Within a hundred years after Chenghis Khan defeated Muslims, Islam conquered back the conquerors. The Mongols who had destroyed Bukhara and Baghdad themselves became the standard bearers of Islam. The westward thrust of Islam carried it into Europe. To the east, it put down new roots in India and Indonesia. The center of gravity of the Islamic world shifted from Cairo and Damascus to Lahore and Kuala Lumpur.
 Though Muhammed bin Qasim conquered Sindh in 711, Islam made limited inroads into the subcontinent along the coast of Malabar in southern India and in southern Pakistan. This situation, however, changed towards the end of the 12th century. The Islamic penetration of the subcontinent accelerated in the 13th century. Several reasons may be cited for this change. First, the establishment of the Delhi sultanate enabled Muslim scholars and traders to travel freely throughout India under the protection of the political authorities. Second, India was a beneficiary of the Mongol invasions (1219-1261) that devastated Central Asia and Persia. Many noted scholars fled the Mongols into the security of Hindustan. Third, and perhaps the most important element, was the establishment of Sufi orders throughout the vast subcontinent. Indeed, Islam spread in India and Pakistan not by the force of conquest or the elaborate arguments of mullahs and qazis but through the work of great Sufi shaykhs.
 The Sufi shaykhs of the 13th century were not merchants of faith. They were men drunk with the love of God, giving themselves no gain but the prospect of divine pleasure, serving humanity irrespective of creed or nationality and sharing their spiritual bounty with whoever would partake of it. Proselytizing was not their goal; it was a byproduct of their selfless service. The Muslims needed this spirituality as much as did the Hindus and the Buddhists. When a Muslim experienced a spiritual rebirth through a Sufi, it was called an awakening. When a non-Muslim was similarly transformed, it was called conversion. It was in this context Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti came to India and conquered the hearts and minds of people here. He is generally accepted as the fountainhead of Islamic spiritual movements in India and Pakistan.
Hazrat Khwaja was born in Sajistan (East Persia) in Central Asia in the year 1139 in a respected family. His father Khwaja Ghayasuddin (RA) and mother Syeda Bibi Ummalwara alias Bibi Mahe-Noor were the descendants of Hazrat Ali (RA) through his sons Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain. Orphaned at the young age of twelve, he inherited an orchard and a wind mill which served as his means of livelihood. One day when Khwaja Saheb was working in his orchard, a pious dervish Ebrahim Qandoozi, came and took his seat under the shade of a tree. When Khwaja Saheb saw him, he brought a bunch of grapes and presented it to his guest.
The visitor ate those grapes and was delighted, and took something out of his bag, chewed it, and then offered it to his young host. Khwaja Saheb ate it without any hesitation, and at once the light of wisdom and knowledge dawned upon the young Khwaja. Thereafter he disposed of all his worldly belongings, and distributed the money amongst the poor. Having thus broken all the ties with worldly affairs, he started for Samarqand and Bukhra, then the great centers of learning for acquiring religious education and knowledge. He became a Hafiz-e-Qur’an at the age of fifteen and mastered Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages. He then traveled to Neshapur where he became a disciple of Khwaja Usman Harooni. After receiving his training in the methodology of the Chistiya Order for seven years, Khwaja Moinuddin was inducted into that Order. From Neshapur, he traveled to Baghdad where he met the towering personages of the time including Shaykh Abdul Qader Jeelani, Shaykh Ziauddin Suhrawardi, Khwaja Awhaduddin Kirmani and Khwaja Abu Saeed Tabrizi (RA). In Isfahan, he met Khwaja Qutbuddin, who became his disciple and later his successor in Delhi by the name of Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki. From Isfahan, Khwaja Moinuddin traveled to Ghazna, Lahore and Multan where he mastered Sanskrit and Hindi so that he could communicate with the local people.
