Building up Oneself as an Ascetic in the Shadow of Devotional Artifacts: The Case of the malañg-fuqarā of Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract This essay presents a reflection on the building process of ascetics belonging to an order “outside religious law” (be sharʿ), the Qalandarī, through the case of the malañg-fuqarā of a Pakistani Sufi lodge. I hypothesize that being an ascetic is a form of technique of the body and the subject, which results in producing, configuring, and using them, in relation to the Sufi and Twelver Shiʿism artifacts dispensing the healing and miraculous potency of the saint to whom he dedicates his life, and through which he builds himself as potential saint.