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{{Short description|Indian Muslim saint (1560–1650)}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox Muslim leader
|name= Sheikh Muhammad
|image= Sheikh Muhammad.jpg
|caption =
|religion = [[Islam]]
|birth_date= 1560
|birth_place= [[Shrigonda]]
|birth_name=
|death_date = {{death year and age|1650|1560}}
|death_place=
|philosophy = [[Advaita Vedanta]]
|guru = Changa Bodhale
|honors= ''Sant'' (saint) in Marathi
|literary_works = ''Yoga-samgrama'', [[Abhanga]] devotional poetry
|footnotes=
}}

'''Sheikh Muhammad''' (1560–1650), also known as '''Shekh Mahammad (Mohammad)''', '''Sayyad Shaikh Mahammad Qadiri''', '''Shaikh Muhammad Shrigondekar''' (lit. '''Sheikh Muhammad of Shrigonde'''), and '''Sheikh (Shekh) Mahammad-baba''', was a [[Muslim]] saint-poet who is also venerated in the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] [[Varkari]] tradition. He is the most well-known [[Marathi Muslims|Marathi Muslim]] poet.<ref name="Tulpule1979">{{cite book|author=Shankar Gopal Tulpule|title=A History of Indian Literature: Modern Indo-Aryan literatures. Classical Marathi literature : from the beginning to A.D. 1818|year=1979|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-02047-3|pages=377–378}}</ref> He is the author of the ''Yoga-samgrama'' (''Yoga-sangrama'').

== Background ==
Sheikh Muhammad was born and lived his life in [[Shrigonda]] (Shrigonde), [[Maharashtra]], India. He was the son of Raje Muhammad, a [[Qadiriyya]] (Kadri, Qadiri) [[Sufi]]. His guru was the Hindu [[Vaishnava]] (sect worshipping the Hindu god [[Vishnu]]) saint Changa Bodhale, who was also the guru of [[Janardan Swami]], the guru of the saint-poet [[Eknath]] (1533–1599). Changa Bodhale, known as Said Changasaheb Kadri in Sufi traditions, is considered an [[avatar]] of the Hindu god [[Dattatreya]] and was a disciple of Sheikh Muhammad's father.<ref name="Rigopoulos1985">{{cite book|author=Antonio Rigopoulos|title=Dattatreya: The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatara: A Study of the Transformative and Inclusive Character of a Multi-faceted Hindu Deity|year=1985|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-1733-2|pages=137, 157}}</ref><ref name="SontheimerKulke2001" />

== Works and teachings ==
[[File:Syayambhuvithoba.jpg|thumb|upright|Vithoba, the patron god of Sheikh Muhammad]]
Sheikh Muhammad is the author of the ''Yoga-samgrama'', the ''Pavana-vijaya'', the ''Nishkalanka-prabodha'', and the ''Jnanasagara'', in addition to many songs and [[abhanga]]s (devotional poems).<ref name="Majumdar">{{cite book|author=Ramesh Chandra Majumdar|title=The History and Culture of the Indian People|volume=7|publisher=G. Allen & Unwin|page =580}}</ref> His writings show the influence of both Hindu [[bhakti]] and Muslim Sufi traditions, and he was a follower of the [[Advaita Vedanta]] school of Hindu philosophy.<ref name="Tulpule1979" /> These writings reveal his knowledge of the tenets of bhakti traditions, as well as his literary skills in "chaste idiomatic Marathi".<ref name="Tulpule1979" />

The ''Yoga-samgrama'', composed in 1645 and containing 2319 [[ovi (poetry)|ovis]] (poems), is his ''[[Masterpiece|magnum opus]]''.<ref name="Rigopoulos1985" /> The central theme of this philosophical work is "the soul's struggle to realize and experience God".<ref name="SontheimerKulke2001" /> It adopts a similar metaphor from the ''[[Dnyaneshwari]]'' by the saint-poet [[Dnyaneshwar]] (1275–1296), in which the ''[[Ātman (Hinduism)|atman]]'' (soul) is the warrior riding the horse of the Mind and battles the armies of Ego and other passions in its quest to attain glory as [[Brahman]] ("Supreme Reality").<ref name="Tulpule1979" /> Sheikh Muhammad cites examples from the Hindu scriptures such as the ''[[Purana]]''s and other philosophical treatises to convey his ideas. The ''Yoga-samgrama'' has references to the Hindu gods [[Rama]], [[Krishna]] (both forms of Vishnu), Vishnu, and [[Shiva]]. Each of the eighteen chapters of the treatise begins with a prayer to [[Ganesha]], the god of beginnings, who is invoked at the start of a book in keeping with Hindu tradition.<ref name="SontheimerKulke2001" /> However, Sheik Muhammad's writings reveal his monotheistic beliefs, which are rooted in [[Islam]]. He describes Hindu gods as formless (''Nirakari''), unmanifest (''[[Avyakta]]''), without form or qualities (''[[Nirguna]]''), and invisible (''alaksa'') (see [[Hindu views on monotheism#Bhakti movement|Hindu views on monotheism]]).<ref name="SontheimerKulke2001" /> Sheikh Muhammad preaches [[Tawhid|the Oneness of God]]:<ref name="Tulpule1979" /><ref name="Chattopadhyaya2005">{{cite book|author=Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|title=Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts, and Historical Issues|year=2005|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-7824-143-2|page=209}}</ref>
{{blockquote|In fifty-six languages one God is exalted with different words... cleavages arise because of harangues in different tongues ... I salute the sacred [[Om]] by which the God creator ([[Narayana|Narayan]], a name of Vishnu) is known. Muslims salute him as ya [[Allah]]...|Yoga-samgrama}}

