Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesudaraz | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Bande Nawaz | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Syed Muhammad al-Hussaini 30 July 1321 |
| Died | 1 November 1422 (aged 101) |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Sect | SufiHanafi,Chishti Order |
| Creed | Maturidi[1] |
| Muslim leader | |
Influenced by | |
Influenced | |
Syed Muhammad ibn Yousuf al-Hussaini (30 July 1321 − 1 November 1422), commonly known asBande Nawaz orGisu Daraz,[2] was aHanafiMaturidi scholar andSufi saint of theChishti Order, from India.
Gisu Daraz was a disciple and then successor of Sufi saintNasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi. When he moved toDaulatabad around 1400, owing to theattack ofTimur on Delhi, he took the Chishti Order toSouth India.[3] He finally settled down inGulbarga, at the invitation ofBahmani Sultan,Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah.[4]
Bande Nawaz was born in Delhi in 1321 to aSayyid family[5] originally fromHerat.[2] At the age of seven, he and his family arrived inDaulatabad in the Deccan afterDelhi sultanMuhammad bin Tughlaq had declared the city to be the co-capital and called upon Muslims in Delhi to migrate there.[6]
In AH 735 (1334/1335), he returned to Delhi without his father, who had died in Daulatabad,[7] and soon began training underNasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi, the preeminentsheikh of theChishti Order in the city.[2] During this time, he attained his sobriquetGisu Daraz. The sheikh was aware of his imminent death, and believing in Bande Nawaz's worthiness and sanctity, passed down his prayer rug to him, making him his successor. In Delhi, Bande Nawaz rose to public prominence, assisting the population with his specialised knowledge and abilities.[8]
Bande Nawaz fled Delhi on 17 December 1398, at the age of 77, due to the threat of the advancing forces ofTimur, who had recently launchedan invasion of the Delhi Sultanate and was quickly approaching the city.[9] He first travelled toGwalior, and ventured through modern-dayMadhya Pradesh intoGujarat,[10] where he arrived atKhambhat in the summer of 1399. FromBaroda,[11] he embarked in hope of returning to Daulatabad to pay homage to his father's tomb.[12] At the invitation ofTaj ud-Din Firuz Shah, sultan of theBahmani Kingdom, Bande Nawaz settled in the Bahmani capitalGulbarga[13] in AH 802 (1399/1400).[11]
While in Gulbarga, Bande Nawaz came into conflict with Firuz Shah, and the two's once-amicable relations diminished. The sultan was knowledgeable in the external sciences, and took issue at the sheikh's lack of experience in the matter, which led to a renouncement of support by the sultan.[14] Though the sheikh adhered to the metaphysical doctrine ofwaḥdat al-shuhūd, which went against scholarIbn 'Arabi's teaching ofwaḥdat al-wujūd, the court grew suspicious of the sheikh's application of the scholar's allegedly heretical works, causing further tension. A dispatch sent to investigate Bande Nawaz's teachings himself became enthralled in the sheikh's word and entered adherence to him.[2][15] In 1407,[2] these quarrels caused the sheikh to involuntarily move his residence and hospice (khanaqah) away from its original location outside the fort's gate, which the sultan asserted was necessary to ensure the safety of the court. To Firuz Shah's outrage, Bande Nawaz endorsed the sultan's brotherAhmad, who had expressed substantial support for and venerated the sheikh, to be the royal successor rather than the sultan's son.[14][2]
Bande Nawaz continued his work in Gulbarga up until his death in 1422, one month after Firuz Shah had himself died and been succeeded by Ahmad.[16]
Bande Nawaz wrote 195 books inArabic,Persian andUrdu,[4] a rarity for people of his kind, who previously had not directly written their ideas.[2] He also composed a book on theProphet of Islam titledMiraj-al Ashiqin for the instruction of the masses inDakhni, a South Indian branch of the Urdu language. He was the first Sufi to use this vernacular which was elaborated upon by many other Sufi saints of South India in later centuries.[17] He wrote many treatises on the works ofIbn Arabi andSuhrawardi, which made the works of these scholars accessible to Indian scholars and played a major role in influencing later mystical thought.[18] Other books authored areQaseeda Amali andAdaab-al-Mureedein.
His death anniversary (urs) takes place on 15, 16 and 17Dhu al-Qadah at the Bande Nawaz mausoleum in Gulbarga,[4] built byAhmad Shah after his accession.[2] Thousands of people from different religions gather to seek blessings.[4]
IndianMuslim social films revolving around the saint and hisdargah have been made. These include:Sultan E Deccan: Banda Nawaz (1982) by Malik Anwar,Banda Nawaz (1988) by Saini.[19]
