The Degree Of Sainthood in Islam:

The Saints are called as friends of Allah. They are considered as most pious people on the earth. They are blessed by Allah and hence they are awarded with the ability to perform various miracles. Though, most of the saints do try to hide miracles as it may create some kind of proud in demonstrating before the public. But sometimes it may be necessary to perform miracles to guide the people to the right path and protecting from the satanic powers.

The Degree of Sainthood may be granted to the people who fulfils the requirements of laws of Islamic Shariat and performs miracles. Sometimes, the well known saint awards his devotee deputy status becomes saint.

But in fact, the real saints are those who are granted the sainthood by almighty Allah. It has happened in the past that in this physical world, some were enjoying saints status and were even performing the miracles but for some reason, Allah deprived them from sainthood and their death were not among the believers ! Such things were noticed by great saints of the time. Hence, the ultimate method of granting “After Death Sainthood Degree” by observing dead body after forty days by reopening the grave of buried saint is the most common practice in the Islam. Such practice is mostly found in Sufism in Islam. The dead body of the Prophets, the martyrs, the pious saints and the truthful people are never getting rotten! So, the practice of observing the dead body by reopening the grave after forty days or six months is a good thing so that the followers’ faith can be made firm and strong and the devotees can respect the grave and get the blessings from the grave of the saint. The people of the Prophet’s house, that is, saiyeds, are those followers of Islam who are related to the holy Prophet Mohammed (Pbuh) by blood. The graves of such people are normally not opened due to the fact that they are blood related and hence their bodies never get decomposed.

Unlike the other religions where the sainthood degree is conferred by the worldly people looking to the services to the people of the religion and preaching of the religion, Islam’s ultimate method of precise observation of the condition of the corpse by opening the grave is a solid demonstration of awarding sainthood. People gathered to witness the observation are the truth bearer of the event for future reference. In Chishtiya chain, such a demonstration of “after death sainthood degree” is most common. This silsila (chain) of Islam is known by great saint Khwaza Moinuddin Chishty (R.A.). The observation of saint’s body by reopening the grave after 40 days or six months might have come in to practice as is known from the book “Fawaaidul Fawaad” in which there were noting of sayings of great saint Khwaza Nizamuddin Auliya (R.A.) that described the events of two so called saints whose death were not among the believers and yet the people were visiting their graves as if they were saints. This might have initiated the procedure of observing the bodies in the graves after 40 days or six months.

The Following remarkable event took place in Gujarat State of India at Lunavada town near Vadodara which is situated in Panchmahal District. During 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, a group of people who were traveling through an open tempo motor trolley were killed by a Hindu mob. The dead bodies were roughly buried in the dried sandy river near Lunavada hastily by the mob. On the other side, the relatives of these people filed a case of missing of the persons in the police. After eight months since the communal violences were calm, some labourers of a construction contractor went to dig soil at the river side. On digging a soil, one of the labourers saw something like a leg of a human body. All the labourers gathered and further dug the soil and found a dead body of a man as if just buried! Looking to this, they searched for the other bodies if any in the presence of a police. And to their surprise, they found eight bodies of humans in total ! All the bodies were intact as if just buried! Police took the bodies in the custody. This news spread abruptly in the surrounding towns and villages. The relatives of the missing persons ran to the police station of Lunavada to recognize their loved ones. And they recognized them! The bodies of the martyrs were in tact as if just martyred! They easily recognized them. All the martyrs were Muslims from Karanta Village just 18 kilometers away from Lunavada. The martyrs bodies were handed over by the police to their relatives. The martyrs were respectfully buried in the grave yard of Karanta, District Panchmahal. This village is situated at the bank of river Mahisagar. One of the martyrs was a caretaker of (Shrine)Dargah of holy saint Baba Kutub Mehmudshah(RA). In this way, by practicing Islam, ordinary Muslim can occupy a martyrdom! This event has so many witnesses. Municipality workers of Lunavada, police staff of Lunavada, all the villagers of Karanta were the witnesses of this event! The police record is a great witness. Such is a greatness of Islam. The degrees are always granted by the great. Allah is the greatest who granted such martyrdom degree to the Islam followers. We, as Muslims, challenge to the people who follow other religion after declaration of Islam, to show such martyrdom by demonstrating the dead body without decomposition after 40 days or six months without any chemical preservations applied. This event was published in monthly Muslim magazine “Taibah” headqurtered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. I forgot the exact month of the publication but I am sure, one can find this event article by looking From monthly magazines from September 2002 to December 2003. The verification can be obtained from “ Darul Uloom Sha-e-Alam, The Taibah Office, Jamalpur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India” This magazine is printed in Gujarati Language. The organization is 60 years old.

In holy book quran, there is written in Surah Aaley Imran verse number 169 stating “ Do not imagine those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead, but they are alive and are provided with the rizk (food) from your Rabb (lord)” And in other place in quran it is written that “The Prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the saints are the people who are blessed by Allah” So, the bodies of these people are safe in their graves ! So, these graves, shrines and tombs must be preserved and respected by all.