Moinuddin Chishti Quotes (1142-1236)

“It cannot be maintained that Islam did not provide an ample opportunity to Hindu saints, philosophers and princes to understand its true character and role. Before the armies of Islam invaded India, the sufis had settled down in many parts of India, built mosque and khanqahs and started their work of conversion. They were the sappers and miners of Islamic invasions which followed in due course. Muinuddin Chishti was not the first 'saint' of Islam to send out an invitation to an Islamic invader to come and kill the kafirs, desecrate their shrines, and plunder their wealth.”

“The Chishtiyya school was foisted on India by Muin-ud-din who had settled down in Ajmer before the Second Battle of Tarain. According to the sufi lore, he had made a few converts from among the local Hindus and started issuing orders to Prithivi Raj Chauhan, the Hindu king, for the benefit of these converts. When the king ignored him, he invited Muhammad Ghuri to invade the Chauhan Kingdom.”

“It is said that saint-worship among Muslims is a practice unique to India. Dargahs of Sufis, real or figurative, are found all over the country and Muslims flock to them in. large numbers. It is a legacy of medieval times. One reason for this can be that most Indian Muslims are converted Hindus, who, when their places of worship were converted into (khanqahs and later) dargahs, did not give up visiting them. For instance, at the most holy dargah of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti, the Sandal Khana mosque is believed to have been built on the site of a Dev temple.”

“Chishti was a great mystic, one of the greatest ever born, and he was a musician. To be a musician is to be against Islam because music is prohibited. He played on the sitar and on other instruments. He was a great musician and he enjoyed it. Five times every day, when a Mohammedan is required to pray the five ritual prayers, he wouldn't pray, he would simply play on his instrument. That was his prayer. This was absolutely anti-religious but nobody could say anything to Chishti. ... When Chishti heard that Jilani was coming he felt, "To pay respect to Jilani it will not be good to play my instrument now. Because he is such an orthodox Mohammedan, it will not be a good welcome. He may feel hurt." ... [but] Jilani laughed and said, "Rules are not for you, you need not hide them. Rules are for ordinary people, rules are not for you -- you should not hide them. How can you hide your soul? Your hands may not play, you may not sing from your throat, but your whole being is musical.”

“The story of Islam is no different. Prophetic Islam is inimical to mystic ideas. In the beginning, some Sufis courted martyrdom, but eventually they bought peace and safety by surrendering to Prophetic Islam. There have been some outstanding Sufis, but by arid large the Sufi movement has been part of a larger aggressive apparatus, just like Christian Missions of Imperialism. Though Islam persecuted "infidels", destroyed their temples, enslaved and looted them, we find no Sufis protesting. In fact. they were often beneficiaries of this vandalism. "In many cases there is no doubt that the shrine of a ·Muslim saint marks the site of some local cult which was practised on the spot long before the introduction of Islam," says Thomas Arnold making it look quite normal and harmless. Mu'in aI-Din Chishtl's dargah at Ajmer is one such shrine built on the ruins of an old Hindu temple. The saint had also got the present of a Hindu princess, part of the booty captured by a Muslim General, Malik Khitab, when he attacked the neighbouring pagan land.”

“Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti (1141–1230), probably the second-greatest Sufi saint of India after Nizamuddin Auliya, demonstrated a deep-seated hatred toward Hindu religion and its practices. On his arrival near the Anasagar Lake at Ajmer, he saw many idol-temples and promised to raze them to the ground with the help of Allah and His Prophet. After settling down there, Khwaja’s followers used to bring every day a cow (sacred to Hindus) near a famous temple, where the king and Hindus prayed, slaughter it and cook kebab from its meat—clearly to show his contempt toward Hinduism. ‘In order to prove the majesty of Islam, he is said to have dried the two holy lakes of Anasagar and Pansela (holy to Hindus) by the heat of his spiritual power.’ Chisti also came to India with his disciples to fight Jihad against the infidels and participated in the treacherous holy war of Sultan Muhammad Ghauri in which the kind and chivalrous Hindu King Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated in Ajmer. In his Jihadi zeal, Chisti ascribed the credit for the victory to himself, saying: ‘We have seized Pithaura (Prithviraj) alive and handed him over to the army of Islam.’’”

