The Sufis of Naushera

Hafiz Noor Mustafa

As stated in the section of history of Naushera, Muhammad Arif (died 1748), was a pious and religious man. He had two sons Hafiz Mian Muhammad (died 1788) and Hafiz Fateh Muhammad. The later had only one son Hafiz Noor Mustafa. He was a “Majzoob”. Since the Majzoob is someone who has reached the pinnacle of Sufism, the Sufis ascribe all sorts of powers to them, from helping others miraculously to knowing matters of the Unseen. Many miracles are attributed to him. He still figures in folk-lore as a saint.

One tradition is that once Sufi Ghulam Mustafa travelled to a village, when he reached there, he asked for a cup of milk. The people gave to darvesh a cup of water mixed with white liquid instead of pure milk. After this incident, the cattle of the village started giving white colored water instead of milk. When the people came to know about the calamity which has befallen the cattle,, they rushed to the Sufi and asked for the pardon.The Sufi forgave them and the pure milk started flow from the udder of the cows.

Qazi Mian Muhammad Amjad

Qazi Mian Muhammad Amjad was a man of modest and retiring mode. Quiet and humble, he got both qualities of his paternal grandfather Qazi Kalim Allah and maternal grandfather Hafiz Noor Mustafa.. From his grandfather he got scholarship of Qur’an, Hadith, and the Hanafi school of Islamic law and from his maternal grandfather he learned mystic trances and pinnacle of Sufism. He also figures in folk-lore as a saint. He was also a Sufi saint of Chishti Order, and perhaps the only Sufi in the Indian subcontinent who did not establish the ‘Khanqah’ ,”Darbar” or Astana ‘Aliya[ and forbade his descendants not to establish Dargah after his death and made a will to bury him in the ordinary grave. He was against all the practices resulting in undue homage to the tombs and graves of sufis and saints.

As a sufi, he was an authority on “Wahdt al Wujud”, Sufism, and Muslim mysticism. The study of great Sufi, Ibn Arabi, and his masterpiece The Meccan Illuminations (Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya) in 37 volumes was his specialization. In his Anwar Shamsia, Maulvi Ameer Baksh says that he was an ardent reader of Ibn Arabi book The Meccan Illuminations (Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya), and was an authority on his teaching. It was stated in “Hu al-Hameed” by Sahibzada Muhammad Masood Ahmad that once Hazrat Pir Meher Ali Shah was unable to understand one point of Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, then qazi Mian Muhammad Amjad satisfied him by his interpretation. He acknowledged Ibn Arabi superiority in philosophy and spiritual insight, but he never followed him if he found him deviating from Sunnah. He used his knowledge of Islamic mysticism, sufism and “Wahdt al Wujud” only for purely academic purposes and never allowed his devotees, followers and descendants to treat him as a Pir. Although, he was capable of creating a ‘Khanqah’, ‘Darbar’ a centre of sufi mysticism, and though Hazrat Shams-ud-Din Sialvi of Sial Sharif authorized him to do so,he did not created any ‘Gadi’ or ‘Drabar’, and also forbade his descendants to do this, as he was also a strong critic of Darbars and “family Gadi Nasheen”. He also forbade his descendants not to establish Dargah after his death and made a will to bury him in the ordinary grave. After his death his elder son Qazi Mazhar Qayyum made every effort to stop the people from making Dargah of the grave of his father.

Qazi Fiaz Hussain

After Qazi Mian Muhammad, his sons were appeared to be men of world, but one of his grand son Qazi Fayyaz Hussain, a brilliant student of modern education system under British system, became a Sufi. While studying at Aligarh Muslim University, he suddenly left the university, and to the astonishment of the whole family, and the tribe, went to Sial Sharif and took the Bait (pledge of discipleship) at the hands of Khawaja Qamar ud Din Sialvi of Sial Sharif. He died at the age of 45 years and buried next to the grave of his saintly grand father.