March 31, 2008

In emulation of their Shaikh, the Chishtis take to heart the hadith,
"If someone visits a living man and gets nothing from him to eat,
it is as if he had visited the dead."

When asked "What is worship?," Muinuddin Chishti, founder of the Chishti Order, responded,

"To listen to the plight of the oppressed, to help the needy, and to fill the stomachs of the hungry. The man who does these three things may consider himself a friend of Allah. First he should have generosity like a river; secondly, kindness like the sun and, thirdly, humility like the earth. The man who is blessed is the man who is generous."

Muinuddin became legendary for his embodiment of this philosophy. It is said that so many meals were cooked every day in his kitchen that every impoverished person in the whole city could eat until satisfied. His custom was continued by his successors — any surplus at Chishti khanqahs was distributed to visitors and the needy.

***********************************

"Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti (1142-1236), founder of the Chishti Order, was a Persian from Khorasan, but settled among the Hindus of Rajasthan. His followers adopted the saffron color of the robes of the Hindu sages for their own coarse robes, and generally interchanged ideas and rituals with and even adopted the habits of the Hindu sadhus (mendicants)."

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
--James 1:27

ALA!!!


Hakima