Pathergatti dargah to host Basanth Panchami

Hyderabad: The Dargah of Shah Mohammed Qasim alias Shaik-Ji-Hali Abdul Ulai at Pathergatti will proclaim religious harmony at the Basanth Panchami.

The event will have members from Hindu and Muslim communities assembling at the holy shrine at the Urdu Galli, wearing yellow scarves.

The event, according to Maulana Sufi Shah Mohammed Muzaffar Ali Chisti Abul Ulai, the current Sajjada Nasheen (priest) and Mutawalli (custodian) of the dargah, is observed since the past few years.

“Basanth Panchami is celebrated at the famed dargah of sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi too. Members from all communities will take part in the celebrations,” he said.

The legend goes that Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya who had no children was sad when he lost his younger nephew. His follower Hazrat Amir Khusrau wished to see the smile back on Nizamuddin Auliya’s face and started celbrating Basant Panchami.

“We are doing it at our shrine too for the last three years,” said Mohammed Muzaffar Ali Chisti.

Hazrath Shaykh Ji Hali, who joined the Sufi order at the age of 14 years, migrated to Hyderabad in 1778 from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.

On the instructions of his Sufi master, Hazrath Izzatullah Mian, to propagate sufism he introduced qawwali during the reign of the third Nizam, Mir Akbar Ali Khan Sikander Jah (Secunderabad was named after him), says the custodian. 

Through his preachings and qawwalis, he spread the message of love, tolerance, charity and peaceful coexistence until he breathed his last in 1817.

A mausoleum with Makrana marble was built at his burial place.