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The
words proved a divine call and only inflamed his love for
Hazrat Baba Faridudeen (rahmatullahi alaihi). He set out
immediately and arrived in Ajodhan to be welcomed by the
great saint with open arms. One of his most famous titles,
'Mahboob e Elahi', or 'beloved of God,' comes from his meeting
with the great saint. Baba Faridudeen (rahmatullahi alaihi)
declared that those words were written upon his forehead
in letters of light. After his spiritual training, he was
afforded the khilafat-e-azam and sent back to Delhi. Baba
Faridudeen (rahmatullahi alaihi) prophesied, "You will be
a spacious tree under which oppressed humanity will take
shelter and find comfort."
Thus Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) moved to Delhi
with his mureeds and settled in Ghyaspur, a secluded township
where he could avoid the bustle of the huge city. This village
soon became as busy as Delhi itself, and eventually he thought
of leaving. Then however, he received a divine message through
the tongue of a young sufi who said, "true courage lies
in finding peace and seclusion amidst the bustle of the
worldly crowd." Thus warned, he remained in Ghyaspur until
his last breath. A khanqah was built for him by one of his
mureeds, and soon became a mighty centre of learning.
Courtiers,
princes and the rich, who had previously led lives of debauchery,
drinking and sin were so powerfully influenced by the austere,
moral life and spiritual lessons of Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi
alaihi) that they adopted in their thousands a new and clean
style of living. Most devoted themselves to the service
of the great shaykh for the rest of their lives.
Under
Hazrat Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi), the sun
of the Chishtiyya silsila reached the zenith, and its power
and influence attained heights that it has never equalled.
In addition to being a spiritual master and distinguished
alim, Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) was also an
administrative genius. Throughout India, he established
literally thousands of khanqahs after the model of Shaykh
Abdul Qadir al-Jilani's (rahmatullahi alaihi); he sent his
khulafa across the length and breadth of the great nation,
especially to the hitherto unexplored south. His primary
khanqah in Delhi became a veritable fountain of divine wisdom
and knowledge, and the centre of religious, moral and social
education for hundreds of thousands of aspirants throughout
the eastern Islamic world.
Nizamudeen
Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) lived for near a century, during
which time Delhi witnessed the rise and fall of no less
than seven kingdoms. Some of the sultans were the great
saints devoted followers, others his avowed enemies. Despite
many rich and influential men wishing to meet and pay homage
to him, Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) never entertained
them, remembering Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti's (rahmatullahi
alaihi) warning never to mix with the worldly. He used to
say, "My khanqah has two doors. When they enter one, I will
leave through the other." Because of his great generosity
and influence, Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) was
extremely popular amongst the people of Delhi, and this
naturally aroused the ire of kings and courtiers.
However,
though his strongly held principles often led him to open
conflict with the rulers, he absolutely refused to compromise
the
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commandments
of Shariah and traditions of Sufism.Once sultan Qutbuddin
Khilji issued an edict that forbade anyone from donating
any money to him; the saint responded by doubling his khanqah's
expenses and increasing its beneficiaries to 16,000 every
day. The royal order thus had no effect whatsoever, and
the sultan who persecuted Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi
alaihi) came to a miserable end.
As
with all sufis and the pious, the lessons we learn from
the life of Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) are
myriad. A sufi teaches not only through words, but also
in the lofty moral standards he or she sets. Love for Allah,
Rasulallah (sallalahu alaihi wasallam) and Islam is radiated
not only through their sermons, but in the very purity of
their lives wherein can be found the highest principles
of Islam. In the very simplicity of their material existences
we learn the true meaning of tawakkul, or absolute trust
in Allah. And through observing their actions and deeds,
we discover exactly how we should lead our lives.
Rivers
of wealth flowed daily into the khanqah, and was given out
even more freely to the poor and the destitute, but the
attire of Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) consisted
of a cloak and some badly torn clothes. Banquets were prepared
every day, but Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) subsisted
on a piece of barley bread and some water for sehri - and
sometimes he would not even eat that much, thinking of all
the needy who could not even afford this. He loved even
his most staunch enemies; once when they scattered thorns
in his path, he walked over them uncaringly. Then, with
his bare feet bleeding, he prayed that every thorn that
had pierced him might become a rose in the grave of the
thrower.
He
used to recite 300 rakats of nafil salaah in twenty four
hours, fast every day, and spend the entire night in worship.
His mujaheda only increased with age; at eighty years, his
only rest would be the nap that is sunnah for a short while
after zuhr. Even so, he used to instruct his mureeds that
should anyone come to see him during this time, he should
be woken immediately.
Hazrat
Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) had twenty four
khulafa who were sent to every part of India, though his
khalifa-e-azam, Khwaja Nasirudeen Chiragh e Dehlawi (rahmatullahi
alaihi), remained in the capital on his orders. Hazrat Amir
Khusro (rahmatullahi alaihi), the near legendary poet, composer,
inventor, linguist, historian and scholar, one of the intellectual
giants of Indian history, was his most loved and devoted
mureed.
Hazrat Nizamudeen Auliya (rahmatullahi alaihi) died at the
age of eighty nine, after Rasulullah (sallalahu alaihi wasallam)
himself visited him in a dream and told him, "I am very
eager to meet you." With almost his last breath, he ordered
that all the food and money remaining in the khanqah be
distributed amongst the poor and needy. After more than
sixty years of heading the Chishtiyya silsila, as the sun
rose during his ishraaq salaah, this great spiritual sun
of India set. The whole of Delhi and the lands beyond were
plunged into deepest mourning at his passing away, and his
like has rarely been seen ever since. As the grief-stricken
Amir Khusro (rahmatullahi alaihi) himself said upon arriving
at his pir-o-murshid's tomb,
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