible.[23][24]
During the 1990s, there was a movement among Sunnis to declare Zikris non-Muslim, and a campaign was mounted against their annual congregation at Koh-i-Murad in Malakand. This was accompanied by demonstrations calling for the destruction of the Zikri Baitullah (House of God), and members of the sect were subjected to violence and harassment.[26][27][28][29]
An attack occurred August 29, 2014, on a shrine in the Awaran district of Pakistan. Gunmen killed at least six Zikris and wounded seven others.[30] On October 7, 2016, a gunman shot a Zikri religious leader dead in the Kech district of Balochistan.[31] In August 2017, two Zikri pilgrims were killed and two were wounded when a bomb detonated in the Kamp Tal area of Pangjur, Balochistan.[32]
Zikris live primarily in Pakistani Balochistan, concentrated in the southern coast of Makran, the Lasbela District, and Quetta.[2] They are a majority in the Gwadar District of Makran in Balochistan.[15][33] There are sizable communities of Zikris in Pakistan's Sindh province and Karachi,[2] especially in the economically disadvantaged Lyari Town.[citation needed] While Zikris also historically lived in the province of Iranian Balochistan, almost all of them left for Pakistani Balochistan in the last decades of the 20th-century.[1] Some Zikris have migrated from Pakistan to the peninsula of the Arabian Gulf where most live in the Sultanate of Oman.[34]
Persecution has driven hundreds of Zikri and other minorities from Balochistan to safer cities in Pakistan like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.[5]
Pakistani Balochistan has a population of people of African descent from slavery.[35] In the Makran region, many of these Afro-Balochi's follow the Zikri sect.[36]
"The founder of the Zikrism is believed to be Seyyed Mohammad Jawanpuri, who in the 15th century declared himself the last Mahdi. He started to preach his doctrine in Makran, around the Koh-i Morad, after several pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina and wanderings in Turkey and Syria...";[10]
"Various theses have been put forward concerning the identity of the Mahdi of the Zikris. URRAZAI describes four major opinions" [one of which is] ... the hypothesis that he [Sayyid Muhammad Jaunpuri who founded the ... Mahdavia sect] is the Mahdi is the one that has been advocated by many non-local writers (and a few Zikri writers)."[11]
"Some people believe that they are the followers of Syed Mohammad Jaunpuri, but others disagree and say that they believe in Prophet Mohammad as the last prophet and Holy Quran as the last divine book."[12]
"According to historian and writer Dr. Shah Mohammad Marri based in Quetta, Zikris can be called ‘pure’ as they are not a mix of any other race. Belonging to the Mehdvi sect, founded in the 15th century by Syed Mohammad Jaunpuri, the Zikris were initially Zartosht (Zoroastrian), then converted and became Sunnis and later started Zikr, journalist Ayaz Sangur explained."[13]
"As a bounded community, the Zikris' origin seems to be linked to a historical moment in 1496 when one Syed Muhammad Jaupuri (d. 1505) declared himself as the Mahdi, or messianic redeemer of Islam."[14]
^See Badalkhan, "Zikri Dilemmas" (2008), page 299, note 299: Cf. the manuscripts Sayl-iˇ iah¯ an¯ı and Angab¯ın 1725; UMRANI BALOCH 1986:103; HOSHANG 1991:26; DURRAZAI 2003:18; 2005:6. The author of Itti˙h¯ ad-i nawˇi aw¯ an¯ an-i Zikr¯ı II:4 quotes several sources, some of them poems composed by the companions of the Mahdi and some poems composed by thesecond generation of his followers. All give 977/1569 as the birth date of the Mahdi. Among them is a poem composed by a companion of the Mahdi, Mir Abdullah Jangi, which records his travels, and the manuscripts Durr-i wuˇ i¯ ud (completed in 1107/1696) by Shaikh Mohammad Durfishan, grandson of Mir Abdullah Jangi; also Durr-i ˙sadaf (completed in 1182/1769) by Qazi Brahem Kashani, and several others. I have consulted http://www.islamsa.org.za/calendar/converter.htm to convert Hijri dates to Gregorian.
^Zand Moqaddam 1991: Hekayat-e Baluc I. Tehran: Karun 1370 h.s. quoted in Badalkhan, "Zikri Dilemmas" (2008), pp. 294-5.
^Quote is from Badalkhan, "Zikri Dilemmas" 2008, pp. 294-5. Source of his description is Abdul Ghani Baloch (Abdul Gani Baloc) Zikri Firqa ki Tarikh, Karachi 1996.
^UNHCR. May 1998. Background Paper on Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Pakistan. 22
^Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), United Nations. 2 January 1996. Implementation Of The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief: Report submitted by Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/23. Addendum. Visit by the Special Rapporteur to Pakistan. [Accessed 6 Dec. 1999], #46.
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