Paper short abstract:

Barelwi belief must be embodied, enacted and put forth in the form of explicit performance in everyday life. This practice draws on the aesthetics underlying Barelwiyat in order to express itself and in the process, reifies these aesthetics as Barelwi practice itself.

Paper long abstract:

Saints, shrines and the rituals associated therewith are an integral part of Muslim consciousness in the Indian subcontinent. The Barelwi school of thought offers a defence for these devotional practices and its proponents argue that instead of being heretical 'innovations', these are unimpeachably Islamic. Belief in the intercessory power of saints and extreme devotion to Prophet Mohammad renders Barelwis distinctive from other schools of thought. This paper seeks to explore the rituals that are integral to Barelwi thought - niyaz, fateha, urs, milad and Juloos e Mohammadi and situate these in the context of the aesthetic that informs them. In the explicit performance of these practices they partake of the overarching Barelwi aesthetic, an understanding of which is shared by all the practitioners of the faith. The Barelwi aesthetic is rooted in the distinctive tradition revived by Ahmad Raza Khan, an Islamic scholar in nineteenth century India. The emphasis on personal devotion to the Prophet and the importance of a spiritual preceptor results in the particular form that Barelwi practice takes. Understanding the myriad ways in which one lives Barelwiyat in the everyday makes evident the underlying structure of aesthetics in terms of which one acts. This aesthetic not just makes available the means through which belief can be embodied and enacted, but also allows one to judge one's own or others' acts as being in accordance with or in opposition to it. In so doing, the underlying aesthetic sometimes gets reified as practice in its own right.