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[[Category: India |P]]
[[Category: History |P]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]

=Panipat ...land of the sufis=

By Mobashir Hasan and Zakia Zaheer

'' India Harmony '' VOLUME - 1 : ISSUE - 5 JULY-AUGUST, 2012

Panipat, was a small town, fifty-five miles north
of Delhi. It was an ancient town of several
thousand years. To the east of the town flowed the
river Jamuna which meandered in a several miles
wide Khadar. Along the bank of the river were
forests of huge Dhak trees that bordered the fertile
lands of the town. To the west were extensive
marshes. Between the marshes on one side, and
forest on the other, threaded a katcha road.
Connecting Delhi with the vast lands to the north
and beyond, the road had immense strategic
importance.

It was short and direct route to Delhi. Scores of
conquerors had taken this route since time
immemorial. Along the road, Rajahs and kings
had built wells and caravan sarais. The British
christened it the Grand Trunk Road. The
agricultural plains around the town and the town
itself provided an ideal place to mount the defence
of Delhi against the invaders from Northwest. The
open lands of the town came to be known in
history books as the maidaan-jang of Panipat (the
battle ground of Panipat). Until British egemony
was established in 1820, battles, big and small,
frequently raged in and around Panipat -- almost
four for every century. Those of 1526, 1556 and
1761 proved fateful for the history of India.

[[File: Bu Ali Shah Qalandar.png| Bu Ali Shah Qalandar|frame|500px]]

For the people of the town every battle brought
death and destruction, loot and plunder. The
houses in the town had to have underground
shelters, hiding places which the children of the
house discovered only as they grew up. All houses
had doors and
windows
connecting one
house to the
next. Household
stories of how a
great-grand
mother of a
family hid her
jewellery and
escaped before
looters arrived,
were common.It was only natural that through the
ages the people of the town should develop hatred
for wars and yearning for peace. They should
begin to abhor violence and want to adopt nonviolence
as their creed. They should engage
themselves in spreading knowledge, peace and
love. And that is exactly what they did.
For political reasons, the religious elite of Panipat
and the kings of Delhi maintained a benevolent
attitude towards each other. In recognition of its
political influence, Sultan Ghiasuddin Balban had
exempted the lands of Panipat from the payment
of land revenue. For the next six centuries no
government considered it prudent to discontinue
the exemption. The Muslims in Panipat were three
times the number of the Hindus. The Hindus were
mostly banias who owned shops and lent money.
The Muslims who were land holders dominated.
Hindu-Muslim relations were most cordial. Even
in British days, the chief police officer of the town
was always a Muslim. There were poor people in
Panipat but there was no poverty of the type seen
in modern times. Every family had a house or the
right to live in a house. Once a house became a
ruin due to demise of the residents, it would take
seven generations before a new house could come
up on the site. This speaks volumes for the total
lack of population growth in the town.

[[File: Spreading the message of peace.png| Spreading the message of peace|frame|500px]]

[[File: Tomb of Bu Ali Shah Qalandar at Panipat.png| Tomb of Bu Ali Shah Qalandar at Panipat|frame|left|500px]]

The impact of the teachings of the patron saint of
Panipat, the Bu Ali Shah Qalandar on the
populace was everlasting. He laid stress on the
place of the individual and his freedom to chart
his own course of action.
Not many are aware that Panipat became the land
of the Sufis as early as the times of Mahmud
Ghaznavi With Ghaznavi came in the 13th
Century, a Sufi named Makhdoom Jalaludin
Kibria whose shrine still exits in Panipat. He
decided to establish his “dera” there. Why did he
choose Panipat to establish his Sufi centre? It was
a dangerous place to live in, where bloody battles
were fought in every century. Panipat was an ideal
battleground for those who invaded India from the
North and those who defended the country from
the South. It lay on a piece of relatively high
ground between vast marshes on the West and the
River Yamuna on the East. There was no good
direct road to it; so it was not suitable for trade or
commerce. Therefore, besides being a suitable
battle ground, it was also a safe haven for Sufis.
Makhdoom Jalal-ud Din's “Dera” became a great
centre for the promotion of peace and harmony
and attracted students from far and wide. He was
a great scholar of Islam, and a fervent preacher of
Humanity. The most famous Sufi among his
successors was Hazrat Gaus Ali Shah Qalander,
who was both a scholar, a preacher of harmony
and a poet. His most famous couplet is:

[[File: Tomb of revered sufi saint Sheikh Chehli near Panipat.png|Tomb of revered sufi saint Sheikh Chehli near Panipat|frame|500px]]

“Haidereem, qalanderam hastam, Banda e
Murtaza Ali hastam”

“I am a qalander (One who has abandoned
all wordly possessions, including outer
trappings-clothes, belongings etc) and am a
devotee only of Ali.”

