Gharib Nawaz Ajmer

According to Islamic ideology as Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the seal of prophets and there would not be any prophet after him so the prophet designated Ali as his spirituial vicegerant at Ghadir-e-Kuhm on the pious occasion of Hajjatul-wada (The last pilgrimage of the prophet) and the prophet caught hold of Ali’s arm and raising it up high said “MANKUN TO MOULAHO FA HAZA ALIYUN MOULAHO, ALLAHHUMMA WA LY MANWALAHO WA ADE MAN ADAHO”

(whoever takes me as his Maula (Master) should also take this Ali as his Maula. O Allah ! be a friend to his friends and foe to his foes.” According to Hazrat Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi Naqsbandi Mujaddid-e-Alf-e-Sani, Ali was designated as SHAH-E-WILAYAT-E-KUBRA (Qutbiyat-e-Kubra) by Allah since the day of the beginning of creation. (letter no. 134, Maktubat-e-Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi, Vol.3)

Ali is unanimously acclaimed by the Sufis as the founder of their sect because he combined mystical intuition with the firmest grasp of Islamic theology, the traditions of the Sufis depict him as “Wali Allah” (friend of God) and ascribe to him esoteric spiritual powers. They maintain that the highest aim of knowledge, as preached by Ali, is the awakening of latent spiritual faculties. They hold that if a person follows certain “Tariaqas”, or “Paths”, as laid down by their Saint of Saints, he will be enabled to discover his true and inner self. To this inner self, God will reveal Himself, while the self will disappear in the vision of the All-Absorbing Reality.

Ali, the Prince of Saints
The Sufis look Ali as the founder of that knowledge of "Tasawwuf" which harmonises the mystical, moral and intellectual approaches to Reality. They call the period when he was Caliph, "The Sufistic epoch" and speak with intense pride of the way in which his spiritual intuitions re-inforced the doctrine of "Tauheed" (monotheism); and of how, by his personal example, Ali illumined the way in which the struggles of a man in this world can fulfill the covenant between the created and the Creator.