sufi saints,biographies

Amir Khusrau



He was born in 1253 in Balkh, Afghanistan into the family of nobles. His real name was Abul Hasan, though he became famous with his pen name Amir Khusrau. His family moved to India to escape the Mongol hordes that were spreading havoc all over the Central Asia at the time. Since his father was a noble, he became a member of the Turkish Sultan Altutmash’s court.He received his education from his father and after his death from his maternal grandfather Imadul Mulk, who also was the member of the court. From his early childhood became a prolific poet in both Hindi and Farsi. Because of his command of both of these languages, he is considered by many as to have invented Urdu.When he was eight his father took him and other children to visit Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya's convent. Legend says that his siblings and his father went inside the convent but he stayed outside thinking that if he (Nizamuddin Auliya) were a perfect saint he would summon him himself. Nizamuddin Auliya became aware of his thought telepathically and sent his servant to bring him. Amir Khusrau was so much impressed of his personality that he accepted him his guide. Soon he became the dearest of his disciples and was so until his demise.Despite his association with the court, he continued to pray and meditate. The chronicles mention that he kept fasts continuously for forty years. He was engrossed every time in the intense love of God. There was so much incinerating heat generated in his heart that whatever he wore burnt on the chest. Nizammuddin Auliya once said about it, "If asked on the Resurrection day what have you brought? I would say the heat from the bosom of the Turk."He loved his spiritual master deeply and spent most of his time with him. His shaykh Nizamuddin Auliya loved him more than any other of his disciples even more than his spiritual heir, Nasiruddin Roshan Chiragh Dehlavi. Once the Mahboob-e-Ilahi said, "I am annoyed by all, even by myself sometimes but never by you."Overall, he wrote 92 books of poetry and prose in Farsi as well as in Hindi. He is also famous as the singer and is considered as the father of Qawwali, a style of sema Sufi music.When Nizamuddin Auliya died, Amir Khusrau was not in Delhi. When he arrived in Delhi and heard the news of his master’s demise, he died on the spot of his Master grave in 1325. He was buried near the tomb of his teacher on a slightly raised platform popularly called Chabootra-e-Yaran.



