HAZRAT KHWAJA
MOINUDEEN HASSAN CHISHTI AJMERI
(RAHMATULLAHI ALAIHI)
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With every breath, my restlessness increases;
Why does the bud of my heart not blossom?
Grant you my wishes, for the sake of Ali (radiallahu
anhu).
Salutations to you, O Khwaja, the saint of Hind!
May this devotee's aspirations be fulfilled.
The small town of Ajmer, 400 kilometres south and west
of Delhi, is unremarkable to the eye at first glance.
However, on closer inspection, one beholds the reason
that it stands out; pilgrims. In thousands upon
thousands they come, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, of all
nationalities; raising their voices in celebration and
prayer, in praise and remembrance of one of the
greatest saints ever produced in the long and
illustrious history of Islam. The deservedly titled
Sultan of India, the Qutb or spiritual axis of the
eastern Islamic world; he is the fountain from whose
spiritual light have sprung all the beautiful, mighty
saints of the Chishtiyya silsila: Hazrat Khwaja
Moinudeen Hassan Chishti Gharibun-Nawaaz Ajmeri (
rahmtullahi alaihi).
The chieftain and founder of the Chishtiyya silsila,
one of the four great orders that radiate throughout
the world, Khwaja Gharibun-Nawaaz (radiallahu anhu) is
one of the most respected and universally recognised
figures in Sufism and Islam. He stands tall as a
great spiritual leader; a reformer and purifier of
hearts at the most turbulent of times. Most of the
saints before his time had been concentrated around
the lands of the Middle East, but he was a pioneer, a
missionary who was responsible for spreading the Sufi
and Islamic sphere of influence to the remotest
regions of polytheistic India.
His pious character was a true picture of Islam; his
practice exactly in accordance with the dictates of
the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, and his teachings
beautiful lessons in godliness, truthfulness, and
equality which enlightened the hearts of multitudes.
Authentic estimates place the number of people he
guided to the path of Islam at nine million. It is a
historical fact that his Chishtiyya silsila wielded a
direct and crucial influence on the course of Indian
history, the development of the embryonic Bhakti
Consciousness Movement of Hinduism, and modern
(pantheistic) Buddhism.
Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu anhu) was born in
the year 536AH in Sijistan, the son of Khwaja
Ghyasuddin Chishti, a pious and influential man of
what is now Iran. He was a direct descendant through
both his parents of Hazrat Ali (radiallahu anhu). It
was a time of chaos and great upheavals in both India
and the Muslim Empire as a whole. In the year of his
birth, Sultan Sanjari was finally defeated before the
implacable advance of the Mughals, spelling the
beginning of the end of the Sultanate; and in
Khurasan, where he was brought up, religious sects and
barbarism had lain waste a once civilised country. He
was orphaned at the tender age of fourteen, and was
thus raised in the same condition as Rasulallah
(sallalahu alaihi wasallam).
But social evils, moral degradations and personal
tragedy stirred something deep within the young man,
and he began to turn towards the spiritual life. Once
when watering his father's garden, he came across a
dervish, Hazrat Ibrahim Qanduzi (radiallahu anhu). He
was deeply affected by the saint's holy manner, and
Hazrat Ibrahim (radiallahu anhu) for his part
transformed Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu
anhu)'s inner being. His eyes became opened to the
ultimate realities of the spiritual world. Renouncing
all material things, he sold his father's garden, all
his possessions and distributed the money among the
poor.
Still at a young age, he arrived at the great centres
of learning in Samarkand and Bokhara, where he swiftly
became a hafiz and distinguished alim, fully
conversant in all aspects of Islamic thought.
Unsatisfied with this, he began a strict regime of
prayers, meditations, fasting and self-renunciation
which continued for years and grew more intense and
vigorous until Allah granted him the exalted rank of
sainthood. He used to fast for seven days and nights,
breaking fast on the eighth with a small crust of
bread soaked in water. At this point, he felt the
need for a shaykh, or spiritual guide, feeling the
truth of the Qur'anic injunction,
O ye who believe! Be mindful of your duty towards
Allah, and seek a means of approach unto Him, and
strive in his way in order that ye may succeed.
