Iftikhar Chaudri’s excellent note on the great saint:
Hazrat Baha-ud-din Zakariya(RA) was a Sufi of Suhrawardiyya order (tariqa). His full name was Al-Sheikh Al-Kabir Sheikh-ul-Islam Baha-ud-Din Abu Muhammad Zakaria Al-Qureshi Al-Asadi Al Hashmi. Sheikh Baha-ud-Din Zakariya known as Bahawal Haq was born at Kot Kehror, a town of Layyah District near Multan, Punjab, Pakistan, around 1170.
His grand father Hazrat Shah Kamaluddin Ali Shah Qureshi al Hashmi arrived Multan from Makkah en route to Khwarizm where he stayed for a short while.In Tariqat he was the disciple of Renowned Sufi Master Shaikh Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi who awarded him Khilafat only after 17 days of stay at his Khanqaah in Baghdaad.
For fifteen years he went from place to place to preach Islam and after his wanderings Bahawal Haq settled in Multan in 1222.Baha-ud-din Zakariya died in 1267 and his mausoleum is located at Multan. The of mausoleum is a square of 51 feet 9 inches, measured internally. Above this is an octagon, about half the height of the square, which is surmounted by a hemispherical dome. The Mausoleum was almost completely ruined during the siege of 1848 by the British, but was soon afterwards restored by the Muslims.
Hazrat Baha-ud-din Zakariya(RA) had seven sons who gained fame in their own right as great Sufis – Shaykh Sadruddin Arif, Shaykh Burhanuddin, Shaykh Ziauddin, Shaykh Alauddin, Shaykh Qudratuddin, Shaykh Shihabuddin, and Shaykh Shamsuddin. Shaykh Sadruddin Arif’s son was the famous Sufi Shaykh Abul Fath Ruknuddin, also known as Rukn-e-Alam. His progeny dispersed all over India over the coming centuries and produced many famous people in all walks of life and scholarship. His descendents are found still in Multan, Lahore, Khushab,Delhi, Meerut and Allahabad. ( Iftikhar Chaudri)