2.Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti



A friend of God must have affection like the Sun. Because when it rises, it is beneficial to all irrespective of whether they are Muslim, Christian, or Hindu. A friend of God must be generous like a river. We all get water from the river to quench our thirst. It does not discriminate whether we are good or bad or whether we are a relation or a stranger. A friend of God must display the hospitality like the earth. It raises and cradles us in its lap, and yet it is always under our feet. Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was born in Seistan, Iran in 1138 in a well-respected Syed family. His lineage goes to Imam Hasan Askari. His family was rich and he led his childhood in comfort. However, when first his father and then his mother died in his teen, his economic condition deteriorated. For a while he subsisted on the income from the orchard he received in inheritance. One day when Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was working in his orchard, a pious dervish Ebrahim Qandoozi, came and took his seat under the shade of a tree. When Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti saw him, he brought a bunch of grapes and presented it to the dervish. The visitor ate the grapes and was delighted. He then took something out of his bag, chewed it, and then offered it to his young host. Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti ate it without any hesitation, and at once, the light of wisdom and knowledge dawned upon him. Immediately he disposed of all of his worldly belongings and distributed the money amongst the poor. Having thus broken all the ties with worldly affairs, he set off for Samarkand and Bukhara, then the great centers of learning for religious education and knowledge. He then went in search of a Murshid (Spiritual Master) to various places. Finally, he went to a town Haroon of Nishapur, Iran, where he met a Sufi saint Khwaja Uthman Harooni, who admitted him as his disciple. He was initiated at the age of 18 and for the next 22 years served merely as the water-boy for his convent. During that period, he was not allowed to attend the exclusive circle of his murshid. Eventually when he reached the age of 40, one day Khwaja Uthman Harooni called for him to his court, showed him his two fingers, and asked him what he was seeing in between those two fingers. Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti relied, “I am watching 18 thousand Galaxies.”After performing Hajj, he visited the Masjid-ul-Nabawi (Holy tomb of the Prophet) in Medina. There he meditated at the tomb for several days. During meditation, he met the Prophet Muhammad, who commanded him in these words:"O, Moinuddin! Thou art the helper of the Faith. We hath granted thee the land of India. Go there and stay, at Ajmer. Thy stay shall remove the faithlessness and glorify the Truth."This pleased him greatly but it worried him as well since he did not know where Ajmer was in India, and he asked the Prophet Muhammad about that. He was shown the world and the mountain near Ajmer. He was then given the title of the Chief of the Sahykhs (Qutub-ul-Masha'ikh).Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti left Medina for India. He continued his journey, passing through Isfahan, Bokhara, Herat and Lahore. In Lahore, he stayed at the tomb of Ali Hajveri Data Ganj Bukhsh, and meditated there for two weeks, and when he finished his meditation, he said a couplet in Farsi:Ganj Buksh Faiz-e-Alam Mazhar-e-Noor-e-KhudaNaqisa-ra Pir-e-Kamil, Kamila-ra RahnumaTrans.: Ganj Buskh (Bestower of Spiritual Treasures) is a grace to the world; a manifestation of Divine Light. For beginners a perfect spiritual teacher; for perfected, a leader.On his arrival in India, the country was in a state of depression. On state's northwestern border the kingdom of the Ghaznavids was spreading havoc. Foreign invasions had weakened India and the social condition in India was deteriorating. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, arrived in Ajmer in 1165, on his divine mission. At that time, Ajmer was ruled by Raja Rai Pithora of the Chohan dynasty. In his court, he had a large number of powerful magicians with Ajai Pal as their leader. Khwaja Moinuddin stayed on a hill close to Ana Sagar Lake now known as the Chillah Khwaja Sahib. At the arrival of Khwaja Moinuddin, there was not even a single Muslim in the state. Khwaja Moinuddin stayed on the camel stable of the Raja of Ajmer. When the camel drivers returned with the camels from the grazing grounds in the evening and objected to his stay and the Royal soldiers removed him from the place forcibly. Khwaja Moinuddin moved away to another place saying: "Now, the camels shall sit here." The other day when the camel drivers tried to raise the camels they failed to do so. They realized of their misbehavior to a holy man, beseeched of his pardon, which he readily granted. He asked them that whoever made the camel sit would raise them. When the camel drivers returned they saw the camels moving about. The news of this strange anecdote reached the ears of the Raja and the people flocked to him in droves, and many non-believers accepted Islam on his hand.The Raja was not happy with his stay in Ajmer and started harassing him one way or the other. When nothing worked, he put the yogis after him. Jiapal, the Chief Pundit (priest) of the temple, came to face him along with his disciples. Khwaja Moinuddin gave him some water to drink, as soon as he drank it, his condition changed, and fell on the feet of Khwaja Moinuddin and accepted Islam.Many of the royal servants embraced Islam on the hand of Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Raja's daughter too became a Muslim. The events made the Raja upset and he threatened him to evict from Ajmer. In reply to the threats he said,” We turned him out and entrusted him". Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti's words proved true. The famous Muslim ruler Sultan Shahab-uddin Mohammad Ghouri attacked India, and became the new ruler of the state by defeating the Raja.From the land of paganism i.e. Ajmer, Khwaja Moinuddin started the spiritual movement of the propagation of the Truth. His efforts bore fruit and within a short period of sixteen years, the condition of Ajmer was changed. It became the nerve center of moral and spiritual leadership in India, leveled the way for a grand religious and social revolution, and provided opportunity to countless people to lead a life of equality and honor.He was kind and forgiving. Once a man came to him with the intention of murder. He read his intention spiritually, and treated him very kindly, and asked him, to do what he had intended. The man was ashamed and requested to be punished. Khwaja Moinudin replied, “The mendicant's habit is, whoever does evil to them, they treat him well." He forgave the man who later became his follower.In spite of his renunciation of worldly things, his monastery was famous for his generosity and magnanimity. So much food was cooked in his kitchen that a poor, a beggar, or needy never went hungry from his gate. He is also known as Gharib Nawaz (patron of the poor). A large Kitchen even today serves the hungry and the poor of all faiths from the campus of his monastery. His tomb is one of the holiest places in India where pilgrims, Muslims as well as Hindus come from every corner of South Asia to pay their homage.Gharib Nawaz Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti went into his chamber after night prayers and closed the door. He did not permit anyone to enter. All night long, the people outside heard a mystical sound coming from inside of his room. At the approach of dawn, the sounds stopped. Sensing that there was something unusual because the door remained closed at the time of morning prayers, his devotees opened the door and found him dead. The year was 1229 A.D.




