Muhammad Ghawth (Ghouse, Ghaus or Gwath) Gwaliyari (1500–1562) was a 16th-century

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

master of the

Shattari The Shattari or Shattariyya are members of a tariqah, Sufi order that originated in Safavid Iran in the fifteenth century and developed, completed, and codified in India. Later, secondary branches were taken to the Hejaz and to Indonesia. The ...

order and Sufi saint, a musician, Se
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and the author of ''Jawahir-i Khams'' (Arabic: ''al-Jawahir al-Khams'', The Five Jewels). The book mentioning the life and miracles of Gaus named " Heaven's witness" was written by Kugle.

Biography

Muhammad Ghawth was born in Gwalior, India in 1500; the name Gwaliyari means "of Gwalior". One of his ancestors was

Fariduddin Attar Faridoddin Abu Hamed Mohammad Attar Nishapuri ( – c. 1221; ), better known by his pen-names Faridoddin () and ʿAttar of Nishapur (, Attar means apothecary), was a poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nishapur who had an immense ...

of Nishapur. In the preface of ''al-Jawahir al-Khams'', he states that he wrote the book when he was 25 years old. In 1549 he travelled to

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, when he was 50 years old. He stayed in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

for ten years where he founded Ek Toda Mosque and preached. Ghawth translated the '' Amrtakunda'' from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

to Persian as the '' Bahr al-Hayat'' (The Ocean of Life), introducing to Sufism a set of

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

practices. According to the scholar Carl W. Ernst, in this "translation", Ghawth intentionally reframed these practices with great subtlety to identify "points of contact between the terminologies of Yoga and Sufism". Ghawth died in Gwalior in 1562. His followers believed that he ascended to heaven and from there was able to direct help down to them; and further, that he was the "axial saint, the pivot of the universe". "Among Ghawth's disciples is Fazl Allah Shattari (also known as Shah Fazl Shattari), Reproduced from ''Sufi'' 29 (Spring 1996), pp 9-13. who wrote a biography Se
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or monograph Se
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in praise of his teacher. Gwawth taught the

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

. No ISBN. ASIN: B0006ERVCA. Se
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Akbar's court musician

Tansen Rāmtanu ( – 26 April 1589), popularly referred to as Mian Tānsen (), or Sangeet Samrāt (), was a Hindustani classical musician. Born into a Hindu Gaur Brahmin family in Gwalior, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest regio ...

was also familiar with Sufism. Badusha, Abdul Qadir, Shahul Hamid Meeran sahib Ganjasavoy Ganja bakhsh Ganja makhfi of nagore Tamil Nadu and Wajihudden Haidar Ali Sani Hussaini Ulvi Gujrati is also one his important disciple. Muhammad Ghawth died in 1562 CE. Ghawth's tomb, in

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

(a city in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

), which was built in his honour by Akbar, is a well-known tourist attraction and regarded as an excellent example of

Mughal Architecture Mughal architecture is the style of architecture developed in the Mughal Empire in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries throughout the ever-changing extent of their empire in the Indian subcontinent. It developed from the architectural styles of ea ...

. Tansen was buried in Ghawth's tomb complex."

Tomb at Gwalior

His tomb at

is famous of its stone lattices (

jali A ''jali'' or ''jaali'' (''jālī'', meaning "net") is the term for a perforated stone or latticed screen, usually with an ornamental pattern constructed through the use of calligraphy, geometry or natural patterns. This form of architectu ...

) work. The entire structure is enclosed on all sides by the elaborately and delicately carved stone lattice work. File:al-Jawahir al-Khams.jpg, Ghawth's ''Jawahir al-Khams'' File:Tomb of Mohammad Ghauz-3.jpg, Ghawth's tomb in Gwalior File:Tomb of Mohammad Ghauz-1.jpg, South-east view of tomb Sufi saeed Ali Shah was the former caretaker of the shrine.

Works

* ''Jawahir-i-Khamsa'' (The Five Jewels) which was later translated to Arabic, ''al-Jawahir al-Khams'', by the

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

-based Shattari teacher Sibghat Allah (d. 1606 CE). In this book Gaus also mentioned about the special creatures known as "Muakkil" which comes under the control of sufis by special Islam chant. * '' Bahr al-Hayat'' (The Ocean of Life), his translation and extension of ''Hawd al-Hayat'' (The Pool of Life), an Arabic translation of a lost

text on

, the ''Amrtakunda''.

References

External links

Silsila e Shuttariya
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghawth, Muhammad Indian Sufi saints Sufi writers 1562 deaths Year of birth unknown People from Gwalior 1500 births Shattariyya

Biography

Tomb at Gwalior

Works

References

External links

Further reading