Mujaddid alf sani dargah address search

The three-day annual Urs—observed in the memory of Sheikh Ahmad, the most prominent disciple of Khwaja Baqi Billah—that commenced at the tomb of Sheikh Ahmad Farukhi is considered one of the holiest places in Islam.

Every year, many devotees from Pakistan visit Rauza Sharif Urs. However this year, they will not be able to visit the place due to the visa issue.

“A delegation of Pakistani pilgrims reaches here one day before the annual Urs. In this regard, a special halt was organised for the Samjotha Express at the Sirhind junction. But due to the visa issue this year, the Pakistani pilgrims will not arrive,”said one of the organisers.

Besides, a large number of Muslim devotees from various parts of the country and Bangladesh have already arrived here to pay their respects.

The district administration has made proper arrangements regarding this.

Rauza Sharif’s Khalifa said special arrangements had been made for lodging and boarding of pilgrims, including langar (community kitchen) during the event.

Sheikh Ahmad had raised voice against din-e-elahi during the tenure of Akbar, and was jailed along with Guru Hargobind Rai.

Mouzam Ali, an ardent follower, said Sheikh Ahmad was born and died in Sirhind, and the tomb was constructed in his memory.

Islam building in Punjab, India

Rauza Sharif is a shrine (Dargah) in the Punjab state of India dedicated to the Sufi teacher Shaikh Ahmad al-Faruqī al-Sirhindī (1564 – 1624). It is located to the north of Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib and is where Sirhindi lived during the reigns of Mughal Emperors Akbar and Jahangir.

Muslim visitation

The Urs celebration (death anniversary) of the Mujadid are held here for more than 300 years and are largely attended by Muslims from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other Muslim countries. In 2023, Urs is being celebrated from September 13 to 15.

Monument compound

There are a number of other tombs in the compound mostly of the members of Shaikh Ahmad's house. The mausoleum is a fine building made of bricks partly overlaid with stone and marble. Close to it there is the mausoleum of Rati-ud-Din, an ancestor of the Mujadid. Not far here are the rauzas of Mujaddid’s sons Khawaja Muhammad Sadiq and Khwaja Muhammad Masum. The rauza of latter is some times called rauza chini on account of its excellent mosaic work. In its premises are many other graves of the members of the house of the said reformer and some members of the ruling family of Kabul. There is a grand mosque with a basement and a small tank for performing ablution before the prayers. The shrine has since been taken over by Government of India as a historic monument and regular employees have been kept here for its maintenance, up keep and care.

By the side of the Rauza are the tombs of the Afghan Ruler, Shah Zaman and his Queen.

Other nearby Tombs

Other tombs situated around Sirhind city are:

Tomb of Ustad and Shagird

There are two tombs situated at a distance of about one kilometre west of Rauza Sharif in village Talanian, these are commonly known as the tombs of Ustad Syad Khan (master mason) and Shagird (apprentice mason).

Indian Naqshbandi Sufi (1564–1624)

Ahmad Sirhindi (1564 – 1624/1625) was an Indian Islamic scholar, Hanafi jurist, and member of the NaqshbandīSufi order who lived during the era of Mughal Empire.

Ahmad Sirhindi opposed heterodox movements within the Mughal court such as Din-i Ilahi, in support of more orthodox forms of Islamic Law. His act of preserving and urging the practice of Islamic orthodoxy has cemented his reputation by some followers as a Mujaddid, or a "reviver".

While early and modern South Asian scholarship credited him for contributing to conservative trends in Indian Islam, more recent works, such as Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi and commentaries from western scholars such as Ter Haar, Friedman, and Buehler, have pointed to Sirhindi's significant contributions to Sufi epistemology and practices.

Biography

Sirhindi was born on 26 May 1564 in the village of Sirhind, Punjab to a Punjabi Muslim family. A descendant of 13th-century Sufi saint and poet Baba Farid, he claimed ancestry from the second Rashidun caliph, Umar (634–644). Sirhindi received most of his early education from his father, 'Abd al-Ahad, his brother, Muhammad Sadiq and from a Lahore-based scholar Muhammad Tahir al-Lahuri. He also memorised the Qur'an. He then studied in Sialkot, which had become an intellectual centre under the scholar Kamaluddin Kashmiri. Qazi Bahlol Badakhshani taught him jurisprudence, Muhammad's biography and history. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Khwaja Baqi Billah when he was 36 years old, and became a leading master of the order. His deputies traversed the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eve

I never ever thought of ever having a date with Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi Mujaddid-i Alf-i Sāni, the Redeemer of the second Millennium who lies buried at Sirhind in Punjab. But destiny willed otherwise and the Shaikh beckoned me to his tomb at Sirhind!

Shaikh Ahmad of Sirhind was an uncompromising orthodox with whom I can never see eye to eye. Like Jahangir, I also believe that he had “opened a shop of sedition” and strife between communities.

I had heard of the Shaikh from my childhood when we used to go to Agra to visit the tomb of Qazi Nurullah Shustari who had been allegedly done to death due to Shaikh Ahmad’s insinuations. Again I heard of him when I read one of Professor Khaliq Ahmad Nizami’s piece where he alleged that Nur Jahāñ caused the incarceration of the Shaikh as she was a Shia and held him responsible for the execution of the Shia Qazi!

My real exposure to the Shaikh was however when I was doing my MA in history and Professor M Athar Ali taught us about him and his movement. It was a much more moderate view of Sirhindi which I had heard so far! And then I read Yohanne Friedman’s detailed article on him. And then ultimately I went through the pathbreaking article written by Irfan Habib where he analysed the thought and writings of Shaikh Ahmad threadbare.

Belonging to the Naqshbandi Silsila (Order), Shaikh Ahmad was a disciple of Khwaja Baqi Billah, buried in Delhi. He believed that Islam had been severely contaminated with heterodoxy. Shi’ism and Hindus had both so polluted the true faith, that the true piety had disappeared and that as a new millennium was starting, there was the need of a Redeemer. He believed that he himself was that great Redeemer who was destined to save the religion of Islam: he was the Mujaddid of the Second Millennium.

He wrote letter after letter to various nobles (and interestingly none apparently replied or even acknowledged these letters) that to sit with Shias and Hindus was similar to ea