Sultan ul Ashiqeen and Propagation of Faqr
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen – The present Shaikh
The present Imam of the Sarwari Qadri order is Sultan ul Ashiqeen. He is an accomplished Fakir and the Universal Divine Man of this era. His spiritual guide, Sultan ul Faqr VI Sultan Mohammad Asghar Ali only granted the beneficence of Ism-e-Mohammad to him amongst all his disciples. It was only due to his tremendous efforts and ardent love for his spiritual guide that he was chosen as the next Imam of the Sarwari Qadri order. After spiritual approval of the Holy Prophet in the Mohammadan Assembly. The Murshid of Sultan ul Ashiqeen transferred the Divine Trust to him during a visit to Madina in 2001.
Sultan ul Ashiqeen assumed the responsibility of leading the Sarwari Qadri order on 26th December 2003 after the demise of his Murshid. And since then he has been working tirelessly in spreading the beneficence of Faqr throughout the world.
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen made Faqr common
Before Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen, Faqr was limited to the chosen ones. The general public were completely oblivious to Faqr and the real purpose of our lives. Even, people who used to visit Khanqah only did so for family tradition and not to gain Divine closeness. Amongst the people who were linked with a Khanqah, only a handful of those used to succeed in gaining beneficence of Ism-e-Allah Zaat. However, Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen changed that tradition. He has worked tirelessly in making the beneficence of Ism-e-Allah Zaat common amongst the masses.
Sultan-ul-Faqr VI Sultan Mohammad Asghar Ali had spread the beneficence of Ism-e-Allah Zaat to everyone. Instead of restricting it to the selected few. Following the footsteps of his Murshid, Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen grants Ism-e-Allah Zaat and Sultan-ul-Azkar (Hoo) to all his disciples on the very first day of pledging allegiance.
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen revealed true Sarwari Qadri chain of Saints
After a lot of hard work and research, Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen published book Mujtaba Akhir Zamani. This book is an excellent biography of the Saints of the Sarwari Qadri order. In addition to this, he collected the drafts of Sufi poetry of these Saints. And published them in the form of a book – Kalam Mashaikh Sarwari Qadri. It is available to order from Sultan-ul-Faqr Publications website. It is also available to download as soft copy free of cost.
Authentic and complete collection of Abyat-e-Bahoo – A Marvel of Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen
He also published Abyat-e-Bahoo Kamil after reviewing old drafts of Sultan Bahoo’s kalam. Over time some people had made additions to Sultan Bahoo’s famous poetry which Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen has removed. He has published the complete collection of 201 Abyat in a signle book. Furthermore, he has authored a number of other books on teachings of Faqr. These are a source of guidance for the seekers of Allah and will be for future generations.
Establishing Tehreek Dawat-e-Faqr
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen has a very well organised and articulate personality. Therefore, when he began the journey of spreading the teachings of Faqr, he established Tehreek Dawat-e-Faqr. This is non-profit and non-government organisation whose purpose is to spread the teachings of Faqr throughout the world. So that people are directed to the Mohammadan Faqr in today’s materialistic age.
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen established a team of dedicated disciples. He also set up various departments for effective management of various activities. It is important to highlight here that women have equal representation and they are working alongside with men in spreading the teachings of Faqr. Every sincere and dedicated disciple gets an opportunity to participate in the ongoing activities of the organisation. And be part of the movement that is working to spread the message of Faqr.
Propagation of Faqr and dilemma of so-called scholars
The dilemma of today’s so-called religious scholars is that they keenly adopt new inventions that make their lives better. However, when it comes to religion, they become very rigid on sticking to the centuries old practices in the name of Sunnah of the Holy Prophet. It is the same scholars who banned the use of loud speaker. However, with time when it suited their needs, they made it permissible. If we closely assess the lives of the Holy Prophet and his Companions, we see that they utilised the latest technologies and tools of their age.Today’s fast paced life is heavily dependent on technology. With the advent of better and improved ways of doing things, man has become accustomed to these amenities. In particular the various information technology platforms for conveying the message. Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen had envisaged this long ago. He knew that the traditional methods of preaching will be less effective. Therefore, he utilised all the latest internet and social media platforms for the propagation of the teachings of Faqr. One of his saying is:
“Change is a fundamental principle of universe. Those who don’t embrace change become part of history.”
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen’s Foresightedness
Through his foresightedness, strategic planning and use of technology, teachings of Faqr have spread throughout the world like never before. These teachings are no longer restricted to a specific area or a small population. Instead they are now available freely for anyone to access and benefit from.
The so-called religious scholars have never truly embraced the new means of propagation. For example, the various social media platforms of this age such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram etc. Instead some of them have even declared the use of these Haram! Their view is that these tools distract the man from the remembrance of Allah. Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen has a completely different view on this. He says:
“Don’t criticize the inventions and label them as evil, instead make these inventions Momin”.
This means that instead of labelling the inventions as evil, one should put them to good use for the betterment of humanity. Everything has good and evil hidden within it. It is how one uses it to adopt good and stay away from its negatives.
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen – a pioneer of change
Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen demonstrated this practically through his efforts to spread the teachings of Faqr on the internet. This includes many websites and social media pages that are a source of guidance for the seekers of Allah. Below is a brief description of how he made the new inventions ‘Momin’.