Even though Sheikh Muhammad identified himself as Muslim by birth, he had chosen the Hindu god [[Vithoba]], a form of Krishna-Vishnu in Maharashtra, as his patron deity.<ref name="WashburnReinhart2007">{{cite book|author1=Dennis Dennis Charles Washburn|author2=A. Kevin Reinhart|title=Converting Cultures: Religion, Ideology, and Transformations of Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HcvKXwjmxUcC&pg=PA335|year=2007|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-15822-1|page=335}}</ref> His "socio-religious awareness" is evident in this poem dedicated to Vithoba as Krishna:<ref name="Tulpule1979" />
<blockquote><poem>
Through the grace of Gopala (a name of Krishna),
I have transgressed all notions of purity and impurity.
The [[jack fruit]] has a thorny skin, but inside it are lumps of sugar,
The bee-hive with all its humming bees contains the very nectar inside.
(So also) Sheikh Muhammad may be an ''avindha'' (Muslim),
But in his heart he has the very ''Govinda'' (a name of Krishna).
</poem></blockquote>

The ''Yoga-samgrama'' contains an account of the originating legend of Vithoba and his devotee [[Pundalik]], based on the Hindu scripture ''[[Skanda Purana]]''.<ref name="McGregor1992">{{cite book|author=R. S. McGregor|title=Devotional Literature in South Asia: Current Research, 1985–1988|date=25 September 1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-41311-4|page=140}}</ref> Sheikh Muhammad also wrote abhangas in praise of Vithoba.<ref>Zelliot, Eleanor in {{cite book|author=Mokashi, Digambar Balkrishna|author2=Engblom, Philip C. |title=Palkhi: a pilgrimage to Pandharpur — translated from the Marathi book Pālakhī|year=1987|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=0-88706-461-2|page= 40|location=Albany}}</ref>

According to Sontheimer and [[Hermann Kulke|Kulke]], the ''Yoga-samgrama'' is an "unusually frank critique" of Hindu [[Brahmanical]] ritualism and folk Hinduism. While Sheikh Muhammad accepts classical Hindu deities, he vilifies folk Hindu deities. He mocks the shrines of the Hindu mother goddess placed on roads and in fields: "If the deities were all that powerful, how come the dogs urinate on them?" He also criticizes self-torture rituals like hook-swinging, performed to appease folk deities.<ref name="SontheimerKulke2001" /> Sheikh Muhammad especially condemned the popular folk god [[Khandoba]] and the rituals of his cult. He criticized the practice of ''murali''s, girls offered to Khandoba to serve the god, but who were forced into prostitution.<ref name="Tulpule1979" /> Sheikh Muhammad does not spare Islam and criticizes some of its aspects.<ref name="Tulpule1979" />

== Remembrance ==
[[File:MohammadMaharaj.jpg|thumb|The shrine of Sheikh Muhammad, containing his seat, in his hometown of [[Shrigonda]]]]

Sheikh Muhammad is regarded as a saint-poet by Hindus due to his contributions to the [[bhakti movement]] in Maharashtra. The saint-poet [[Samarth Ramdas|Ramdas]], a staunch Hindu contemporary saint praises Sheikh Muhammad as a great saint.<ref name="SontheimerKulke2001">{{cite book|first1=Günther-Dietz |last1=Sontheimer|first2=Hermann|last2=Kulke|authorlink2=Hermann Kulke|title=Hinduism reconsidered|date=2001|publisher=Manohar|isbn=978-81-7304-385-7|pages=141, 142, 149}}</ref>

Sheikh Muhammad is considered an [[avatar]] of the Muslim saint-poet [[Kabir]] (c. 1440 – c. 1518).<ref name="Rigopoulos1985" /> Kabir was a Muslim saint-poet whose patron deity was Rama, a form of Vishnu; while Sheikh Muhammad was a devotee of another form of Vishnu, Vithoba. A Marathi couplet says that the saints [[Tukaram]] and Sheikh Muhammad are spiritual successors of Kabir.<ref name="Grewal2006">{{cite book|author=J. S. Grewal|title=Religious Movements and Institutions in Medieval India|page=151|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-567703-4}}</ref>

The ''[[Litter (vehicle)|palakhi]]'' (palanquin with ''[[paduka]]'') of Shiekh Muhammad was included in the annual [[Pandharpur Wari]], a march from Shrigonde to [[Pandharpur]], where Vithoba's main temple stands.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrL9AVG_LlA |title=Sant Mohammed Palkhi {{!}} हिंदू-मुस्लिम ऐक्याचे प्रतीक, शेख महंमद महाराजांची दिंडी पंढरपूरकडे मार्गस्थ |date=2023-06-19 |last=TV9 Marathi |access-date=2025-04-19 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1560 births]]
[[Category:1650 deaths]]
[[Category:Marathi-language poets]]
[[Category:16th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Muslim poets]]
[[Category:Sufi mystics]]
[[Category:16th-century Islamic religious leaders]]
[[Category:16th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:People from Ahmednagar]]
[[Category:Poets from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Scholars from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Marathi Muslims]]
[[Category:Bhakti movement]]

Sheikh Muhammad - Revision history

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