3.Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki


Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki was born in 1173 in Iran. He was the direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad through Imam Husayn. He was very young when his father died but his mother took great care of him and his education. He met and initiated in the Chishtiya Order by his Sufi Master Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Baghdad. He received the khilafat (completion of training) from Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and was declared his spiritual heir at the young age of seventeen.Like his Sufi Master, he traveled extensively and met many great Sufis of his time. He chronicled most of those events in his journal. The journal has many interesting stories. On one of those stories, he wrote that one day he was sitting with his friend Qazi Hamiduddin Nagori on a bank of a river where he saw a big scorpion creeping fast. He said to him "there must be a reason behind this." Both of them followed the scorpion, which reached a tree and killed a big snake. They saw a man sleeping nearby. They approached him and found that he was a drunk. They stayed there and wondered why God bestowed upon such a sinner His mercy. Then they heard a voice saying, "If We only take pity on the pious, who would help the poor?"After the man woke up and was surprised to see the dead snake, we told him the story. He was ashamed and in a short time, he rose to become a great saint. God bestowed His Divine Knowledge upon him.He spent most of his time in fasting. His dependants passed their days in extreme poverty. Even though he was poor, he was a generous. Whatever he received, he gave it away to the poor. When he had nothing in the house, he would serve the people with cold water.Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki moved from Iran to India and settled in Delhi during the time of Sultanate of Delhi. The Turkish Sultan Shamsuddin Altutmish was his admirer and could have given him anything he wanted but he never demanded a thing from him. Once the Sultan wanted to grant him a large part of the land and his minister arrived with the Sultan's proclamation with the request to accept it; he declined the offer saying that the earlier saints of the Chishtiya order had never accepted such things, and he would not either.On his way to Delhi when he was at Multan, its ruler Qibacha Beg, came to see him. He said, "The Mongols are about to invade Multan and I have no power to face them. For God's sake, help me." Khwaja Kaki gave him an arrow and said, "After the evening prayer, appear on the tower of the rampart and shoot it with a bow in the direction of enemy, then watch what God does."The ruler of Multan did as he was told. When the arrow fell, the Mongol horde fled from the battlefield and Multan was left unharmed.He died in Delhi around 1230 and was buried in the Mehroli subdivision of Delhi.


4.Baba Farid Shakar Ganj


Baba Farid was born around 1170 in Afghanistan. He was the descended of Farrukh Shah, King of Afghanistan and Ghazni. Baba Farid 's great grandfather was the son of Farrukh Shah. He was killed alongwith most of his family members when the Mongol hordes invaded Kabul. Baba Farid’s grandfather Shaykh Shoaib left Afghanistan and settled in Punjab in 1125. Shaykh Shoaib then went to Multan where he established in Kothiwal a private college for religious instruction and attracted much attention. His eldest son Jamal-uddin married Bibi Miriam, daughter of Syed Muhammad Abdula Shah - a descendant of Imam Ali. Bibi Miriam had three sons, Khwaja Aziz-ul-din, Farid-ul- Din Masaud (Baba Farid) and Khwaja Najib-ul-din, and one daughter Khatun Jamila.When Baba Farid was a few years old his mother taught him his prayers. The boy asked her what was gained by prayer. His mother replied sugar. Accordingly, she used to hide some sugar under his prayer rug and when he would finished his prayers he would find the sugar-candy hidden inside the rug. One day his mother forgot to put the sugar-candy but she was surprised to see that there was sugar-candy under the rug. From that day on, Bibi Miriam started calling her son Shakar Ganj, or the treasury of sugar in Farsi.He went to Delhi and was initiated into the Sufi order by Shaykh Bakhtiar Kaki. When Khwaja Qutub-ul- Bakhtiar Kaki died at Delhi Baba Farid assumed the mantle of his late spiritual guide. He ultimately left it in the keeping of Jamal-ul-Din of Hansi and thence proceeded to Ajodhan, the present day Pak Pattan. Shaykh Farid made Pak Pattan a great center of Sufi thoughts. People from all over India and Middle East would come to see him He generally rejected offerings of money, but would accept gifts of food, etc for public kitchen. Baba Farid went to Delhi again and was received with a most hospitable reception. Emperor Nasir-ul-Din Balban introduced him to his family. Baba Farid looked to Emperor’s daughter Hazabara and asked Emperor to marry her to him. Thus Hazabra was married to Baba Sheikh Farid, but only after Emperor Balban promised not to give any costly gifts, Baba Farid distributed all her dowry to the needy.Baba Farid ji died of Pneumonia on the fifth day of the month of Muharram in 1266. He was buried outside the town of Pak Pattan at a place called martyrs grave. Baba Farid was also a poet and a large part of his poetry is included in the Holy book of Sikhism, Guru Garanth Sahib.