Ziarat Chhote Shah Sahib

Ziarat Chhotay Sahib also Ziarat (Zariat/lit. Muslim Shrine) Chhote Shah Sahib is one of the most visited and respected religious shrines in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir drawing many Pilgrims to Jammu and Kashmir from around India and the world.

Located in the village of Sakhi Maidan, it is just five kilometers from Mendhar town near the Line of Control with PoK. Every year a large number of devotees visit the Ziarat Chhotay Sahib on the occasion of Urs that is celebrated for three consecutive days.

The place contains the Ziarat of the great Muslim Saint, Sakhi Peer Chhota Shah a prominant Sufi. The place has a holy feel and people from the religions of the area— Muslim, Hindus as well as Sikhs, come to pay a visit to the Sakhi Peer.

A few words on the Sufis

The Sufis, were men of peace who like Guru Nanak believed in the brotherhood of mankind, that one God, created and permiated all of creation. They were noted for their music and singing in praise of God, their twirling dance of rapture and of course their unique cylindrical towering hats (similar to the Turkish and Egyptian Fez, they reached for the Heavens).

In Jodhaa Akbar the 2008 film from Bollywood the actor depicting Akbar moves from his Gaddi and joins the Sufis in their 'dance' after a beautiful prayer.

Dara Shikoh himself was a Sufi. His death along with that of Guru Tegh Bahadur was caused by Aurangzeb's return to the rigid form of Islam which advocated that all of India should give up musical instruments and become Muslims who all prayed towards Mekkah.

But long before Guru Tegh Bahadur's efforts to spare the learned Pandits of Kashmir a forced conversion to the radical, tyrannical Islam of Aurangzeb (* see trivia below), Guru Ram Das, the father of Guru Arjan, who had first planned the city now known as Amritsar and the Harmandir, expressed his wish to his son that the Holiest man in India should lay the cornerstone of the now Golden Temple. Guru Arjan, as had his father, considered that man to be the Sufu Saint Hazrat Mian Mir.

The Ziarat Chhotay Sahib shares its popularity with another butt or ruined temple. The remnants of the ancient Temple of Martand belonged, according to general belief, to the Pandavas of The Mahabharata.

Trivia

The name Auranzeb, perhaps, for Shah Jahan and thousands of other, was an unfortunate choice of names for the younger brother of Dara Shikoh. In Persian the name means 'suitable for the throne' and probably influenced the young prince since his childhood. His own Imperial name he donned as Emperor was Alamgir I (Conqueror of the Universe) besting his father who was only the Emperor of the World—Shah Jahan.

Around the world people give their children names they hope their children will grow into. Light, Prince, Warrior and scholar, ect. Even George pronounced Horhay in Spanish gives up its reference to someones onetime word for God.

References

www.mapsofindia.com/jammu-kashmir/tourism