Moinuddin Chishti

Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Sijzī (1142–1236 CE), known more commonly as Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī or Moinuddin Chishti,^[7] or reverently as a Shaykh Muʿīn al-Dīn or Hazrat Muʿīn al-Dīn or Khwājā Muʿīn al-Dīn by South Asian Muslims, was a Persian Muslim^[10] preacher,^[7] ascetic, religious scholar, philosopher, and mystic from Sistan,^[7] who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the famous Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism.^[11][7] This particular tariqa (order) became the dominant Muslim spiritual group in medieval India and many of the most beloved and venerated Indian Sunni saints^[12][13][14] were Chishti in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Awliya (d. 1325) and Amir Khusrow (d. 1325).^[7] As such, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī's legacy rests primarily on his having been "one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic mysticism."^[15] Additionally, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī is also notable 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 so in order to make the foreign Arab faith more relatable to the indigenous peoples who had recently entered the religion or whom he sought to convert.^[16]

Although little is known of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī's early life, it is probable that he travelled from Sistan to India to seek refuge from the increasing prevalence of Mongol military action in central Asia at that point in time.^[7] Having arrived in Delhi during the reign of the sultan Iltutmish (d. 1236), 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 Muʿīn al-Dīn's worldview.^[7] 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"^[7][17] in these years of his life. Muʿīn al-Dīn seems to have been unanimously regarded as a great saint after his passing.^[7]

Life

Born in 1142 in Sistan, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was a teenager when his father, Sayyid G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn (d. c. 1155), died,^[15] with the latter leaving his grinding mill and orchard to his son.^[15] Although the young Muʿīn al-Dīn was initially hoping to continue his father's business,^[15] the Mongol conquests in the region seem to have "turned his mind inwards,"^[15] whence he soon began to develop strong contemplative and mystic tendencies in his personal piety.^[15] Soon after, Muʿīn al-Dīn gave away all of his financial assets, and began a life of destitute itineracy, wandering in search of knowledge and wisdom throughout the neighbouring quarters of the Islamic world. As such, he visited the famous seminaries of Bukhara and Samarkand, "and acquired religious learning at the feet of eminent scholars of his age."^[15] It is also entirely probable that he visited the shrines of Muhammad al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944) during his travels in this region, who were both widely-venerated figures in the Sunni world by this point in time.^[15]

While travelling to Iraq, the young Muʿīn al-Dīn encountered in the district of Nishapur the famous Sunni saint and mystic Ḵh̲wāj̲a ʿUt̲h̲mān (d. c. 1200), who initiated the willing seeker into his circle of disciples.^[15] 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.^[15] It was on his independent wanderings that Muʿīn al-Dīn encountered many of the most notable Sunni mystics of the era, including Abdul-Qadir Gilani (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.^[15] Due to Muʿīn al-Dīn's subsequent visits to "nearly all the great centers of Muslim culture in those days," including Bukhara, Samarkand, Nishapur, Baghdad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Balkh, Ghazni, Astarabad, and many others, the preacher and mystic eventually "acquainted himself with almost every important trend in Muslim religious life in the middle ages."^[15]

Arriving in India in the early thirteenth century, Muʿīn al-Dīn first travelled to Lahore to meditate at the tomb-shrine of the famous Sunni mystic and jurist Ali Hujwiri (d. 1072),^[15] who was venerated by the Sunnis of the area as the patron saint of that city.^[15] From Lahore, Muʿīn al-Dīn continued forward on his journey towards Ajmer, which he reached prior to the city's conquest by the Ghurids.^[15] It was in Ajmer that Muʿīn al-Dīn got married at an advanced age; and, according to the seventeenth-century chronicler ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Dihlawī (d. 1642), the mystic actually took two wives, one of whom was the daughter of a local Hindu raja.^[15] Having three sons—Abū Saʿīd, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn and Ḥusām al-Dīn by name—and one daughter named Bībī Jamāl,^[15] it so happened that only the latter inherited her father's mystic leanings,^[15] whence she too was later venerated as a saint in local Sunni tradition.^[15] After settling in Ajmer, Muʿīn al-Dīn worked at firmly establishing the Chishti order of Sunni mysticism in India, and many later biographic accounts relate the numerous miracles wrought by God at the hands of the saint during this period.^[15]

