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nominated one of his disciples, Lehna as his            The Ulema did not accept the Sufi saints kindly
            successor who came to be known as Guru Angad.           because they did not believe in any rituals. The
            Guru Nanak travelled widely and spread his              Sufi saints were venerated as pirs or gurus. It is
            message to the fellow beings.                           believed that they possessed many supernatural
                                                                    powers and could predict future. Like orthodox
            There is a tradition of a total of ten Sikh gurus—      Muslims, they did not want the people to convert
            Guru Nanak, Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amar Das, Guru         to Islam, they only wanted the people to love God
            Ram Das, Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Hargobind, Guru Har       and have devotion. They taught in the common
            Rai, Guru Harkrishan, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru        language in both prose and poetry. Their
            Gobind Singh.
                                                                    assemblies were famous for the quawwalis, and
            Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa        or Sikh     they are sung even today.
            community. After him, the Guru Granth Sahib is          The Sufi saints formed many silsilahs or orders.
            revered as the Sikh Guru and its copy is kept in all    Two of the important silsilahs were the Chishti
            Gurudwaras.
                                                                    Silsilah  and the Suhrawardi Silsilah .

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            The Guru Granth Sahib is written in Gurumukhi
            script.                                                  In the different Sufi Silsilah, the Chishti Silsilah
                                                                     was the most influential. Great teachers like
            A Legend of Guru Nanak                                   Khawaja Muin-ud-din Chisthi of Ajmer   and Hazrat
            There are many legends famous about Guru Nanak.          Nizam-ud-din Auliya of Delhi belong to this
            Once Guru Nanak was sleeping outside a shrine            Silsilah. Every year, thousands of devotees visit the
            with his feet towards the shrine. At this, the priest    dargahs of these two Sufi saints.
            came and asked him to move away his feet. Guru           Chishti Silsilah
            Nanak asked him to move his legs to the direction
            where God was not present. The priest adamantly         The three important Sufi saints of the Chishti
            moved Guru Nanak’s feet to the other direction, but     Silsilah were Muin-ud-din Chishti  , Baba Farid  and
            to his astonishment, the shrine too moved in that       Nizam-ud-din Auliya  . These three saints have their
            direction; and he moved his feet again only to find     dargahs  (tombs) at Ajmer (in Rajasthan), Hansi (in
            the shrine in that very direction.                      Haryana) and Delhi respectively. They composed
                                                                    beautiful heart touching verses and sang them in
                              SUFI MOVEMENT                         the company of their followers. Even today, their
                                                                    dargahs attract a large number of people from
            The Sufi saints came to India from Persia during the
                                                                    different parts of our country.
            Delhi Sultanate period. They settled at different
            places in India and won many followers from both
            Hindus and Muslims. Their idea was similar to the
            Bhakti saints. They also professed love for God and
            fellow human beings. They were of the opinion
            that devotion to God was more important than any
            other ritual or practice. They treated all people as
            equal. Due to their similar thinking, the Sufi and          Dargah of Muin-ud-din      Nizam-ud-din Auliya
            Bhakti saints borrowed each other’s ideas.                     Chishti at Ajmer             at Delhi
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            Find out why Sufi saints left their original home in     Some people attributed miraculous powers to the
            West and Central Asia and decided to settle down         Sufi saints. It is believed that they could cure
            in the Indian subcontinent.                              illness and predict the future.
                                                                                             Beliefs and Religions
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