Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti: The Saint from Ajmer

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Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti

The Saint from Ajmer

By Harpreet Kaur

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017 Harpreet Kaur

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Dedication

Shah ast Hussain Badshah ast Hussain Deen ast Hussain

Deen panah ast Hussain Sardar naadad ast Hussain

dastdar ast Hussain-e-yazeed Haqkaake banaye

laillah ast Hussain.

Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.

This book is dedicated to Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, ‘The Rose", my teacher and Jack.

Introduction

Unchi nichi medi more khwaja ki mohe chado utro na jaye, kahyoh more khwaja se

mori beyiaan pakad le jaye…

(The stairs leading to Khwaja have many twists and turns, which I cannot climb, I request the Khwaja to come and lead me up these august stairs.)

Foreword

For many years Sufism and Sufis have fascinated me. I have read many books and articles on Sufism. This book is an effort to explain the life and times of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. His Dargah (mausoleum) in Ajmer (Rajasthan) even after 800-years holds the magic to draw to it people who are in pain. They come in millions every year for his blessings and tabarrukh (prasad). This book is my way of paying my respects to a great Sufi saint. I thank him with my heart and soul that I could put down his story. And I hope I continue to write more about him. Few understand what a Sufi is and what Sufism means. Many have described it but the best description to me is by Hazrat Syed Gulam Mohammad Abdul Hamid, also known as ‘mediwale baba’, from Anklav who was a guide and a very dear friend to me—If you have a teacher, follow him and his instructions to the letter, no matter even if they sound weird, for you will only come to know the reason after a long time. Many who have done so have reached the pinnacle of success and are better known than their teacher and an outstanding example of this is Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. [The dates and facts mentioned in this book have been checked with those found in the books that have been referred to in the Bibliography.]

Harpreet Kaur

Chirag-e-Roshnayi

Khwaja e khwajaga Moinuddin

Ashraf e aulia e ru e zameen

Aftab e siphar kaum a makan

Badshah e sareer e mulk e yaqeen

Dar jamal o kamal ucheh sukan

Ein mubeen bood bashin e hasin

Matla dar sifaate guftam

Dar I barat bood choo durr e sameen

Ay Dirat qiblagah e ah le yaqeen

Bar dirat mehr – o maah suddlyabeen

Ruy e y bar dar Gihat Hameen Saayad

sad hazaaran malak choo khusrau jabeen

khadim Dirat ham a rizwan

dar safa rauza at choo khuld e bareen

zara e khak e oo Abeen sa risht

qatra e aab a choo maa e mueen

ilahi tabwad khurshid o mahi

Chirag e chistiyan ra roshneee.

Written on the dome of the Dargah.

Contents

Story of an era

The Sufi

The Beginning

The Path to Spirituality

Letters

Miracles

Chistiya Tariqa

Dargah Ajmer Sharif

Ajmer, the city

Chapter 1

Story of an Era

This true story belongs to an era when the rule of kings, queens, emperors and their empires prevailed. The Muslim rule was spread across much of the medieval world. Their conquests had touched the far reaches of the Earth, but there existed a dark age within them. Tyranny, anarchy, and magic ruled whilst science, math’s, poetry, and religion belonged to a few good men, there were the intellects and the good and the spiritual men and women. These men and women would take the world forward.

A change was needed, an era of enlightenment was required from within to struggle against the dark forces that were meant to destroy the human race. So it seemed until the hand of God seemed to unleash his few good chosen men across the world, to destroy evil with goodness. And thus began, the age of the saints, religion, and philosophy that took hold of everyone’s imagination, thoughts and life.

The chosen few reached out and called upon God as their savior to remove people’s miseries. These few came to be known as living saints even after death they fulfilled the wishes of those who prayed at their graves. These few spread their wings across the world, speaking the word of god and his rules to those who had lost all hope. They worked and hoped that their knowledge would save the world. In the meantime tyrants and exploiters raided cities attacking even the strongest and prosperity of nations. The attackers came from the north, reducing everything in their wake to ashes, plundering the people and nations of their wealth. Even the Muslim world was not safe from these raiders.

People moved from city to city in the hope to find that one place that would be enough to lead a peaceful common life. Lives were destroyed ruthlessly and the few that survived hoped and prayed to emerge into a new world order some day.

The year 1142, Iraq was ruled by the Seljuk’s or what remained of the once great Empire of the Seljuk Dynasty.

