Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz

A beautiful tomb of Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz dargah. Constructed by the Sultan of Mandu, Ghyasuddin in 1464 A.D. over the existing structure

Moin ud-Din Chishti

Born: 1 February, 1143 - Sistan

Died: 15 March 1236 - Ajmer, India

Chishti Moin ud-Din Hasan Sijzi known more commonly as Moin ud-Din Chishti or Moinuddin Chishti, or by the epithet Gharib Nawaz, or reverently as a Shaykh Moin ud-Din or Khwaja Moin ud-Din by Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, was a Sunni Muslim preacher, ascetic, religious scholar, philosopher & mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the famous Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism. This particular tariqa (order) became the dominant Muslim spiritual group in medieval India & many of the most beloved & venerated Indian Sunni saints were Chishti in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Awliya (d. 1325) and Amir Khusrow (d. 1325).

Having arrived in Delhi during the reign of the sultan Iltutmish (d. 1236), Moin ud-Din moved from Delhi to Ajmer shortly thereafter, at which point he became increasingly influenced by the writings of the famous Sunni Hanbali scholar & mystic Abdullah Ansari (d. 1088), whose famous work on the lives of the early Islamic saints, the Tabaqat al-sufiyya, may have played a role in shaping Moin ud-Din's worldview. It was during his time in Ajmer that Moin ud-Din acquired the reputation of being a charismatic & compassionate spiritual preacher, teacher & biographical accounts of his life written after his death report that he received the gifts of many "spiritual marvels (karamat), such as miraculous travel, clairvoyance & visions of angels" in these years of his life. Moin ud-Din seems to have been unanimously regarded as a great saint after his passing.

As such, Moin ud-Din Chishti's legacy rests primarily on his having been "one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic mysticism." Additionally, Moin ud-Din Chishti is also notable, according to John Esposito, for having been one of the first major Islamic mystics to formally allow his followers to incorporate the "use of music" in their devotions, liturgies & hymns to God, which he did in order to make the 'foreign' Arab faith more relatable to the indigenous peoples who had recently entered the religion.