Mirza Mazhar Jan e Janaan

His birth and early life

The date of birth is variously given as 1111 or 1113 A.H, and it took place in Kala Bagh, Malwa. Shaikh Muhammad Tahir Bakhshi notes his date of birth as 11th Ramadan 1111 AH. His father Mirza Jan was employed in the army of the mighty Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Following a custom according to which the Emperor had the right to name the sons of his officers, Aurangzeb is reported to have said:

"A son is the soul of his father. Since the name of his father is Mirza Jan, the name of the son will be Jan-i Janan."

His early religious instruction was entrusted to hajji Afzal Siyalkoti (hadith) and hafiz Abd al-Rasul Dihlawi (Qur'an). At the age of 18, he joined the Naqshbandi order under Nur Muhammad Bada'uni, who was closely connected to the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, and completed his studies in four years. He was also initiated in the Qadiri, Chishti and Suhrawardi orders.

In his prime, Mazhar was advised to write poetry in Urdu rather than Persian as the days of the latter language were said to be numbered in India. Besides authoring poetry and polemics, Mazhar also wrote a large number of letters relating to Sufi thought and practice.

Views on Hinduism and other religions

Among his notable ideas is his acceptance of the Divine-origin of the vedas, which he claimed were revealed by God at the beginning of creation, and his acceptance of the Hindus as the people of the book.

Legacy and influence

Among his 'disciples' or Muridin was the great Hanafi scholar, Qadi Thanaullah Panipati, who wrote a famous Tafsir of the Qur'an by the name Tafsir-i Mazhari, which he named after his teacher. Also in his spiritual lineage (silsila) came the great Hanafi jurist Imam Ibn 'Abidin and the Qur'an exegete Allama Alusi.

His Naqshbandi lineage came to be known as Mazhariyya Shamsiyya. Mazhar apparently authorised more disciples than any of his predecessors. He regularly corresponded with his deputies, and his letters form much of the basis of our knowledge about his life and ideas.

He was succeeded by his khalifa (deputy) Hazrat Abdullah alias Shah Ghulam Ali Dahlavi, who is considered Mujaddid of the 13th Islamic century by most Naqshbandi followers today. His tariqah spread to whole India and Middle East.

His death and martyrdom

Mirza Mazhar was shot and seriously injured on the 7th of Muharram, of the year 1195 AH/1780 CE. The author of Ab-i Hayat writes:

"The cause of this murder was widely rumored in Delhi among high and low: that according to custom, on the seventh day [of Muharram], the standards were carried aloft [in procession]. Mirza Mazhar sat by the side of the road in the upper veranda of his house, with some of his special disciples. Just as ordinary barbarous people do, his [Sunni] group and the [Shia] procession group may perhaps have hurled some insults and abuse, and some barbarous person was offended. Among them was one stony-hearted person named Faulad [=steel] Khan, who was extremely barbarous. He did this evil deed. But Hakim Qudratullah Khan 'Qasim', in his anthology, says that in his poetry Mirza Sahib used to compose a number of verses in praise of Hazrat ʿAli, and some Sunni took this amiss and did this evil deed.

It should be noted that the author of Ab-i Hayat, a determined Shi'a, has been suspected of indulging in partisan religious bias. Professor Frances Pritchett has noted that the latter account of the death of Mirza Mazhar in Ab-i Hayat is a deliberate distortion. Professor Friedmann, as well as Annemarie Schimmel and Itzchad Weismann, have all noted that Mirza Mazhar was killed by a Shi'ite zealot.

Most of his Urdu biographers have also written that he was killed by a gunshot by a Shi'ite on 7th Muharram, and he died on 10th Muharram 1195 AH.

Spiritual Chain of Succession

Mirza Mazhar belonged to the Mujaddidi order of Sufism, which is the main branch of Naqshbandi Sufi tariqah. His spiritual lineage goes to Muhammad, through Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, the Mujaddid of eleventh Hijri century. The complete lineage is as under:

His Khulafa

In Maqamat Mazhari, his foremost Khalifa and successor Shah Ghulam Ali Dahlwai writes short biographies of many of his Khulafa (deputies). Here only those names are mentioned:

1. Shaykh Abdullah alias Shah Ghulam Ali Dahlawi (author of the book)
2. Shaykh Sayyad Mir Musalman, a Sayyad (descendant of Muhammad), died during the life of his shaykh
3. Qadi Thanaullah Panipati, author of Tafsir Mazhari and other notable Islamic books, descendant of Usman the third caliph of Islam
4. Mawlana Fadalullah, elder brother of Qadi Thanaullah Panipati
5. Mawlana Ahmadullah, eldest son of Qadi Thanaullah Panipati, famous for his braveness and fighting skills
6. Wife of Qadi Thanaullah Panipati
7. Shaykh Muhammad Murad, a trader, spent 35 years in the company of his shaykh
8. Shaykh Abdur-Rahman
9. Mir Aleemullah Gangohi
10. Shaykh Muradullah alias Ghulam Kaki
11. Shaykh Muhammad Ehsan
12. Shaykh Ghulam Hasan
13. Shaykh Muhammad Muneer
14. Khwaja Ibadullah
15. Mawlana Qalandar Bakhsh
16. Mir Naeemullah
17. Mawlana Thanaullah Sanbhali
18. Mir Abdul-Baqi
19. Khalifa Muhammad Jameel
20. Hazrat Shah Bheek
21. Mawlana Abdul-Haqq
22. Shah Muhammad Salim
23. Shah Rahmatullah
24. Muhammad Shah
25. Mir Mubeen Khan
26. Mir Muhammad Mueen Khan, brother of Mir Mubeen Khan
27. Mir Ali Asghar alias Mir Makhoo
28. Muhammad Hasan Arab
29. Muhammad Qa'im Kashmiri
30. Hafiz Muhammad
31. Mawlana Qutbuddin
32. Mawlana Ghulam Yahya
33. Mawlana Sayyad Ghulam Muhiuddin Jilani
34. Mawlana Naeemullah Bahra'ichi
35. Mawlana Kaleemullah Bangali
36. Sayyad Mir Ruhul-Amin
37. Shah Muhammad Shafi
38. Muhammad Wasil
39. Muhammad Hussain
40. Shaykh Ghulam Hussain Thaanisari
41. Mawlana Abdul Kareem
42. Mawlana Abdul Hakeem
43. Nawab Irshad Khan
44. Ghulam Mustafa Khan, student of Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dahlawi
45. Noor Muhammad Qandhari
46. Mulla Naseem
47. Mulla Abdur Razzaq
48. Mulla Jaleel
49. Mulla Abdullah
50. Mulla Taimoor