It was about this time that Muhammed Ghori defeated Prithvi Raj Chauhan at the Battle of Tarain (1192) and added Delhi and Ajmer to the Ghorid Sultanate. Khwaja Moinuddin moved from Multan to Delhi and then to Ajmer, which had been the capital of the Chauhan dynasty. But before moving to Delhi he performed a 40 day chila at the shrine of Hazrat Syed Ali Hijveri (RA) popularly known as Data Ganjbakhsh at Lahore. It is at this moment Khawja Gareeb Nawaz wrote

Ganj bakhshe faize alam mazhar e nooor e khuda
Nakisaan Ra Peerikamil Kamilaan Ra Rahnuma
 This town in the Rajasthan desert became the fountainhead of Sufi movement that touched every corner of India and Pakistan. Thousands embraced Islam through his efforts. Millions did so through the efforts of his disciples. Three of his disciples themselves became personages of renown who occupy an important place in the hierarchy of the great Sufis. These were Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki resting at Mehruli, Delhi, Shaykh Hameeduddin Naguri and Baba Fareed Ganj Shakr of Lahore. Only once did the Khwaja of Ajmer return to Delhi. Sultan Shamsuddin Altumish was the Sultan of Delhi. When Khwaja approached the capital, the Sultan presented himself in person with enormous presents of gold, silver and jewels. The presents were politely declined.
Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (RA) was a poet of renown. He was a prolific writer to whom over 10,000 couplets in Persian are ascribed. But most of his writings have unfortunately been lost.
From Ajmer the Chishtiya order spread to Delhi, Punjab, Bengal and the Deccan. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti trained and dispatched to the far-flung corners of the subcontinent men who stand out as spiritual giants in the region. These include Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki (Delhi, d. 1236), Baba Farid Ganj Shakr of Punjab (Pak Patan, d. 1265), Nizamuddin Awliya (Delhi, d. 1325) who was a disciple of Baba Farid, Hazrat Maqdum, another disciple of Baba Farid (Rourki, Bihar, d. 1291), Nasiruddin Muhammed, commonly referred to as Chirag-e-Dehli (a disciple of Nizamuddin Awliya, Delhi, d. 1356) and Hazrat Gaysu Daraz (a disciple of Chirage-e-Delhi, Gulbarga, Karnatka, d.1422), Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir Kalyari, Mohammed Badesha Qadri, and Ashraf Jahangir Semnani. Together, these men transformed the south Asian continent, molded it in an Islamic crucible, lit the candle of faith in the hearts of millions and laid the spiritual foundation for one of the richest and most powerful dynasties the world has ever known, namely the great Moghuls of India.
The history of the Chishtiya order is so intricately woven into the politics of the Delhi court that no survey of Indian history is complete without an acknowledgment of the profound impact made by the Chishtiya order.
Hazrat Nizamuddin Awliya passed away in 1325 and designated Maqdum Nasiruddin Mahmud (commonly known as Chirag-e-Delhi, the light of Delhi) as his successor. It was the same year that Muhammed bin Tughlaq ascended the throne of India. It was now that the disciples of the Chishtiya order had to pass through tough times. Many were jailed, some killed and many were forced into his service by the king. Chirag-e-Delhi was asked to assist the king with royal robes, a ceremony that signified obedience and submission to the crown. When he refused, he was thrown into jail.
Others were forced out of the capital. Hazrat Shaykh Shamsuddin Yahya Chishti was forced to retire to Kashmir. But here too he continued with the divine mission and brought thousands into the Islamic fold. From his clan emerged two pious souls Murshid e Duniya w Deen Sheikh Jalal ud Din Chishti, who made Baramulla as his final abode and Murshid e Akabir w Asabir Sheikh Muhammad Saabir Chishti who is buried at Srinagar. The imprints of their teachings are still visible even in far flung areas like Poonch, Bhimber, Haji Peer, Uri, Kupwara, not to mention the plains of Kashmir.
 Since the methods and processes of the Sufis have changed little over the last thousand years, the Chishtiya order, together with its sister Qadariya and Suhrwardi orders, provides a cultural link between modern Islam with the middle Ages.
Illahi Ta Buwad Khurshid u Mahi
Chiraag e Chishtiyan Ra Roshnai

Lastupdate on : Thu, 31 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 31 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST