SULTAN e HIND, NAIB e RASOOL fil HIND(1143-1236 CE)

Famously known as Khwaja Gharib Nawaz – Patron of the poor, his eminent personality has shown people the path of love, peace and humanity across religions, ethnicity, class or creed. His extreme care for the poor and destitute of the society has earned him this title. He taught us to be a staunch promoter of equality and love for all.

He travelled to Baghdad and met Ghous Pak, he performed a chilla at the dargah of Data Sahab in Lahore. He was a Persian Muslim Sayyid, ascetic, religious scholar, philosopher, and mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the famous Chishtiya order of mysticism. This particular tariqa (order) became the dominant Muslim spiritual group in medieval India and many of the most beloved and venerated Indian saints were Chishtis in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrow.

He lived and learned in Chishti Sharif, a town in Afghanistan with his Murshid Hazrat Usman Harwani”Baray Khawaja Sahab”.The Chishti order spread into the Indian subcontinent, however, at the hands of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz in the 13th century, after the saint is believed to have had a dream in which the Prophet Muhammad appeared and told him to be his “representative” or “envoy” in India. He was a great proponent of Samaa(qawwali mehfils) as a means of closeness to God.

According to various chronicles, Khawaja Muinuddin’s tolerant and compassionate behavior towards the local population seems to have been one of the major reasons behind conversion to Islam at his hand. Khawaja Sahab is said to have appointed Bakhtiar Kaki (d. 1235) as his spiritual successor, who worked at spreading the Chishtiya in Delhi. Furthermore, his son, Fakhr al-D?n (d. 1255), is said to have further spread the order’s teachings in Ajmer, whilst another of the saint’s major disciples Hamīd al-Dīn Sūfī Nāgawrī (d. 1274), preached in Nagaur, Rajasthan.

The final discourse of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti Sarkar to his students, one month before his death illustrates his work and message:
Love all and hate none.
Mere talk of peace will avail you naught.
Mere talk of God and religion will not take you far.
Bring out all the latent powers of your being
and reveal the full magnificence of your immortal self.

Be overflowing with peace and joy,
and scatter them wherever you are
and wherever you go.

Be a blazing fire of truth,
be a beauteous blossom of love
and be a soothing balm of peace.

With your spiritual light,
dispel the darkness of ignorance;
dissolve the clouds of discord and war
and spread goodwill, peace, and harmony among the people.

Never seek any help, charity, or favors
from anybody except God.
Never go the court of kings,
but never refuse to bless and help the needy and the poor,
the widow, and the orphan, if they come to your door.

This is your mission, to serve the people…..

Carry it out dutifully and courageously, so that I, as your Pir-o-Murshid,
may not be ashamed of any shortcomings on your part
before the Almighty God and our holy predecessors
in the Silsila on the Day of Judgment