Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti

PM presents sacred Chadar to be placed during the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Khwaja Chishti is also known by different names as, Khawaja Gharib Nawaz, ‘Sultan-Ul-Hind’ (Benefactor of the Poor).

• Birth – Sijistan (modern-day Sistan) in Iran in 1141-42 CE.

Visit to India – He started living and preaching in Ajmer after 2^nd Battle of Tarain (1192), where Mohammed of Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan.

• His Mission – To establish the kingdom of God on Earth.
• Popularity – He was popular among the locals, kings, nobles, and peasants for his instructive discourses full of spiritual insights.
• He established the Chishti order of 'fakirs' in India.

Doctrines – It emphasised the unity of being with God (wa?dat al-wuj?d) and members of the order were also pacifists.

• They rejected all material goods as distractions from the contemplation of God.
• They abstained from connection with the secular state.
• Recitation of the names of God, both aloud and silently (dhikr jahr?, dhikr khaf?), formed the cornerstone of Chisht? practice.

Urs festival is an annual festival held at Ajmer in Rajasthan to commemorate his death anniversary.