Shah Abdullah alias Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi (1743–1824,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

during the early 19th century. He was a master of the Naqshbandi tradition and in other Sufi orders such as

Chishti The Chishtī Order ( fa, ''chishtī'') is a tariqa, an order or school within the mystic Sufi tradition of Sunni Islam. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. It began with Abu Ishaq Shami in Chisht, a ...

Biography

He was born in 1156 AH (1743 C.E.) in

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the '' Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') construct ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

, in present-day India. His father was Shah Abdul-Latif, a scholar and Sufi shaykh belonging to the

Qadri The Qadiriyya (), also transliterated Qādirīyah, ''Qadri'', ''Qadriya'', ''Kadri'', ''Elkadri'', ''Elkadry'', ''Aladray'', ''Alkadrie'', ''Adray'', ''Kadray'', ''Kadiri'', ''Qadiri'', ''Quadri'' or ''Qadri'' are members of the Sunni Qadiri ta ...

tariqah A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking '' haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth". ...

. It is reported in his biographies that his father had a dream before his birth in which he saw Sayyadna

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

, who told him to name the baby on his name (''Ali''). After he grew up, he modified his own name to be Ghulam Ali (literally meaning slave of Ali, a common name in Indian Muslims today). Similarly, his mother had a dream in which she saw

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

, who told her to name the baby ''Abdullah''. Hence his real name is still known as Abdullah while his alias is Ghulam Ali. He is reported to have memorized the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

in a single month's duration. In 1170 AH he came to Delhi to take the oath of allegiance to

Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan Mirzā Mazhar Jān-i Jānān ( ur, ), also known by his laqab Shamsuddīn Habībullāh (1699–1781), was a renowned Hanafi Maturidi Naqshbandī Sufi poet of Delhi, distinguished as one of the "four pillars of Urdu poetry."And Muhammad is Hi ...

, who was a famous Shaykh of Naqshbandi tariqah in Delhi at that time. After getting trained in the major Sufi orders including Naqshbandi for 15 years, he received complete Khilafat (spiritual

Ijazah An ''ijazah'' ( ar, الإِجازَة, "permission", "authorization", "license"; plural: ''ijazahs'' or ''ijazat'') is a license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject, which is issued by someone already possessing such au ...

) from his Shaykh. He had many Khulafa (deputies) who spread the Naqshbandi Sufi order to a vast number of people in the whole Muslim world at that time. His Khulafa went to Bukhara,

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

Madinah Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. His famous khalifa was Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi, who had hundreds of thousands of followers in his lifetime, and many Naqshbandi's today in Turkey and nearby countries follow him. His chief deputy and successor was afiz Abu-Saeed-Ahmadi Faruqi Mujaddidi Naqshbandi (

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

) and his next successor was Hafiz Shah Ahmed Saeed Faruqi Mujaddidi, son of Hafiz Shah Abu Saeed (

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...

) He is quoted to have said: "My Faid (spirituality) has reached far off countries. Our Halqa is held in

Makkah Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

and our Halqa is held in

. Similarly our Halqa is held in

, Rome (now Turkey and Cyprus) and Maghrib (Parts of Europe and Africa facing Asia). And Bukhara is our parental home." He died on 22 Safar 1240 AH (15/16 October 1824) and was buried alongside his Shaykh's grave in Khanqah Mirja in

Writings

He wrote books, the best known being ''Mazhari'' in Persian, which is a complete biography of his shaykh

Shaheed. His other books are: * Edah-e-Tariqat * Ahwal-e-Buzurgaan * Risalah dar Tariqah Ba'yat wa Azkar * Risalah dar Tariqah Naqshband * Risalah Sitri Chand dar Ahwal-e-Shah-e-Naqshband * Risalah-e-Azkar * Risalah-e-Muraqbat * Risalah dar Aitarazat Shaykh Abdul-Haq bar Hazrat Mujaddid * Risalah Mashgooliyah * Sulook Raqia Naqshbandia * Makateeb Shareefa (collection of his letters) * Kamalat-e-Mazhariya * Malfoozat-e-Sharifa

Naqshbandi chainThe Golden Chains of Ghulam Ali Dehlavi
on maktabah.org website Published 3 April 2011, Retrieved 16 August 2018

Qadri chain

Extracted from Maqamat Mazhari by Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi # Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi #

# Muhammad Abid Sanami # Abdul Ahad # Muhammad Said #

Ahmed Sirhindi Aḥmad al-Fārūqī as-Sirhindī (1564-1624) was a South Asian Islamic scholar from Punjab, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work i ...

