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Part of a series on Islam Sufism
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The Chishtī Order (Persian: چشتی‬‎ chishtī) is a Sunni Sufi order within the mystic Sufi tradition of Islam. It began in Chisht, a small town near Herat, Afghanistan about 930 CE. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness.^[1]

The Chishti Order is primarily followed in Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent. It was the first of the four main Sufi orders (Chishti, Qadiriyya, Suhrawardiyya and Naqshbandi) to be established in this region. Moinuddin Chishti introduced the Chishti Order in Lahore (Punjab) and Ajmer (Rajasthan), sometime in the middle of the 12th century CE. He was eighth in the line of succession from the founder of the Chishti Order, Abu Ishaq Shami. There are now several branches of the order, which has been the most prominent South Asian Sufi brotherhood since the 12th century.^[2]

In the last century, the order has spread outside Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent. Chishti teachers have established centers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Eastern and Southern Africa.

Guiding principles

The Chishti are perhaps best known for the welcome extended to seekers who belong to other religions. Chishti shrines in South Asia are open to all faiths and attract great crowds to their festivals.

The Chishti shaykhs have also stressed the importance of keeping a distance from worldly power.^[3] A ruler could be a patron or a disciple, but he or she was always to be treated as just another devotee. A Chishti teacher should not attend the court or be involved in matters of state, as this will corrupt the soul with worldly matters. In his last discourse to his disciples, Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti said:

Chishti believe that this insistence on otherworldliness differentiates them from Sufi orders that maintained close ties to rulers and courts, and deferred to aristocratic patrons.

Chishti practice is also notable for sama: evoking the divine presence Sufi's use to listening to Qawwali.^[5] The Chishti, as well as some other Sufi orders, believe that Qawwali can help devotees forget self in the love of Allah. However, the order also insists that followers observe the full range of Muslim obligations; it does not dismiss them as mere legalism, as some strands of Sufism have done.^[6] The Qawwali usually heard at Chisti shrines and festivals is qawwali.

Practices

The Chishtis follow five basic devotional practices (dhikr).^[7]

1. Reciting the names of Allāh loudly, sitting in the prescribed posture at prescribed times (dhikr-i dzahir)


2. Reciting the names of Allāh silently (dhikr-i khafī)


3. Regulating the breath (pās-i anfās)


4. Absorption in mystic contemplation (murā-ḳāba)


5. Forty days or more days of spiritual confinement in a lonely corner or cell for prayer and contemplation (čilla)

Literature

Early Chishti shaykhs adopted concepts and doctrines outlined in two influential Sufi texts: the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif of Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī and the Kashf al-Maḥdjūb of Hudjwīrī. These texts are still read and respected today. Chishtis also read collections of the sayings, speeches, poems, and letters of the shaykhs. These collections, called malfūẓāt, were prepared by the shaykh's disciples.^[8]

Spiritual lineage

Sufi orders trace their origins ultimately to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who is believed to have instructed his successor in mystical teachings and practices in addition to the Qur'an or hidden within the Qur'an. Opinions differ as to this successor. Almost all Sufi orders trace their to 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Muhammad's cousin, whom the Shi'a regard as the first imam. The Chishti, though Sunni, trace their lineage through Ali. This is not unusual for Sufi orders, which tend to stress devotion rather than legalism and sectarianism.

The traditional silsila (spiritual lineage) of the Chishti order is as follows:^[9]

1. 'Muhammad ibn Abdullah


2. 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib


3. 
   Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728, an early Persian Muslim theologian)


4. 
   'Abdul Wāḥid Bin Zaid Abul Faḍl (d. 793, an early Sufi saint)


5. Fuḍayl ibn 'Iyāḍ Bin Mas'ūd Bin Bishr al-Tamīmī


6. 
   Ibrāhīm bin Adham (a legendarly early Sufi ascetic)


7. Ḥudhayfah al-Mar'ashī


8. Amīnuddīn Abū Ḥubayrah al-Baṣrī


9. Mumshād Dīnwarī


10. 
    Abu Ishaq Shamī (d. 940, founder of the Chishti order proper)


11. Abu Ahmad Chishtī


12. Abu Muhammad Chishtī


13. 
    Abu Yusuf Nasar-ud-Din Chishtī (d. 1067)


14. 
    Qutab-ud-Din Maudood Chishtī (Abu Yusuf's son, d. 1139)


15. 
    Haji Sharif Zindani (d. 1215)


16. 
    Usman Harooni (d. 1220)


17. 
    Mu'īnuddīn Chishtī (1141-1230)


18. 
    Qutab-ud-Din Bakhtyar Kaki (1173-1228)


19. 
    Farīduddīn Mas'ūd ("Baba Farid", 1173 or 1175 - 1266)

After Farīduddīn Mas'ūd, the Chishti order divided into two branches:

• Chishtī Sabri, who follow Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari (Sabiri/Sabriya branch)


• Chishtī Nizami who follow Nizāmuddīn Auliyā. (Nizami/Nizamiya branch)


• Chishtī nasiruddin chiragh dehlvi After nasiruddin chiragh the Chishti order divided into two branches: *Chishti kamaloddin allama & Chishti Bandanawaz Gesudaraz.

History

Mughal princess Jahan Ara's tomb (left), Nizamuddin Auliya's tomb (right) and Jama'at Khana Masjid (background), at Nizamuddin Dargah complex, in Nizamuddin West, Delhi

The Encyclopedia of Islam divides Chishti history into four periods:

• Era of the great shaykhs (circa 597/1200 to 757/1356)


• Era of the provincial khānaḳāhs (8th/14th & 9th/15th centuries)


• Rise of the Ṣābiriyya branch (9th/15th century onwards)


• Revival of the Niẓāmiyya branch (12th/18th century onwards^[10])

The order was founded by Abu Ishaq Shami ("the Syrian") who taught Sufism in the town of Chisht, some 95 miles east of Herat in present-day western Afghanistan.^[11] Before returning to Syria, where he is now buried next to Ibn Arabi at Jabal Qasioun^[12] Shami initiated, trained and deputized the son of the local emir, Abu Ahmad Abdal.^[13] Under the leadership of Abu Ahmad’s descendants, the Chishtiya as they are also known, flourished as a regional mystical order.^[14]

The founder of the Chishti Order in South Asia was Moinuddin Chishti. He was born in the province of Silistan in eastern Persia around 536 AH (1141 CE), into a sayyid family claiming descent from Muhammad.^[15] When he was only nine, he memorized the Qur'an, thus becoming a hafiz. His father died when he was a teenager; Moinuddin inherited the family grinding mill and orchard. He sold everything and gave the proceeds to the poor. He traveled to Balkh and Samarkand, where he studied the Qur'an, hadith, and fiqh.^[16] He looked for something beyond scholarship and law and studied under the Chishti shaykh Usman Harooni. He moved to Lahore and then to Ajmer, where he died. His tomb, in Ajmer, is the Dargah Sharif, a popular shrine and pilgrimage site.

Moinuddin was followed by Qutab-ud-Din Bakhtyar Kaki and Farīduddīn Mas'ūd 'Baba Farid'. After Fariduddin, the Chishti Order of South Asia split into two branches. Each branch was named after one of Fariduddin's successors:

1. 
   Nizamuddin Auliya - This branch became the Chishti Nizami branch.


2. 
   Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari - This branch became the Chishti-Sabiri branch.

It was after Nizamuddin Auliya that Chisti Sufism chain spread through far and wide throughout the Indian Peninsula. Two prominent lines of transmission arose from Nuizamuddin Auliya, one from his disciple Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi and the other from another disciple Akhi Siraj Aainae Hind, who migrated to West Bengal from Delhi on Nizamuddin Auliya's order. Siraj Aanae Hind was followed by his notable disciple Alaul Haq Pandavi settled in Pandava, West Bengal itself. From this chain of transmission another prominent sub-branch of Chishti way emerged known as Ashrafia Silsila after the illustrious saint Ashraf Jahangir Semnani, who was the disciple of Alau Haq Pandavi in the thirteen century A.D.
]].
Later, yet other traditions branched from the Chisti lineage; in many cases they merged with other popular Sufi orders in South Asia.

As a result of this merging of the Chishti order with other branches, most Sufi masters now initiate their disciples in all the four major orders of South Asia: Chishti, Suhrawadi, Qadri, and Naqshbandi. They do however, teach devotional practices typical of the order with which they are primarily associated.

The Chishti order has also absorbed influences and merged at times with various antinomian fakir Sufi groups, especially the Qalandar. Some Chishtis both past and present have lived as renunciants or as wandering dervish.^[17]

In more recent times, a more contemporary expression of traditional Chishti Sufi practices can be found in the establishment of the Ishq-Nuri Tariqa^[18] in the 1960s, as a branch of the Chishti-Nizami silsila.^[19]

In addition, a number of pseudo-Sufi or mixed-Sufi type groups or movements in Islam, have also been influenced by the Chishti Order proper^[20] - the best known and most widespread example is of the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, a Sunni Muslim sect with a huge international following, which is in essence not a proper Sufi organization though adopting many Sufi customs and traditions.^[21]

Mughal rulers

Several rulers of the Mughal dynasty of South Asia were Chisti devotees. The emperor Akbar was perhaps the most fervent of them. It is said to be by the blessing of Shaikh Salim Chishti that Akbar's first surviving child, the future Jahangir, was born. The child was named Salim after the sheikh and was affectionately addressed by Akbar as Sheikhu Baba.

