Month: January 2024

𝐀 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐣𝐦𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝑲𝒉𝒘𝒂𝒋𝒂 𝑮𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒃 𝑵𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒛.
________________

Khwāja Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishti (Urdu: معین الدین چشتی رضي الله عنه ) by Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, was a Sunni Muslim preacher, 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 Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism. This particular tariqa (order) became the dominant Muslim spiritual group in medieval India.

Hazrath Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was born in 1143 in Sistan. He was sixteen years old when his father, Sayyid G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn (d. c. 1155), passed away, leaving his grinding mill and orchard to his son.

Despite planning to continue his father’s business, he developed mystic tendencies in his personal piety and soon entered a life of destitute itineracy. He enrolled at the seminaries of Bukhara and Samarkand, and (probably) visited the shrines of Muhammad al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944), two widely venerated figures in the Islamic world.

While traveling to Iraq, in the district of Nishapur, he came across the famous Sunni mystic Ḵh̲wāj̲a ʿUt̲h̲mān, who initiated him. Accompanying his spiritual guide for over twenty years on the latter’s journeys from region to region, Muʿīn al-Dīn also continued his own independent spiritual travels during the time period. It was on his independent wanderings that Syedna Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn encountered many of the most notable Sunni mystics of the era, including Sheikh Abdul-Qadir Gilani RA (d. 1166) and Najmuddin Kubra (d. 1221), as well as Naj̲īb al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḳāhir Suhrawardī, Abū Saʿīd Tabrīzī, and ʿAbd al-Waḥid G̲h̲aznawī (all d. c. 1230), all of whom were destined to become some of the most highly venerated saints in the Sunni tradition.

Having arrived in Delhi during the reign of the sultan Iltutmish (d. 1236), Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn moved from Delhi to Ajmer shortly thereafter, at which point he became increasingly influenced by the writings of the famous Sunni Hanbali scholar and mystic ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī (d. 1088), whose famous work on the lives of the early Islamic saints, the Ṭabāqāt al-ṣūfiyya, may have played a role in shaping Hazrath Muʿīn al-Dīn’s worldview.It was during his time in Ajmer that Muʿīn al-Dīn acquired the reputation of being a charismatic and compassionate spiritual preacher and teacher; and biographical accounts of his life written after his death report that he received the gifts of many “spiritual marvels (karāmāt), such as miraculous travel, clairvoyance, and visions of angels” in these years of his life. Hazrath Muʿīn al-Dīn seems to have been unanimously regarded as a great saint after his passing.

As such, Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī’s legacy rests primarily on his having been “one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic mysticism.”

Additionally, Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī is also notable, according to John Esposito, for having been one of the first major Islamic mystics to formally allow his followers to incorporate the “use of music” in their devotions, liturgies, and hymns to God, which he did in order to make the ‘foreign’ Arab faith more relatable to the indigenous peoples who had recently entered the religion.

The tomb (dargāh) of Hazrath Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn became a deeply venerated site in the century following the preacher’s death in March 1236.

Honoured by members of all social classes, the tomb was treated with great respect by many of the era’s most important Sunni rulers, including Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi from 1324 to 1351, who paid a famous visit to the tomb in 1332 to commemorate the memory of the saint.

In a similar way, the later Mughal emperor Akbar (d. 1605) visited the shrine no less than fourteen times during his reign.

In the present day, the tomb of Hazrath Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn continues to be one of the most popular sites of religious visitation for Sunni Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, with over “hundreds of thousands of people from all over the Indian sub-continent assembling there on the occasion of [the saint’s] ʿurs or death anniversary.”
(Sourced from Wikipedia)

Tonight, Rajab 6th marks the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti RA – الفاتحة

232. Sayyidina Abdullah ibn Umar once cured numbness in his leg by calling out to the Messenger of Allah.

Sayyidina Abdullah ibn Umar once felt numbness in his leg, whereupon a man said to him: “Remember the most beloved of people to you”, so he said, “O Muhammad! (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.)” and the numbness left. [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa; Imam Bukhari’s Adab al-Mufrad]

233. The inmates of the Fire of Hell will regret opposing the Messenger of Allah. • Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “May my father and mother be your ransom! O Messenger of Allah, it has been revealed that a fraction of your excellence with Allah is that thepeople of the Fire will wish they had obeyed you, even when they are being severely punished, and will say, “Would that we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!” [Qur’an 33:66] [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa]

234. At the conquest of Makkah, the pigeons of Makkah shaded Messenger of Allah, and he supplicated to Allah to bless them. [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa] •

235. There are many reports of sheep and goats which yielded no milk, but gave abundance of milk through the blessing of his touch. For example, the sheep of Sayyida Umm Mabad, the one that belonged to Sayyidina Anas b. Malik, that belonging to Sayyida Haleema and many more. [Qadi Iyaad’s alShifa]

236. The Messenger of Allah was able to see the earth and its eastern and western extremities.

• The earth was rolled up for the Messenger of Allah, so that he was able to see its eastern and western extremities, and he said that the extent of his nation would reach that which was rolled up for him. [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa]

237. The mercy of the Messenger of Allah saved the people from great destruction and Allah’s Wrath.

• Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “O Messenger of Allah, may my parents be sacrificed to you! Noah prayed to Allah about his people: ‘O my Lord, don’t leave a single house of the unbelievers in the world. If you had prayed against us in a similar manner, we would have been destroyed. Your back was burdened, your front teeth were martyred, yet you did not invoke against them but for good, and said: ‘O Allah, forgive my people, as they know not what they do.’ [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa; Imam Ghazali’s Ihya ‘Ulum al-Deen]

238. During an expedition, the Messenger of Allah knew when a hypocrite had died in Madinah.

• When they were on an expedition, a wind storm blew up and the Messenger of Allah told his Companions, “It blows for the death of a hypocrite.” Upon their return to Madinah, they found his prophecy had been realized. [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa]

239. The Messenger of Allah brought more people to Islam than Prophet Noah did during his long life on Earth.

Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “O Messenger of Allah, may my parents be sacrificed to you! Noah was not followed by so many people during his long stray as you have been followed in a short time.” [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa; Imam Ghazali’s Ihya ‘Ulum al-Deen] Some reports say that Prophet Noah (or Nuh) lived for approximately 900 years.

240. No favour is more universally beneficial and of greater advantage than the Messenger of Allah because he is our path to guidance.

Qadi Iyaadh says, “There is no other favor that could be more universally beneficial and of greater advantage than his blessing to all Muslims because he is our path to guidance. He is the one who rescues us from the error of our blindness. He is the one who calls us to success and honor! He is our path to our Lord and our intercessor. He is the one who will speak on our behalf

and bear witness for us and bring us, inshaAllah, to the Everlasting Life with its happiness!” [Qadi Iyaad’s al-Shifa]

241. The Messenger of Allah prayed for Sayyidina Abdullah b. Jafar so that he became famously wealthy.

• The Messenger of Allah prayed that Sayyidina Abdullah b. Jafar would acquire an abundance of wealth, and he became so rich he was famous for it. He also became as famous for his generosity, as he was for the wealth he obtained through the Messenger of Allah’s prayer. [Imam al-Haythami, Majma al-Zawaid; Imam ibn Hajar, Matalibu’lAliya; Imam Bayhaqi, Dalail al-Nubuwwa; Qadi Iyaadh, al-Shifa]

242. The Messenger of Allah prayed so that every prayer of Sayyidina Saa’d b. Abi Waqqas would be answered.

• The Messenger of Allah prayed for Sayyidina Saa’d b. Abi Waqqas: ‘O Allah, answer his prayer!’ After that, the answering of his prayers became famous and everyone feared his malediction. [Tirmidhi; Imam ibn Hajar, al-Isaba]