460th Urs-2018: Pir-e-Kamil Hazrat Pir Shah Jewna Al-Naqvi Al-Bokhari

For centuries, the idol-worshipping and infidelity was at its peak in the Subcontinent, when ‘darwesh of lords’ entered into the territory of Hind (Subcontinent) with the light of Islam in their hearts and propagation of truthfulness on their tongue.

With their hard work, greatcharacter and sublime ethics, these Wali Ullahs (friends of Lord) secured such a place in the heartsof people that all and sundry were attracted towards them. They sympathized with the people in their pains in such a way that it was impossible for the people to be detached from them. They offered themselves as a model of our Holy Prophet’s courtesyin such a way that the needy people after revealing their hearts to them started listening to them and thus, the whole society started following the path of light. Gradually, the hearts started melting and were enlightened with the light of Islam due to sincere efforts of these saints. The people of Subcontinent started joining this caravan and millions of people entered the orbit of Islam.

These saints not only preached the message of Allah and its Rasool (S.A.W) in such a befitting manner that the same people, who were once ignorant of these ideologies of Islam, have adopted the salient features of Islam including honesty, ethics, good character and uprightness. Thepeople started asking the solutions for even their trivial matters from these saints and gradually, these shrines became the spiritual training centres for them, which laid foundation to a shrine system that transparent and pure. And for centuries, this shrine system strengthened its roots in this region. It not only preached the Holy commandments of Islam, educatedthe people morally and spiritually,reformed the cultural values but also guided the rulers of different erasregarding performing their duties in a befitting manner.

Amongst these shrines, there lies a one shrine Hazrat Pir Shah Jewna Mehboob Alam alias Mard Faqeer, which secures a unique place in Subcontinent with respect to its spiritual values. This shrine is located in District Jhang almost 30 kilometer distant from Jhang City. Former Federal Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat is a Sajjada Nasheen, the descendant of Hazrat Shah Jewna.Every year, a sublime Ursis held every year on May 10, 11, 12. This year, the 460thUrs will be witnessed. Hundred thousand devotees from all over the country and especially from far-flung areas will pay visit to this great saint to seek the holy blessings.

Hazrat Shah Jewna was from the family tree of Hazrat Jaffar Tuwab bin Imam Ali Naqi. Hazrat Qutbuddin Bukhtiar Kaki and Khawaja Nizamuddin Auliya Dehlvi were also part of this pedigree which shows that Hazrat Shah Jewna belonged to the same lineage of the mentioned great scholars of the Subcontinent.

Hazrat Shah Jewna’s grandfather Makhdoom Syed Jalaluddin SurkhBukhari migrated to the Subcontinent from Bukharain the reign of slave dynastyto preach and promote Islam in this region. The contemporaries of his era were Hazrat Laal Shahbaz Qalandar, Hazrat Khawaja Fareed-ud-din GanjShakar and Hazrat Ghous Bahawal HaqZikriya Multani. Likewise, Hazrat Shah Jewna’s another ancestor Makhdoom Jahanian Jahan Ghasht’s caliph Hazrat Madad Alaf Sani’s grandfather was Rafi-ud-din, which shows that the holy shrine of Hazrat Shah Jewna was among one of the greatest shrines of the Subcontinent.

Makhdoom Jahanian Jahan Ghasht breathed his last in Uch (Bahawalpur). After his death, the forefathers of Hazrat Shah Jewna moved from Uch to Qanuj (India), where Pir Shah Jewna was born in 1493 in the reign of King Sikandar Lodhi. His father Syed Sadar-ud-din Shah Kabeer was a great saint and was also among the advisors of King Sikandar Lodhi.

Syed Mehboob Alam (alias Shah Jewna) learnt the religious knowledge from his father,who used to teach him the spiritual knowledge, while he spent most of his life (almost 66 years) in Qanuj. He had great command on Arabic and Persian while he also studied Quran and its tafsir, hadith and Islamic jurisprudence from his teacher Qazi Bahauddin and thus became a prominent scholar of his time. His great pettiness and simplicity was the main reason of his fame which was spread to far-flung areas and many great scholars and saints of his era used to pay visits to him to get knowledge and blessings from him.

