As the Mus­lim world cel­e­brates Eid, World Sikh News pre­sents this ar­ti­cle on Guru Nanak Sahib’s visit to the world of Is­lam by writer Jas­bir Singh Sarna. The ar­ti­cle un­earths the his­tory of the Khilka -the robe of ho­n­our given by Mus­lim sa­vants to the founder of the Sikh faith -Guru Nanak dur­ing his visit to Arab coun­tries. While his­to­ri­ans may have dif­fer­ent views on such sub­jects, the au­thor has painstak­ingly doc­u­mented the de­tails, in­clud­ing col­lect­ing rare pho­tographs.

GURU NANAK (1469-1539) -THE FOUNDER FA­THER OF SIKHISM, was one of the world’s great­est travel per­son­al­i­ties, at a time when there were no means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and trans­porta­tion. For the first time, any spir­i­tual leader of the world com­mu­ni­cated with peo­ple to con­vey the mes­sage of One God. Guru Sahib kept aside an­cient be­liefs, racial prej­u­dices, shady cus­toms and su­per­sti­tions. He showed the path to mis­guided peo­ple em­pha­siz­ing the ex­is­tence of Akal Pu­rakh and the mes­sage of hu­man broth­er­hood.

The Guru made four Uda­sis -long jour­neys -to­wards the east, south, north and west.¹ Bhai Mar­dana, the Gu­ru’s com­pan­ion, was pre­sent dur­ing the Udasi of the West as de­scribed in Bhai Bale Wali Janam­sakhi. This Janam­sakhi was writ­ten by Parahe Kha­tri in front of Guru An­gad Sahib:

“੧ਓ ਸਤਿ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ਓਨਮ:

ਅਬ ਜਨਮਪਤ੍ਰੀ ਸੀ ਬਾਬੇ ਨਾਨਕ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਲਿਖੀ। ਸੰਮਤ ੧੫੯੨ ਮਿਤੀ ਵੈਸਾਖ ਸੁਦੀ ਪੰਚਮੀ ਨੂੰ ਪੋਥੀ ਲਿਖੀ।

ਪੈੜੇ ਖਤ੍ਰੇਟੇ ਅਰੁ ਗੁਰੁ ਅੰਗਦ ਜੀ ਲਿਖਾਈ।”²

It is writ­ten in this’ Pothi Janam­sakhi ‘ that when In­dian peo­ple visit Arab coun­tries, King La­j­vard used to be very cruel. When Guru Sahib reaches there, he re­ceives a Khilka -a robe of ho­n­our from the skies. Guru Ji no­ticed that the let­ters of na­ture like Ara­bic, Turk­ish, Per­sian, Hindi, San­skrit were writ­ten on this Khilka.

Two kos (a mea­sure of dis­tance) away from the city, Guru Sahib sat down wear­ing the Khilka for 7 days. Some peo­ple say that 30 verses of the Quran could be seen on the Khilka. They went and told the King, ‘this is God­like, un­like hu­man be­ings.’

Baba Nanak’s visit is also men­tioned in the Vars of Bhai Gur­das.³  It is a be­lief that Kaaba cir­cum­am­bu­lated around Baba Nanak in Mecca. Every­one was amazed to see this power of Guru Ji. The de­tails of these events are pre­served in Ara­bic man­u­scripts like Shay­ato Baba Nanak Faqir and Twarik-e-Arab.  Pun­jabi lit­er­a­ture also tes­ti­fies Ara­bic Kaaba Fe­ria.⁵ The Chief Imams of the four sects of Is­lam, such as Imam Za­far, Imam Safi, Imam Kamaldin and Imam Ja­mal Din, and the King bowed to Gu­ru’s power. There they pro­nounced Nanak, the last prophet of Med­ina as a man­i­fes­ta­tion.⁶

It is my be­lief that the Khilka -Chola that Guru Sahib re­ceived in Mecca as an ho­n­our, might have been given by all of them when Nanak was pro­nounced the last prophet in Med­ina. Af­ter their re­quest, Guru Ji be­stowed a pair of san­dals⁷, a nee­dle, an Assa (stick), a hand­writ­ten Gutka (small book of prayers) of Japji Sahib in Ara­bic and more.

