Nur
Qutb Alam
a saint and saviour personality of the Muslims of Bengal from
the oppression of raja ganesha. A son and chief disciple of
Shaikh Alaul Huq and a grandson of Shaikh Asad of Lahore, he
was a guardian saint of pandua. Both father and son are lying
buried in the famous shash hazari dargah (a dargah endowed with
a property worth six thousand rupees) of Pandua. Like his father,
Shaikh Nur Qutb Alam was a chishtiya saint and has left behind
a line of saints who played significant part in the Muslim social
life of Bengal for several centuries. Shaikh Alaul Huq was a
contemporary of Sultan Shamsuddin iliyas shah and his son sikandar
shah, while Shaikh Nur Qutb Alam was a fellow-student and contemporary
of Sultan ghiyasuddin azam shah.
Allaul
Haq Pandwi
Shaikh
Nur Qutb Alam became more famous than his father, because
he saved the Muslim kingdom of Bengal from a catastrophe. When
Raja Ganesha captured the throne of Pandua and began to oppress
the Muslims including the Shaikhs and Ulama, he decided to interfere,
and wrote a letter to Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi of Jaunpur to come
to the aid of the Muslims of Bengal. He also wrote a letter
to Mir Sayyid Ashraf Jahangir simnani with a request to intercede
to Sultan Ibrahim to accede to the request of Shaikh Nur Qutb
Alam. Sultan Ibrahim marched with a large army to Bengal. At
this Ganesha got frightened, submitted to Shaikh Nur and prayed
to him to request Sultan Ibrahim to go back. The Shaikh demanded
that the Raja should turn a Muslim, because, as he said, he
could not intercede to a Muslim king in favour of a non-Muslim.
Ganesha agreed but when he disclosed this to his wife, she did
not agree. The Raja then brought his son Jadu, a boy of twelve,
to the Shaikh and got him cnverted to Islam. The boy was named
Jalaluddin and Ganesha abdicated in his favour.
Allaul
Haq Pandwi
After
the death of the Shaikh, Ganesha, however, reconverted Jadu
to Hinduism and ascended the throne again. But it so happened
that Ganesha died soon after, and Jadu occupied the throne with
the title of Sultan jalaluddin muhammad shah.
In order
to practise the virtue of humility during the lifetime of his
father, Nur Qutb used to do all sorts of menial works. He washed
clothes of visiting faqirs, carried fuel and water, kept water
constantly hot for ablution of his murshid during winter days
and even cleaned the privies attached to the khanqah. He gave
his two sons, Shaikh Rafqatuddin and Shaikh Anwar, spiritual
training. Shaikh Zahid, a son of the former, also attained much
fame as a saint, after the death of his grandfather. Shaikh
Anwar died a martyr at Sonargaon at the hands of Raja Ganesha,
most probably during the lifetime of his father. Another leading
spiritual disciple of Shaikh Nur Qutb Alam was Shaikh Husamuddin
Manikpuri.
Allaul
Haq Pandwi Entry
Sultan Alauddin
husain shah granted a number of villages for maintaining the
alms-house and madrasah attached to the dargah of Shaikh Nur
Qutb Alam. The sultan used to come every year from his capital
city of Ikdala to Pandua to visit the shrine of the saint. The
date of Shaikh Nur Qutb Alam's death is not definitely known,
but the date is most probably 818 AH/ 1415 AD and the chronogram
of this date is Nur banur-shud (light went into light).
Allaul
Haq Pandwi
Where
is Pandua ? Pandua a town about twenty miles from Gaur and
twelve miles from the modern town of Maldah in West Bengal,
India, emerged as a mint town and the capital of Bengal during
the time of Shamsuddin iliyas shah (1342-1358 AD). Pandua is
said to have been derived from Panduya < Panduviya. Cunningham
contradicts the Hindu claim that the place derived its name
from the Pandus and is inclined to believe that the name rather
originated from Pandubis (water fowls) with which the place
abounds. Pandua was already a place of note before it acquired
the distinction of a capital city in 1342. The presence of numerous
remains of Hindu sculpture and architecture in the place points
to its antiquity. But it was never as old and great a city as
Gaur. It was about four and a half miles long and two miles
wide. In 1353 Iliyas Shah renamed it Firuzabad probably after
Shamsuddin firuz shah (1301-1322 AD), an earlier independent
sultan of Bengal.
Pandua
is 10 kilimeters from Malda town.
One can reach Malda by train and Bus.One can catch train or
Bus from Kolkata.
Place-Pandua Shareef
District- Malda
State- West Bengal
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