Baba Qayam-ud-din

Qayam-ud-din Rishi was an eminent Sufi and an outstanding disciple of Sheikh-ul-Alam. Nothing is known about his early life except that he had no formal education and that right from the very beginning he was associated with holy men, at some stage he came in to contact with Sheikh-ul-Alam and became his disciple. After some time, at the direction of Sheikh-ul-Alam he took up his residence at the village of Manzgaam, where he established a cell near a spring called Dodh Pokar.

Like many other Rishis, Qayam-ud-din fasted regularly and would eat only wild vegetables. Hardships and austere penances, to which he had applied to himself, reduced him to skin and bone. When asked as to why he had reduced himself to this state, Qayam-ud-din burst into tears and said; “I am not literate enough to teach or guide anyone. I have not read the Holy Quran; if I could I might draw near to god. What other form of worship remains, but to enfeeble myself to abandon food and to practice austerities? I might move god to forgive me my sins.” After many years of such a life Qayam-ud-din died at Manzgaam and was buried there.