Mu'in al-Din Hasan Chishti Sijzi (Persian:معین الدین چشتی,romanized: Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī; February 1143 – March 1236), known reverentially asKhawaja Gharib Nawaz (Persian:خواجه غریب نواز,romanized: Khawāja Gharīb Nawāz), was aPersianIslamic scholar andmystic fromSistan, who eventually ended up settling in theIndian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated theChishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism. This particularTariqa (order) became the dominant Islamic spiritual order in medieval India. Most of the IndianSunni saints^[4][8][9] areChishti in their affiliation, includingNizamuddin Awliya (d. 1325) andAmir Khusrow (d. 1325).^[6]

Mu'in al-Din Chishti
AMughal miniature representing Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī
Title	Khwaja
Personal life
Born	Sayyid Muinuddin Hasan 1 February 1143 Sistan,[1][2]Nasrid kingdom
Died	15 March 1236 (aged 93)[citation needed] Ajmer,Delhi Sultanate
Resting place	Ajmer Sharif Dargah
Flourished	Islamic golden age
Children	Three sons—Abū Saʿīd, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn and Ḥusām al-Dīn — and one daughter Bībī Jamāl.
Parent(s)	Khwāja G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Ḥasan, Umm al-Wara
Other names	Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, Sultan E Hind, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti , Khwaja-e-Khwajgan, Khwaja Ajmeri
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni[3][4]
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Tariqa	Chishti
Creed	Maturidi
Profession	Islamic preacher
Muslim leader
Influenced by Usman Harooni,ʿAbdullah Ansari,Abdul Qadir Gilani[5] Najīb al-Dīn Nakhshabī[5]
Influenced Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. Muḥammad Mubārak al-ʿAlavī al-Kirmānī,[6] Ḥāmid b. Faḍlallāh Jamālī,[6]Abd al-Haqq al-Dehlawi,[6] Ḥamīd al-Dīn Ṣūfī Nāgawrī,[7] Fakhr al-Dīn Chishtī,[7]Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, and virtually all subsequent mystics of the Chishtiyya order

Having arrived inDelhi Sultanate during the reign of thesultanIltutmish (d. 1236), Muʿīn al-Dīn moved from Delhi toAjmer shortly thereafter, at which point he became increasingly influenced by the writings of theSunniHanbalischolar andmysticʿAbdallāh Anṣārī (d. 1088), whose work on the lives of the early Islamic saints, theṬabāqāt al-ṣūfiyya, may have played a role in shaping Muʿīn al-Dīn's worldview.^[6] It was during his time in Ajmer that Muʿīn al-Dīn acquired the reputation of being a charismatic and compassionate spiritual preacher and teacher; and biographical accounts of his life written after his death report that he received the gifts of many "spiritual marvels (karāmāt), such as miraculous travel, clairvoyance, and visions of angels"^[10] in these years of his life. Muʿīn al-Dīn seems to have been unanimously regarded as a great saint after his death.^[6]

Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī's legacy rests primarily on his having been "one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic mysticism."^[2] Additionally, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī is also notable, according toJohn Esposito, for having been one of the first major Islamic mystics to formally allow his followers to incorporate the "use of music" in their devotions, liturgies, and hymns toGod, which he did in order to make the 'foreign' Arab faith more relatable to the indigenous peoples who had recently entered the religion.^[11]

OfPersian descent,^[12] Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was born in 1143 inSistan. He was sixteen years old when his father, Sayyid G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn (d. c. 1155), died,^[2] leaving hisgrinding mill andorchard to his son.^[2]

Despite planning to continue his father's business, he developed mystic tendencies in his personal piety^{[2][clarification needed]} and soon entered a life of destitute itineracy. He enrolled at theseminaries ofBukhara andSamarkand, and (probably) visited the shrines ofMuhammad al-Bukhari (d. 870) andAbu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944), two widely venerated figures in theIslamic world.^[2]

While traveling toIran, in the district ofNishapur, he came across the Sunni mystic Ḵh̲wāj̲a ʿUt̲h̲mān, who initiated him.^[2] Accompanying his spiritual guide for over twenty years on the latter's journeys from region to region, Muʿīn al-Dīn also continued his own independent spiritual travels during the time period.^[2] It was on his independent wanderings that Muʿīn al-Dīn encountered many of the most notable Sunni mystics of the era, includingAbdul-Qadir Gilani (d. 1166) andNajmuddin Kubra (d. 1221), as well as Naj̲īb al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḳāhir Suhrawardī, Abū Saʿīd Tabrīzī, and ʿAbd al-Waḥid G̲h̲aznawī (all d. c. 1230), all of whom were destined to become some of the most highly venerated saints in the Sunni tradition.^[2]

Arriving inSouth Asia in the early thirteenth century along with his cousin and spiritual successor Khwaja Syed Fakhr Al-Dīn Gardezi Chishti,^[13] Muʿīn al-Dīn first travelled toLahore to meditate at the tomb-shrine of the Sunnimystic andjuristAli Hujwiri (d. 1072).^[2]

From Lahore, he continued towardsAjmer, where he settled and married the daughter of Saiyad Wajiuddin, whom he married in the year 1209/10.^[2][14][15] He went on to have three sons—Abū Saʿīd, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn and Ḥusām al-Dīn — and one daughter, Bībī Jamāl.^[2]After settling in Ajmer, Muʿīn al-Dīn strove to establish theChishti order of Sunni mysticism inIndia; many later biographic accounts relate the numerousmiracles wrought by God at the hands of the saint during this period.^[2]

Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was not the originator or founder of the Chishtiyya order of mysticism as he is often erroneously thought to be. On the contrary, the Chishtiyya was already an established Sufi order prior to his birth, being originally an offshoot of the older Adhamiyya order that traced its spiritual lineage and titular name to the early Islamic saint and mysticIbrahim ibn Adham (d. 782). Thus, this particular branch of the Adhamiyya was renamed the Chishtiyya after the 10th-century Sunni mystic Abū Isḥāq al-Shāmī (d. 942) migrated toChishti Sharif, a town in the present dayHerat Province of Afghanistan in around 930, in order to preach Islam in that area about 148 years prior to the birth of the founder of theQadiriyya sufi order, ShaikhAbdul Qadir Gilani. The order spread into theIndian subcontinent, however, at the hands of the Persian Muʿīn al-Dīn in the 13th-century,^[7] after the saint is believed to have had a dream in which the Islamic prophetMuhammad appeared and told him to be his "representative" or "envoy" inIndia.^[16][17][18]

According to the various chronicles, Muʿīn al-Dīn's tolerant and compassionate behavior towards the local population seems to have been one of the major reasons behind conversion to Islam at his hand.^[19][20] Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī is said to have appointedBakhtiar Kaki (d. 1235) as hisspiritual successor, who worked at spreading the Chishtiyya inDelhi. Furthermore, Muʿīn al-Dīn's son, Fakhr al-Dīn (d. 1255), is said to have further spread the order's teachings inAjmer, whilst another of the saint's major disciples, Ḥamīd al-Dīn Ṣūfī Nāgawrī (d. 1274), preached inNagaur, Rajasthan.^[7]

As with every other major Sufi order, the Chishtiyya proposes an unbrokenspiritual chain of transmitted knowledge going back toMuhammad through one of hiscompanions, which in the Chishtiyya's case isAli (d. 661).^[7] His spiritual lineage is traditionally given as follows:^[7]

1. Muhammad (570 – 632),
2. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (600 – 661),
3. Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728),
4. Abdul Wahid bin Zaid (d. 786),
5. al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ (d. 803),
6. Ibrahim ibn Adham al-Balkhī (d. 783),
7. Khwaja Sadid ad-Din Huzaifa al-Marashi (d. 823),
8. Abu Hubayra al-Basri (d. 895),
9. Khwaja Mumshad Uluw Al Dīnawarī(d. 911),
10. Abu Ishaq Shami (d. 941),
11. Abu Aḥmad Abdal Chishti (d. 966),
12. Abu Muḥammad Chishti (d. 1020),
13. Abu Yusuf ibn Saman Muḥammad Samʿān Chishtī (d. 1067),
14. Maudood Chishti (d. 1133),
15. Shareef Zandani (d. 1215),
16. Usman Harooni (d. 1220).

Thetomb (dargāh) of Muʿīn al-Dīn became a deeply venerated site in the century following the preacher's death in March 1236. Honoured by members of all social classes, the tomb was treated with great respect by many of the era's most important Sunni rulers, includingMuhammad bin Tughluq, theSultan of Delhi from 1324 to 1351, who visited the tomb in 1332 to commemorate the memory of the saint.^[21] In a similar way, the laterMughal emperorAkbar (d. 1605) visited the shrine no less than fourteen times during his reign.^[22]

In the present day, the tomb of Muʿīn al-Dīn continues to be one of the most popular sites of religious visitation for Sunni Muslims in the Indian subcontinent,^[6] with over "hundreds of thousands of people from all over the Indian sub-continent assembling there on the occasion of [the saint's]ʿurs or death anniversary."^[2] Additionally, the site also attracts manyHindus, who have also venerated the Islamic saint since the medieval period.^[2] A bomb planted was planted on 11 October 2007 in the Dargah of Sufi Saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti at the time ofIftar had left three pilgrims dead and 15 injured. A specialNational Investigation Agency (NIA) court inJaipur punished with life imprisonment the two convicts in the2007 Ajmer Dargah bomb blast case.^[23]

Indian films about the saint and his dargah at Ajmer includeMere Gharib Nawaz by G. Ishwar,Sultan E Hind (1973) by K. Sharif,Khawaja Ki Diwani (1981) by Akbar Balam andMere Data Garib Nawaz (1994) by M Gulzar Sultani.^{[24][25][26][27]} A song in the 2008 Indian filmJodhaa Akbar named "Khwaja Mere Khwaja", composed byA. R. Rahman, pays tribute to Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī.^[28][29]

Variousqawwalis portray devotion to the saint includingNusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Khwaja E Khwajgan",Sabri Brothers' "Khawaja Ki Deewani"andKoji Badayuni's "Kabhi rab se Mila Diya".^{[citation needed]}

• Index of Sufism-related articles
• List of Sufis
• Ajmer Dargah bombing
• Ali Hujwiri
• Ata Hussain Fani Chishti
• Alaul Haq Pandavi
• Urs festival, Ajmer

• Avari, Burjor (2013).Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A history of Muslim power and presence in the Indian subcontinent. Routledge.ISBN 978-0-415-58061-8.

•   Quotations related toMu'in al-Din Chishti at Wikiquote
•   Media related toMoinuddin Chishti at Wikimedia Commons