Ajmer, India. The initial spiritual chain, or silsila, of the Chishti order in India, comprising Mu’inuddin Chishti, Bakhtiyar Kaki, Baba Farid and Nizamuddin Auliya (each successive person being the disciple of the previous one), constitutes the great Sufi saints of Indian history.   The original founder, Sultan-ul-Hind, Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moin’Uddin Chisti (1141- 1230 CE)  is the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order. He is also known as Gharib Nawaz or ‘Benefactor of the Poor.’

Moinuddin Chishti established his order in the city of Ajmer in Northern India. He apparently never wrote down his teachings in the form of a book, nor did his immediate disciples, but the central principles that became characteristics of the Chishti order stress renunciation of material goods, a strict regime of self-discipline and personal prayer, reliance on either cultivation or unsolicited offerings as means of basic subsistence, independence from rulers and the state (including rejection of monetary and land grants), generosity to others (particularly through sharing of food and wealth), and tolerance and respect for religious differences.  Chisti emphasized spiritual practice through human service and encouraged his disciples “to develop river-like generosity, sun-like affection and earth-like hospitality.”  The highest form of devotion, according to him, was “to redress the misery of those in distress – to fulfill the needs of the helpless and to feed the hungry.”