Ajmer is a city in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Ajmer district and Ajmer division. It lies at the centre of Rajasthan, earning it the nickname 'the Heart of Rajasthan'.
The Chishti order is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam named after the town of Chisht where it was initiated by Abu Ishaq Shami. The order was brought to South Asia by Mu'in al-Din Chishti in the city of Ajmer.
Khawaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya, also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, Sultan-ul-Mashaikh and Mahbub-e-Ilahi, was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, and is one of the most famous Sufis from the Indian Subcontinent. His predecessors were Fariduddin Ganjshakar, Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, and Moinuddin Chishti, who were the masters of the Chishti spiritual chain or silsila in the Indian subcontinent.
Mu'in al-Din Hasan Chishti Sijzi, known reverentially as Khawaja Gharib Nawaz, was a Persian Islamic scholar and mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism. This particular Tariqa (order) became the dominant Islamic spiritual order in medieval India. Most of the Indian Sunni saints are Chishti in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Awliya and Amir Khusrow.
A dargah is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint or dervish. Sufis often visit the shrine for ziyarat, a term associated with religious visitation and pilgrimages. Dargahs are often associated with Sufi eating and meeting rooms and hostels, called khanqah or hospices. They usually include a mosque, meeting rooms, Islamic religious schools (madrassas), residences for a teacher or caretaker, hospitals, and other buildings for community purposes.
Quṭb al-Aqṭāb Khwāja Sayyid Muḥammad Bakhtiyār al-Ḥusaynī, Quṭb al-Dīn Bakhtiyār Kākī was a Sunni Muslim Sufi mystic, saint and scholar of the Chishti Order from Delhi, India. He was the disciple and the spiritual successor of Mu'in al-Din Chishti as head of the Chishti order. Before him the Chishti order in India was confined to Ajmer and Nagaur. He played a major role in establishing the order securely in Delhi. His dargah located adjacent to Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli, and the oldest dargah in Delhi, is also the venue of his annual Urs festivities. The Urs was held in high regard by many rulers of Delhi like Iltutmish who built a nearby stepwell, Gandhak ki Baoli for him, Sher Shah Suri who built a grand gateway, Bahadur Shah I who built the Moti Masjid mosque nearby and Farrukhsiyar who added a marble screen and a mosque.
Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah is the dargah (mausoleum) of the Sufi saint Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya. Situated in the Nizamuddin West area of Delhi, the dargah is visited by thousands of pilgrims every week. The site is also known for its evening qawwali devotional music sessions.
The Urs festival is an annual festival held at Ajmer, Rajasthan, India which commemorates the anniversary of the death of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti.
Nasiruddin Mahmud Chirag-Dehlavi was a 14th-century mystic-poet and a Sufi saint of the Chishti Order. He was a disciple of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, and later his successor. He was the last important Sufi of the Chishti Order from Delhi.
Khwaja Usman Harooni was an early modern wali or Sufi saint of Islam in India, a successor to Shareef Zandani, sixteenth link in the Silsila of the Chishti order, and master of Moinuddin Chishti. Usman Harooni was born in Haroon, Iran. His year of birth is variously given as 1096, 1116 and 1131 AD. He is also known by the nicknames Abu Noor and Abu Mansur.
Langar is an institution among Sufi Muslims and Sikhs in South Asia whereby food and drink are given to the needy regardless of social or religious background. Its origins in Sufism are tied to the Chishti Order. During Baba Nanak's Udasi to East Punjab, he saw many people suffering without food due to constant war and loot in the region and established the communal kitchen (Langar) to serve everyone food and shelter regardless of any means of discrimination.
Sheikh Noor Ul Mashaikh Sayyid Ahmed Muhiuddin Jeelani NooriShah Arabic:, known more commonly as NooriShah Jeelani, was a renowned 20th-century muslim, sufi, wali, mystic, orator, faqeeh, theologian, mujaddid and highly acclaimed Islamic scholar of the Qadri, Chisti order from the Indian sub continent. He was the 21st grand son of the famous Sufi saint Ghous-e-Azam Sheikh Mohiyudheen Abdul Qadir Jilani of Baghdad. He was also widely known by his title Noor-ul-Mashaikh. He was the Eponymous founder of the Silsila-e-Nooriya tariqa which is a sub-branch of Qadiriyya and Chistiyya in India.
The Madariyya is a Sufi order popular in North India, especially in Uttar Pradesh, the Mewat region, Bihar, Gujarat and West Bengal, as well as in Nepal and Bangladesh. Known for its syncretist beliefs and its focus on internal Dhikr, it was initiated by the Sufi saint Shah Madar Badi' al-Din and is centered on his shrine (Dargah) at Makanpur, Kanpur district, Uttar Pradesh.
Khwaja Habib Ali Shah was an Indian Sufi saint, whose lineage is traced back to Abu Bakr, the first Caliph of Islam.
Syed Shah Afzal Biabani was a Sufi from Warangal, Hyderabad State. He was appointed as Kazi of Warangal during the reign of Nizam Ali Khan. His dargah is among the pilgrimage centers of Warangal, Telangana.
Ajmer Sharif Dargah is a Sufi Tomb (dargah) of the Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti, located at Ajmer Shareef, Rajasthan, India.
The term Rajasthani Muslims is usually used to signify Muslims from the state of Rajasthan in the north-western part of India and speak Hindi, Urdu and Sindhi languages.
Syed Zainul Abedin is the Dewan and Sajjada Nasheen of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the Shrine of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti. He is a Sufi of the Chishti order. He is the son of Dewan Syed Ilmuddin Ali Khan, former Sajjada Nasheen.
The Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines 1974 is a bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan facilitating Indian and Pakistani nationals to visit certain religious shrines in both countries. As of November 2018, fifteen locations in Pakistan and five in India are covered under this protocol.
Dargah Committee Dargah Khwaja Saheb, Ajmer, is a statutory body constituted by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India, under the provisions of Section 5 of the Dargah Khwaja Saheb Act, 1955 for the administration of Dargah Sharif, Ajmer.
