At the outset, let me enlighten the readers that the booklet has been written by Farooq Ahmad Peer, my namesake, a senior officer of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service who pulled back from active service as Commissioner/Secretary RDD. and the remarkable thing about him is that, he is well read person. He has recently, come out with a booklet, titled as “ Hazrat Khawaja Mehdi Ali Khatayee Naqashbandi Mujadidi (RA), Ek Ta,aru,f” (Hazrat Khawaja Mehdi Ali Khatayee, Naqashbandi Mujadidi RA : An Introduction).

Hazrat Khawaja Mehdi Ali Khatayee has been a Sufi saint of Naqashbandi order. It is to know that “the Sufis are called Sufis because they are in the first rank (saf) before Allah due to the sincerity of their actions, and beliefs”. The booklet consists of 15 chapters including the foreword – ‘Paish Lafaz’ – written by the author himself. In the foreword he expresses that he had a long cherished wish to bring out facts about the life and contribution of the saint for common readers.

In chapter 2, titled, ‘Khawja Buzarug (RA) Kay Dour Main Kashmir Ka Siyasi wa Muzhabi Mahol’ , the author relates the political circumstances at the time when the saint emerged on the scene of Kashmir. The author notes down that the social and political scenario in Kashmir was not stable and there was a lot of pandemonium on religious and political turfs. The Chak Dynasty was in power, and since these rulers belonged to one particular sect, the people of that sect enjoyed royal patronage in Kashmir. That contributed to a strain at the deeper societal levels. After the........

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