Metamorphosis, Mediation, Mannat

In Sufi communities of Bangladesh and Pakistan, a relational ontology blurs boundaries between human, animal, and spirit, allowing bodily metamorphosis across species. This worldview, passed down through generations, enables the protection of sacred animals at shrines, creating vital wildlife refuges and contributing to conservation. Both human and non-human actors actively participate in shared rituals, with animals possessing spiritual agency and engaging in cycles of exchange such as vows (mannat). The cultural division between life forms dissolves into dynamic zones of interaction, challenging Western dichotomies and highlighting the role of locally embedded Sufi spirituality in environmental stewardship.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In the South Asian discourse of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, ‘natural’ functions can be transcended and bodily boundaries are permeable. Defying species boundaries, this relational ontology entails a belief in the capacity for bodily transformation, or metamorphosis, from one category of being to another (as from human to nonhuman animal). In turn, both human and animal actors enter into conversation with mediating ‘spirits’. To this day, these religious entanglements, passed down through generations, allow Sufi communities in Bangladesh and Pakistan to protect ‘sacred’ animals at shrines as vital refuges for wildlife species and to make an important contribution to their conservation. The relational dynamics allow for the cultural division between human and non-human life forms (plants, animals, and spirits) to be problematized, and permeable boundaries to be dissolved into liminal and dynamic zones of interaction. Deeply entangled, agents both human and non-human actively participate in shared ritual configurations that take place within and are nourished by a locally embedded Sufi spirituality. Ritual and devotional practices revolve around their intercessory mediation (shafa'at) with the divine, which endows them with spiritual agency, as they engage in cycles of exchange, such as the practice of taking vows (mannat). Within the framework of this Sufi-inspired, locally embedded spirituality, it is possible for animals to be genuine agents, to have spiritual ‘agency’ and to be involved in cycles of exchange.