Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
Context:
- The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi presented a Chadar which shall be offered at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah on the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
- The Urs festival is an annual festival held at Ajmer in Rajasthan which commemorates the death anniversary of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti.
About Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti:
- Moinuddin Hasan Chishti was born in Sijistan (modern-day Sistan) in Iran in 1141-42 CE.
- After Muizuddin Muhammad bin Sam of Ghor had already defeated Prithviraj Chauhan in the Second Battle of Tarain (1192) and established his rule in Delhi, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti started living and preaching in Ajmer.
- His instructive discourses, full of spiritual insights, soon drew the local populace as well as kings and nobles and peasants and the poor from far and wide.
- His shrine in Ajmer has been visited by rulers like Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Sher Shah Suri, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Dara Shukoh and Aurangzeb.
About Sufism:
- Sufism is a mystical form of Islam, a school of practice that focuses on the spiritual search for God and shuns materialism.
- It is a form of Islamic mysticism which stresses on asceticism. There is a lot of emphasis on devotion towards God.
- In Sufism, self discipline is considered an essential condition to gain knowledge of God by sense of perception.
- Unlike orthodox Muslims which emphasise on external conduct, the Sufis lay stress on inner purity.
- Sufis believe service to humanity is tantamount to service to God.
Chishti Order (Chishtiya):
- Chishtiya Order was founded in India by Khwaja Moin-Uddin Chishti.
- It emphasised the doctrine of the unity of being with God (waḥdat al-wujūd) and members of the order were also pacifists.
- They rejected all material goods as distractions from the contemplation of God.
- They abstained from connection with the secular state.
- Recitation of the names of God, both aloud and silently (dhikr jahri, dhikr khafī), formed the cornerstone of Chishti practice.
- The Chishti teachings were carried forward and popularized by disciples of Khwaja Moin-Uddin Chishti like Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, Fareeduddin Ganj-e-Shakar, Nizam uddin Auliya and Naseeruddin Charagh.
Source: THE HINDU.