One of the most prolific genres composed by Khusrau are the pahelis, riddles that children of the subcontinent grow up enjoying. Deeply influenced by the spiritual philosophy of Like his master, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Khusrau believed in tolerance and affection between people of separate faiths. Khusrau loved Hindustan, India, with all its fragrant flowers, fruits, vegetables, trees and animals and likened it to Paradise writing, ‘The heavens said that of all the countries which have come out of the earth, it is Hindustan that has achieved the height of excellence’.
11 October, 2011 11:55:00
Delhi has been traditionally known as ‘Baees khwaja ki chaukhat’, the threshold of 22 Sufi Masters. The Chishti Sufis draw their spiritual lineage from Hasan of Basra, who was initiated by the Prophet’s son-in-law, Imam Ali. ...There is a belief that Prophet Muhammad gifted some of his personal possessions, including a cloak and prayer carpet, to the elders of the Chishti Order. These sacred relics came to the sub-continent with Khwaja Gharib Nawaz of Ajmer,...
04 August, 2011 09:40:00
The Sufis of Gujarat were responsible for the cultural integration of the people of the state. The Sufis spoke to people in their own language and sought to share the pain, tribulation and joy of the people. ...
11 July, 2011 09:25:00
His real name was Sayyid Usman Shah but he acquired the title of Lal, red, due to his habit of wearing red garments, and Shahbaz, royal falcon, for his soaring divinity. Some legends attribute the title to miracles such as taking spiritual flights to Makkah for prayers at the Kaabah. Another tale recounts how he flew to help his friend Bahauddin Zakariya, whose life was threatened by the King of Multan. ...
27 June, 2011 05:10:00
He wrote that a Muslim ruler, being the shadow of God should render equitable justice and beneficence to both believers and non-believers. His concern was ensuring the viability of the Shariah through reforming the behaviour of the Sultans and the ruling elite. His writings created an ambience for the evolution of an Islamic consciousness. ...
18 June, 2011 06:40:00
Numerous miracles are attributed to Khwaja Moinuddun Gharib Nawaz, Patron of the Poor, regarding his arrival at Ajmer during the rule of the Rajput king Prithvi Raj Chauhan. According to popular belief, the Queen Mother’s knowledge of astronomy and occult predicted Khwaja’s arrival 12 years earlier. ..He had set out for Baghdad from Madinah and travelled through present day Afghanistan and Pakistan before finally arriving in Ajmer....
10 June, 2011 05:10:00
The mystic poet’s family belonged to the Hashmi tribe, who were descendants of the Prophet’s son-in-law Imam Ali. His father Sultan Bayazid was a senior official at Shahjehan court....
20 May, 2011 10:20:00
Makhdoom Ali Mahimi was well versed in Islamic sciences including jurisprudence, mysticism, theology and philosophy. He left a large body of religious and literary manuals. He became one of the first Sufi scholars to write a commentary on the Quran, Al Tafsirar Rahmani, commenting on both its mystic and non-mystic content. ...
08 May, 2011 03:20:00
Extremely fond of musical assemblies, the Shaykh invented the Burhani style of dancing. There is no recorded evidence to show he was interested in the conversion of Hindus to Islam. Nevertheless, the open kitchen and the annual Urs festivals encouraged the local Hindus to regard the Sufis with reverence....
28 April, 2011 11:00:00
"First let us acknowledge God, who has made love the worth of the world.
It was God that first loved, and Prophet Muhammad is His beloved"
- Waris Shah ...
17 April, 2011 01:45:00
He is the saint-poet of Sindh. The lineage of his family can be traced to Imam Zainul Abideen, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. His mystic lyrics are popular all over the sub-continent. And are translated into many languages...
27 March, 2011 08:25:00
Barring some legends and anecdotes, little is recorded of the life of Sabir Sahab. He spent all his time in meditation, gaining a reputation for piety and asceticism. Feeling threatened, the local clerics began to indulge in conspiracies against him....
13 March, 2011 05:30:00
The ASI Park in Mehrauli is amongst my favourite walks in Delhi. Adjacent to the flower market and along one of the roads leading to ...
28 February, 2011 09:57:00
By SADIA DEHLVILast week I was invited to give a talk on Sufism at the Nagaur Sufi music festival. The Festival, held at the magnificent ...
17 February, 2011 01:55:00
Muslims seem unable able to grapple with the challenges of modernity. Faced with the political and scientific triumph of the West, they are increasingly forgetting Prophetic traditions of moderation, forgiveness and mercy, says the writer. ...
02 February, 2011 04:30:00
Deoband, although important,is not representative of the Muslim majority in India, says the author. Founded in 1866 AD, the seminary teaches and practices an austere, literal interpretation of Islam. It declares itself as a non-political, but over the years has been involved in occasional political statements endorsing or criticizing politicians and state policies. ...
