Lal Shahbaz Qalender

Lal shahbaz qalender

Saints and spirituality and love is something that has always inspired me. The whole concept of loving someone so much and then the whole concept of loving ALLAH, how are they interconnected and what are the teachings of all these Sufis and saints? Who are these people who just preached love and with so much piety that it attracted so many people towards the fold of Islam and hundreds of years after they lived, their followers are still increasing in numbers? Being a Karachite I have always visited Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar, especially in the early hours of the morning. But this article I am writing is about LAL SHAHBAZ QALENDER. I will write about ASG (Abdullah Shah Ghazi) in a separate article.

A few days back I visited the Mazar of LAL SHAHBAZ QALENDER at Shewan, I was always a huge fan of him, and he is one of my favorite among all the saints, he was in a way a super hero of my childhood as I heard stories, so I decided to make this journey and to be very honest am happy that I did. I was mesmerized at the beauty of the whole architecture, Amid the long journey, the beggars outside the Mazar and the rush and security checks, as soon as I entered the Mazar, I stood still for awhile gasping at its beauty and serenity it emits. It was like I had stepped into a time portal in another dimension. White marble flooring the beautiful hand painted sindhi art walls, the gold door (gifted by the shah of Iran in the 1970's) the magnificence of ALLAH written on the roof just above the grave with all the roof and walls covered with beautiful handwork  and the huge chandelier, the separate courtyard with mighty drums for dhamaal, the clay lamps area, the pigeons and the gold bell, all just added to the grandeur of the fabulous personality.

HAZRAT LAL SHAHBAZ QALANDER is a descendent of Hazrat imam Ali. His real name was Hazrat Usman Marandi, but at places he is quoted as Shah Hussain. His father’s name is Hazrat Ibrahim Kabeeruddin Jawabi. He was born in Marand Iran. He lived during the timesog Ghiyas ud Balban, Ghaznavid and Ghauris. 

He has traveled a lot between Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (large part of the Muslim world) and has performed Hajj. He studied spirituality and collected knowledge from all these places and holy sites and spent time in worship and preaching. Shahbaz became a profound scholar of religions, fluent in many languages including Pashto, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Sindhi & Sanskrit. 

By the time he came to the sub-continent he has already preformed many miracles. He used to do dhammal since a very young age remembering Karbala and going in a trance, which is replicated to this date at his Mazar. He was as kind soul , always patient and loving .He never judged and preached that ‘’if you call to your RAB with faith , your RAB will listen and embrace you .He fed the poor and no person ever was returned without food from his dwellings. He preached love and devotion for the Almighty and his creation. He explained the verses of the Quran in simple words hence preaching the word of ALLAH.He met Hazart Bahauddin Zakariya Multani, Hazrat Baba Fareed Ghanj Shukar  and  Syed Jalaluddin Bukhari during his travels in Indo- Pak sub-continent  and The friendship of these four became legendary,they were know as "Chahar Yar(In Persina"the four friends") he alos met Hazrat Bu Ali Shah Qalender, Hazrat Sayeed Jamal Surkh Bukhari and Pir Jaji IsmailPanhwarof Paat. 

It is said that he came to Sehwan as a calling.The then Raja of Shewan, Raja Choopat was a tyrant and adultery and cannibalism among other things were common in the region. It is said that Lal Shahbaz tried his best to preach the word of Allah to the raja but he continued with his barbarism and slaughtered and killed, Sikander Bojra, a devotee of Lal Shahbaz Qalender and even cooked him, hence it is said that Lal Shahbaz became angry and turned his bowl upside down, resulting in the turning upside down of the Raja’s palace, which remains are still there in Sehwan as the ‘’ulta qila’’.

People visit Sehwan throughout the year but during his "URS" the number of devotees crosses more than 2 million. Hope this article will inspire you to visit Sehwan despite some logistics issues, I assure you it be a memorable trip if you are into adventures.

By: Ovais Asad Khan

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