By Ahmed Khan
Founder, The Rahnuma Daily (TheRahnuma.com)
(RAHNUMA) Almost one thousand years ago a new and powerful nexus of spiritual transmission emerged in Central Asia and lasted for five centuries, reaching its culmination in the work of the Khwajagan, or “Masters of Wisdom.” Like the much earlier Rishi Pantha of India, these masters of Central Asian Sufism were not renunciates but advocated maintaining an active connection with the world, including raising a family or running a business. They exerted a remarkable influence on the destiny of Central Asia, and subsequently Hindustan yet their chief significance lies in their almost unparalleled depth of spiritual perfection.
The most well known and prominent member of the Order of the Masters of Wisdom in Hindustan was the venerable Khwaja Muin al-Din Chisti (1142–1236 CE).
According to family documents from the collection of Prince Mukarram Jah Bahadur, Grandson of H.E.H The Nizam of Hyderabad Khwaja Muin al-Din Chisti traced his lineage back to Imam Hasan Al-Askari, the eleventh Imam.
While Khwaja Muin al-Din authored numerous treatises, one peaked my interest most: Risala i-Sarmaya i-Jog (Treatise on the Nature of Yoga) by Khwaja Muin al-Din Chisti. In this treatise, it is said the knowledge it contained was spontaneously conferred upon the venerable Muin al-Din by the Holy Prophet Muhammad himself, or through Khwaja Uthman Harwani. The venerable Khwaja Muin al-Din cautions those to whom the teachings reach to not reveal them to the uninitiated, and discusses yogic practices linking them to knowledge revealed to him from the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s Ascension on the Night of Al Isra wal Mairaj though the Astral Realm, and features meditative diagrams to illustrate cosmological doctrines
The year 2020 marked the 808th anniversary of his passing. Each year, his shrine in Ajmer attracts millions of devotees of all backgrounds.
Khwaja Muin al-Din’s composite teachings point towards a concept of the world in which not only the fixed religious boundaries of today, but also the rigid separation of soul from matter [dualism] are not even conceivable.
Ahmed Khan is the Founder of The Rahnuma Daily (theRahnuma.com), the online global English daily edition of The Rahnuma-E-Deccan Daily (ReDD), India’s oldest Urdu daily print newspaper established in 1921. More than 81.1 million Indians identify Urdu as their language, and as per the annual INA (Indian Newspapers Association) report, ReDD ranks among the top 5 most widely circulated and read Urdu daily print newspapers throughout India. Ahmed resides in Hyderabad at his maternal ancestral home and can be contacted at, editor@therahnuma.com
