2 weeks Ago By Akhil Bakshi
The Ajmer dargah , housing the tomb of the Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, is a revered site for South Asians, attracting followers from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. People from all corners of the subcontinent visit Ajmer to seek the saint’s favours, bridging divides of wealth, religion, and nationality. The rich leave their golf courses, pick up their Gucci bags and troop to the dargah, rubbing shoulders with the poor, who have spent years of savings to visit the saint’s grave.
Despite being a symbol of unity, the dargah is now embroiled in a controversy. Hindu Sena has filed a lawsuit claiming that Ajmer Sharif was built over a Shiva temple, a claim that threatens to disrupt the harmony fostered by this sacred site. The dargah’s ability to integrate people of various faiths, including Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, stands as a testament to the region’s multicultural spirit, which the lawsuit risks undermining.
Born in Persia in 1139, Moinuddin Chisti had a transformative journey to sainthood. Orphaned at 16, he inherited an orchard and a windmill, but a chance encounter changed his life. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD One day, while tending his plants, a wandering dervish by the name of Ebrahim Qandoozi stopped by and took the boy’s seat under the shade of a tree.
The courteous boy offered some grapes to his guest. The dervish consumed the grapes and let out a satisfying burp to indicate his appreciation. Then he took out some mysterious stuff from his bag, chewed it in his mouth, spat it out on his hand and presented the mess to his gracious host.
Moinuddin consumed the dervish’s spitty waste with relish and, lo and behold, was instantly filled with the light of wisdom and knowledge. Putting all his assets on the market and distributing the nominal proceeds amongst the poor, Moinuddin broke all ties with the material world and left for Samarkand and Bokhara, the two great centres of Islamic learning. Here, he sought a guide to enhance his spiritual dexterity, ultimately finding Hazrat Khwaja Usman Haruni.
He devoted 20 years to his mentorship, deepening his understanding of Islam. While performing haj at Medina, the Prophet appeared to Moinuddin in his dream and ordered him to proceed to India to “show the path of truth to the people there”. Following the Prophet’s command, Moinuddin hurried towards India, stopping only to exchange notes with prominent Sufi saints.
He based himself on the banks of the Ana Sagar Lake in Ajmer, then a backward acreage of desert. When the word spread that a powerful dervish was camping in Ajmer, people began trickling in to receive his blessings. Attracted by his kind treatment and divine teachings, the trickle turned into a flood.
People converted to Islam by the thousands. Faced with competition, the Hindu priests of nearby temples attacked Moinuddin and his band of fakirs. The saint threw a handful of dust on the Brahmins, making them lose their senses and their “vitality”.
No fresh lot of Brahmins appeared to continue the onslaught. Prithviraj Chauhan, the ruler of Ajmer, sent a battalion of practitioners of witchcraft and black magic to stem the tide and push the saint out of his kingdom. Demonstrating the superiority of his miraculous powers, Moinuddin overcame the attacks of the magicians, and converted them to his cause.
After that, his celebrity status hit the sky, and he remained unchallenged. Moinuddin Chisti preached the liberal form of Islam, free of wacky dogma. He did not support the religion’s militaristic tendencies to spread itself at the point of the sword and favoured its peaceful propagation without any compulsion.
His universal message of love, peace and non-violence endeared him to the people of South Asia and landed him on the right side of history. Moinuddin Chisti was a development-oriented saint. He said that “the best way of evading the fire of hell lies in feeding the hungry, providing water to the thirsty, removing the wants of the needy and befriending the miserable”.
I have been saying the same thing all through my life but am no closer to sainthood. The saint offered some innovative scientific theories. “Human perspiration is not impure,” he concluded.
This original discovery has adversely affected the sale of soap amongst his followers. But the shampoo manufacturers are happy with the saint and should be contributing liberally to the institutions he has left behind. Moinuddin had declared: “There is impurity below every human hair.
Hence water must touch and reach the root of every hair. If a single hair shall remain dirty, purification is not complete and is impaired.” Moinuddin, preoccupied in his youth with spreading the message of Islam, had missed out on marriage.
The Sufi saints, anyway, led an austere life and renounced matrimony. Moinuddin himself had said that “when the fakir meditates over a thing, he attains a state of absorption in which even if thousands of angels assuming wonderful forms try to attract him, he would remain entirely undisturbed”. When he had advanced in age, the Holy Prophet visited the saint in a dream and said: "O Moinuddin, you are a great preceptor of our religion.
You should not depart from marriage, which is incumbent upon every Muslim under the laws of Shariat.” As it happened, that very night one of Moinuddin’s devotees had captured a Hindu princess in an encounter. The young girl had embraced Islam and was offered to the saint.
His missionary spirit aroused, Moinuddin gave up the joys of bachelorhood and married her. Thirty years later, at the age of 87, the saint took a second wife on popular demand. When the marriageable daughter of the commissioner of Ajmer was offered to him, a reluctant Moinuddin said, “Although I am now too old to marry, the command of the Holy Prophet must be obeyed.
I accept this relation." Moinuddin Chisti passed away while meditating in 1233 AD. When his body was discovered, his forehead glittered with the radiance of an Arabic inscription – ‘He is God’s beloved, and he died in God’s love’.
The great saint’s fan club includes kings, sultans, nawabs, presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors and chief justices. Whether these powerful supporters of the saint’s legacy will step in to defend the dargah against politically motivated lawsuits remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that the values of love, peace, and service championed by Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti are more relevant than ever in today’s divided world.
(Akhil Bakshi, an author and explorer, is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Explorers Club USA, and Editor of ‘Indian Mountaineer’. He is also the founder of Bharatiya Yuva Shakti, an organisation that ensures good leadership at the village level. He tweets @AkhilBakshi1.
This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.) (At The Quint, we question everything.
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