The annual ʿurs festival is held in commemoration of the death-anniversary of the Khwaja (‘Respected Master’) Muʿin al-Din Chishti, who passed away in 1236 in the northern Indian town of Ajmer in Rajasthan, to celebrate his union with God. The festival is concentrated around the saint’s resting place, the oldest tomb of the Chishti Sufi Order in India. Over one million pilgrims attend his ʿurs, celebrated every year during the first six days of Rajab, the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The order accepts any pilgrim without discrimination of religion, class, ethnicity, and gender. Everyone is welcome at the large dargah, the sacred complex that developed around the saint’s tomb. It is here that social norms are temporarily suspended.

Members of all social classes are fed at the langar (community kitchen), thought to be continually replenished through the power of the ‘living’ saint. Sacralized by continuous prayer, the tomb is thought to possess miraculous healing power, providing tabarruk (blessed offering) to the needy. Everyone is offered shelter in the dargah. Everyone identifies with the saint and calls upon him by the epithet Gharib Nawaz, or Benefactor of the Poor. Devotees believe that Muʿin al-Din Chishti’s divine grace lingers on and that he intercedes on their behalf to God to answer their prayers. Both men and women are allowed to enter this dargah and visit the saint’s tomb. Many bring offerings such as rose garlands and large pieces of cloth to perform the ceremony of laying the cloth (chadar charana). On the penultimate day of the ʿurs the entire complex is washed with rose water. The research focuses on the role of the Gudri Shah Chishti community, a subsidiary branch of the main Chishti order, that began to develop under Shaykh Gudri Shah Baba I (d. 1907) and has been the social engagement of Inam Hasan, pir-o-murshid of the order since 1996. This is given expression in one of his social projects, the Sufi Saint School, overlooking Ana Sagar Lake. Located next to the chilla sharif (the location of the forty-day spiritual retreat) of Muʿin al-Din Chishti, the school is devoted to interfaith harmony and provides education to local children from all religious backgrounds.