The Shrines to Nizam ud-din Awliya, Mu’in Al-din Chisht, and Data Gang Baksh are all highly important and influential sacred sites to Muslims in South Asia, with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims traveling to the sites annually. The sites are not exclusive to Sufi Muslims, often drawing Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs to visit and pay homage to the saint.
The pilgrims who visit each shrine believe that the physical bodies of each saint are extremely important because they allow for the existence of the external presence of the saint of the site. They also hold the belief that the body contains a divine essence and close proximity to the body allows for their spiritual and physical ailments to be cured.The connection to the location of each shrine is important because they were founded in areas were the saints were highly regarded during their lifetimes.
An annual festival that is shared in common between all three shrines is the death anniversary of their Saint. While each shrine has a unique celebration, the common theme is connected between all the sites.In the Sufi tradition, death is not an occasion for mourning, but celebration because the saints departure from the earthly signifies world their reunion with the mystical creator, Allah.
Tomb of Data Ganj Bakhsh inside Data Durbar by Guilhem Vellut is licensed under CC By-NC-ND 2.0
