Sheikh –Ul-Alam (RA)

Sheikh-ul-Alam or Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Wali, Alamdar-e-Kashmir (the Standard Bearer of Kashmir), is considered as the living symbol of Kashmir and the guiding light of its people. As a saint, revolutionary and poet he has significant impact on the thoughts and mindset of the people of Kashmir. His thoughts have influenced the minds of generations for more than five centuries, creating a culture of maximum religious tolerance with an unshakable faith in the omnipresence of God. 

Also known as Nund Rishi, Sheikh Nur-Ud-Din Rishi was born in 1375 A.D. at village Kaimuh, district Anantnag, in the home of Salar Sanz, a Hindu, who later embraced Islam & was renamed Sheikh Salar-ud-Din. The Sage started life normally. He married and had two children. But the things around him made him intensely sad. He retired to caves at a young age for penance and meditation. He lived for 12 years in wilderness. Thus nature became the Nund Rishi’s first teacher. Later in life, he is said to have received the blessings of four Muslim divines of high spiritual attainments. When he emerged out of the cave his fame of spirituality had already spread far and wide and people thronged to him and many became his disciples and followers including the king of Kashmir, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin.

He preached non-violence and talked about inequality, injustice, tyranny and social evils. He always stressed the unity of Hindus and Muslims. To serve the mankind, is noblest service and way to God. He made his poetry the message of his faith, love and brotherhood. His poetry has glow of spirituality around it. To him, not mere ritual observances but love, sincerity piety, was the basis of religion. This vision made him "Alamdar-e-Kashmir" in the real sense.

All his life, he wore nothing but a coarse 'pheran'. In his last days, the saint sustained life on a cup of milk a day. Finally, he reduced himself to water alone. He died on the 26th of Jamu-ud-Sani in 1438.

The Rishi's resting has become a centre of pilgrimage for all religions and communities. This shrine, nestled in a bowl-shaped valley in central Kashmir's Budgam district, is about 45 km from Srinagar. The sacred shrine houses saint Noor-ud-Din's tomb and that of his 11 caliphs and relics, including an Arabian dress, believed to be that of Fatima, daughter of Prophet Mohammad.

Nund Rishi's message was not confined to one race or class, but addressed to the mankind. Nund Rishi's sayings show that he believed that the God is everywhere. According to him, all the branches of knowledge are nothing but the commentaries on the faith.

Like an ecologist he sermonized about the conservation of Forests. “Food will last as long as forests last” this saying apparently indicates his intrinsic foresight and intuitive knowledge. He uttered these words six centuries ago even before the present concept of ecological balance was born and the scientists of the world strived to maintain the environmental balance and uphold the eco-system.

As a botanist, Nund Reshi cautioned the village folk on moral and ethical grounds, against any damage to plants in general and herbal plants in particular. For he is believed to have pointed out that plants are living things which are born, grow and die in due course and also that each plant has a purpose in life and use for others. Not only plants, he was against killing animals too. Nund Reshi was a strict vegetarian all his life.

While infusing a spirit of humanism and social good into his people Nund Reshi lays stress on need-based and not to creed, color or language based sympathy. Throughout his pious life Sheikh-ul-Alam fought against the fundamentalism in religion. According to him, extremists have nothing to do with the real nature of religion because all the religions teach tolerance and respect for other's creeds. They simply create an atmosphere of hatred and dispute and to realize their ends. They learn only to achieve worldly fame and have no penchant for seeking the divine.

The great Rishi’s spiritual eminence and moral superiority won him the designation of Sheikh-Ul-Alam.

Once, on his way to a garden, accompanied by a disciple, Sheikh-ul-Alam stopped and would not move. On his disciple requesting him to proceed, he made the following reply: "Every minute that I spend there, will be deducted from my stay in heaven".

On another occasion, when invited to a feast, Sheikh-ul-Alam went in ragged dress, earlier than the appointed time. The servants, not recognizing him, would not permit him to enter, and he had to go back to take his food at home. When all had sat for the sumptuous dinner, the Sheikh-ul-Alam was specially sent for. He came, this time in a flowing chugha (cloak) and was given the seat of honour. But the Sheikh-ul-Alam instead of partaking of the food stretched forth his sleeves and put them on to the plates. The people were astonished at the sight and asked him the reason. He replied: "The feast was not really for Noor-ud-Din but for the long sleeves!"

The Afghan governor, Ata Muhammad Khan, gave an expression to public sentiment when coins were struck by him in the name of Sheikh-ul-Alam in 1808-10. No other saint perhaps in human history has ever had coins struck in his honour.