Baba Farid Shakar Ganj

Legacy:

One of Farīd’s most important contributions to Punjabi literature was his development of the language for literary purposes. Whereas Sanskrit, Arabic, Turkish and Persian had historically been considered the languages of the learned and the elite, and used in monastic centres, Punjabi was generally considered a less refined folk language. Although earlier poets had written in a primitive Punjabi, before Farīd there was little in Punjabi literature apart from traditional and anonymous ballads. By using Punjabi as the language of poetry, Farīd laid the basis for a vernacular Punjabi literature that would be developed later.
Among the famous people who have visited his shrine over the centuries are the famous scholar-explorer Ibn Battuta, who visited in 1334,^[12] and the Founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, who met the then head of the shrine, Sheikh Ibrāhīm, twice, and his meeting led to the incorporation of 112 couplets (saloks) and four hymns by Bābā Farid, in the Sikh Holy Book, the Guru Granth Sahib, by the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev in 1604.^[4] Guru Nanak was familiar with the verse of Bābā Farīd, and not only includes these verses in the Holy Book, but even comments on some of them.^[13] These verses are known to the Sikhs as the Farīd-Bānī; Guru Arjan Dev also added eighteen saloks from the Sikh Gurus, which add commentary to various of Bābā Farīd's work.^[13]
The city of Faridkot bears his name. According to legend, Farīd stopped by the city, then named Mokhalpūr, and sat in seclusion for forty days near the fort of King Mokhal. The king was said to be so impressed by his presence that he named the city after Bābā Farīd, which today is known as Tilla Bābā Farīd. The festival Bābā Sheikh Farād Āgman Purb Melā' is celebrated in September each year, commemorating his arrival in the city.^[14][15] Ajodhan^[11] was also renamed as Farīd's 'Pāk Pattan', meaning 'Holy Ferry'; today it is generally called Pāk Pattan Sharīf.^[12]
Faridia Islamic University, a religious madrassa in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan, is named after him,^[16] and in July 1998, the Punjab Government in India established the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences at Faridkot, the city which itself was named after him.^[17][18]
Various accounts are related as to why Bābā Farīd was given the title Shakar Ganj^[19] ('Treasure of Sugar'). One legend tells how his mother used to encourage the young Farīd to pray by placing sugar under his prayer mat. Once, when she forgot, the young Farīd found the sugar anyway, an experience that gave him more spiritual fervour and led to his being given the name.^[4]
Other accounts and legends also says that Baba Farid once a caught a bolt of lightning with his bare hands and placed it into a pot, which saved the lives of many civilians.

Tomb:

The small tomb of Baba Farid is made of white marble with two doors, one facing east and called the Nūrī Darwāza or 'Gate of Light', and the second facing north called Bahishtī Darwāza, or 'Gate of Paradise'. There is also a long covered corridor. Inside the tomb are two white marbled graves. One is Baba Farid's, and the other is his elder son's. These graves are always covered by sheets of cloth called Chadders (the green coloured chadders are covered with Islamic verses), and flowers that are brought by visitors. The space inside the tomb is limited; not more than ten people can be inside at one time. Ladies are not allowed inside the tomb, but the late Benazir Bhutto, then prime minister of Pakistan, managed to enter inside when she visited the shrine.

Shrine:

The Shrine (mazar/mazār) is vast and spacious, located in the city of Pakpattan, otherwise Pākpattan Sharīf. At first his tomb and shrine were constructed under the supervision of Saint Nizamuddin Auliya/Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia. The shrine is made entirely of marble. Some years back it was partly made of marble and bricks. Charity food called Langar is distributed all day by visitors and the Auqaf Department, which administrates the shrine. The shrine is open all day and night for visitors. The shrine has its own huge electricity generator that is used whenever there is power cut or loadshedding, so the shrine remains bright all night, all year round. There is no separation of male and female areas but a small female area is also there. There is a big new mosque in the shrine. Thousands of people daily visit the shrine for their wishes and unresolvable matters; for this they vow to give to some charity when their wishes or problems are resolved. When their matters are solved they bring charity food for visitors and the poor, and drop money in big money boxes that are kept for this purpose. This money is collected by the Auqaf Department that looks after the shrine.
On October 25, 2010, a bomb exploded outside the gates of the shrine, killing six people.

