1088 Fulton St.,
San Francisco 17
January 30, 1963
Donald N. Wilber,
140 Quaker Road,
Princeton, New Jersey
Dear Dr. Wilber:
I am very happy over your letter of the 26th. Although a Sufi I have not always been outwardly peaceful. One struggle I have been all over was the aftermath of a fracas between Professor Frye and Professor Northrup. I regard Prof. Northrup as a fine physicist and fairly good logician—who does not carry his own logic into his words on Asian subjects.
I have since met students of Prof. Frye and our relations have been cordial and wonderful. I am pleased to learn he is a member of a Sufi order, and following my instructions will write to him. I have always regarded him as the exemplary of an American professor in Asiatic.
Without going into details on “international relations.” It was only after long and bitter efforts that the Foreign Service saw that all I was trying to do was to get them to see that there are existing Sufi Orders. I had to wade through a horrible pre-view and then see the Egyptian mob attack our Embassy in Cairo. And in Pakistan it as only after delivering an ultimatum when I unwittingly stepped into a communist nest that they would assent to their being Dervish orders. Yet thousands of members of these orders are within short walking distance of our Lahore legation.
I have written to Dr. Burke, USIA director in Lahore. He comes from Princeton and if you not know each other, I hope you will make a direct contact.
You are a braver man than I in some respects. Calling on Dr. Bryan at Karachi I said: “I have written a paper on “Maize growing” in Hazra Distinct. I know it will be published if it has not been all ready. But I did not write, I did not dare to write on the ethnography, folklore, and local religion because I know a priori it would be rejected. To which Dr. Bryan add: “I agree with you.” I am hoping we can get out of certain cloud-patterns.
I have lived with and also near one S. Abdul Ghani, a high official of Pathan lineage. He also hosted Mr. Sulbberger, Justice Douglas and Arnold Toynbee. The professions of man often determine the pattern of their reception of letters. Despite the fact that he made some serious mistakes, the editor would not correct them. Justice Douglas answered. A for Arnold Toynbee our travels and reactions in many cases would simply be the sending of a fan-letter on my part. Editors live in their “implication” universe and facts are supplementary. Many Sufis and holy men used to meet at Ghani’s residences.
The Jilanis (or Ghailanis) are the most famous of all Sufi families. The titular head who is always the oldest son by continuous primogeniture is Abdul Kadari Jilani and has for a long time been Ambassador from Iraq to Pakistan. I met a cousin who was secretary to the first Iraqi Embassy in Washington. Another member of the family was a professor in Cleveland (several colleges) when I was there in 1960. Another operates a big agricultural machinery distributing plant in Karachi.
Jilanis have taken the lead in “Basic Democracy” work. They are in all professions and are part of the “aristocracy” in Pakistan. I once had the privilege of addressing twenty thousand (yes, 20,000) persons, disciples in Dervish Orders in the Cantonment Section of Lahore in the subject of “Ghaus-i-Azam,” that is, the original Grand Sheikh Abdul Karai Jilani. I have long since been a member of this order as well as others and am on excellent terms with several of the Murshids.
The Pir of Dewwal Shereef has made some astounding claims concerning himself, which can only be understood by knowing something of basic Sufism. He is also the Spiritual Guide of President Ayub. He has conceived the idea of a university in which Urdu rather than English be used as the basis of instruction excepting in courses concerned with English literature, history, etc.
The University is to be both modern and practical. No one will be given a bachelor’s degree without passing in one technical course; for a doctorate two technical courses; for a PhD, three technical courses. He realizes that Pakistan needs skilled workers more than anything else.
The funds for the Universal are being raised by his disciples, who are very numerous, and some of them fairly opulent. The University will, in addition to technological courses now either separate in Pakistan, or non-existent, have studies in general semantics, parapsychology, metaphysics, etc. But the mystical studies will remain, not for credit. The Board of Directors and Trustees are all disciples in tasawwuf. One of the best known is Dr. A.A. Siddiqui, Prof. of Islamic Philosophy at Punjabi University, a very good friend of mine indeed.
I do not wish to infer that all dervishes are reconciled to modern education. It seems every Muslim relegates to himself the right to abrogate any saying of Mohammed he wishes to. Education was strongly stressed by the Prophet.
Nor should any statement of mine infer that there are not false teachers and charlatans. Only masses are not always such fools as we suppose. I find people in California more gullible than those elsewhere, the city of New York possible excepted.
I am waiting for information concerning the coming to this country of one or more representatives of the University of Islamabad.