Preaching in India

Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was not the originator or founder of the Chishtiyya order of mysticism as he is often erroneously thought to be.^[18] On the contrary, the Chishtiyya was already an established Sufi order prior to his birth, being originally an offshoot of the older Adhamiyya order that traced its spiritual lineage and titular name to the early Islamic saint and mystic Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 782).^[19] Thus, this particular branch of the Adhamiyya was renamed the Chishtiyya after the 10th-century Sunni mystic Abū Isḥāq al-Shāmī (d. 942)^[20] migrated to the village of Chisht, near Herat in around 930, in order to preach Islam in that area.^[21] The order spread into the Indian subcontinent, however, at the hands of the Persian Muʿīn al-Dīn in the 13th-century,^[22] 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.^[23][24][25]

According to the various chronicles, Muʿīn al-Dīn'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.^[26][27] Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī is said to have appointed Bakhtiar Kaki (d. 1235) as his spiritual successor, who worked at spreading the Chishtiyya in Delhi.^[28] Furthermore, Muʿīn al-Dīn's son, Fakhr al-Dīn (d. 1255), is said to have further spread the order's teachings in Ajmer, whilst another of the saint's major disciples, Ḥamīd al-Dīn Ṣūfī Nāgawrī (d. 1274), preached in Nagor.^[29]

Spiritual lineage

As with every other major Sufi order, the Chishtiyya proposes an unbroken spiritual chain of transmitted knowledge going back to the Prophet Muhammad through one of his Companions, which in the Chishtiyya's case is Ali (d. 661).^[30] Thus, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī's spiritual lineage is traditionally given as follows:

1. Shaykh Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī, taught by:
2. Shaykh ʿUthmān Hārūnī (d. 1220), taught by:
3. Shaykh Sharīf Zandanī (d. 1215), taught by:
4. Shaykh Mawdūd Chishtī (d. 1133), taught by:
5. Shaykh Abū Yūsuf b. Muḥammad Samʿān Chishtī (d. 1067), taught by:
6. Shaykh Abū Muḥammad Chishtī (d. 1020), taught by:
7. Shaykh Abū Aḥmad Abdāl Chishtī (d. 966), taught by:
8. Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shāmī (d. 941), taught by:
9. Shaykh ʿUlū al-Dīnawarī (d. 911), taught by:
10. Shaykh Abū Hubayra al-Baṣrī (d. 900), taught by:
11. Shaykh Ḥudhayfa al-Marʿashī (d. 890), taught by:
12. Shaykh Ibrāhīm Adham al-Balkhī (d. 783), taught by:
13. Shaykh al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ (d. 803), taught by:
14. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Zayd (d. 786), taught by:
15. Imam Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728), taught by:
16. Caliph ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 661), taught by:
17. Muhammad, the Prophet.^[31]

Dargah

Dargah of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī, Ajmer

The tomb (dargāh) of Muʿīn al-Dīn became a deeply venerated site in the century following the preacher's death in 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 1324-1351, who paid a famous visit to the tomb in 1332 to commemorate the memory of the saint.^[32] In a similar way, the later Mughal emperor Akbar (d. 1605) visited the shrine no less than fourteen times during his reign.^[33] In the present day, the tomb of Muʿīn al-Dīn continues to be one of the most popular sites of religious visitation for Sunni Muslims in the Indian subcontinent,^[7] with over "hundreds of thousands of people from all over the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent assembling there on the occasion of [the saint's] ʿurs or death anniversary."^[15] Additionally, the site also attracts many Hindus, who have also venerated the Islamic saint since the medieval period.^[15] In 2007, the shrine of Muʿīn al-Dīn suffered a bomb blast at the hands of ultra right-wing Hindu nationalist extremists, leading to the deaths of three followers and the injuries of seventeen others; the shrine has been completely restored since then.^[34][35]

Popular culture

A song in the 2008 film Jodhaa Akbar named "Khwaja Mere Khwaja," composed by A. R. Rehman, pays tribute to Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī.^[36][37]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moinuddin Chishti.

Notes

Sources