Who was Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti and why has his dargah attained such pre-eminence? Frankly, I had never tried to answer this question before my 11-year-old son insisted to know all about it on our visit to Ajmer recently. Truth is, ever since I’ve known as a child that the khwaja was a peer who propagated secularism and generosity above all, I’ve been a believer. It’s a different matter that the modern-day khadims (descendants) _ Islamic version of Hindu pandits at the temples _ won’t let you be at the dargah. They are supposed to guide you through the whole meditation process, including buying of chaddar (holy sheet) ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 to rose petals to introducing you to the ‘khwaja’. Not for free, though. And as you take his leave, he’ll flash his tacky business card with his mug on it. “Sir, please visit again. Do not forget me, sir,” he’ll say with a cheesy grin.
Try asking him about the khwaja and all that he tells you is that 'he’s responsible for every single Muslim in India'. Meaning? He propagated Islam in India? He isn’t to be blamed. Although Muinuddin Chishti looms large in the history of Islam and Sufism in South Asia, we have, unfortunately, very little accurate information about him, because of an absence of reliable contemporary sources. Most of what we know is based on legend and hagiography that developed around his figure several centuries after his death. As a result, we know considerably more about the personality of Muinuddin as it was constructed over time through the veneration of successive generations of devotees than the actual Muinuddin of history.
As we gingerly sift through legendary accounts to separate historical fact from pious fiction, certain basic information about him emerges. A pious, modest Sufi Shaykh, whose family claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Muinuddin probably grew up in Sijistan, Iran. As a young man, he sold the property he had inherited and went to Central Asian cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in search of spiritual instruction. In the course of his extensive travels, he was initiated into the Chishti Sufi order by Shaykh Usman Harwani, eventually becoming his principal khalifa.
Towards the end of the 12th century, Khwaja Muinuddin came to India, via Afghanistan, settling first in Delhi and later in Ajmer where he attracted a substantial following, acquiring a great deal of respect among residents of the city. Khwaja Muinuddin apparently never wrote down his teachings in the form of a book, nor did his immediate disciples do so. Consequently, we have to rely on information transmitted through oral traditions and hagiographies concerning what he taught. A popular tradition asserts that Khwaja Muinuddin preached that his disciples should have "generosity like that of the ocean, mildness like that of the sun, a modesty like that of the earth".
Khwaja Muinuddin married late in life, dying seven years after his marriage at the age of 97 on Rajab 6, most probably in 1236. His two principal khalifas, Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar (d.1235) and Hamiduddin Savali (d. 1276), continued transmitting the teachings of their master through their disciples, leading to the widespread proliferation of the Chishti Sufi order in India. Among Qutbuddin's prominent disciples was Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakar (the treasure-house of sugar) (d. 1265), whose dargah is at Pakpattan in Pakistan.
Fariduddin's most famous disciple was Nizamuddin Awliya (d. 1325), popularly referred to as Mahboob-i-Ilahi (God's beloved). His dargah is located at Nizamuddin, Delhi, from where his disciples branched out to establish dargahs in several regions from Sindh in the west to Bengal in the east and the Deccan in the south. With the development of an extensive network of Chishti dargahs all over the subcontinent, the Ajmer dargah took on the special distinction of being the 'mother' dargah of them all.
Khwaja Muinuddin and the early Chishtis were vehemently against any close association with those in political power as they considered such contact to be detrimental to a person's moral and spiritual wellbeing. Ironically, by the early 14th century, the Chishti order began to rise to prominence precisely on account of the enormous royal patronage it was attracting. As Muslim rulers of Turko-Persian ancestry began to establish kingdoms in the subcontinent, they associated their own personal fortunes and those of their dynasty with that of the Chishti order.
While the dynasties, both Muslim and non-Muslim, patronised the shrine at Ajmer, its most generous and loyal patrons were members of the Mughal dynasty who were firmly convinced that their worldly success was due to the blessings of the Chishti Shaykhs. Akbar (r. 1556-1605), in particular, was an ardent devotee. In all, Akbar undertook 14 pilgrimages to the shrine, several of them on foot. Two of these pilgrimages, those of 1568 and 1574, were made immediately after conquering Chittor and Bengal respectively.
Akbar's reverence for and devotion to the Chishtis increased significantly when Shaykh Salim Chishti, a descendant of Baba Farid Ganj-i-Shakar, correctly predicted the birth of his son and heir, Prince Salim. In gratitude, Akbar performed a pilgrimage to Ajmer, walking on foot all the way from Agra. He also had his new capital city, Fatehpur Sikri, built near Salim Chishti's khanqah as a tangible way of symbolising the close Mughal-Chishti alliance.
Akbar's son Jahangir (r. 1605-27) was similarly devoted to the dargah, believing that he owed his very physical existence to the blessings of Khawaja Muinuddin.
Shah Jahan (r. 1627-58) visited the dargah five times during his reign, always approaching it on foot. Shah Jahan's eldest daughter, Jahanara Begum (1614-81), was personally inclined to Islamic mysticism.
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