To begin with, he sponsored creation of a number of websites to provide a source of various topics of Faqr. In addition, he ensured that the life history of Sarwari Qadri order Saints and their Sufi Kalam was made available to the public. Furthermore, he set up Sultan-ul-Faqr Publications that manages the publication of books and journals. Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen himself has authored many books. Through his spiritual guidance, he guided many of his disciples who successfully translated Sultan Bahoo books in English and Urdu. These are available on the Sultan-ul-Faqr Publications website free of cost for people to read and download.
Along with publishing quality books, Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen began a series of publishing short articles (blogs) on social media forums. These are very useful and help the seekers of Allah learn some important topics of Faqr. It is important to highlight here that Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen strictly follows the rules and policies of all social media forums where the blogs are posted. He himself researches and whenever a new policy is issued, he ensures that the team are fully aware of it and they follow those policies.
Websites of Tehreek Dawat-e-Faqr
In today’s age of internet, when people want to learn about something, they generally search for that in one of the search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. The search engine returns relevant pages for the user. Keeping this in view, Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen instructed establishment of a number of websites. These websites act as a source of guidance for the seekers of Allah when they try and look for guidance on the internet. Below are some of the websites of Tehreek Dawat-e-Faqr:
www.mahnama-sultan-ul-faqr-lahore.com
www.sultan-ul-faqr-publications.com
All these websites contain various books and journals published by Sultan ul Faqr publications. These are available to download free of cost as pdf copies.
Web TV Channels to propagate Faqr
In addition, the below TV websites have also been set up to provide video content to the devotees and seekers:
www.sultan-ul-faqr-digital-productions.com
These websites contain the videos of preaching tours of Sultan ul Ashiqeen, Sufi Kalam of Sarwari Qadri saints and the various annual events and gatherings. In addition, there are YouTube, Daily Motion, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels that host the same videos.
Through these social media forums and web TV channels, the teachings of Faqr are spreading throughout to the world. People who were completely oblivious to Faqr are now learning about it. In view of the propagation of the message of Faqr and to further accelerate its spread, Sultan ul Ashiqeen took two key initiatives:
Translation of Sultan Bahoo books in English
Firstly, he supervised the translation of Sultan Bahoo’s Persian Punjabi and books in English. This is so that people who are not familiar with Persian, Urdu or Punjabi language can benefit from these teachings. As a result, after reading these books, many non-Muslims pledged oath of allegiance on the sacred hand of Sultan ul Ashiqeen and entered Islam.
Online Oath of Allegiance
Secondly, many people who want to pledge allegiance to Sultan ul Ashiqeen but are unable to travel to Pakistan. For those people he initiated online bayat that allows them to pledge allegiance without the need to meet Sultan ul Ashiqeen in person. This is a revolutionary step in Faqr and surely something that will accelerate the propagation of Faqr. This is also a testimony to Sultan ul Ashiqeen’s very exalted spiritual status as well as his spiritual authority and powers. Sultan ul Ashiqeen’s initiative of allowing online bayat has been highly praised at international level.
A student of Sheffield University published research article on online bayat facility. According to this research, Tehreek Dawat e Faqr’s website www.sultanbahoo.com had the most views in this category.
Social Media Presence
Facebook is one of the most commonly used platform for social networking these days. Sultan ul Ashiqeen put this forum to a good use for the spread of Faqr. There are more than 80 different pages on Facebook that are spreading the teachings of Faqr. Similarly, there are multiple pages on other social media platforms that are spreading the message of Faqr to the masses. The general perception about Likee and Tiktok is that it is causing waywardness in youth. About such things Sultan ul Ashiqeen says:
“Just as there is good and evil hidden within man, similarly every invention has both these attributes. One should adopt the good and stay away from the evil of that invention.”
Under Sultan ul Ashiqeen’s direct supervision and direction, a team of Tehreek Dawat e Faqr made a series of short video clips for Likee and Tiktok. Thus, these two forums have good content that invites the people to the path of Faqr so that they can succeed in their purpose of life which is the recognition and closeness of Allah.
A Documentary on Sultan Bahoo Life
Many people in the past made documentary films on the life of Sultan Bahoo. But all those documentaries lacked something due to the producers not being fully aware of Sultan Bahoo’s life history. In order to fill those gaps, Sultan ul Ashiqeen supervised recording of a documentary film. This new film on the life of Sultan Bahoo captures all aspects of Sultan Bahoo’s life, in particular those that were missing in previous documentaries.
There is a documentary film currently in development on the life of Sultan ul Ashiqeen. This will be a gift for the seekers of Allah for them to learn about the exemplary personality of Sultan ul Ashiqeen.
Sultan ul Ashiqeen is well aware of the fact that in today’s fast paced life, people don’t have the time to read lengthy books or watch long videos. Therefore, he launched a series of short videos clips comprised of the key topics of Faqr to provide a means of on the go learning for people. In addition, key topics and themes of Faqr are published in the form of posts on various social media forums. These are very handy and useful reference for people to help them learn about the various inward disease that act as a hindrance for them on the path of Faqr.
It is not possible to encompass all aspects of Sultan ul Ashiqeen’s unique personality in such a short article. In order to read more, please consult Sultan ul Faqr Publication’s book Sultan ul Ashiqeen.
NOTE:
This article is an English translation of Urdu article سلطان العاشقین کے دور میں ترویج فقر عروج پر Faiza Saeed Sarwari Qadri penned the original article. Waheed Hassan Sarwari Qadri translated it in English. Tap below to read the original Urdu article:
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