Post by ali0009 on Sept 17, 2009 15:15:41 GMT
Hazrat Sufi Abu Anees Barkat Ali Rahmatullahi 'alayh an erudite sufi saint
A man well known as Abu Anees Muhammad Barkat Ali Rahmatullahi 'alayh, addressed lovingly as Babbaji, was born in 1911 in the District of Ludhiana (East Punjab) and died on 26th January 1997. He was an embodment of all the qualities and character-traits of the great sufi masters and the pious of the past (salf salehim). Once again he revived, practised and displayed the essential of the Faith, living the while a simple and meaningful life that his devotees take pride in.
As a young army officer in Royal Indian Engineers (Roorkee Cantt) he served for thirteen years only and was boarded out honorably in 1945 for his hermetic practices that he had sensed and perceived irretrievably form Makhdum "Ala-ud-Din "Ali Ahmad As-Sabir (d. 1290 CE) by his regular attendance at his khanqah in Kalyar on the bank of a canal , some six miles due North-East of Roorkee.
Having been duly rewarded and blessed spiritually there, he took his ba'iyat (allegiance) at the hands of a living Shaikh, Syed Amir Al-Hssan Ambalvi (d. 1955) whom Babaji often referred to as Shah Walayat (Sultan of Mysticism), reaping and enhancing further his erudition and knowledge under his tuition and in his company.
Command by his Sahikh, Babaji Rahmatullahi 'alayh and his family migrated to the new homeland in Pakistan in 1947 and after initial wanderings for a year or so finally settled at Salarwala in District Faisalabad where he founded an institute called Dar-ul-Ehsan and wrote and published his master pieces:Kitab Al-Amal Bis-Sunnah Al-M'aroof Tartib Sharif Volumes 1-6; Makshoofat Man azil-I-Ehsan Volumes 1-5 ; Asma' Al-Nabi Al Karaim (PBUH). He completed his saying, Maqalat-I-Hikmat volumes 1-30, at Camp Dar-ul-Ehsan, another convent, a prototype of his mentor Al-Kalyari's , he founded after his still another migration in 1983 to an open farraland on the bank of a canal situated some six, miles away form the City of Faisalabad on Samundri Road.
Some of Abu Anees Muhammad Barkat Ali's Rahmatullahi 'alayh monumental works have already been translated into English and are published and distributed free of charge by Dar-ul-Ehsan Publications based in Huddersfield, UK, and registered as an international religious charity with the Charity Commission (London). The books in Urdu, Arabic and Persian original have been scanned on to CDs and DVDs for wider distributions to the benefit of the Muslim Ummah of the Noble Prophet (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) (PBUH) in particular and interested non-Muslims in general.
Even during his life time his publication reached all over the world and people visited him from far and wide. His scholarship was acclaimed by leading scholars of his time. Dr Abdul Alim, the Rector of Al-Azhar University (Cairo) and Professor Hussain Nasr, the Vice-Chancellor of Tehran University in 1387 AH, later on the Shah of Iran's roving ambassador on Iranian Culture, and the author of several voluminous and celebrated books on contemporary Islam, both visited him to pay their homage.
Babaji wrote and honoured Professor Hussain Nasr with a stunning spas'name (welcome address) in Persian that was also published in one of his monthly issues of Dar-ul-Ehsan. The address portrayed Babaji's deep devotion to and respect for the descendants of the Noble Prophet (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam) of Islam (PBUH) on the one hand and appreciation of the Professor's contribution to Da'wah-o-Tabligh Al -Islam on the other. One of the couplets of the address reads thus.
"A voice came to me from the quarters unknown;
'Beware! O the dwellers of (Pakistan) the land renown,
The Honorable visitor, the offspring of the Prophets' Crown Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam
Is Hussain Nasr, the Spirit of the Faith, wearing the dan's gown.'"
Professor Sayed Hussain Nasr currently holds the Chair of Cultural Studies in one of the leading American Universities.
Dr Hakim Ghulam Mu'in-ud-Din Chisti, an American convert to Islam and Shaikh Al-Chistiyyah of America, has described Babaji's religious practices in the following words:
"He is truly the embodiment of heart and soul of the Din of Islam, and all people should strive to emulate him as he is one who comes so to fulfilling the sunnah of our beloved Prophet (PBUH)."
[/img]
