Context:
PM met a Muslim community delegation and bestowed a sacred Chadar intended to be placed during the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif Dargah
Urs festival – An annual event held in Ajmer, Rajasthan commemorating the death anniversary of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chisti
About Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti:
- One of the greatest sufi saint and a philosopher
- Born in Sijistan (modern day Sistan)
- Instructive discourses with spiritual thoughts enlightens and attracted the local populace, kings, nobles, peasants etc.
- Began residing in Ajmer and started preaching after the Second Battle of Terrain (1192).
- Established Chishtiyya Sunni mystical order
- Qutubuddin Bhaktiyar Kaki was his immediate student
- Munis al Arwah – biography of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti written by Jahanara’s
About Sufism:
- Islamic liberal reform movement
- Philosophy – “One God and sees everyone and everything as a part of him”
- Seeking truth of divine love and knowledge through personal experience and direct connection with God
- Development of the Sufi movement –
- Started in Persia
- In India: Between 11th and 12th centuries
- Famous sufi saints – Shaikh Abd’ul Qadir Jilani, Shaikh Salim Chishti, Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya
About Chishtiyya Order:
- Founded in India by Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti
- Emphasised wahadat al-wujud (the unity of being with God doctrine)
- Members of orders were pacifist
- Rejected all material goods
- Abstained from connection with the secular state
- Counter-stone practice Dhikr jahri, dhikr khafi – recitation of God’s name aloud and silently.
- Other orders – Suhrawardi order, Naqshbadi order, Qadiriya order
Source: PIB
Previous Year Question
Consider the following statements:
1. Saint Nimbarka was a contemporary of Akbar.
2. Saint Kabir was greatly influenced by Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2019 Prelims]
(a) 1 Only
(b) 2 Only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: (d)
Expalanation:
Statement 1 is not correct- Nimbarka was preachers of Vaishnavite Bhakti in the Telangana region around 13th century. Akbar reign was 15th Century, so unlikely to be contemporaries.
Statement 2 is not correct- Kabir Das timeline is (1398 or 1440-1518). Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1563- 1624) became the leading spokesman of this school after Akbar’s death. Thus Kabir Das died before Sirhindi was born. So, it’s unlikely that Kabir would be greatly influenced’ by such hardcore radical elements.
