Sufi Saint Kaki

 Sufi Saint Kaki was the first Uzbek came to India (between 1211-1235) before Babur (1526)

After extinguishing fire of the east, Gandhi returned to Delhi on 30 September 1947. For security reason, he was stationed at Birla Bhavan. His heart was in Pakistan and he was not happy with the migration of the population both the sides. He desired to go to Pakistan to bring back the people who migrated to Pakistan after the partition. But the communal fire in Delhi didn’t allow him to move. How could Gandhi move forward when the people of Delhi were in trouble and the city was flooding with refugees? He went on his last fast of life until death for the peace in Delhi on 13 January 1948. With the assurance of the leaders of all the religions and major organisations he broke the fast on 18 January 1948. He took a visit of a Kaki Shrine in Mehrauli on annual Urs day on 29 January, a day prior to his assassination. The mosque was damaged during the riots and people living around were displaced. Repairing the mosque and returning the homes to the displaced was one of Gandhiji’s demands of agreement with the leaders while breaking the fast on 18 January 1948. It was the mosque and Shrine of Sufi Saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiyār Kaki. 

Islam travelled to India through its warriors and the mystic Saints of Chishti silsila. Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (1173-1235) was one of them. He was the spiritual successor of Persian Saint Moinuddin Chishti (Ajmer). Fariduddin Ganjshaker and Nizamudin Auliya were the spiritual successor of Kaki. Qutub Minar of Delhi was dedicated after him. He was born in a small town Osh (Fergana valley) Uzbekistan in 1173, and came to India during the rule of Caliph recognised ruler of Delhi, Mamluk Slave Sultan Iltutmish (of Bukhara origin). Kaki was descendant of Prophet Muhammad, discerned through Husain Ibn Ali. He was known as Kaki due to miracle (karamat). 

Due to poverty, his wife used to buy buns-bread (Kak) on credit from the nearby baker. But when the baker stopped giving on credit because of unsettled previous dues, Kaki advised his wife to take the Kak from the corner of their house whenever she requires it. When the lady stopped coming to buy Kak from the bakery, the baker inquired through his wife, why the lady is not coming to his shop but serving the Kak to the visitors. And when the lady disclosed the truth of Kaki’s miracle, the Kak stopped appearing from the corner. From that day, people called him Kaki. 

He attended a Mehfil-e-Sama in November 1235, and after listening the verses of Poet Ahmad e Jam :”those who are slain by the dagger of surrender, receive every moment a new life from the unseen”, he went into the state of ecstasy and died four days later in 1235. He was cremated in Mehrauli. Repaired and rebuilt the Shrine of Saint Kaki is a centre of faith for many believers. However, women are not allowed to go near the tomb. They can see it from the windows. Offering flowers, lit insane and praying are the common practice of worship like Hindus. At one of the tombs in the campus, a lamp is kept lit. It is a venue of autumn festival, “phoolawalo ki sair. It was started in 1812 by Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II, offering chaddar to the shrine and flower pankha to the Yogmaya temple for the safe return of her son Mirza Jahangir, who was exiled to Allahabad by the British Resident in Red Fort, Sir Archibald Seton.

Another important Shrine place is at Chilla in Delhi, where Chishti Saint Nizamuddin Auliya (1138-1325), his disciple Amir Khusrow and Mirza Ghalib rest in the campus. Except the small area of the tombs, the area is thickly populated and is over crowded. Amir Khusrow preferred place of Guru to his material wealth. It is said that unless one visits the Auliya and then go to Ajmer, the pilgrimage is incomplete. Humayun tomb located nearby a world heritage site.

It is to note that in all the Muslim tombs, the dead bodies were placed south facing (head in north and legs in south). It is similar practice like Hindus, who ground the dead body and then put it on the pyre south facing. It follows the magnet ends of Mother Earth, the South Pole and the North Pole. In astrology, North is a Rahu point and South is a Ketu point. The ritual to place the dead body south facing is to facilitate the smooth journey of the spirit after the death. 

Did you notice, our Vikram Yan was crashed while its journey towards the South Pole of Moon? The gravitational angle was missed. People in the ancient and medieval world were living life in harmony with the nature. The houses were built north-south and the temples-religious places were built east-west. 

Mystic world has yet to uncover many mysteries. 

Punamchand 

2 December 2019