24 January, 2011 03:50:00
Most media debates that involve the Sharia engage in a confrontationist attitude questioning the rationale of age-old beliefs. Television news channels looking for controversial sound bytes often pick up the worst representatives of Muslim opinion and then wonder why moderate voices are not heard, says the author, a renowned Sufi scholar. ...
17 January, 2011 10:12:00
The Qazi’s wit and knowledge of Islamic law often frustrated the effort of the Islamic jurists to curb the practices of music in the khanqahs of Delhi. ...
08 January, 2011 11:25:00
Most of the Shaykh’s writings primarily attempt to reconcile the Shariah, Islamic jurisprudence with the Tariqah, the mystic path, says Sadia Dehlvi. ...
01 January, 2011 02:25:00
It is said that Mai Sahiba cannot bear the sorrow of a woman and blesses them immediately....
22 December, 2010 05:05:00
By Sadia Dehlvi...
15 December, 2010 11:55:00
Although ideological links between radical Islamic groups and their Saudi patrons have existed for a long time, Muslim communities usually shy away from scrutinizing this aspect. We forget that the House of Saud is a temporal, political entity and does not represent spiritual Islam....
30 November, 2010 10:40:00
His verses have lasted longer than most poetic work of the eighteenth century Delhi. His Persian poetry followed the traditional patterns and imagery, but his fame rests on his Urdu poetry. He sings of the unity of created beings ...
20 November, 2010 09:45:00
Beautiful, elegant, erudite, generous, cultured and loved by all, the Princes wielded tremendous influence during the reign of Emperor Shahjehan.She was the first woman in the house of Timur to take to mysticism. An accomplished writer and poet, Jehanara authored two Sufi manuals. Agra's Jama Masjid and Delhi's Chandni Chowk Bazaar stand as testimony to her patronage of architecture....
13 November, 2010 08:40:00
To the dignified station of love I was raised,
"And from the favours of the people I was freed.
Like a candle I was melted in this assembly,
By being burnt, in the divine mysteries I was initiated".
---Sarmad ...
02 November, 2010 01:37:00
As one deeply devoted to Sufi philosophy, it breaks my heart to see the radicalisation of Islam spread amongst Muslim communities bringing about destruction, death ...
24 October, 2010 03:45:00
Shaykh Kaleemullah embraced the Sufi path in a unique way. In his youth, he fell desperately in love with a Khattari boy. However, the boy ...
21 October, 2010 04:50:00
Tamil Muslims take great pride in their history, the fact that they are from amongst those who embraced Islam during the life of Prophet Muhammad. ...
16 October, 2010 03:20:00
sole Sufi dargah in India to be located in the heart of an imperial citadel...
03 October, 2010 01:05:00
“Everyone who traverses on the path to God is bestowed with a particular aptitude,
God has bestowed upon me that of explaining His secrets”
—Khwaja Gesudaraz
...
21 September, 2010 01:30:00
A lesser known dargah in the old city of Delhi is that of the eighteenth century poet mystic Mirza Jaane Janan. Mevlana Rumi is believed ...
14 September, 2010 10:55:00
By Prof. Surendra Bhatnagar Temples are architectural marvels. They have attracted world wide attention and appreciation as well as invasions from outside invaders in ...
15 September, 2010 04:55:00
By Sadia DehlviMian Mir, a Qadri Sufi, holds a pivotal rank in Sikh history for laying the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahab at the ...
03 August, 2010 03:50:00
Gharib Nawaz preached tolerance, advocating respect for all religions. He believed that while the Hajjis, pilgrims, walked around the Kaaba—those with Divine knowledge circled the heart, for God resides in the hearts of those who love Him. Khwaja’s inclusive message of peace and brotherhood brought hundreds of thousands to the fold of Islam....
04 September, 2010 06:45:00
Shaykh Sharfuddin’s teachings are primarily known through his letters contained in Maktubat–e- Sadi, (The Hundred Letters).He wrote that perception of the Divine initiative is not restricted to Muslims. While Hindus seek God in idols and Christians in Jesus, the quest is the same. A persons; heart must be filled with boundless hope in god as he begins the quest, and he will need to be steadfast on the path despite the obstacles. He stresses on self vigilance till the last breath. ...
01 September, 2010 03:25:00
By Sadia Dehlvi ...
25 August, 2010 04:45:00
The dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi is representative of the city’s language, poetry, food, music, architecture; the Sufi Master still attracts people from all sections of society, just like he did in his lifetime. ...
19 August, 2010 03:20:00
He is Punjab's first Sufi poet. His abode on the banks of Sutlej became Pakpattan, ‘the ferry of the pure'. He wrote poetry in the local Hindawi dialect also. The Granth Sahib contains 135 hymns written by him....