 

It is recorded in Ara­bic writ­ings that when Guru Ji pre­pared to go to Med­ina from Mecca, every­one ex­pressed great shock. Baba Ji said that Khu­da­vand Kream (Almighty God) has or­dered him, just go there for en­force­ment of his or­der. On the silk robe that was pre­sented to Baba Nanak, some verses of the Quran Sharif and words in praise of Al­lah are seen.⁸

Af­ter Med­ina, Guru Ji reached Bagh­dad via the small route of Faiz. In Bagh­dad, the world’s largest Is­lamic World Uni­ver­sity namely Darul Elim Niza­mia⁹ was run­ning in very high spir­its. Guru Nanak Sahib and Bhai Mar­dana went out­side to the ceme­tery.  The Guru be­gan to sing in a melo­di­ous and loud voice. When enough peo­ple gath­ered, Guru Ji loudly took Aazan in the op­po­site di­rec­tion to Mecca, putting fin­gers in both ears.

“Al­lah Hu Ak­bar As­duhan La Ilah Illa;
Hi Al­lah Al­falah, Hal Sal­wah Khairun Mi­nolanome.”
(Sense: God is the great­est. I plead that no more with­out a God. Let us come for prayers. Prayer is bet­ter than sleep.)

There was such an at­trac­tion in this Aazan that there was pin-drop si­lence.¹⁰ In Bagh­dad, Guru Ji had a dis­cus­sion with Makhdoom at the tomb of Sheikh Ab­dul Qadir Ji­lani Dast­geer (1077-1168 AD). Makhdoom was also known as Pir Dast­geer. Peer was ac­com­pa­nied by his son Alam Fazal. Fakir Bahlol is some­times called by the thought­ful Pir Bahlol Dana’s Su­jada Nisheen.  This is also men­tioned by Bhai Gur­das Ji.¹¹ The spot where the Guru had a dis­cus­sion with Pir Dasa­tageer, a his­toric plat­form¹² still ex­ists. This in­scrip­tion is in a mixed lan­guage of Ara­bic, Per­sian and Turk­ish.

An in­scrip­tion at Gur­d­wara Bagh­dad to com­mem­o­rate Guru Nanak’s visit there

The small Gur­d­wara build­ing here is man­aged by the de­scen­dants of Bahlol Ji’s dis­ci­ple Amar Raza. They also have a holy book¹³ which con­tains the text of Japji Sahib and a few words as well as the di­a­logues of Guru Ji in Mecca and Bagh­dad. Also, in Bagh­dad, when Is­lamic Schol­ars told Guru Nanak, how he coined the name of Muham­mad through Elamey Aba­jad. Guru Ji replied:

“Naam lo kis ehindse ka, kar lo chu gunna
Do aur mela lo, fer kar lo panch gunna
Bees se urha lo, baki kar lo panch gunna
Iss me do aur bhe lo mella
Nanak Iss bedi nam Muham­mad lo bana
Mi­ane lo lok­muma chat­pat samja ja”¹⁴
“Other vari­ants of this Cou­plet¹⁵ are also pop­u­lar.

When we see num­ber of Elime Aba­jad Meem has 40, Ha  8,  Meem 40 and Daal 4, thus the 92 forms the name of Muham­mad.

The au­thor of Twarikh Guru Khalsa¹⁶ is of the opin­ion that this robe was pre­sented to the Guru by the Be­gum of Khal­ifa Bakr, the King of Bagh­dad.

Yak araza guf­tum pesh tu dar­gosah Kuhn kar­tar.

These words were ut­tered by Guru Ji in Mecca and Med­ina, as tes­ti­fied by Ara­bian man­u­scripts.