Ali Hajware RA

Background:

Ali Hujwiri is both al-Hasani and al-Husayni Sayyid. His father is al-Hasani Sayyid and his mother is al-Husayni. Abul Hasan Ali bin Usman Al-Hujwiri Al-Jullabi Al-Ghazanwi was born in Ghazni (Hujwir) where his family had settled and the members of which were passionate for devoutness and learning. He was known as Ali Al-Hujwiri Al-Jullabi, Al-Ghazanwi because he lived for a long time in Hujwir and Jullab, the two suburbs (Mazafat) of the city of Ghazni located in Afghanistan. In spite of Hazrat Ali bin Usman Al-Hujwiri's popularity and deep reverence; coming across his life biography is very much tortuous. Much of his life history and thought came from his own authentic reference Kashf al-Mahjub

Life:
Ali Hujwiri studied Sufism under Abu 'l-Fadl Muhammad, who was a student of Abu 'l-Hasan al-Husri. Abu 'l-Fadl Muhammed bin al-Hasan was well-versed in tafsir and riwayat. Ali Hujwiri traveled far and wide through the Indus to the Caspian Sea. Among the countries and places which he visited were Adharbayajan, the tomb of Bayazid at Bistam, Damascus, Ramla, and Bayt al-Jinn in Syria. In Khursan alone he is reported to have met 300 Sufis.^[5].Al-Hujwiri was associated with the most well-known Sufi orders in the subcontinent, such as the Qadiri, Suharwardi, Naqshbandi and the Junaidi orders. Hujwiri belonged to the Junaidia school of Sufism, founded by Junaid Baghdadi, a major Sufi saint of Baghdad. Hajwiri is also viewed as an important intercessor for many Sufis. Moinuddin Chishti Ajmeri, a chief saint of the Chishti order, stated that an aspiring murid (disciple) one who does not (yet) have a murshid (spiritual master), should read Ali Hujwiri's book Kashf al-Mahjub, as that would be (temporarily) enough for his spiritual guidance.^[6] He settled for some time in Iraq where he had a short experience with married life.
Al-Hujwiri was a contemporary of al-Qushairi. During his travels, he met with many eminent Sufis, and saw and felt the slow transformation of Sufism from simple asceticism and adoration of God to a highly developed theosophical cult considerably influenced by pantheistic ideas. He is the link between Mysticism as it developed in Persia and Khurasan, and the form it took in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.^[7]
Al-Hujwiri came to Lahore under orders from his Pir as successor to Shaikh Husain Zanjani at a time when as a result of irruption of the Seljuks on one side and the rising tide of Hindu resistance on the order, the Ghaznavid Empire began to dismember rapidly, and life in Ghazni itself was disrupted. The saint had to leave Ghazni in difficult circumstances, leaving his books behind. According to Faw'id-ul-Fu'ad, Ali Hujwiri reached Lahore at night and in the morning found the people bringing out the bier of Shaikh Husain Zanjani whom he replaced in Lahore.^[8]
Although a Sunni Hanafi, Hujwiri's theology was reconciled with the concept of Sufi annihilation. However he strenuously campaigned against the doctrine that human personalities can be merged with God, instead likening annihilation to burning by fire which allows the substance to acquire fire like properties while retaining its own individuality. He also was a great upholder of the Sharia and rebuffed the idea that outward observances of Islam are not important for Sufis. Hujwiri believed that individuals should not claim to have attained "marifat" or gnosis because it meant that one was prideful, and that true understanding of God should be a silent understanding.
Ali-Hujwiri is said to have died on the twentieth of the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal 465 H.E, but the date, the month and year are all conjectural. Most early writers agree on 455 H.E. as the year of his death, on the basis of the various chronograms.