10 August, 2010 08:29:00
...... His family drew its lineage from Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. Despite his intimacy with the Sultan, he led an ascetic life steeped in poverty. .......
28 July, 2010 02:48:00
It is probably as a result of the impact of the Khwaja shrine and Pushkar at Ajmer that in many villages surrounding the city Hindus ...
26 July, 2010 03:40:00
Dr. Surendra BhatnagarIndian face of Islam is Sufi. Love is the only form of religion to a Sufi. There is no religion greater than the ...
26 July, 2010 07:55:00
By Sadia Dehlvi...
16 July, 2010 01:40:00
At Ajmer, a famous pilgrim centre about 130 km from Jaipur, Hinduism and Sufi Islam co-exist in glorious harmony with their shrines, the unique Brahma ...
07 July, 2010 02:05:00
There is a historic chariot in the possession of Gurchet Singh at Bhai Roopa village near Rampura Phul in Bathinda district of Punjab. It is ...
12 June, 2010 03:35:00
“The Bhagwad Gita is the first manual on management.” This statement may startle many modern-day managers and students of management alike. It baffled me all ...
19 June, 2010 01:55:00
By Prof. Surendra BhatnagarA blind belief in God has guided man down the ages. And people have fought wars in the name of their god. ...
28 June, 2010 12:45:00
There is another spiritual bridge between people of India and Pakistan, and it deserves to be more widely known in India than it is. Thousands ...
26 June, 2010 09:00:00
TALES FROM THE PAST By Mohammad VazeeruddinAs the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan have just talked of building “bridges to reduce trust ...
23 June, 2010 07:13:00
It is not as widely known as it deserves to be that in India there are several shrines that defy denominational barriers. For instance, a ...
12 June, 2010 09:25:00
Around 10-30 pm on May 19, 1984, some rioters tried to attack a Hanuman temple in the Sewri Cross Lane in Central Mumbai. As the ...
07 June, 2010 01:50:00
By Vazeeruddin Away from Mumbai, on a hillock that gets dressed up in the ninth day of Magh month (Muslim era) in a frill of ...
28 May, 2010 01:05:00
In March 1987 some places in Madhya Pradesh witnessed communal clashes, but it redounded to the credit of the masses in both Bhopal and Ashta ...
21 May, 2010 01:45:00
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the influence of Sufi Islam and the Bhakti Cult on Muslims and Hindus, respectively, is far too ...
20 May, 2010 02:00:00
In a joint sting operation, Tehelka magazine, and Headlines Today, a TV channel, have unmasked the Karnataka-based fundamentalist organization Sri Ram Sene as just another ...
10 May, 2010 03:05:00
By Mohammad Vazeeruddin The one reason why Sufi Islam is more sinned against than sinning, with several Islamic countries considering it heresy, is its inclusiveness. ...
14 May, 2010 03:50:00
By Mohammad Vazeeruddin Ever heard of Ameer Hamza of Udipi in Karnataka? He is a devout Muslim who prides himself on his services to Hindu ...
16 May, 2010 05:10:00
By Mohammad Vazeeruddin In August 1986, Zarina, a slum-dweller, was married off to Mohammad Ayub, a leather goods seller, in Andheri, a northern Mumbai suburb. ...
12 May, 2010 01:25:00
By Mohammad Vazeeruddin History shows that Sufism came to India together with Islam even if this mindset, engaged relentlessly in eclectic search for a universal, ...
02 May, 2010 04:05:00
By Mohammad Vazeeruddin Much has been written about Sufi Islam, what it means and what it does not mean, but here is a place ...
29 April, 2010 01:30:00
By Mohammad Vazeeruddin What is the relevance of mystic poet Baba Farid to present-day India, other than, of course, that, though a Muslim mystic, he ...
22 April, 2010 11:10:00
Saint who stole a thief’s heart! By Mohammad Vazeeruddin You might dismiss it as petty larceny, but you wouldn’t if you knew the full story ...
17 March, 2010 05:15:00
Pakistan-born Islamic scholar Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, who founded the organisation, Minhaj Ul Quran, has released a 600-page Fatwa, condemning terrorist attacks and suicide bombers and ...
06 February, 2009 02:00:00
The blood-thirsty jihadists are doing a great harm to Islam, forgetting that Islam has been the fastest growing religion in the world. Oddly, a large number of conversions to Islam take place in the United States, the land which is so intensely hated by the protagonists of jihad and terror.
...
05 January, 2009 12:08:00
Silent Avatar, as Meher Baba is known, hails crucifixion as Jesus's way of taking the 'burden of the universe' upon himself. ...
