An interesting look at the Qalandariyya and some other fringe Sufi groups within medieval and early modern Islam. We are talking "crazy saints" or "holy fools" of a kind that seem to exist within (almost) all religions. Compare the pagan Cynic philosophers, the Eastern Orthodox fools in Christ, the Pashupatas and other antinomian Shaiva sects within Hinduism, and certain siddhas within Buddhism. Among others?
The Qalandariyya and similar groups deliberately broke social and religious conventions to provoke hostility and ostracism. It´s really a form of ascesis. They didn´t follow sharia, since they were "dead to the world", but they were also indifferent to heavenly rewards, instead preferring a kind of mystical unity with God in the here and now (compare certain "pantheist" forms of Hinduism and Buddhism). Since all of the world is imbued with God´s presence, why insist on leaving it?
While the origins of this kind of Sufism were apparently Persian, I don´t think it´s a co-incidence that it became so strong in India. However, it also existed in the Middle East. We are clearly dealing with a specific spiritual personality type, otherwise the phenomenon wouldn´t be global.
Which of course raises the question: where are the antinomians today?
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