Previous Year Question
With reference to the religious history of medieval India, the Sufi mystics were known to pursue which of the following practices?
Meditation and control of breath
Severe ascetic exercises in a lonely place
Recitation of holy songs to arouse a state of ecstasy in their audience
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
Correct Answer: D
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is correct. Sufi spiritual discipline included meditation, remembrance of God and control of breath. NCERT explicitly lists zikr, contemplation, sama, dance and breath control among Sufi methods of spiritual training. There is also evidence from the Indian Chishti tradition—Nizamuddin Auliya adopted yogic breathing exercises through interactions with yogis, and some yogis consequently referred to him as a sidh or perfected one.
Statement 2 is correct. Solitary retreat and severe ascetic discipline were also practised in Sufism. Such retreat was commonly called khalwa/chilla. During a chilla, a seeker traditionally spent about forty days in seclusion, practising fasting, prayer, meditation and rigorous spiritual discipline. Evidence for this tradition also survives in Indian Chishti practice; the Chillah associated with Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi provides an archaeological example of such a place of solitary devotion.
Statement 3 is also correct. Among Sufis, particularly the Chishtis, Sama—the hearing of devotional music and sacred poetry—was an important spiritual practice. Its purpose was to evoke an intense spiritual state or wajd, a state of ecstasy or spiritual exaltation. This is not known merely from later textbooks: Amir Hasan Sijzi's Fawaid al-Fuad, recording the discourses of Nizamuddin Auliya, contains detailed discussions of Sama, its listeners and the spiritual states it could produce.
Thus, Sufi practice included meditation and breath control + solitary ascetic discipline + Sama for spiritual ecstasy.