Akbar also credited the Chisti sheikhs with his victory at the Siege of Chittorgarh. Akbar had vowed to visit the Chisti dargah, the tomb of Moinuddin Chishti, at Ajmer if he were victorious. He fulfilled his vow by visiting the dargah with his musicians, who played in honor of the sheikh.

Shah Jahan's daughter, Jahanara Begum Sahib, was also a devout follower of the Chisti Order.

• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  The passing of Shah Jahan; attending him, his daughter Princess Jahanara.
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  The Mughal Emperor Akbar was a great patron of the Chishti Order.
  

  
  

  
  

Other notable Chishti shaykhs

• Qudwa tud deen Abu Ahmed Abdaal Chishti 355 A.H


• Nasih ud deen Abu Muhammad Chishti 411 A.H


• Nasir ul Haq wad deen Abu Yousuf Chishti 459 A.H


• 
  Qutb ud deen Modood Chishti 527 A.H


• 
  Haji Shareef zandani 612 A.H


• 
  Usman Harooni 617 A.H


• 
  Qut ul aqtab Qutb ud deen Bakhtiyar kaki 635 A.H (Delhi, India)


• 
  Fareed ud deen Mas’ood Ganj E Shakar 668 A.H (Pak Patan Sharif, Pakistan)


• 
  Naseer ud deen Mahmood Charagh Dehlavi 757 A.H (Delhi, India)


• Khawaja Kamal ud deen Allamah 726 A.H(Delhi, India)


• Khawaja Siraj ud deen 817 A.H (Barkat Pura, Ahmed Abad Sharif, Gujarat, India)


• Shah Kaleem ullah Shah Jahan Abadi, 1142 A.H


• Shah Nizam ud deen Aorang Abadi, 1142 A.H


• 
  Tajuddin Chishti (Chishtian Sharif, Pakistan)


• 
  Amir Khusro (Delhi, India)


• 
  Akhi Siraj Aainae Hind (Dist. Malda, West Bengal, India)


• 
  Alaul Haq Pandavi (Dist. Malda, West Bengal, India)


• 
  Ashraf Jahangir Semnani^[22] (Kichaucha, Uttar Pradesh, India)


• 
  Burhanuddin Gharib (Maharashtra, India)


• 
  Bande Nawaz (Gulbarga, India)


• 
  Salim Chishti (Fatehpur Sikri, India)


• 
  Noor Muhammad Maharvi1205 A.H (Mahar Sharif, Pakistan)


• 
  Muhammad Suleman Taunsvi 1267 A.H (Taunsa Sharif, Pakistan)


• 
  Ata Hussain Fani Chishti (Bihar, India)


• 
  Khwaja Ghulam Farid (Mithankot, Pakistan)


• 
  Muhammad Shamsuddin Sialvi 1300 A.H (Sial Sharif, Pakistan)


• 
  Meher Ali Shah (Golra Sharif, Pakistan)^[23]
  


• 
  Inayat Khan (Vadodara, Gujarat)


• 
  Fariduddin Tavaela Bukhsh (Bihar, India)


• Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki (Muzaffarnagar, India/Makkah, Saudi Arabia)


• Khwaja Suleman Tuansvi (Tuansa Shareef, Dera Ghazi Khan District, Pakistan)

See also

• Waris Shah


• Sabri Brothers


• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan


• Hakim Ahmad Shuja


• Sufi Ruhaniat International


• Syed Waheed Ashraf

Notes

References

• Haeri, Muneera (2000) The Chishtis: a living light Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK,
  ISBN 0-19-579327-7
  


• Ernst, Carl W. and Lawrence, Bruce B. (2002) Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond Palgrave Macmillan, New York,
  ISBN 1-4039-6026-7. Excerpts
  


• Farīdī, Iḥtishāmuddīn (1992) Tārīk̲h̲-i iblāg̲h̲-i Cisht Āl Inḍiyā Baz-i Ḥanafī, Delhi, OCLC 29752219 in Urdu with biographies


• Āryā, Ghulām ‘Alī (2004) Ṭarīqah-i Chishtīyah dar Hind va Pākistān: ta’līf-i Ghulām‘alī Āryā Zavvār, Tehran,
  ISBN 964-401-200-3 in Persian


• Chopra, R.M., "SUFISM", 2016, Anuradha Prakashan, New Delhi.
  ISBN 978-93-85083-52-5.

External links

• Ajmer sharif site


• Russian Chishti site