Alaul Haq Pandavi

Alā ul-Ḥaq wa ad-Dīn ʿUmar ibn As`ad al-Khālidī al-Bangālī , commonly known as Alaul Haq or reverentially by the sobriquet Ganj-e-Nābāt (, ), was a 14th-century Islamic scholar of Bengal. Posted in Hazrat Pandua, he was the senior disciple and successor of Akhi Siraj, and a Bengal Sultanate government official. migrated from Lahore to Pandua where he served as the Finance Minister of the Sultanate of Bengal. His uncles, cousins and brothers also held high ranks in the Sultanate court. Some sources claim that Haq was first taught by Nizamul Haq Sarfi, who was a senior scholar of Bengal based in Lakhnauti and teacher of Nasiruddin Bahath. This claim however, has been doubted by others due to issues relating to time periods. After the death of his father, Haq was meant to have inherited two gardens worth 8000 takas though someone else had taken possession of them. Haq never attempted to regain the inherited property.

Alaul Haq was admired by his teacher Siraj to such an extent that he was made his successor and the husband of Siraj's daughter.

Career Following the death of Siraj, Haq served as the court scholar; setting up a khanqah in Hazrat Pandua and becoming an elite member of the Sultan of Bengal Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah's government. During the reign of Sultan Sikandar Shah, Haq was put in charge of the royal treasury of the Bengal Sultanate. had abdicated his throne to become a student of Alaul Haq in Pandua. His journey took two years and upon meeting Haq and his disciples in the outskirts of Pandua, Semnani was carried by doli to Haq's khanqah where he was fed four handfuls of rice and paan by Alaul Haq. Semnani studied under Alaul Haq for 1

2 years, before being instructed by him to go and propagate in Jaunpur.

Death

It is suggested by 'Abd al-Haqq al-Dehlawi, in his Akhbar al Akhyar, that Alaul Haq died in the year 800 AH (1398 AD). On the other hand, the guardians of Haq's shrine possess a book which cites his death in 786 AH (1384 AD). It has also been said that Alaul Haq's janaza was performed by Jahaniyan Jahangasht. His shrine, the Chhoti Dargah, is one of the major dargahs of Bengal; located in the ruined city of Hazrat Pandua in Malda and adjacent to the other contemporary scholars of Bengal such as Jalaluddin Tabrizi. Haq's disciples included his son Nur Qutb Alam (who was his successor), as well as the Sufi saints Ashraf Jahangir Semnani and Husayn Dhukkarposh. His urs is commemorated from 23 to 25 Rajab in Chhoti Dargah, presently in West Bengal, India.