The Ma­hankosh¹⁷ has also men­tioned this Chola to Sat­guru by a lover from Ara­bia, Per­sia or Egypt and the Guru who knows all the lan­guages ​​like San­skrit, Ara­bic etc. had ac­cepted the Chola re­spect­ing the sen­ti­ments of well-wish­ers.

It is recorded in Sikh sources that Guru Nanak took off this robe at Kar­tarpur and pre­sented it to Guru An­gad. This robe has been given to the five Gu­rus while be­stow­ing Gu­ru­ship. This robe was kept by Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji while serv­ing at the Sarovar in Am­rit­sar. Guru Ar­jan Sahib pre­sented this Chola to Bhai Tota Ram, a Sikh from Balkhbukhara. This robe re­mained with his fam­ily for many cen­turies.

Rings with Mes­sages as dis­played on the Khilka -robe of ho­n­our,
pre­sented to Guru Nanak Sahib

In the ninth gen­er­a­tion of Guru Nanak, Kabli Mall Ji brought the Chola to Dera Baba Nanak in Gur­daspur. This Chola was es­tab­lished by build­ing a Gur­d­wara. This Chola was placed here on 20 Fa­gun 1884 Bikrami (1 March 1828 AD) and every year on 21-23 Fa­gun, the devo­tees have a glance of the Chola. There was also lan­gar in­tro­duced at that time and over a pe­riod of time be­came fa­mous as ‘Gur­d­wara Lan­gar Chola Sahib.’ Dur­ing the Akali move­ment (1920-25) when Gur­d­wara Dar­bar Sahib came un­der Pan­thic man­age­ment, the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee placed the site un­der its man­age­ment and the right to keep Chola Sahib was given to the Gu­ru’s de­scen­dants.

I have taken close-up pho­tos of the Chola pre­served in a glass box. Un­for­tu­nately, my de­sire to touch and see the whole Chola was de­nied by the cus­to­dian. The Ara­bic verses and round cir­cles are drawn, in which nu­mer­als of all lan­guages are writ­ten. An em­broi­dered hand­ker­chief un­der the Chola said to be of Bebe Nanaki -sis­ter of Guru Nanak Sahib and Chaur Sahib -the cer­e­mo­nial fan made of an­i­mal hair or syn­thetic ma­te­r­ial of Guru Ar­jan Sahib were also seen by me.

It is said that when Sikh gen­eral Hari Singh Nalva vis­ited Chola Sahib, he pre­sented two pre­cious Ro­ma­l­las -cer­e­mo­nial cov­er­ings for Guru Granth Sahib; which are adorned in an­other glass box. Fifty me­ters away from the main Gur­d­wara Sahib, where the Bedi fam­ily re­sides, there is Parkash of Guru Granth Sahib in a room along­side the Cholla Sahib. In the same com­plex is the Samadhi of Baba Kabli Mal and an oc­tag­o­nal well.

“ਲਾਹਿ ਲਾਇਆ ਅਲਾਹ ਸੁਬਹਾਨ ਕਾਆਨੀਕੁਨ ਤੋ ਮਿਨ ਅਜ਼ ਜ਼ਾਲਮੀਨ”

This Ara­bic Chola has a unique sign,

“ਲਾਹਿ ਲਾਇਆ ਅਲਾਹ ਸੁਬਹਾਨ ਕਾਆਨੀਕੁਨ ਤੋ ਮਿਨ ਅਜ਼ ਜ਼ਾਲਮੀਨ”
(ਭਾਵ: ਪੂਜਣਯੋਗ ਪ੍ਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਹੀ ਕੇਵਲ ਹੈ। ਮੇਰੇ ਵਰਗੇ ਜ਼ਾਲਮ ਤੇ ਬਖਸ਼ਿਸ਼ ਤੇ ਮਿਹਰ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲਾ) ਲਿਖਿਆ ਹੈ।

It is made of cot­ton which is khaki in colour and has some colour on the edges. There are some verses of the Quran writ­ten on it.  Many names of Al­lah are also writ­ten. In­side this Chola are many round-shaped cir­cles in which num­bers of many lan­guages ​​are writ­ten.

