A young Chishti dervish
A young dervish
living in Ajmer, who belonged to the Chishtiyya
order, every day sat in meditation near the
dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. He always
stayed there until the lights were brought
to the dargah. It was his habit to leave a
little later in order to say the sunset prayers
in the nearby Sufi khaneqah. One day he received
the permission to travel from his pir. He
travelled at first to Lahore, which in those
days took several weeks to reach. After visiting
the Sufi places in Lahore he went to buy some
food at the local bazaar. There he saw something
peculiar. He saw a painting of a Sufi who
wore an unusual type of pointed hat. As in
Islam paintings are frowned upon by the ‘ulama’
he had never in his life seen a painting of
a human being before.
His travels then
took him to the Northwest of the country but
his progress was stopped as the sultan of
the neighbouring region had fled and his country
was in a state of turmoil. That is why he
travelled to the South and hoped to travel
on by means of Baluchistan. In Baluchistan
he enjoyed the Sufi music very much. Many
songs were dedicated to Lal Shah Baz Qalandar
or to the 'Rose of Baghdad' or to the 'Lion
of God', 'Ali. It was easy for him to understand
the local language and what he did not understand
his heart understood.
After travelling
for a long time in the desert the young dervish
finally arrived in an oasis called Mahan.
It was not so hot here as a cool wind from
the snow-capped mountains brought with it
some refreshing air. He had gone there to
visit Shah Ne'matollahi Vali, whose mausoleum
could clearly be seen. It had a beautiful
dome, it was surrounded by a garden with water
and stately cypress trees, so the Indian dervish
immediately went to that place.
When entering
the dargah he did not see anyone. This was
something, which had never happened to him
in Ajmer. He was used to sit in meditation
while thousands of other people had come to
for 'ziarat', a visit. Now he was alone. He
was even alone in the room where the great
Ne'matollahi Shaykh lied buried. Suddenly
it was as if he simply had to turn his face
into the opposite direction. What he saw,
gave him a shock as he saw a painting of a
Sufi with a curiously pointed hat. It was
the same man he had seen on the painted portrait
in Lahore. It was Shah Ne'matollahi Vali himself.
So he was not alone after all...
