Baha al-Din, Zakarya

(1183-1262)

   He was born in a small town near Multan in 1182-1183. In his youth, Baha al-Din visited different places in the Islamic world, including Medina, Baghdad, and Bokhara, for higher studies in Islamic subjects. At Baghdad, he became a disciple of Shaikh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (d. 1234), on whose behest he established a Suhrawardiya monastery (khanqah) at Multan. Baha al-Din Zakarya stayed at this monastery in his capacity as the successor of Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi until his death in 1262. His mystic ideology was different from that of the Chishti Sufis insofar as he did not practice many of the austerities recommended in that order. He was a stickler about the rules of orthodox shariah but did not see any harm in accumulating wealth, nor did he abstain from mixing with men in authority.