Farid al-Din Mas'Ud Ganj-Shikar

(1175-1265)

   He was a Sufi of the Chishti order who established his hospice at Ajodhan (same as Pttan south of Dipalpur). As head of the Chishti order in In-dia, Farid al-Din Mas'ud was the third in direct succession to Mu'in al-Din Chishti. He had a large following among the common people in northwestern India. With the passage of time, there grew up a leg-end of Farid as a saint propagating syncretic ideas. Some of the Pun-jabi compositions imbued with the spirit of bhakti are to be attrib-uted to him in Guru Granth Sahib (Composition of Gurus) compiled by Guru Arjan Dev in 1604.

   Farid al-Din, on the one hand, insisted on the strict observance of the commands of the Islamic shariah and, on the other, held music parties and had friendly dialogues with Hindu mendicants that would often of-fend the more dogmatic members of orthodox 'ulama. He is also re-ported to have introduced in the Chishti tradition namaz-i m'akus (liter-ally, "inverted prayer," i.e., the practice of offering prayers while suspended in an inverted position), clearly suggesting the influence of Hindu yogis. He is also credited with strengthening the Chishti ten-dency to keep aloof from rulers and not to accept charity from them.

   The most illustrious disciple of Farid al-Din Mas'ud was Nizam al-Din Auliya, who continued to lead the Chishti order in India from his hospice at Ghiyaspur near Delhi.