In the pic­tures, nu­mer­als are seen in San­skrit, Ara­bic, Per­sian and Urdu. The holy names of Al­lah are writ­ten in cir­cles and many dig­its are found out­side the cir­cle. Quranic verses are seen on the outer cir­cles as shown in sketches.

The pen paint­ing of this Ara­bic Chola was made by Hazrat Mirza Ghu­lam Ah­mad Qa­dian (1835-1908) or one of his con­fi­dants -Ghu­lam Ah­mad. He saw this Chola and wrote a long poem¹⁸ in Urdu. This book con­tains Urdu and Per­sian po­ems of Qa­dian Sahib and has been edited by Mehraj-u-Din. Mirza also wrote his few verses around this pen im­age. Such as,

1. ਕਹਾਂ ਹੇਂ ਜੋ ਬਰਤੇ ਹੇਂ ਉਲਫ਼ਤ ਕਾ ਦੰਮ
   ਇਤਾਅਤ ਸੀ ਸ੍ਰ ਕੋ ਬਨਾ ਕਰ ਕਦਮ(ਚੋਲੇ ਦੇ ਉਪਰ)

1. ਦੇਖੋ ਅਪਣੇ ਦੀਨ ਕੋ ਕਿਸ ਸਿਦਕ ਸੇ ਵੋਹ ਦਿਖਲਾ ਗਿਆ
   ਵੋਹ ਬਹਾਦੁਰ ਥਾ ਰਖੱਤਾ ਥਾ ਕਿਸੇ ਦੁਸ਼ਮਣ ਸੇ ਡਰ(ਹੇਠਾਂ)

1. ਦੋਰੇ ਜ਼ੋਰੇ ਸਦਾਕਤ ਖੂਬ ਦਿਖਾਇਆ ਅਸ਼ਰ
   ਹੋ ਗਿਆ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੀਨ ਮੁਹੰਮਦ ਸਰਬਸਰ (ਸਜੇ ਪਾਸੇ)

1. ਜਬ ਨਜ਼ਰ ਪੜਤੀ ਹੈ ਉਸ ਚੋਲੇ ਕੇ ਹਰ ਹਰ ਲਫ਼ਜ ਪਰ
   ਸਹਾਮਨੇ ਆਖੋਂ ਕੇ ਆ ਜਾਤਾ ਹੈ ਵੋਹ ਗੁਣੀਗਹਿਰ(ਖਬੇ ਹੱਥ)

Mirza Ghu­lam Ah­mad’s re­mark­able poem¹⁹ is sev­en­teen pages long.

It is con­clu­sively clear that Guru Nanak’s Ara­bic Chola is in Dera Baba Nanak-a tes­ti­mony to Guru Sahib’s suc­cess­ful vis­its to Mecca, Med­ina and Bagh­dad.

Ref­er­ences and Notes:

