Such is the belief in the powers of Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti, that his dargah in Ajmer draws visitors from all faiths every day, writes Humra Quraishi

Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisty—also known as Gharib Nawaz—had especially come from the Middle East and settled in Ajmer. He had come when he was in his middle age but stayed on till his last years. It’s said that that he was born in East Persia around 533 Hijri ( 1138-39 A.D ) and lost his parents at an early stage. Though he had inherited an orchard and a windmill but no sooner he had come in contact with a dervesh Sufi, Ebrahim Qandoosi, he gave up all wordly belongings and travelled towards Samarkand and Bukhara that were centres of great learning. From there he travelled further, towards Mecca and Medina and it is whilst he was there that he ‘d decided to travel down towards India.

And at that time Ajmer was ruled by the Rajput ruler Prithvi Raj Chauhan . Khwaja Saheb settled down at a hillock, close to the Ana Sagar lake. Soon he was besieged by the local people, who were totally taken up by his simplicity and piety. As the power of his blessings made way, even the mighty rulers and rajas made way towards the humble dwelling of this Sufi. It’s amazing how this practice continues to this day. Though Khwaja Saheb passed away in 1236 AH, at the age of 97 but till date thousands visit his dargah on a daily basis. The day I visited this particular dargah , the estimated crowds were said to be not less than 10,000.

A majority of visitors and devotees to the dargah are non-Muslims. This could be because this Sufi believed that there should be no complusion in religion and that there should never be any demarcations and biases along religious lines.

He’d said "The closest to Allah is one who possesses the following three qualities: magnanimity of the river, kindness of the sun and humility of the earth. He had also said "noblest of character is possessed by one who is bountiful in poverty, content in hunger, cheerful in grief and friendly in hostility" and the "surest way to keep off punishment in hell is to feed the hungry , to redress the aggrieved and to help the distressed." Khwaja never ever brought up any issue related to religion.He is known as gharib- nawaz because he reached out to anybody in need and distress, irrespective of caste or creed.

Legend states that the Mughal Emperor Akbar was blessed by a son after he offered prayers at this dargah. And thereafter his son, Jehangir, was a regular visitor to this dargah. Mughal emperors have left very obvious traces of their visits in the form of buildings, compound walls, mosques, darwazas and gates. Together with this the concept of free distribution of food to those assembled in the dargah . An ongoing tradition is that of food being cooked twice everyday in two huge degs ( huge cooking vessels ) for free distribution. It’s said that that emperor Akbar had presented a huge ‘deg ‘ in which enough rice could be cooked to feed 5000 people.

Emperor Jehangir had also presnted another deg and till this day food I cooked in them and distributed to those assembled. Emperor Shahajahan ‘s daughter, princess Jahan Ara, was not just a regular visitor but is said to have written a book on Khwaja, Munis –ul-Arwah. Queen Mary, Empress of England, at the time of her coronation in India in 1911 A.D. had visited Khwaja Saheb’s dargah at Ajmer and left a trace of her visit by having a roof contructed over a tank.

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