(5:35) .
He himself used to state, "success is not possible
without a guide." He travelled extensively throughout
the near East, finally finding a spiritual guide in
Hazrat Khwaja Uthman Haruni (radiallahu anhu). In
twenty years he spent under his murshid's guidance, he
attained perfection in tasawwuf and was awarded the
khilafat-e-azam by Khwaja Uthman (radiallahu anhu).
He offered many pilgrimages both with his murshid and
alone. It was during one of these, while in Madinah
Sharif, that he was directed spiritually by Rasulallah
(sallalahu alaihi wasallam)) to go to India and spread
Islam there. He left immediately with 40 of his
disciples, on the long and arduous journey.
Along the way, he stopped in several places including
Baghdad, Isfahan and Balkh. In Baghdad Sharif, he was
the guest of Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (radiallahu
anhu), the greatest of saints and founder of the
Qadriyya silsila. Hazrat Ghaus-ul Azam (radiallahu
anhu) organised a qawwali in his own house for the
visitors, and he himself stood outside that night,
with eyes closed and his staff tightly held against
the ground. When asked the reason for his actions, he
replied, "I needed to stop the ground shaking, such
was the power of Khawja's wajd."
In Sabzwar, he came across a ruler of such corruption
that he would not even hesitate to denigrate the holy
sahaabi of the Holy Prophet (sallalahu alaihi
wasallam). Yet one glance from the great saint
sufficed to render the man unconscious. When he
awoke, his personality had changed completely; he gave
up his kingdom, renounced all his possessions and
became a mureed of Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti
(radiallahu anhu).
Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu anhu) and his
disciples were in a cave in the mountains of the Hindu
Kush when one of the most famous events in sufi
history occurred. Hundreds of miles away, in Baghdad
Sharif, Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani (radiallahu anhu)
pronounced his chieftainship of all auliya-allah by
saying, "My foot is on the neck of all walis."
Spiritually hearing the great saint's statement,
Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu anhu) immediately
threw himself down and stretched his neck against the
floor, signifying his submission to that truth.
It was because of this type of humble obedience that
Allah granted him the title, "Sultan-e-Hind", for he
is the leader and spiritual head to all the hundreds
of walis that have blessed India in after-times. So
it was that Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu anhu)
arrived in India at a time of tremendous upheaval and
moral decay. The Ghaznavi dynasty was in its death
throes, and the Rajput kings were gaining power.
Tyrannical rulers were making life unbearable for
common people, especially the muslims whose numbers
were diminishing day by day.
Yet India is not named for no reason, "the land of
saints and sufis"; its people had inherited a wealth
of spirituality that yearned for expression. It was
into such an arena that Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti
(radiallahu anhu) stepped, a torch to India's tinder.
First he went to Lahore, a centre of learning where
resided a great number of Muslim theologians,
philosophers and sufis. Yet he soon left this place,
for his divinely guided mission was not to men such as
these, but rather to those who were deprived of the
light of Islam.
Thus he arrived in Delhi, which was to become the seat
of his most famous successors. At the time, the city
was a place of much fear and mutual hatred between
Hindus and Muslims, but Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti
(radiallahu anhu) began delivering his sermons in a
soft tongue, dipped in honey. As a result of this
kindness and forbearance, both Hindus and Muslims were
turned towards the path of truth. The great wali was
revered and loved by those of both religions, a trend
which, was to be the hallmark of Sufism in India.
Soon, however, he left Delhi too, heading instead for
the remote city of Ajmer, deep within the kingdom of
the most powerful Rajput prince in Northern India, Raj
Prithviraj.
