Ihsan Center – Islam From The Heart

Abu Ishaq Shami is one of the first among the Sufi Chishti Order to call himself Chishti (of Chisht). The name Shami implies he came from Syria or even from Damascus (ash-Sham). Abu Ishaq Shami is supposedly to have met a Sufi who directed him to settle in Chisht, and accordingly he is known as Abu Ishaq Shami Chishti. He died in 940 in Damascus and some say that he is buried on Mount Qasiyun (many mazars are supposedly on this hill outside of Damascus where Cain slew Able), where later on also Ibn Arabi was buried but it is more likely that he was buried in Chishti e Sharif.

Hazrat Abu Ahmed Chishti was the son of Sultan Farsanafah. He was born in Chisht, Afghanistan on the 6th of Ramadhan 260AH. In the Chishti lineage, he was the disciple of Hazrat Khwaja Abu Ishaq Shami Chishti and the murshid of Hazrat Khwaja Abu Muhammad Chishti, may Allah be pleased with them all.

Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the top most spiritual poet in Siraiki Language, was born in 1845 A.D. at Kot Mithan, in a family of Arab settlers who had come to this country along with the Arab forces.

Maulana Khuda Bux had two sons, Khwaja Farid-ud-Din and Khawaja Fakhar-ud-Din. It is said that when Khwaja Ghulam Farid was a child, Maulana Muhammad gave him the first lesson of the first alphabet “ALIF” and asked him to say “ALIF”. He repeated the same again and again till every-one present there was enveloped by a trance. Some qawali singers were invited and they too recited the same word on their musical instruments. The trance remained in sway for a considerable time.

4th Rabi II Urs Hazrat Abu Yusuf Chishti (ra), 1067 AD.

Hazrat Abu Yusuf Chishti (ra) was an early day Sufi Saint, a successor to his maternal uncle and master Abu Muhammad Chishti (ra), eleventh link in the Sufi Silsilah of Chishti Order, and the father and Master of Maudood Chishti. Hazrat Abu Yusuf Chisti (ra) was a descendant the of Prophet Mohammad. He died on the 4th Rabi II 459 A.H (20 May 1067 C.E) at the age of 84. He was buried in chist, the cradle and early grave of the early Chishtyya .

He would say

“Indulgence in SAMA (audition of Sufi Music) achieves more than long enduring penitence.”

Station of the Wayfarers by Sheikh al Islam Abdullah Al Ansari

Stations of the Wayfarers has always been one of the pillars of Sufi studies for Arabic-speaking scholars and students. For generations, seekers and novices have depended on it to build up their knowledge. The fact that no English translation of this basic treatise exists is regrettable, although excerpts of it have been provided, notably in Professor Ravan Farhadi’s work on Abdullah Al-Ansari published in the Curzon Sufi Series in 1996. The present complete translation is therefore aimed at filling that gap. English-speaking scholars and students will find in it an authoritative, detailed and inspiring description of the spiritual stages leading to annihilation and union with the Supreme Being.