 Kashuf Al-Mahjub :

Kashf al Mahjub is held in high esteem as the first important treatise on Sufism in Persian. The date of the completion of the book cannot be determined with any certainty. It must have taken Hujwiri a long time to write it in Lahore without his personal collection of books. He was a prolific writer, perceptive and discriminating in his choice of topics.
Kashf al Mahjub was written in response to the request of one Abu Sa'eed Al-Hujwiri who put the following questions to him: "Explain to me the true meaning of the Path of Sufism and the nature of the stations' (maqamat) of the Sufis, and explain their doctrines and saying, and make clear to me their mystical allegories, and the nature of Divine Love and how it is manifested in human hearts, and why the intellect is unable to reach the essence thereof, and why the soul recoils from the reality thereof, and why the spirit is lulled in the purity thereof; and explain the practical aspect of Sufism which are connected with these theories."^[12]
Kashf al Mahjub (Unveiling the Veiled) begins with a chapter on ilm. Hujwiri^[13]
When Ali-Hujwiri was asked what is Sufism? he replied, "In our times this science has been in reality obliterated, especially in this region, for people are all occupied with pleasure, and have turned away from satisfying [God]

Other Works:
Ali Hujwiri wrote a few more books (which are mentioned in Kashf-ul-Mahjub, and listed by Professor Nichlolas in his English translation), but he himself mentions that all of those were stolen by other people. Some people think that the magazine Kashf-ul-Israr is also written by him, but Hakeem Muhammad Mosa AmaratsariKashf-ul-Israr is also written by him, but Hakeem Muhammad Mosa Amaratsari believes the content of that work does not match Ali Hujwiri's erudition. Some of his works include the following:^[15]
~Minhaj-ud-Din, on the method of Sufism, and an account of the Ahl-l-Suffa and full biography of Mansur al-Hallaj;
~Asrar-ul-Khiraqq wa'l-ma'unat, on the patched frocks of the Sufis;
~Kitab-i-Fana-o-baqa, composed "in the vanity and rashness of youth", a work in explanation of the sayings of Mansur al-Hallaj
~Kitab-al-Bayan-li-ahl-al-iyan, on union with God;
~Bahr-ul-Qulub
~Al-Riayat li-huquq Allah, on Divine unity

 

History of Mazar i Sharif

The region around Mazar-e-Sharif has been historically part of Greater Khorasan and was controlled by the Tahirids followed by the Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Ilkhanates, Timurids, and Khanate of Bukhara. According to tradition, the city of Mazari Sharif owes its existence to a dream. At the beginning of the 12th century, a local mullah had a dream in which the 7th century Ali bin Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of Islam's prophet Muhammad, appeared to reveal that he had been secretly buried near the city of Balkh. After conducting researches in the 12th century, the Seljuk sultan Ahmed Sanjar ordered a city and shrine to be built on the location, where it stood until its destruction by Genghis Khan and his Mongol army in the 13th century. Although later rebuilt, Mazar stood in the shadow of its neighbor Balkh, until that city was abandoned in 1866 for health reasons.^{[citation needed]}
The city and region became part of the Afghan Durrani Empire in around 1750 when after an agreement was signed between Mir Muhammad Murad Beg and Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founding father of Afghanistan. In the late 1870s, Afghan Emir Sher Ali Khan escaped from Kabul to take refuge in Mazar-e Sharif, which was un-affected by the Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th century between Afghanistan and then British India.
Mazar-e Sharif remained peaceful for the next one hundred years until 1979, when then neighboring Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. During the 1980s Soviet war, Mazari Sharif was a strategic base for the Soviet Army, as they used its airport to launch air strikes on Afghan mujahideen. In the early 1990s, after the Soviet withdraw from Afghanistan, control of Mazar was contested by the Tajik militia Jamiat-e Islami, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani, and the Uzbek militia Jumbesh-e Melli led by Abdul Rashid Dostum. As a garrison for the Soviet-backed Afghan army, the city was under the command of Dostum, who mutinied against Najibullah's government in 1992.
Under Dostum's 5 year rule from the early 1990s to early 1997, Mazar was an oasis of peace. As the rest of the nation disintegrated and was slowly taken over by the Taliban, Dostum strengthened political ties with the newly independent Uzbekistan as well as Turkey. He printed his own currency and established his own airline. This peace was shattered in May 1997, when he was betrayed by one of his generals, Abdul Malik Pahlawan, forcing him to flee from Mazar as the Taliban were getting ready to take the city.

Shrine of Hazrat Ali

The Shrine of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam, is an iconic sight in Mazar-i-Sharif in the province of Balkh in Afghanistan.

The Blue Mosque, as it is also known, is famous for its blue colour and doves which attract thousands of pilgrims, especially at the time of the Afghan New Year at the end of March.

Some people believe that harming the doves at the mosque will bring bad luck; others believe feeding them will bring good fortune.