Unfolding 16th century essential: Structure and background of Qasīda-e-Zarūriyya

In the 16th century, Kashmir, an Islamic scholar enamoured by the companionship of his spiritual guide, heads into a mountain cave. After days, he returns with a Persian treatise in praise of his spiritual master.

The master encourages the scholar to further his understanding and create a larger body of work. This culminates into a treatise is known as Wird ul-Muridin, one of Kashmir’s greatest scholarly works, the writer is Allama Baba Dawud ibn Hassan Khaki, who was the successor of Shaykh Hamzah Makhdoom.

In the spiritually vibrant 16th-century Kashmir, one of the most authoritative voices of Sunni scholarship and Tasawwuf was Shaykh ul Islam Allamah Baba Dawud ibn Hassan Khaki (RA), the khalifa of Sultan ul Arifeen Hazrat Shaykh Hamzah Makhdoom (RA). Khaki was affiliated with the Suharwardiyya Sultaniyya tariqat. His writings reflect both the jurisprudential rigour of the Hanafi school and the ethical-spiritual clarity of the Sunni-Sufi tradition that flourished in Kashmir, earning him the title of Imam Azam Sani.

Among his most valuable and yet lesser-known works is the Qasida-e-Zaruriyya, a didactic Persian poem composed to convey the essential matters of din: both usul (belief), furu(practices), while also guiding a seeker on the spiritual path (tariqat). The poem precedes his better-known Wird ul-Muridin and was composed, as he says in his own preface, during a blessed time and with divine assistance, born from the barakat (blessings) of companionship with his guide, Shaykh Hamzah Makhdoom (RA).

Originally conceived as a standalone qasida (poetic ode), Khaki soon realised that many verses, especially those with Arabic phrases, Sufi terminology or metaphorical references, were difficult for some listeners and readers to fully understand. Responding to requests from seekers and under the encouragement of his spiritual peers, he began annotating the verses with explanatory notes, drawing from classical sources and credible books of the tradition. Narrations and anecdotes were also added where appropriate to clarify or strengthen key concepts.

Because of the comprehensive value of these additions, the expanded version came to be known as:

Majmuʿa al-Fawaʾid— The compendium of benefits

According to traditional transmission, the original Qasida-e-Zaruriyya contains 129 verses (ashʿar). It was first published by Mirza Kamal al-Din Shayda, a custodian of the shrine of Shaykh Hamzah (RA), with an introductory note by the former Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Jalal al-Din. Later, it was published with Urdu translation and commentary by scholars of the Keng family of Srinagar, including Hajji Ghulam Nabi Keng and Allmah Showkat Hussain Keng.

Qasida-e-Zaruriyya is not merely a devotional work, but a carefully structured academic text that uses poetic form to convey the doctrinal and spiritual essentials of din.

It opens with the basmalah and a hamd (praise of Allah) and proceeds into major thematic sections. In the preface, Khaki discusses the theological significance of starting with “Bismillah,” drawing from classical tafasir such as Qushayri and Zamakhshari.

The text presents a comprehensive exposition of faith, weaving together theological reflection, moral refinement, spiritual insight and legal obligation.

It addresses the essential attributes of the Divine, the conditions and realities of Iman, the character and classification of believers, and the responsibilities placed upon them.

What emerges is not merely a doctrinal treatise, but a portrait of a living tradition, where creed, law and inner transformation are harmoniously interwoven, reflecting a society in which intellectual inquiry, sacred law and spiritual discipline were deeply united.

Khaki begins the Qasida with a series of verses that immediately ground the reader in the ethos of sincere submission and recognition. The introductory lines establish the purpose of the work, the axis of spiritual authority and the worldview that animates it.

❝ḥamd mar ḥaqq rā keh mā rā khāliq o rahbar shudah ast
Ānkeh waṣfash az khiyāl o wahm-i mā bartar shudah ast

ṣad durūd-i pāk bar rūḥ-i Muḥammad Muṣṭafā ﷺ
Zānkeh ʿālam az ṭufayl-i rūḥ-i ū muʿaṭṭar shudah ast

baʿd az ān bar āl o bar aṣḥāb o bar atbāʿ-i ū
Zānkeh īn dīn-i hudā az saʿy-i shān aẓhar shudah ast❞

Praise to the True One, our Creator and our Guide,
Whose description lies beyond our thought and imagination.

A hundred pure blessings upon the spirit of Muhammad Muṣṭafā ﷺ,
For it is by the fragrance of his soul that the world became perfumed.

Then upon his noble family, his companions, and his followers;
Through whose efforts, this religion of guidance became manifest.

These verses reflect its embedded theological order: recognition of Allah’s transcendence, veneration of the Prophet (AS) and the honouring of those who preserved and propagated the religion after him.

Khaki follows the traditional formula of the scholars and sages of Ahl al-Sunnah, beginning with Allah, descending through His Rasool (AS) and continuing through His Ahl al-Bayt and Ashab.

In contrast to the scattered understandings of religion we often see today, shaped by abstract debates or cold doctrinal lists, this poetic theology is holistic. It does not separate ʿilm from adab or belief from beauty.

❝Pas dar īmān o dar Islām o ẓarūriyyāt-i sharʿ
Īn risālah muntaẓim chun rishta-yi jawhar shudah ast

shud mubīn chun dar īn nuskha ẓarūriyyāt-i sharʿ
Bā ẓarūriyya laqab ū rā munāsib-tar shudah ast❞

Thus, in matters of Iman, Islam, and religious essentials,
This treatise has been arranged like a string of pearls.

And since in this booklet the essentials of Shariʿah are made clear,
The title Zaruriyya is the most fitting name for it.

The metaphor of “a string of pearls” is particularly powerful. Faith is not a list to be checked off; it is a finely woven necklace, where every bead has meaning, every connection is deliberate and its beauty lies in its order and unity. One might also say it is an echo of the Prophetic ḥadīth that “faith has over seventy branches,” each shining and connected, none dispensable.

Khaki’s structure, beginning with Allah, then the Prophet (AS) , then the Sahaba and Ahl al-Bayt, and finally the beliefs and duties that define a Muslim, mirrors the hierarchy of love and loyalty that traditional Islam has always emphasized. In this light, it becomes clear that for Khaki, faith is not merely belief in a doctrinal sense, but an entire orientation of the heart, governed by rightful love (mahabbat), rightful following (ittiba) and rightful manners (adab).

This is where the contrast between this tradition and much of our fragmented religiosity today becomes apparent. While modern discourse often begins from doubt and identity anxiety, Khaki begins with certainty and praise. His foundation is not opposition but gratitude, not defense but illumination.

As he further writes:

❝Har keh īn abyāt khwānad az iʿtiqād satīān
Nau kunad khwud rā; thawābash bī-ḥadd o bī-mar shudah ast ❞

Whoever reads these verses with firm belief,
Renews his own faith, and his reward is without limit or end.

Faith here is not static. It is constantly in need of tajdid (renewal) and this renewal comes not from philosophical abstraction, but from reading, reflection and absorption of what the rightly guided ones left behind.

This opening therefore serves as a spiritual orientation. It reminds us that the essentials of religion are not mere technicalities, they are pearls of guidance, connected by love, ordered by adab, and lit by the fragrance of the Prophet (AS). And Khaki, standing in the shadow of Shaykh Hamzah Makhdoom, is not just a scholar of those truths, but a preserver of that adab.

In the upcoming articles, we will explore selected verses from across the qasida in a thematic structure.

Since the essentials of din are dispersed like jewels across the work, we will collect the couplets that illuminate Iman, Tawhid, the signs of true belief and Khaki’s powerful definition of what it means to be a Muslim.

Alongside these, we will also engage with other emerging themes that reflect the spiritual, ethical and intellectual depth of the work.