his dargah is in Sonepat

In Sufi philosophy the Beloved is God or the Divine. The person seeking oneness with God is the lover.
This is ishq e haqeeqi which literally means “the real love” but metaphorically it means “the love of God”. It refers to the belief that only God is worth loving and He is the only one who can return His creature’s love for Him.
Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar.

Oh Khusrau, the river of love
Runs in strange directions.
One who jumps into it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across.

The death of a Sufi saint therefore, is regarded as wisaal (union with the beloved), and the death anniversary is celebrated as a wedding anniversary and not an occasion for mourning.
The material world is the maika and afterlife is sasural
“Yeh duniya mere babul ka ghar
Woh duniya sasural”

The Dargah sharif of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya ( from their Facebook page)

Khusrau raen suhaag ki, jaagi pi ke sung,
Tun mero mun pi-u ko, dovu bhaye ek rung.

Khusrau (the bride) spends the eve of her wedding
Awake with her beloved, (in such a way that)
The body belongs to her, but heart to the beloved,
The two become one.
Amir Khusrau famously said on beholding the body of Pir o Murshid Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya
Gori sovay sej par, mukh par daaray kes,
Chal Khusrau ghar aapnay, saanjh bhayee chahu des.

The fair maiden rests on the wreath (of roses),
Her tresses covering her face,
Let us, Oh Khusrau go back now,
The dark dusk settles in four corners

Urs rituals are generally performed by the custodians of the shrine, and usually include the singing of religious music such as qawwali.

From today starts the 711th Urs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Hazrat Haji Ali

(From the Facebook of Dargah sharif Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya: )
The various functions in the Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin will be as follows

On the day of the urs his admirers, disciples, followers and relatives assemble together at the grave of the Saint to obtain spiritual benefit and celebrate the anniversary and rejoice that he has achieved wisaal with the Divine.
It is recommended to recite the Quran Shareef and pass on the Sawaab (reward) to their soul and to recite Fateha. Qawwalis are sung to obtain spiritual succour and go in a state of trance. This can be seen in the program for this year’s Urs at the Dargah as given in the photograph above

Translation of Hazrat Amir Khusrau from here

The dargah when made originally in the 13th century was on the outskirts of Inderpat village, near the Nakhas Gate of Delhi. It was a sprawling complex which had a mosque attached to it as well as a small pond. It used to consist of merely a roof built over her grave. In 2002, Muhammed Adil, a businessman in Daryaganj, commissioned the new domed structure and is restricted to just a small compound and a Government school has been made between the Dargah and the Mosque.Bibi Fatima Sam was a very pious lady and Baba Farid and Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya often came to her Dargah when they wanted complete peace.

” The saints will cast away both worldly and religious blessings to give a piece of bread or a drink of water to someone in need.This state is something one cannot obtain by one hundred thousand fasts and prayers .”

Bibi Fatima Sam

A small earthen pot of water is kept in a corner of her Dargah

HAzrat Nizamuddin Auliya said for her, ” When the lion has come out of the forest, nobody asks if it is male or female ; the children of Adam must obey and show respect ,whether it is male or female.”Shaykh NasirudDin Mahmud Chiragh-I Dihli, he says, “One day , Mawlana Husam al-Din Came into the presence of Shaykh Nizam al-Din (may God sanctify their secrets). He said, “Mawlana Husam al-Din, today we saw one of the substitutes.” He asked, “Where did you see him?” He said, that he had made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Bibi Sam; which is near the enclosure of a pool. A man appeared carrying cucumbers on his head, which he brought down to the edge of the pool. He stored the cucumbers away and performed ablutions in such a way that he was astonished. When he finished his ablutions, he performed two cycles of ritual prayer with perfect equanimity. Maulana Hisamuddin was very surprised to see the way he washed the basket of cucumbers. He related the story to his mother who
said, ‘This is the way to prepare the burial shroud, to wash the corpse, and to perform the burial in the tomb.’ She gave him about twenty dirhams and said, ‘This is the fortune of your whole life. When your father went into gardens, he picked cucumbers and vegetables and sold them. Thus he spent his life . you also pick cucumbers and vegetables and sell them. Don’t support yourself in any way but this.’ ”

This story was repeated by the mutawalli of the dargah ,who very patiently answered all my questions about the Bibi. I saw a few people praying there and I too wanted to pray . I was a bit apprehensive as there was only the one room with the main shrine and most Mutawallis of Dargahs have reservations about women. He very politely told me to pray in the corner of the room hidden from view by the shrine so I would not be disturbed. I am glad that at least in a dargah of a lady, ladies are respected and treated at par.

One of the advantages of the these dargahs not being very popular is that there are no crowds and one can pray and meditate in peace. While I was there I saw a couple of people who had come in to offer their namaz

The adjoining wall leads to the Government school and across the street from the school is a small mosque known as Masjid Fatima bin SamBibi Fatima Sam reposed great faith in Hazrat Najibuddin Mutawakkil, The brother of Baba Farid and a great saint of the era, in fact she was a devotee. He treated her as his sister. When there was nothing in the house to eat, she used to send some bread. Once she sent only one loaf. He, out of a joke, said: “O, great God! Make the sultan of this city acquainted with our condition, so that he may send us something substantial!” Then he smiled and said: “Alas! The sultans do not possess that inward cleanliness, by which they may be acquainted (with our condition)”

In her book The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi, author Sadia Dehlvi writes: “Bibi Fatima Sam died on 17 Shaban 644 Hijri/1246 AD. She is called the Rabia of Delhi, after Rabia of Basra, the famous mystic of the eighth century.”

Location :  Kaka Nagar

Nearest Metro Station Khan Market

But what is a qawwali?
Its a genre which has its origin in India and is most popular in the sub continent.
Sufi ‘sama mehfils’ always used music as a means of inducing trance – ‘haal’.
Those who go into state of ‘haal’ trance and dance are very popularly known as the Whirling Dervish.

There are various stories about the origin of qawwali. I give one below.
Be as it may it was developed by Hazrat Amir Khusrau from the Prophets qaul.
It is narrated that Hazrat Amir Khusrau went to the khanqah of Hazrat Bu Ali Shah Qalandar , who asked him to sing something in praise of Amirul Momineen Hazrat Ali.Hazrat Bu Ali Shah was a famous Chisti sufi saint.Amir Khusrau obeyed Hazrat Bu Qalander and set Rasool e Khuda, pbuh s qaul to music
Note : Qaul literally means a saying and this name is bestowed to the sayings of the Prophet pbuh.

The most popular qaul of the Prophet
“Man kunto maula,
Fa haza Ali-un maula ”
”whoever accepts me as a maul (master), Ali is his master too”.
was set to music by the genius Amir Khusrau on the spot. He added the famous tarana

“Dara dil-e dara dil-e dar-e daani.
Hum tum tanana nana, nana nana ray
Yalali yalali yala, yala ray “

to give body and soul to the music and help to induce a trance.

I have 13 versions of Man Kunto Maula and my favourite versions are by Aziz Mian, Abida Parween, Ustad Shujaat Hussain and Abbas Ali Khan.
Amir Khusrau was entrusted with the work of developing Qawwali as a complete form of music and he selected 12 young students whom he called qawwal bachcha. It is through them that he presented Qaul Qalbana and other forms of Qawwali.
Munshi Raziuddin and his sons Farid Ayaz and Abu mohamed are descendants from those qawwal bachchas
Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammed
Famous scions of the Qawwal bachcha also include Ustad Bahauddin Khan Qawwal and Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami