After entering the religion of Islam, the prior purpose of human life and the only longing is to obtain the happiness of Allah. To achieve this objective, man puts his efforts day and night because it is with this achievement, one gets everlasting bliss and unending relief. In this direction the honored Sufis and great Awlya have spent every moment of their life in remembering the real One, who qualifies to be worshipped. They have spent limited and brief periods of their age in sincere worship. Such saints consider the world to be the land for sowing seeds to reaping in the next world, which is true by all considerations.
Since to serve the religion of Allah is the greatest worship and preaching to spread the name of Allah is the best of prayers, so such worshippers of Allah dedicated their full life in the propagation of the religion of Islam. The pious scholars and the perfect spiritualists spread the religion in the vast world after tireless struggle, so much so at present there is hardly any country left where the sound of Allah-o-Akbar is not heard. This was all possible when our Awlya-Allah after working to their extremity, day and night spread the voice of truth among the creation of Allah in all corners of the globe. Their goal in life was to preach and give sermons besides to serve the people.
By going through the history of the spread of Islam it was known that the Awlya-Allah, after acquiring the knowledge of Islam acquired the enlightenment of their hearts due to their extremely hard prayers. By the light of the spiritual knowledge of Allah, their hearts and minds would get brightened; thereafter on being strictly punctual to follow Shariah and Sunnah, they would acquire a great spiritual power and with this power they conquered falsehood with the truth, otherwise they had little physical strength. They had meager food to eat and fewer clothes to wear and they would live a life of austerity. But they would not allow anyone to obstruct the spread the religion of truth and they would show no laziness in the service of people and to spread of the name of Allah. Their real goal of life was propagation of Shariah and the development of Tariqat. Leaving seclusion and their comfort aside, they would travel with hard struggle towards the difficult destinations. After travelling long distances they spread the religion in unknown far off places of the world.
The scholars of Islam and the honored Awlya had accomplished their sacred duty of preaching the religion by their heart and soul, the result of which we see today when the slogan of Allah-o-Akbar resounds in every corner of the world. The pious slaves of Allah sacrificed the worldly wealth, comfort and easy living on the spread of the religion. They were active and hard-working. During day they would indulge in preaching and during nights they would remain busy in prayers. By this rigorous hard work, these people would acquire Allah’s pleasure. Their hearts would shine like sun and their souls would acquire limitless power. Such people of the truth could do anything with the power in their arms. They possessed the miraculous shining hand (of Hazrat Musa AS) and also the sacred breath (of Hazrat Isa AS), since the greed and want would be under their feet. Their hands were open to help people and their tongues were open to spread Islam. Thus their moments of life would be spent in the remembrance of Allah and they acquired the kingdom of both the worlds.
The perfect Awlya and the pious scholars along with praying, left no stone unturned in accomplishing the duty of preaching the religion. The Qutb-ul Alam, Gous-ul-Azam, Pir-i-piran Sayid-ul-Awlya Hazrat Shaikh Sayid Abdul Qadir Jilani (RA) spent forty years of his life in preaching the religion. He benefitted lakhs of people with his preaching lessons in Jamia mosque of Baghdad. He brought numberless people on straight path and made thousands of innovators to repent. Sayid-us-Saqalain (RA) was bestowed with this great station of Vilayat because of these preaching, where no other Wali-ullah could reach nor can dare reach. His station is the highest one and he is called the Sayid-ul-Awlya-(the chief of the friends of Allah) i.e. Pir-i-Piran; his feet are on the necks of all Awlya.
Thus the truthful believers and the perfect Awlya spread the religion of Islam by their untiring efforts on all the four sides of the world. All types of people were benefitted by Shariat and Tariqat according to their capacities. The worshippers of false things were made to worship the truth and those out of the track were brought on the track. That means these divine doctors rejuvenated the dead hearts by serving them elixir of life. This was the very prophetic mission, whereby the Awlya-Allah pulled out the infidels from the darkness of associating partners and made them stand in the light of tawhid – (belief in one God). It is because of the efforts of these very saints that at present more than hundred crore people live on the surface of earth, who believe in one God, otherwise how could Muslim army reach all these corners?; particularly in the different parts of the subcontinent, it is the Awlya Allah who by their hard toil and sincere preaching spread Islam. Among these great friends of Allah were Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chesti Sanjari (RA), Sayid Ali Hujweri (RA), Baha-ud-din Zakaria Multani (RA), Sayid Jalal-ud-din Bukhari (RA), Nizam-ud-din Awlya Mahboob-i-Ilahi (RA) besides including many other Awlya-Allah. These saints made every ear to hear the voice of truth by remaining all time busy in their preaching.
