The Prophet Muhammad’s footprints in stone, Indian Subcontinent
Relics, Remains, and Traces in Islam
Fieldwork in Bangladesh, June 2019, and India, June 2019, February-March 2020 | Outcome: peer-reviewed articles [forthcoming]
Mustafa’s footprint is the place where the bearers of the Divine Throne prostrate themselves.
— Rahmat ʿAli Tapish
As mentioned earlier, the tradition of preserving sacred footprints in Islam is inspired by the footprints left by the Prophet Muhammad (Qadam Rasul Allah). This is due to the fact that among the miracles popularly attributed to the Muhammad it was claimed that when he trod on a rock, his foot would sink into the stone and leave its impression there. The numerous impressions of one or both of the feet of Muhammad in different parts of the Muslim world are still venerated today.
Most of the relics were acquired in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina by mystics, merchants, or sultans who ‘retrieved’ them and brought them to different parts of the Islamic world. Specimens can be found throughout the Indian subcontinent. Among the famous shrines that house imprints of the Prophet in stone are the Qila Qadam Sharif in Paharganj, Delhi, the Qadam Rasul in Nabiganj, Narayanganj district, and the Qadam Mubarak Mosque in Anderkilla, Chittagong.
At the Qila Qadam Sharif in Paharganj, Delhi, India
Walking through a maze of narrow lanes off Nabi Kareem Road in the heavily-populated Paharganj district, one eventually reaches the shrine of Qadam Sharif (the Shrine of the Holy Footprint). Also called Qila Qadam Sharif because of its fortified structure, it was once one of the most sacred shrines and a major pilgrimage center in Delhi, but today is a desolate and rather forsaken place. When I arrived, bystanders called the Mutawalli (trustee of the shrine) from his house, and he rushed out to open the doors to the shrine (dargah) which is only unlocked by request. The dargah still holds an impression of the qadam sharif (noble footprint) of the Prophet Muhammad on a stone slab which had been acquired by the great Suhrawardi saint Makhdum Jahanian from Ucch in Mecca and presented to Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351–1388). Built to shelter the Prophet’s footprint, the dargah also accommodates the grave of Firoz Shah’s favorite son, Fateh Khan (d. 1374) who predeceased his father. The Prophet’s footprint was then placed upon his grave so that the relic’s permanent barkat (blessing) posthumously bestowed saintliness upon the prince.
A famous tank (hauz) filled with water from the holy spring in Mecca (zamzam), as well as milk and flowers, built nearby, was used to ritually wash the footprint of the Prophet. The sanctified liquid was then collected and distributed to the visitors as tabarruk (blessed offering), thought to have protective and healing properties. The shrine was part of a larger complex which in the 19th century still comprised a school (maktab), mosque, other buildings, as well as a cemetery. Until 1947 it continued to be a major sacred site in Delhi. After the partition of the subcontinent, refugees sought shelter in and around the sacred place, eventually settling there. Over time, no trace of the formerly sprawling complex and its sacred reservoir is left—only its very heart, the Qila Qadam Sharif, still remains today. An annual commemorative festival (ʿurs) is held on Barah Wafat, the celebration of the Prophet’s birth on the 12th of the Islamic month of Rabi’ al-awwal. On this occasion, the dargah is cleaned and decorated, and the Qadam Sharif once again placed in situ. Throughout the year, the sacred footprint is normally kept in the Mutawalli’s house for safekeeping; however, during my visit in June 2019, he kindly brought the relic to the shrine.
At the Qadam Rasul Dargah in Nabiganj, east central Bangladesh
The Mughal officer Mirza Nathan ʿAlaʾ-al-Din Isfahani, who used the pen name Ghaybi, mentions the qadam rasul (footprint of the Prophet) of Nabiganj, Narayanganj district, in the Baharistan-i-Ghaybi, his autobiographical memoir composed in Persian in 1624 which recounts the early 17th-century history of Bengal and Orissa. He relates that the Afghan chief Masum Khan Kabuli (d. 1599), leader of the mutiny of Mughal military officers in Bengal and Bihar against the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), had acquired the relic from “merchants who brought it from Arabia on payment of a large amount of money.” The relic is today preserved at the Qadam Rasul Dargah in Nabiganj – which Mirza Nathan refers to as Rasulpur – on the eastern bank of the Shitalakshya River, opposite Narayanganj. In 1777-78, Ghulam Muhammad of Tippera (Comilla), son of Ghulam Nabi, built a single-domed shrine to house the relic and in 1805-6, he added a two-storied monumental gateway. Considered to be the most famous footprint of the Prophet Muhammad in Bangladesh, the relic continues to attract a lot of devotees who come to pay their respects at the Qadam Rasul Dargah. The shallow imprint of the Prophet’s right foot on a roughly 24 cm-long stone slab is kept in a metal dish continuously submerged in rose water.
At the Qadam Mubarak Mosque in Chittagong, southeastern Bangladesh
The Qadam Mubarak (Blessed Footprint) Mosque was built by the local Mughal administrator (faujdar) Yasin Khan in 1719 in Anderkilla at the center of Chittagong, as stated by the inscription above the mihrab, during the reign of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748). The mosque derives its name from two sacred footprints on black stone slabs, one belonging to the Prophet Muhammad, and the other to the 12th-century Hanbali Sufi saint, ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Gilani, founder of the Qadiri Sufi order, also known locally as Ghaus Pak (Pure Helper). The prayer chamber of the mosque is flanked by two rooms, the one to the right preserving the two slabs each bearing an imprint of the right foot: on the right that of the Prophet Muhammad and on the left that of ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Gilani. Both footprints are continuously kept immersed in rose water. Originally constructed in late Mughal style, the three-domed mosque has been almost completely reconstructed. Of the original mosque complex, which included a madrasa and a graveyard, nothing but the old gate remains.
