Which Sufi order in India accepted state patronage, land grants and official positions?
- A.Chishti
- B.Suhrawardi
- C.Firdausi
- D.Naqshbandi
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Suhrawardi order. Established in India at Multan by Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya, it held that a mystic could accept land, wealth and office from the state and still lead a spiritual life, and its shaikhs worked closely with the Sultans of Delhi. Option A, the Chishti order, took the opposite view: its masters refused state grants, lived on futuh or unasked offerings, kept their hospices open to all and deliberately stayed away from court, which is one reason the order became the most popular in India. Option C, the Firdausi order, was a smaller branch that flourished mainly in Bihar under Shaikh Sharafuddin Yahya Maneri. Option D, the Naqshbandi order, arrived later, in the Mughal period, and is associated with Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi and with opposition to practices it considered un-Islamic, including sama.
Read the full article: Bhakti and Sufi Movements: Saints, Orders and Ideas
Practice Questions
View allIn the context of Sufi tradition, the term 'khanqah' stood for:
- A.the Hell
- B.a graveyard
- C.a hospice
- D.the Heaven
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A khanqah was the hospice or lodge where a Sufi master lived with his disciples, taught, held assemblies of devotional music and fed whoever came to the door, whatever their faith or caste.
Read the full explanation →Which Sufi saint was called 'Mahbub-i-Ilahi'?
- A.Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
- B.Baba Farid
- C.Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki
- D.Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya
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Mahbub-i-Ilahi means the beloved of God, and it is the title by which this Chishti master of Delhi has been known for seven centuries.
Read the full explanation →Amir Khosrow was a royal poet and a disciple of which of the following Sufi saints?
- A.Fariduddin Ganjshakar
- B.Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya
- C.Shaikh Salim Chisti
- D.Muhammad Maharavi
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Amir Khusrau served as a poet at the courts of several Delhi Sultans, but his spiritual allegiance was to Nizamuddin Auliya, and he was buried beside his master.
Read the full explanation →Which Sikh Guru gave the idea of the Gurmukhi script?
- A.Guru Angad Dev
- B.Guru Amar Das
- C.Guru Ram Das
- D.Guru Nanak Dev
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The second Guru standardised and popularised Gurmukhi, the script in which the hymns of the Gurus were written down, and this made it possible to preserve the teaching of the movement in the language its followers actually spoke.
Read the full explanation →The Alvar saints of the Tamil country were devotees of which deity?
- A.Shiva
- B.Vishnu
- C.Surya
- D.Shakti
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The Alvars were the twelve Vaishnava saint-poets of the Tamil country, active roughly between the sixth and the ninth centuries, whose hymns were later gathered as the Divya Prabandham and sung in temples.
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