# Abdul Ahad Faruqi # Shah Kamal Kethali # Shah Fuzail # Gada e Rahman Sani # Shamsuddin Arif # Gada e Rahman Awal # Shamsuddin Sehrai # Aqeel # Abdul Wahhab # Sharfuddin # Abdur Razzaq # Abdul-Qadir Gilani

Chishti chain

Extracted from Maqamat Mazhari by Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi # Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlvi #

# Muhammad Abid Sanami # Abdul Ahad Sirhindi # Muhammad Said #

# Abdul Ahad Faruqi # Ruknuddin # Abdul Quddus Gangohi # Muhammad Arif # Ahmed Abdul Haq # Jalaluddin Panipati # Shamsuddin Turk #

Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari Makhdoom Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir, also known as صابر کلیری Sabir Kaliyari ("Sabir of Kaliyar"), was an Indian Sunni Muslim preacher and Sufi saint in the 13th century. He was nephew successor to Baba Fareed (1188–1280),''Sheikh Fari ...

# Fariduddin Ganjshakar #

Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki ''Quṭb al-Aqṭāb'' Khwājā Sayyid Muḥammad Bakhtiyār al-Ḥusaynī, Quṭb al-Dīn Bakhtiyār Kākī ( ur, ) (born 1173 – died 1235) was a Muslim Sufi mystic, saint and scholar of the Chishti Order from Delhi, India. He was the d ...

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Sijzī (1143–1236 CE), known more commonly as Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī or Moinuddin Chishti, or by the epithet Gharib Nawaz (),Blain Auer, "Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan", in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, TH ...

His Khulafa

His Khulafa were numerous and many of them were prominent Shaykhs at their times. Following is a list of his most prominent Khulafa as extracted from various sources. # Mawlana [ afiz Abu-Saeed-Ahmadi Faruqi Mujaddidi Naqshbandi, his successor (

) # Mawlana Hafiz Shah Ahmed Saeed Faruqi Mujaddidi, son of Hafiz Shah Abu Saeed (

) # Shah Rauf Ahmed Raaft Faruqi Mujaddidi Rampuri (Bhopal) # Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi al-Kurdi al-Rumi (

) # Mawlana Ismaeel Madani (

) # Mawlana Ghulam Mohiuddin Qusoori # Mawlana Bashartullah Behra'ichi # Mawlana Shah Gul Muhammad Ghaznavi ( Bukhara) # Mawlana Muhammad Sharif (

Sirhind Sirhind-Fategarh is a town and a municipal council in the Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab. Demographics In the 2011 census Sirhind-Fatehgarh had a population of 60852. Males constituted 54% of the population and fema ...

) # Mawlana Pir Muhammad ( Kashmir) # Mawlana Jan Muhammad (

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...

) # Mawlana Muhammad Jan (

, d.1266 AH), whose Khulafa spread up to Turkey # Shah Saad'ullah Naqshbandi (Hyderabad)

References

External links

Maqamat Mazhari (Urdu translation) by Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi: Biography of his shaykh Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan
* 'Halate Mashayekhe Naqshbandiya Mujaddediya' written by mawlana muhammad hasan naqshbandi mujaddedi.first published march,1982.(1402hz).'Narinda khanka Sharif' {{Maturidi 1743 births 1824 deaths People from Patiala Hanafis Maturidis Naqshbandi order Indian Sufi saints Sufi teachers 18th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam