Moinuddin Chishti

Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Sijzī (1142–1236 CE), known more commonly as Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī or Moinuddin Chishti[6] or Khwājā Ghareeb Nawaz, or reverently as a Shaykh Muʿīn al-Dīn or Muʿīn al-Dīn or Khwājā Muʿīn al-Dīn by Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, was a Persian Muslim[3] preacher,[6] ascetic, religious scholar, philosopher, and mystic from Sistan,[6] who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the famous Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism.[6][7] This particular tariqa (order) became the dominant Muslim spiritual group in medieval India and many of the most beloved and venerated Indian Sunni saints[4][8][9] were Chishti in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Awliya (d. 1325) and Amir Khusrow (d. 1325).[6] As such, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī's legacy rests primarily on his having been "one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Islamic mysticism."[1] Additionally, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī is also notable 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, and 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 or whom he sought to convert.[10]
Life
Born in 1142 in Herat, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī was a teenager when his father, Sayyid G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn (d. c. 1155), died,[1] with the latter leaving his grinding mill and orchard to his son.[1] His father, Ghayasuddin, and mother, Bibi Ummalwara (alias Bibi Mahe-Noor), were the descendants of Ali, through his sons Hassan and Hussain.[12] He lost both his parents at an early age of sixteen years.[12] Although he was initially hoping to continue his father's business,[1] the Mongol conquests in the region seem to have "turned his mind inwards,"[1] whence he soon began to develop strong contemplative and mystic tendencies in his personal piety.[1] Soon after, Muʿīn al-Dīn gave away all of his financial assets, and began a life of destitute itineracy, wandering in search of knowledge and wisdom throughout the neighbouring quarters of the Islamic world. As such, he visited the famous seminaries of Bukhara and Samarkand, "and acquired religious learning at the feet of eminent scholars of his age."[1] It is also entirely probable that he visited the shrines of Muhammad al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944) during his travels in this region, who were both widely venerated figures in the Islamic world by this point in time.