Singing the Praise of the Prophet: Muhammad and the Sufi Cosmology in Punjabi Sufi Poetry

Abstract The Prophet Muhammad not only holds a pivotal position in Muslim religious consciousness, he commands a unique status in Sufi thought, practice and ritual. Much of Sufi literature including poetry glorifies and pays rich tributes to him. The Punjabi literary Sufi production since the seventeenth-century highlights his singular and distinctive place in cosmology, elaborating upon the esoteric doctrine of al-ḥaqīqa al-Muḥammadiyya , or the Muhammadan Reality, which deals with the primordial existence of his Nūr or Light. The Punjabi Sufi poetry affirms that the Prophet Muhammad is the raison d’être or ultimate goal of God’s creation of the entire universe, which is often referred to as the lawlāk (“if it were not for you”) tradition. It also elucidates the mystery of mystical identification of Aḥmad (one of the names of the Prophet) with Aḥad (the One; a Divine attribute), and in this context, the mystical significance of the Arabic/Punjabi letter mīm , which is the initial of the Prophet’s name, Muhammad, as well as a differentiating alphabet between Aḥmad and Aḥad, thus affirming the Divine essence of the Prophet. On the basis of empirical evidence presented in the study, one may argue that the poetry under study was ‘Sufi’ in character, and their composers were undoubtedly ‘Sufi,’ as they were well conversant with complex Sufi cosmological doctrines. Elaboration of the doctrine of Muhammadan Reality in Punjabi Sufi poetry not only establishes its ‘Sufi’ character, but also provides an ‘Islamic/Muslim context’ to it, which has been deemphasized, if not altogether denied, by some scholars.