This invited the wrath of a large number of
traditional Muslim Scholars who demanded the
death penalty for him for calling himself Banda-e-
Ali, which amounted to 'Shirk' (including anyone
else in the rank of Allah). Balban was the King of
the region and this created a serious problem for
him as Qalander was immensely popular among
both Hindus and Muslims. This political and
religious conflict was resolved by Khwaja Malik
Ali, the great grandson of Abdullah Peer-e- Heirat
who was a renowned Sufi Saint from Afghanistan.
He lived in Herat, Afghanistan. Abdullah was
greatly revered by all. His beautiful Mazar still
exists in Herat where thousands of people come
and pray daily.

Malik Ali pronounced his own edict. He decided
and announced that it will be unIslamic to
execute Qalander, as the whole concept of
Qalander was to be able to do as you see right,
and live without any restraints. Balban heaved a
sign of relief. He invited Malik Ali to come to
India, which he did, along with his family. But
he did not go to Delhi, but to Panipat, which by
then, had become a great center for Islamic
scholarship, and for the promotion of peace,
harmony and tolerance. The Urdu poet an
acknowledged iconoclast, Hali was a direct
descendant of Khwaja Malik Ali some 600 years
down the line.

Ghiasud Din Qalander lived for 115 years, from
1209 to 1324. He was revered by all sections of
the people for his deep spirituality and his
miraculous powers. There are many legends about
him. One version is that he stood in water for 36
years doing “ibadat” (Obedience and
submission), he was awarded the title of “BU Ali
“(Fragrance of Ali). After receiving this rutba he
was visited by many other Sufi saints. Another
legend is that the Holy Prophet visited him in his
dream and offered him a wish, Qalander asked
him to make him a disciple of Hazrat Ali (the sonin-
law of the Holy Prophet). The Holy Prophet
touched him and he had Ali's fragrance in his
body and soul.

Perhaps the true story is not known but the fact is
that he is Panipat's patron saint and to date people
of all religions come to his Mausoleum every
Thursday and also in great numbers from all over
India for his Urs, In Sufism, Urs means URUS or
marriage and is celebrated with joy as it is the day
of the Sufi's final union at last with his beloved,
the ultimate murshid (mentor) - GOD!!

Bu Ali's tomb was built in Panipat by Mahabat
Khan, a general in the service of Jehangir, Also
buried in its enclosure is Mahabat Khan himself,
and Ibrahim Lodhi, who was killed in the battle of
Panipet in 1526. The enclosure also houses the
mazar of Panipat's most famous poet, Maulana
Hali.

[[File: Scholars and Sufi.png|Scholars and Sufi|frame|500px]]

During Qalander's time Panipat had become a
great place of learning. Shaikh Ismail, a historian
has mentioned at least 1400 scholars of Arabic,
Persian and even Sanskrit in the colleges of
Panipat who came from many lands. These
languages were studied by Hindus and Muslims
alike. This gave rise to a unique culture unlike
anywhere in India, All Muslim boys were
supposed to memorize the Quran. The discussion
among people was greatly influenced by teachings
of Qalandri which freed an individual to
determine his own philosophy of life. One could
see a number of fakirs in a trance like state, but no
one bothered them. They had no desire for
material things, Even visiting Hindu sadhus would
get intoxicated by the spirituality and teachings of
Shah Qalander.

Iqbal writing about the Qalader philosophy says:

Apnay mun mein doob kar pa ja suragh e
zindagi
Tu agar mera naheen banta na bun, apna to bun
Paani paani kar gai mujh ko qalander ki yeh
baat
Tu jhuka jub gair ke aagay, na tun tera na mun
Delve deep in your soul and you will find the
secret of life's scroll……………

IF you can not be mine,
matters not, be atleast
true to thy own soul

I was really ashamed
when I heard a Qalander
to me
extol……………………
……………… IF you
pay homage to
strangers, then the heart
be yours nor the soul

Panipat being a Sufi
centre since 13th
Centaury, there have
been a number of Sufi
since Bu Ali. To name a
few:

Hazrat Sheikh Jalaluddin Makhdoom Kabirul-

Aulia Chishti Sabiri
Hazrat Sheikh Shamsuddin Turk, Panipati
Hazrat Maulana Moiz-zud-Din Daulat Abadi
Maulana Najib-ud-din Samarqandi
Maulana Qutb-ud-Makki
Qazi Zia-ud-din Sunami
Hazrat Maulana Siraj-ud-din Makki
Maulana Zahiruddin Bukhari
Sheikh Sadr-ud-din Qaunavi
Mufti Shaeikh Sheikh Abdus-sami Danishmand

One can still find their Mazars well visited in
Panipat bearing testimony to the fact that it was
not only a city of battles, but of scholars,
reformers, poets and Sufis as well.

Panipat ...land of the sufis - Revision history

Pdewan: Created page with "{| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.You can help by converting..."

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