1. Guru Nanak did four tours in 22 years, about 25 thou­sand miles jour­ney. First south (1497-1508 AD.), Sec­ond  east (1510-1515 AD.), Third Ut­tarak­hand (1516 – 1518 AD.), And the fourth to the west (1518-1522 AD.)
2. The copy of this book was copied from Khadoor Sahib Pothi and printed from Al­bad Di­wan Buta Singh Ma­lik Mat­bai Aftab Pun­jab, La­hore. Be­low it has the sig­na­ture of Bhai Tara Singh of Am­rit­sar.
3. “ਫਿਰਿ ਮਕੇ ਆਇਆ ਨੀਲ ਬਸਤ੍ਰ ਧਾਰੇ ਬਨਵਾਰੀ
   ਆਸਾ ਹਥਿ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਕਛਿ ਦੂਜਾ ਬਾਂਗ ਮੁਸਲਾ ਧਾਰੀ”
4. Jas­bir Singh Sarna -Guru Nanak’s Jour­ney to Arab Coun­tries, Jammu and Kash­mir, 2019, page 16.
5. Bhai San­tokh Singh ^ Sri Nanak Prakash, Chap­ter – 58
6. Ibid,
7. Ibid,
8. Guru Nanak Sahib’s Jour­ney to Arab coun­tries, 24-25
9. The Uni­ver­sity was opened by Nizam kut­sey 459 Hi­jri (1203 AD). Mus­lims from the globe came here to ed­u­cate. This was con­sid­ered a strong­hold of Mus­lim Schol­ars.
10. Bhai Gur­das, 1: 35
11. Ibid, 2:36
12. This plat­form was first seen by Sikh mil­i­tary of­fi­cers. Then in 1918 AD Dr Kir­pal Singh re­ported the in­scrip­tion in a let­ter to his brother Seva Ram Singh. This was men­tioned by Swami Anand Acharya in his book The Snow Birds, 1919 page 182. Swami had only seen the faded in­scrip­tion and writ­ten date 912 Hi­jra where the ac­tual date is 927 Hi­jra.
13. ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਦਾ ਅਰਬ ਦੇਸ਼ਾਂ ਦਾ ਸਫਰਨਾਮਾ, ਉਹੀ, ਅੰਕ: 48
14. These verses were writ­ten to me 40 years ago by Molvi Bande of Hazrat Bal, Sri­na­gar (Kash­mir). He had said that these verses were com­ing to us af­ter hear­ing from the Mus­lims of Ara­bia and Syria.  Other forms of these lines are also preva­lent in Mus­lim coun­tries.
15. Ex­am­ples are as fol­lows :

(1) Muham­mad four let­ters. To­tal 92   (2)  Raab. four let­ters. To­tal of 92

16. Gi­ani Gian Singh, Twarikh Guru Khalsa, Part 2, De­part­ment of Lan­guages, Pun­jab, Pa­tiala, Print 2011, Is­sue: 269 – 270 “In Bagh­dad, Khal­ifa Bakkar, the son of Khal­ifa Wahid, caused great sor­row to the peo­ple and the fakirs. Many saints were im­pris­oned for wit­ness­ing mir­a­cles. Khal­ifa Bakkar also came to pay homage to Guru Ji af­ter hear­ing his praises, then Baba Ji ut­tered the words :

“ਨਾਨਕ ਆਖੇ ਰੇ ਮਨਾ ਸੁਣੀਐ ਸਿਖ ਸਹੀ

…….     ……..    ………..  ………….

ਕੂੜ ਨਿਖੁਟੇ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਓੜਕ ਸਚ ਰਹੀ।

Hear­ing these words, the Caliph folded his hands in front of Baba and said, “Tell me some ser­vice.” Baba Ji said the mir­a­cle is hurt­ing the fakirs, your in­ten­tion is for a son, so God will ful­fil.

17.   Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha – Gur­shabad Rat­nakar Ma­han Kosh, Part 2, page 357

18.  Mehraj – u-Din Darre samine, Urdu, Au­gust 1906, La­hore Is­lamia Steam Press, pages: 38 – 54

19.  Ibid: 38,48,49, 50,52,53,54

Jas­bir Singh Sarna is a vo­ra­cious writer in Pun­jabi, Eng­lish and Urdu. Hail­ing from Jammu, he has par­tic­i­pated in many Pan­thic ac­tiv­i­ties dur­ing his stu­dent days. He was the founder-ed­i­tor of Shamsheer-e-Dast mag­a­zine of the All In­dia Sikh Stu­dents Fed­er­a­tion. He has vis­ited Pak­istan chron­i­cling the trav­els of Guru Nanak. He has been ho­n­oured by many in­sti­tu­tions across the world.