Hazrat Shah Jewna had witnessed the eras of Sultan SikandarLodhi, Ibrahim Lodhi, Zaheeruddin Babar, Naseeruddin Babar and Jalaluddin Akbar. He started his holy mission of preaching Islam from Qanuj, where he struggled really hard to complete his noble task. There is a town ‘Jewn’ associated with his name in the tehsil Jalalabad of district Qanuj. Tehsil Jalalabad is also linked with the name of his ancestor Makhdoom Jalaluddin Jahanian Jahan Ghasht, while in district Qanuj, Saadat Shah Jewna’s colonized towns – Siray-e-Miraan, Uch, Bibiyan Jalalpur, MakhdoomPur, LaalPur (associated with the name of Saint Laal Bukhari) are still highlypopulated areas of the city. Siray-e-Miraan is the town where Shah Jewna used to teach about Islam to his students, who used to come in great number.

The miracles of Hazrat Shah Jewna were very famous not only in Qanuj but also to its adjacent areas. Mostly he used to recover his patients by reciting holy verses while he also resolved world and spiritual problems of many of his disturbed and restless followers. Not only this, his gigantic miracles were also very popular. In fact, he followed basic philosophy of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

Once, when he was in Qanuj, the son of the then Raja was killed with a knife while playing with his Pirs. On the request of Raja, he prayed to Allah Almighty for the dead kid and while reciting some verses from Holy Quran, when he put his hand on the place of wound, by the grace of Allah Almighty, the boy opened his eyes and got a new life. This miraculous act of Shah Jewna impressed the Raja so much that he, along with thousands of other Hindus, immediately embraced Islam.

Hazrat Shah Jewna inherited spirituality from his ancestors. According to book ‘Hadiqatul Auliya’ page No 50, the miracle of his grandfather Makhdoom Jalaluddin Surkh Bukhari was evident that in his teenage, when he was playing with his friends, a funeral was brought but he stopped the people to bury the dead body. He proclaimed that Allah is great and asked the dead body to stand up on the order of Allah. Every one present on the occasion saw that in a few seconds, the person was alive and lived 40 more years after this miracle.

Likewise, it was also mentioned in book ‘Anwaar-ul-Auliya’ about his ancestor Makhdoom Jalaluddin Jahanian Jahan Ghasht that once he went to perform Hajj, and when he was staying at Jeddah for some time, a funeral of Shaikh Badar-ud-din Yamni was brought in a mosque. When he recited a holy verse from Quran,Badar-ud-din, by the grace of God, opened his eyes and later, everyone present there offered their Zuhr prayer under his Imamat (leadership).

In 1558, Pir Shah Jewna left Qanuj and migrated to Peel Padhrarto preachIslam. Peel Padhrar was an acidic area without any vegetation at that time but his arrival at that place made it populated and fertile. His miracles and noble deedsimpressed the people so much that they started embracing Islam in a huge numbers. He prayed for the blessings of Allah for this area, which was granted and people even today have been getting benefits of that blessing. This well is known as ‘Pir’s well’ and people used its water to cure their physical and spiritual ailments.

From Peel Padhrar, he left for a town ‘Shah Jewna’ which is located near Jhang. It was also a deserted place but he once again made that place heavenly. Hazrat ShahJewna was a simple but pious and generous saint, who always remained busy in helping the mankind and teaching and preaching Islam and ways of Quran and Sunnah to his followers as well as to other people.

Hazrat Shah Jewnahad firm belief in the injunctions of Holy Quran and was emotionally attached to the Holy Prophet (S.A.W), as his love for Rasool can easily be gauged from the fact that he made Surah Muzammil an integral part of his life. Due to reciting Surah Muzammil 10 million times at Chenab River, he was also known as ‘Pir Croreriya’ (Crore). The great saint always rejected monasticism and never preached renunciation of this world.

PirShahJewna left this temporary world in 971 Hijri (1569) during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jalal-ud-din Akbar. At that time, Ba-Yazeed was in power in Sindh, Fareed-ud-din Bukhari in Punjab and Syed Abdul Wahab Bukhari in Delhi. It is said that all these great saints were the close relative of Hazrat Shah Jewna, so they along with Emperor Akbar might have attended the funerals of Pir Shah Jewna and also used to pay visit to this great saint.

Even after many years of his death, a great number of devotees every year come from far-flung areas to pay homage to this holy saint in order to get inner peace and also to remember his services for Islam. In this era of science and technology, the message of Hazrat Shah Jewna shows the right path to his followers and provide them inner peace and contentment.