The Seljuk’s — Decline of an empire

The Great Seljuk Empire had entered the era of decline with the death of the great ruler Maliq Shah; it broke the massive kingdom into small independent territories under different Seljuk rulers spread across Syria, Asia Minor and Kirman. The crusades had resulted in the loss of Palestine by the Fatimid’s in 1092. The collapse of the state was further speeded up with the political interference of the assassins. Attacks, revolts, and pillaging became common across the kingdom, and could not be contained.

Rebels such as Qarakhanid's in Transoxiana; Ghurid's in Afghanistan; Qarluk's in Kyrghistan; and Kara Khitai's invaded and destroyed what remained of the kingdoms. The ruling emperor Sanjar Shah was defeated by Kara Khitai's in the battle of Qatwan in 1141 and he lost Jaxarter's. He was also defeated by the Oghuz revolts in 1153. The Oghuz rebels captured Sanjar Shah and kept him a prisoner for three years. He was able to escape, but unfortunately died within a year. He was never able to recover from the loss.

The Broken Empire looked thus:

Khorasani Seljuk’s ruled—Khorasan and Transoxiana

Iraqi Seljuk’s ruled—Iraq and Afghanistan

Syrian Seljuk’s ruled—Syria

Kermani Seljuk’s ruled—Kerman

Rum Seljuk’s ruled—Asia Minor

Atabeghlik Seljuk ruled—Persia

Atabeghlik Seljuk ruled—Azerbaijan

Atabeghlik of Bori ruled—Syria

Atabeghlik of Zangi ruled—Al Jazira

Turcoman Beghlik's ruled—Danishmendi's, Artuqi's, Saltuqi's,

Mengujeg's

Khwrazem Shah ruled—Transoxiana, Khwarzem, Persia

Armenian Kingdom ruled—Cilicia

Georgia ruled—Georgia

Crusader states included—Jerusalem, Antioch, County of

Edessa, County of Tripoli.

Abasid Caliphate—Iraq

The upheavals resonated across the countries and resulted in massive changes in rulers and governments, kingdoms and empires. Borders were being recreated; the Seljuk’s fell, and the Mongols and Tartars emerged as the new raiders and rulers. Intellects did not find a place for themselves in this world of misery that lacked hope. Education became the center of the universe and the key to break out of the darkness. Education was available anywhere from Samarqand, Bokhara, Constantinople, Isphahan, Khorasan, Cordoba, Cadiz, Toledo, Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad, Hamadan, Shiraz, or Tashkent—just to name a few places. Libraries with thousands and thousands of books were found here. All books were handwritten, painstakingly during that period and held the mysteries of the world. Many books were religious in character but others contained information on the arts, sciences, exploration, and math’s just waiting to be read and discovered. To meet the intellects of that era would have been a dream come true for many of us. These religious heads and intellects walked the streets and could be found discussing, arguing, making points, and theories in the mehfil khanas (place of gathering) . And maybe many of their religious companions included the well known Sufi saints like Khwaja Usman Harooni, Khwaja Ibrahim Qandozi, Khwaja Haji Sharif Zindani, Hazrat Shamsh Tabrez, Hazrat Sheikh Sohrawardy, Hazrat Sheikh Moinuddin Ibn Arabi, Hazrat Khwaja FariduddinAkhtar, Hazrat Ahmed Kabir Refahi Qadri, Hazrat Shirazi, or Hazrat Jalaluddin Tabrezi.

Chapter 2

The Sufi

A Sufi has said—

‘Yin sharbatey ashiqi ast khird

Behhuney jigar chashid natawan’…

—The nectar of love cannot be enjoyed, but by them who have wept the tears of blood drawn from the heart.

Suf is Persian for wool. It signifies an individual or person who wears a dress made of wool. The early ascetics wore garments of un-dyed wool and patched khirqa (frocks), came to be called Sufis. They were also known by the early Persian phrase of ‘Pashmina Posh’—wool wearers, it certainly explains and reflects on the word completely. The later Sufis wore suf’s that had been rendered in the shade of blue or green in color.

The Sufi philosophy is based on a simple but great gospel (that has survived through various ages) to live and let live and to bestow affection upon mankind without discrimination. But without a religious teacher, the Pir one cannot reach a high spiritual stage, or develop the natural spark of divine love, piety and religious devotion. The students are taught through various exercises on immaterialism from materialism to achieve spiritual asylum. A Sufi evolves himself through the stages of zikr /dikr (prayer) and sama (mehfil). The Sufi mystics practice this feature by completely incorporating the principle of ‘love of God’ in their lives. ‘Love towards all, Malice towards none, which is the main component in their lives.’

When Sufism originated it was very different from mainstream Islam. Its followers were ostracized for their beliefs, methods and