LAL Shahbaz Qalandar

Hazrat Syed Usman Marwandi (Sindhi ) Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was born in 538 A.H, (1143 AD) in Marwand Iran. (Reference  book, Qalandar Nama Sindhi)

Your father never thought of getting married because of prayers. With reference of book ‘lub Tarik Sindh’ one night Holy sole of Qalandar pak turns up in the dream of his father “Syed Ibrahim Kabiruddin” saying get married as I have to be born by you.

Your birth date, age and last days of your life are mentioned in (Qalandar Nama Sindhi).

Birth name of angelic nature baby was Syed Shah Hussain. But according to Tazkara-e-Shahbaz name USMAN was given to you by your father and grandfather.

This name was given by Hazrat Imam Hussain to his father and grandfather in their dream.

In Accordance with Alshahbaz book at the time of birth, your appearance was rosy which is why your father used to call you LAL red. (Sindhi. )

You had liked red colour since childhood and always used to wear red attire, holding a red flag. Even you had red eyes. All those things made you Lal.

You got the name Shahbaz from your Master named Hazrat Baba Ibrahim

You were also called saif-ul-lisan. Because God used to obey your every command as you devoted yourself to GOD. Your name is also written as Qutub-Uddin and Shams-Uddin.

His father, Syed Ibrahim Kabiruddin was a virtuous and pious dervish, and his mother was a high-ranking princess. His ancestors migrated from Iraq and settled down in Mashud Iran, from where they again migrated to Marwand. During the Medieval period, 

Mashud and other cities of that region were renowned centres of learning and civilization.

Even as a young boy, Usman Marwandi showed strong religious leanings. He learnt the Holy Quran by heart just at age of seven, and at twenty embraced the Qalandar order of Sufism.

“Basically Qalandari and Qadri orders are alike spiritually according to ILM Ali Qalandar”

Qalandar is a type of dervish who is generally dressed in beggars’ clothes, likes poverty and austerity and has no permanent dwelling.

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar wandered throughout the Middle East and came to Sind from Baghdad via Dasht-i-Makran. Valley of panjghoor (Baluchistan) near Rakshanh stream where you did spiritual exercise. This ground is remembered by your name DASHT-E-SHAHBAZ.

In 1263, he arrived in Lahore and then visited the shrine of Data Gunj Baksh you stayed in Lahore for forty days, in those days you visit shrines like, Hazrat Sheikh Hussain zanjani, Hazrat Syed Ishaq zanjani and Syed yaqoob zanjani after that you reach Sialkot and visit Hazrat Imam Ali la Huq then journeyed to Multan and meet Hazrat Ghous Bahauddin Zikria, and his great son Sheikh Sadr-Uddin Arif, which at that time was at the height of glory and splendour.

According to the famous book “Kashf-ul-lugat” Qalandar is he who is gone astray in the love of GOD.

As Iqbal put it …………………

Thousand of sorrows but the heart is the language of GOD. It has always been the way of Qalandari……

The people of Multan be sought him to stay but he continued his journey southward and eventually settled down in Sehwan, then a famous centre of learning and popular place of worship for Hindus, in the southern part of Sindh, where he lived in the trunk of a tree on the outskirts of the town. He stayed at Sehwan for six years and during this period he disseminated the light of Islam, providing guidance to thousands of people.

As Qalandar Saying…………………

Nameless and tongueless still I am the mystic of GOD. Nameless and mark less but still I’m the devote of GOD

Sehwan is probably the town with the oldest continuous existence in SINDH. Sehwan was the capital of a Buddhist ruler who was the brother of Chandragupta II, the third of the Guptan dynasty in the 4th century AD. From the time of Arab invasion in 712, Sehwan was very important in the history of Sind since it commanded the route from the Upper to the Lower Indus, through which all invaders from either north or south had to pass. And possession of the fort was essential to the success of every campaign.

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is an overwhelmingly popular patron saint cherished and adored alike by Hindus and Muslims of Sind. He was a great missionary, mystic, scholar, philologist and poet. Several books in Persian and Arabic on philology and poetry are attributed to him. He was ‘Lal’ (red) because of his red attire, ‘Shahbaz’ due to his noble and divine spirit that soared like a falcon higher and higher in the boundless heavens and ‘Qalandar’ since he belonged to Qalandria order of Sufism and was saintly, exalted and intoxicated with love for eternal being of God.

As Qalandar Saying ………………

Entrance of Heaven is towards me but valueless without you. Houri and nymph are towards me but nothing without you.
I went to the heavens and lay down on the seat of GOD. Swear to GOD worthless without you,

The legend goes that the incumbent fakirs in Sewhan sent him a bowl of milk filled to the brim indicating that there was no room for anything more. But surprisingly, he returned the bowl with a beautiful flower floating on the top.

As Qalandar Saying…………………

I always do the devotional dance on fire in the love of my friend. At times on soil at times on thorns.

The shrine around his tomb, built in 1356, gives a dazzling look with its Sindhi Kashi tiles, mirror work and two gold-plated doors - one donated by the late Shah of Iran, the other by the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The inner sanctum is about 100 yards square with the silver canopied grave in the middle. On one side of the marble floor is a row of about 12 inch high folding wooden stands on which are set copies of the Quran for devotees to read. On the other side, besides a bundle of burning agarbattis (joss sticks), are rows of diyas (small oil lamps) lighted by Hindu devotees.

The Hindus regarded him as the incarnation of Bhartihari, the saintly brother of King Vikramaditya, who is believed to have worshipped Shiva at the venue where Lal Shahbaz's shrine is situated with all its grandeur and glory.

Thousands of devotees flock to the tomb while every Thursday their number stands multiplied. Especially at the time of his ‘Urs’ (celebration anniversary) being a carnival as well a religious festival and celebrated every year on the 18th day of Sha’ban,

As Qalandar Saying…………………

My heart is filled with the love of GOD, neither depressed nor have the patience to my whole body,

Sehwan springs to life and becomes the focal point of more than half a million pilgrims from all over Pakistan. On each morning of the three-day feast, the narrow lanes of Sewhan are packed to capacity as thousands and thousands of pilgrims, fakirs and devotees make their way to the shrine to commune with the saint, offer their tributes and make a wish. 

Most of the people present garlands and a green chadar (a cloth used to cover a tomb) with Quranic inscriptions in silver or gold threads. The humming of verses, singing and dancing in praise of the saint continues till late at night.

A devotional dance known as ‘dhamal’, being a frenzied and ecstatic swirl of the head and body is a special ritual that is performed at the rhythmic beat of the dhole (a big barrel-shaped drum), some of them being of giant size and placed in the courtyard of the shrine. Bells, gongs, cymbals and horns make a thunderous din, and the dervishes, clad in long robes, beads, bracelets and coloured head-bands whirl faster and faster in a hypnotic trance until with a final deafening scream they run wildly through the doors of the shrine to the courtyard beyond.