This city was completely alien to Islam; no muslims at
all lived within its bounds. It was in this hostile
environment that Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu
anhu) and his forty disciples settled and began the
bulk of his teaching. Very soon, however, he changed
the entire civic atmosphere, gathering people of all
races, castes and stations to the shining truth of
Islam. His high morals and frugal lifestyle deeply
impressed the Hindus and all the while, the beautiful
messages of the Qur'an and Sunnah entered deep into
their hearts. Soon they started to convert, in
multitudes upon multitudes, and the raja became
alarmed as even his courtiers and high-ranking
servants took up Islam.
It is interesting here to note that the raja's mother
had predicted the arrival of Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti
(radiallahu anhu), and had warned her son not to
interfere with him lest he suffer total destruction.
Whether Raj Prithviraj forgot this prophecy or ignored
it is unknown, but he began to harass the shaykh and
trouble his followers. But Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti
(radiallahu anhu), holding firm to the Islamic
doctrine that, "Allah is with those who patiently
persevere," steadfastly carried on his peaceful
mission. One day, however, he said, "the raja will be
captured alive, and his kingdom snatched away." This
prophecy was proven true not months later. The raja,
was defeated by Sultan Shahabuddin, was captured alive
and brought into the presence of the sultan, who
ordered him executed. The power of the Rajputs was
thus broken for more than three hundred years.
Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti (radiallahu anhu) carried on
his work in Ajmer for 45 years, and millions entered
Islam through his spiritual light and endeavours.
Besides this great service, he also established
permanent sufi centres which were run by such mighty
disciples as Khwaja Qutbudeen Khaki, Hazrat Nizamudeen
Auliya, Hazrat Baba Farid Ganj Shakar and Khwaja
Nasiruddeen Chiragh Delhawi (rahmatullahi ta'aala
ajmaeen).
On the 29th Jamaad-us-Saani, before entering his bare
cell for his usual meditations, he advised his
attendants that he should not be disturbed until his
khalifa-e-azam, Khwaja Qutbuddeen Khaki (radiallahu
anhu), arrived from Delhi. On the 6th Rajab, 633 AH,
his khalifa arrived and, receiving no answer to his
polite knocking, the mureeds broke down the door.
There they found that their beloved murshid had
already left the world, at the ripe old age of
ninety-six. To the wonder and amazement of all, upon
his forehead was inscribed in letters of light:
He was a lover of Allah, and he died in the love of
Allah.
Such was the passing of one of the greatest saints in
Islamic history. Undoubtedly, if not for him and his
enormous sacrifices, many of those who read this would
not have been born into the mercy of this beautiful
religion. One can only imagine the hardship he
endured in his early years in Ajmer, in the kingdom of
a hostile king, surrounded by a nation of polytheists,
a people even whose native tongue - Sanskrit - was
foreign to him.
How similar was his situation, and his conduct under
adversity, to the Holy Prophet (saw) himself! How he
managed to convert so many Hindus to Islam, working
from the heart of their own kingdom, at a time when
the only words that the two religions could address
each other with were hatred and war, is a miracle in
itself. He not only moulded the character of a
people, but also led them to a more prosperous, nobler
way of living, and cultivated in them the qualities of
humanity and truth. Through him and his immediate
successors, the entire culture and civilisation of
India underwent a profound change.
As alluded to before, apart from the millions of
converts to Islam, the Bhakti Consciousness movement,
modern Buddhism and Sikhism, all monotheistic or
pantheistic in outlook emerged from the ancient
religions of Hinduism and Buddhism due in great part
to the Chishtiyya silsila's efforts in the path of
Islam. As is stated in Sura al-Nasr,
When Allah's succour and triumph cometh, and thou
seest mankind entering the religion of Allah in
troops, then hymn the praises of thy Lord, and seek.
forgiveness of Him Lo! He is ever ready to show mercy.
Courtesy of Chishti-Habibi Tariqa Webpage.