Our Awlya-Allah with their shining hearts left their comforts and bore the tough life of worries for the progress of the religion. In spite of being without any equipment, strength and travel expenses, they undertook travel to far off places. They undertook difficult journeys, bore every hardship happily, facing tough struggle and calamities till they reached their destinations. Bearing all types of hardships, they did not become impatient. They made easy all types of difficulties with their forbearance and courage. Today what we hear the talk of “tawhid” one God from the depths of the seas, peaks of the mountains and scorching deserts; all these tell us the stories the extreme persistence of these saints, who covered with patience and discipline the distance on foot with their hunger, thirst- the huge grounds covered with stones, lengthy deserts and made the slaves of Allah to meet their real being to be worshipped.
Now have a look on the history of Kashmir, which army came here with sword in hand?, that army was of these poor conditioned saints who are commonly called as “Darvish”, in whose hands there were the swords of truth, good etiquette. This army of Allah was commanded by the scholars of the religion, and the perfect “Mashaikh”. They depicted fully their knowledge, superiority, good etiquette and good deeds. They irrigated the lush green valley with the rain of elixir of life with their spiritual power in the light of the truth. They scratched the rust of infidelity and that of associating partners to Allah from the hearts of the people living in this flowering region. They removed the bitterness of the mutual animosity and converted their bitterness into good taste by the sweetness of Unity-(Tawhid).Thus they made this “earthly paradise” a real garden of Jannat and proved the following couplet right:
“If there is paradise on the surface of earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.”
As the valley full of disturbance with idols was converted to the sites of mosques and khanqahs by their sustained efforts.
The land of Kashmir has been the country ruled for centuries by Hindu and Buddhists Rajas and this valley had become the hub of infidelity and the worshipping of multiple gods. In each village and habitation, there were temples in abundance. Every part of land was full of idols; even nowadays also while excavating, in far off places, such type of stones are found, which were the gods of the king of creation-(Ashraf-ul-makhlooqat), but our ancestors had changed the state of this vast idol house. They had won the hearts of the inhabitants of Kashmir by the traits of their purity of etiquette, light of their hearts and truthfulness of their tongues. After finding the truth, the people repented on their following of the falsehood. They entered the fold of Islam with their consent just on hearing the voice of truth. They accepted the Islam with this observation that within a few days only the light of the truth had engulfed the darkness of the falsehood and in a jiffy, the land of associating partners to Allah – (shirk) had turned to the garden of the worship of one Allah- (tawhid) and the centuries old land of infidels which was a huge temple of idolatory, became now the cradle of mosques, khanqahs. On tasting the sweetness of Islam, the worshippers of idols broke these lifting hammers in their own hands and from these very stones, they made mosques at the same places. Now the city of idols became the habitation of the worship of one Allah-(tawhid); where so many saints continued to take birth that this place was named “Pir-wari”, which proved worth the name in the coming times.
It is an established fact that for the spread of Islam in Kashmir, no army had arrived here. No material power had come here to suppress or conquer the hearts and minds of people; instead the power that uprooted centuries old infidelity and ‘shirk’; that annihilated the innovations and constructed mosques instead of temples; was the spiritual power and the superiority of etiquette, which uprooted the harmful tree from this lush green land. This power of Allah defeated the worship of falsehood with the armor of the truth. No sword swayed here, no war was fought here neither a single soul was killed. Instead it is only the Awlya who arrived in the paradise of Kashmir, who came with the equipment of the truth and stood against the falsehood. These were the brave soldiers of Allah, who created bright light in this dark atmosphere by their dedicated sincere preaching and enlightened every corner of Kashmir with the light of Islam.
It was these very scholars of the religion, the perfect Awlya, and the upright Sadat, who arrived in Kashmir and brought a right revolution with their sincere preaching. They demonstrated such a trait of love, devotion and pious religiosity that the way-wonderers found the light and came on the track. When the people understood the beauty, truthfulness and the reality of Islam, they became fond of it, so much so they removed the threads from their necks and threw these away, rubbed off marks from their foreheads and fell upon their idols. This was the miracle of the celestial power of Awlya-Allah, that the worshippers of idols constructed mosques in place of temples and they started worshipping only one Allah instead of thousands of stone idols. They found such a solace in five time prayers –(nimaz), which was not in their destiny for thousands of years. The sacred group that demonstrated the good etiquette and the practical mercy and kindness brought a strong rightful revolution in this region of paradise, the leader of this sacred and pious group was Sayid-us-Sadat, Jami-ul-Kamalat Hazrat Shah-i-Hamadan Amir-i-Kabir (RA).
When Hazrat Amir-i-Kabir Mir Sayid Ali Hamadani (RA) arrived in the land of Kashmir, he had seven hundred honored Sadat with him; among whom were the honored Sadat, great Mashaikh, religious scholars besides Darvishs and Saints and Sufis. Among these the historical personalities are as under:
Hazrat Mir Sayid Hussain Simnani/Samani (RA), Sayid Jamal-ud-din Atai, Sayid Jamal-ud-din Muhaddis, Sayid Kabir Baihaqi, Sayid Jalal-ud-din, Sayid Muhammad Kazim, Movlana Pir Muhammad Balkhi, Sayid Rukn-ud-din, Sayid Muhammad Qureshi, Sayid Kamal-ud-din (1st) (buried in Srinagar), Sayid Kamal-ud-din (2nd) (buried in Naidkhai village),Sayid Ahmad Qureshi, Sayid Rukn-ud-din (2nd), Sayid Fakhr-ud-din, Sayid Muhammad Baqir, Sayid Muhammad Buzarg, Sayid Muhammad Khawari, Dayid Muhammad Qawam-ud-din Badakhshi, Sayid Muhammad Ainposh, Sayid Nematullah, Sayid Baha-ud-din, Sayid Muhammad Baihaqi, Shaikh Baha-ud-din, Sayid Taj-ud-din, Sayid Yousuf, Mir Sayid Haidar, Sayid Zeerak, Shaikh Sulaiman, Sayid Feroz, Moulana Pir Mohammad Qari, Sayid Jafar, Sayid Shahab-ud-din, Sayid Nur-ud-din, Mir Sayid Azizullah, Mir Muhammad Murad (Rahmatullahi alaihim ajmain). The mausoleums of these Sadat exist still, full of grace.
All the companions of Hazrat Amir-i-Kabir (RA) were extremely pious, all time praying, abstaining, punctual in fasting and salat, well equipped with the knowledge of religion. He had sent all these saints to all the sides and corners of the country. These saints used to discharge extreme prayers during the nights and during the days they would preach in the gatherings of people. After bringing the Kashmiris in the fold of Islam, they would train them both outwardly and inwardly. They constructed the places of worship in different areas of the country and made these places of worship as centre of their preaching and people from villages would come and gather there. This way all these great Sadat, Mashailh of Tariqat and the scholars of the religion would impart external and internal training to people. The people would get impressed enough by their love, good etiquette and giving preference to others than themselves. The light of the faith of these saints opened the eyes of people and they became their disciples. They would observe the reality of Islam through the mirror of the spirituality of these saints and would become fond of the truth. They constructed mosques in place of temples on the directions of their well wishers and would offer prayers – (nimaz) for five times every day and night. They would worship exclusively one Allah after disowning the multiple idols.
The leader of the group Shah-i-Hamadan Hazrat Sayid Ali Hamadani (RA) himself stayed in the capitol of Kashmir the city of Srinagar and made the Mohalla Ala-ud-din pora as the centre of preaching. A platform was made on the eastern bank of the river Jhelum. He would remain awake in the night praying to extremity on this platform and offer five times ‘salat’ and Friday prayers also on the same platform. The inhabitants of Kashmir would come to see him every morning and the gathering of people would be there for the full day. The Sultan of Kashmir would also come along with his courtiers to pay his respects. The name of this good-natured Sultan was Qutb-ud-din and he had become a faithful disciple of Hazrat Amir (RA). On hearing the preaching of Haszrat Amir-i-Kabir, thousands of citizens would get converted to Islam every day.
Just as to know the biography of Mahboob-ul-Alam, Sultanul-Arifin Shaikh Hamza Kashmiri (RA), the books of his first khalifa Shaikh Baba Dawood Khaki (RA) Wird-ul-muridin, Sharah Dastur-us-Salikin etc. are necessary, similarly to know correctly about Hazrat Amir-i-Kabir (RA), it is required to consult the book “Khulasat-ul-Manaqib” written by his beloved disciple and khalifa Moulana Nur-ud-din Badakhshi (RA). Along with this the books like Manwabat-ul-Jawahir, Nazm-ul-Manaqib and Lataif-i-Ashrafi etc. provide a vast information about his august self. The authors of these books have written about the events observed by them with their own eyes and heard by their own ears, from which the later biographers have taken the clues. Late Shams-ud-din Ahmad has consulted these books.
Lastly may I state that the status and grace of Hazrat Shah-i-Hamadan is superior enough from his contemporary Awlya-Allah , since he spent his full life in highest form of worship. Day and night he remained struggling for the spread of Islam and its progress. He travelled far and vide for the progress of Shariah and spread of Sunnah, spending 21-22 years in other countries other than his native place. During this long time journey, he travelled to different countries of Central Asia and conveyed the message of Allah to His slaves in every country and the city and lastly he headed towards the unparallel Kashmir and spent about six years in this pleasing valley and preached in this flowering valley in such a way that this hub of infidelity became the center of religion of one Allah-(tawhid). Today there are about 99% Muslims living here. He promoted the Shariah and Tariqat in Kashmir. Although the people of Kashmir had got acquainted with Islam before his arrival here, but they were totally ignorant of the directions of Shariah, Tariqat and Sunnah.
Hazrat Amir-i-Kabir Mir Sayid Ali Hamadani (RA) continued the prophetic mission mostly in whole of the world and particularly in Kashmir and made the owners of the temples as the preachers of Islam with success. He served Allah’s religion i.e, Islam to a very great extent by his sermons, and writings.
Author: Er Mohammad Ashraf Fazili ,Former Chief Engineer