“For more than seven centuries people of various creeds, classes and social backgrounds have expressed their devotion at the dargahs of the five great Chishti saints. Amongst these, the most revered shrine is that of Khwaja Muinuddin, popularly known as “Gharib Nawaz” (comforter of the poor). The earliest textual references to Khwaja Muinuddin’s dargah date to the fourteenth century. It was evidently popular because of the austerity and piety of its Shaikh, the greatness of his spiritual successors, and the patronage of royal visitors.””

“We may likewise view the anecdotes regarding Abu Muhammad Chishti’s military and wondrous deeds during Sultan Mahmud’s raid on the temple of Somnath, in Gujarat, as symbolizing the role of Sufis in spreading Islam in the subcontinent while also serving to portray the Chishti Sufi order as a fundamental part of Indian Islam. Another example of hagiography symbolizing historical events or circumstances may be found in an anecdote concerning Mu’in al-Din Chishti, the aforementioned founder of the Chishti order. The anecdote relates that when Mu’in al-Din settled in Rana Sagar, there were still many Hindu temples (but khana) in the area, and when he saw them, he foretold that with the help of the Prophet they would soon be destroyed. After Mu’in al-Din took up residence there, every day his servants would slaughter a cow and eat the flesh thereof. When the unbelievers found out about this, they became wroth and, burning with anger, decided that this was as good a time as any to attack the Muslims and drive them out. With this in mind, they took up swords, cudgels, and slings and went to the place where Mu’in al-Din was. There they surrounded him with the intention of harming him. Now, Mu’in al-Din was praying and did not heed the unbelievers’ presence. His servants, however, became alarmed and informed the shaykh of the dire situation. Having completed his prayers, Mu’in al-Din rose, took a handful of earth in his hand, and, reciting the Verse of the Throne,23 cast it at the armed unbeliever mob. The body of anyone whom the dust touched immediately withered, and the remaining unbelievers were vanquished.”

“To settle in Ajmer, before dealing with the local secular ruler, Mu‘in al-din had to overcome the local deity, Shadi Dev, and Jogi Ajaipal, ‘who had no equal in the whole of Hindustan.” Mu‘in al-din’s encounter with Shadi Dev is not without interest. Having settled his opposition and converted him to Islam, Mu‘in al-din, at Shadi Dev’s suggestion, moves into his former temple. The take-over of ‘pagan’ sites is a recurrent feature of the history of the expansion of Islam. The most obvious precedent is to be found in the Muslim annexation of the Hajar al-aswad at Mecca. Jamali tells how Usman Harwani converts a group of fire-worshippers and moves into their temple for two and a half years after which he leaves them in the hands of the original priests who are now Sufi shaykhs. Sir Thomas Arnold remarks that ‘in many instances there is no doubt that the shrine of a Muslim saint marks the site of some local cult which was practised on the spot long before the introduction of Islam.’ “There is evidence, more reliable than the tradition recorded in the Siyar al-Aqtãb, to suggest that this was the case in Ajmer. Sculpted stones, apparently from a Hindu temple, are incorporated in the Buland Darwãza of Mu‘în al-dîn’s shrine. Moreover, his tomb is built over a series of cellars which may have formed part of an earlier temple… Tradition says that inside the cellar is an image of Mahadeva in a temple on which sandal used to be placed every day by a Brahman.“ The shrine still employs a Hindu family to prepare the sandal which is now presented on the grave of Mu‘in al-din. A tradition, first recorded in the ‘Anis al-Arwãh, suggests that the Sandal Khãna is built on the site of Shãdî Dev’s temple.” These relics of Hindu buildings and practice imply that there is some substance behind the Styar al-Aqtab’s story of Mu‘in al-din moving into Shadi Dev’s tomb. At the least it serves as a useful explanation to his followers of why Mu‘in al-din, else-where portrayed as a powerful evangelist, is-buried on ground sacred to the Hindus.”