Shrine of Khawaja Syed Abdul Sattar in Sattar Shah Colony, Dabgari Bazaar, Peshawar. — Dawn

Renowned Sufi saint of Chishtia order, Khawaja Syed Abdul Sattar Shah, fondly remembered Bacha Jan, introduced Mehfil-i-Samaa (Sufi music) in early 20th century in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas.

He faced strong resistance from the local religious clerics regarding Mehfil-i-Samaa but he resolved the issue by offering an open debate.

According to a source, around 300 religious clerics were gathered and entered into an open debate with Bacha Jan that ended in a peaceful resolution of the matter. He convinced them that Mehfil-i-Samaa was essential for spiritual purification. Since then, local Qawali singers gathered at the shrine of Bacha Jan on 6th and 20th night of every month of the Islamic calendar.

Syed Tahir Bukhari, a descent of Chishtia Sufi order, told this scribe that Syed Abdul Sattar Shah did three important things -- he introduced modern Qawali in Pashto, modern Sufi thoughts and asked his Khalifa Hamza Baba to devote himself to his mother tongue Pashto.

He said that Bacha Jan would keenly listen to Urdu and Persian poetry from Qawali singers but he always would prefer them to sing Pashto Sufi numbers.

“He did not marry, therefore, after his death, Mohammad Hakim Shah, his maternal nephew was made Pir and after Hakim Bacha’s death, three years ago, his maternal nephew (Hakim’s nephew), Pir Hafiz Abdul Samad Shah Bacha became Pir. However, Khilafat handed down to me through Hamza Baba,” he said.

Also, he said, Bacha Jan made Sufism attractive for commoners and encouraged local folksingers to propagate his Sufi message in Pashto. “This way he modernised the concept of Sufism to attract more and more people towards spiritualism and understand it in their own language. He was a great mentor of Pakhtuns after Rahman Baba,” Mr Bukhari added.

Bacha Jan was born in 1859 in district Battgram, Buland Kot, Miran Sharif village. He died at the age of 95 in July 1954 in Peshawar Dabgari Bazaar. He was the spiritual descent of Syed Ali Tirmizi alias Pir Baba, Buner. He received his early Islamic education from a village maktab. He mastered Persian and Arabic languages along with Islamic jurisprudence and ethos of Sharia. He was such a great scholar that Amir Hamza Khan Baba being his Khalifa conferred the title of Fakhr-i-Ilm, the pride of knowledge, on him.

Syed Abdul Sattar Shah became a government contractor and was engaged in worldly affairs till his late 30s. Being a restless soul, he was feeling a spiritual void. He went to Kashmir, Iran and Delhi to find a spiritual guide. He was said once to have travelled on foot from Peshawar to Quetta after Pir Syed Abdul Salam to seek his spiritual guidance. During the course, he came across many Sufi saints. He met at last one, Abdul Ghafoor Shah, a mendicant and resident of Afghanistan. The couple consequently landed at Ajmer Sharif, shrine of Khawaja Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti in early 20s.

Pir Hafiz Syed Abdul Samad Shah, the great grandson of Khawaja Syed Abdul Sattar Shah, told this scribe that Bacha Jan was greatly inspired by Mehfil-i-Samaa and intended to take allegiance to the Chishtia Naqshbandi Sufi order. He was the first-ever Sufi saint, who introduced Sufi music in early 20th century in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjacent tribal areas.

“After he permanently settled in Peshawar Dabgari Bazaar, Bacha Jan launched a spiritual gathering and soon people from far and wide began pouring in to attend it,” he added.

His disciples, local politicians, literati and musicians thronged his hujra where they discussed various literary and religious issues related to Sufism and intuition.

Mr Shah said that after the death of Khawaja Qutubuddeen Bakhtiyar Kaki in 1235, who was the chief Khalifa of Khawaja Moindudin Chishti, Bacha Jan for the first time hoisted Nishan (flag) over his shrine in 1926. His name, Mr Shah said, was listed at the top of the gate of Ajmer Sharif. He encouraged local folksingers and poets to participate in Mehfil-i-Samaa.

Mr Shah said that Bacha Jan patronised and raised renowned Sufi singer and music director late Rafiq Shinwari and the living legend Khial Mohammad alias Shahensha-i- Pashto ghazal signing.

“It cast a deep spiritual impact on me when late Rafiq Lala took me to Bacha Jan’s hujra for participating in Sufi musical gathering. I was in my teens. I could play tabla then but I wanted to become a folksinger. Bacha Jan prayed and put his saliva on my tongue. He then asked me to sing and I said how I could sing without any training. Bacha Jan once again motioned me and I began to raise my voice and to my wonder, I sang effortlessly,” he recalled.

Kalim Shinwari, the grandson of Hamza Baba, told this scribe that Bacha Jan had handed down his turban and prayer mat to Amir Hamza Baba in his life time as mark of succession after him.

He said that Hamza Baba had given in his life time it to Syed Tahir Bukhari as an emblem of his spiritual descent. “Hamza Baba was introduced to Bacha Jan by his elder brother Balkhi Khan in 1924 when he was still student of the Islamia Collegiate School in Peshawar,” Mr Shinwari said.

He said that Urs at the shrine of Bacha Jan was celebrated every year in the first week of Rajab, the seventh month of the Islamic calendar, on the pattern of Ajmer Sharif. He said that Bacha Jan used to say that the free food being served to guests at his shrine should not be called ‘lungar’ as he did not accept any contribution from visitors or disciples.

Bacha Jan would call it ‘Dastarkhwan’ which was still served at his shrine and his grandson was responsible for carrying on this tradition, Mr Shinwari said.

“Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar and Afghan King Amanullah Khan were among thousands of his disciplines. When Amanullah Khan became king of Afghanistan in 1919, Bacha Jan sent him 1,200 guns as gift. He had once rejected the offer of Abdur Rab Nishtar to build him a spacious hujra for intellectual debates. He would always give and gift whatever he had and was never seen taking money or contribution from anyone. He was a generous Pir,” Mr Shinwari said.

Zafar Khan Chishti, a 78-year- old staunch devotee of Bacha Jan, said that he would soon bring out a complete biography of his Pir in near future.

“I have been serving here at Bacha Jan’s shrine for the last 50 years. The area where Bacha Jan lived was named after him as Sattar Shah Bacha colony around Dabgari Bazaar. Around 300 visitors show up daily at the shrine. Qawali with Pashto flavour, Chishtia Sufi order and Hamza Baba are his three gifts to this region. We need to maintain these three gifts to restore peace to our spiritually pollutant souls,” Mr Chishti said.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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