The Muslim Hijdas

Hijras and Islam in India and Pakistan:
Although, like everyone who is “different”, hijras have to face certain prejudices in India and Pakistan, they are still an important part of local spiritual folk culture. It is quite common that they show up at weddings or birth ceremonies to perform ritual songs; in the past noble families usually invited them, some still might do so as a general requirement for a “proper and traditional ceremony” nowadays. In North India and in Pakistan hindus and muslims alike believe in the powers of hijras to bless or curse others. To hindus and hindu hijras this is connected to the worship of Bahuchara Mata. Hindus believe that the powers of this feminine aspect of the divine flows in an almost shamanic way through the “eunuchs”. In Pakistan and in traditional Indian muslim families the mukhannath´ power to curse is called “bad du`a”. This implies the faith that every supplicational prayer (”du`a”) done by a faithful hijra will be fulfilled because she is specially blessed as a compensation for the fact that she is denied to have children and a “normal” family life as a born woman . This idea goes back to old ideas in Judaeo-Christian-Muslim tradition. According to the Jewish scriptures God revealed to prophet Isaiah (peace be upon him) (56: 4-5): “For thus says the Lord: to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”
Similar ideas connected to transgenders and intersexuals are found in many muslim societies (see also my article about the “bissu” in Indonesian Bugis society)!
Even Pakistanis and Indians who in other circumstances would make fun of the mukhannathun believe in these special powers and may at their performances at family festivals give a lot of money to them to turn away their curse. These performances of blessing songs belonged to the traditional occupation of the hijras and it is still the main occupation for many of them.
The connection between music and spirituality in hijra culture and the idea that hijras may perform a blessing “du`a” for others place them, from a muslim point of view, near to the sufi and dervish orders of muslim mysticism who likewise are consulted to perform “du`a” for ordinary believers and who connect themselves to God through music and dance. In fact, there are many connections between hijra culture and Sufism. In India and Pakistan the muslim shrines at the graves of Sufi saints are usually the places where hijras use to frequent and to hijras the “urs” festivals, celebrating the “returning home” of prominent muslim saints, are also an occasion to hold meetings between mukhannathun from different parts of India. Especially the “urs” of Khwaja Chishti in Ajmer is known to be a festival which is attended by hundreds of hijras from India an Pakistan.
Indian history also knows several persons revered under a male name as sufi saints (court mukhannathun obviously had to carry an official male name and title, although hijras usually refer to each other with female names) but who were at the same time members of the hijra community. Among them was a sufi and poet called Yatim Shah, a saint called Khalij Khan and a dervish called Musa Shah-i Suhag.
Musa Shah-i Suhag is especially revered by a special order of muslim mystics, the Suhrawardiyya-Suhagiyya, whose “male born” members all live the lifes of hijras and see themselves as “brides of God”.
There have also been reported several members of the Malangiyya dervish order in Pakistan who were mukhannathun. Sometimes Pakistani hijras in general relate themselves to the dervish orders, claiming a shared view on life and sexuality (though this is surely not true for all hijras).
Transgenders and Intersexuals on the Indian Subcontinent have a deep and inner connection to the sufi orders and the muslim saints. Certain medieval muslim missionaries in India are claimed to have been “especially kind towards hijras” and the hijras reply to this with affectionate love up to this day. This is one of the many reasons why the khusras can be found easily at muslim shrines!
Older and experienced hijras are usually expected to be earnest followers of Islam (at least in Pakistan). Many hijras from both India and Pakistan perform the Hajj, the obligatory pilgrimage to Makkah – having saved a lot of money only for this occasion – and those who did so are treated with a special respect in the community. In medieval times mukhannathun were sometimes employed to teach the recitation of the Holy Qur`an to young princes and princesses and even today some hijras are found who teach “Qira`at” (as it is called in Arabic).
Tensions between hijra culture and Islam only arose during colonial times and in the beginning of the 20th century, when prominent muslim leaders had started to incorporate British – Western ideas of morality and gender and the Wahhabi-Salafi version of a “modernized Islam” (strongly anti-sufi, of course) was accepted by a large part of the educated muslims.

defining the hijra community

The enigmatic hijras, the male to female transgenders and intersexuals of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – few is known about them in the west, most of it consists of prejudices and wrong images. “Westerners” who deal with the hijras, for whatever purpose, often tend to overstate their relationship to Hinduism and hindu – culture. This is in no way strange, since in “the West” Hinduism tends to be identified with “tolerance, patience, non-violence” while Islam is connected with “terrorism, fanatism etc.”. So, it is easily understandable that Europeans and Americans automatically relate the issue of gender diversity to Hinduism and not to Islam.
In fact, the hijra community is as much rooted in Indo – Pakistani Islam as it is in Hinduism; many hijras, if not most, are muslim – not only in muslim Pakistan and Bangladesh but also in hindu-secular India – and their old connection to the dynasties of muslim rule in India are an issue of pride to all of them, including the hindus.
Hijra is only the most frequently used term to describe them. It is derived from Urdu, the poetical language of the Indian Subcontinent`s islamic culture. Another widely used word for them is “khusra” which is from the Punjabi language (NorthWest India, NorthEast Pakistan). The Arab – Muslim term “mukhannath/muhannas” is also used in certain contexts and many hijras prefer that term. In English literature the word “eunuch” is most often employed to refer to them. This is correct as long as you relate it to the medieval muslim understanding of an eunuch (who was usually a mukhannath), but still it might conjure wrong pictures of “castrated men” in the minds of westerners.
The hijras are a remarkable community. Some hijras claim that “their society was once known from India to Spain”, which was the expansion of the medieval muslim empire, and older hijras who did the Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah) sometimes hint to a close connection between their society and the ancient society of “eunuchs” that guarded the grave of noble Prophet Muhammad (s.a.s.) and the sacred mosque in Makkah.
In that way one might assume that today`s muslim hijra communities are the only intact survivors of medieval muslim “mukhannath” society , while at the same time having local connections to ancient hindu traditions.
On these pages I will explain some features of “hijra – culture” and their relationship to Indo- Pakistani Islam. Hopefully I might also disspell some prejudices and wrong myths.
May God bless the hijra community in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, may he guard the hijras and may he guard their precious heritage!

 

article sourced from
http://www.geocities.com/leylasuhagi/hijraislam.html