Baba Ismail: The First Shamsi Convert in History

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kmaherali
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Baba Ismail: The First Shamsi Convert in History

Post by kmaherali »

Baba Ismail: The First Shamsi Convert in the History of the Gupti Ismailis of Punjab

By Khizar Hayat

http://simerg.com/literary-readings/bab ... of-punjab/
agakhani
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Post by agakhani »

“Gupti mostly practiced the Ismaili faith in solitude in the garb of the Hindus, and became known as the Gupti (secretive). These Gupti Ismailis mostly resided in different cities, towns and villages in Punjab and Frontier.”

The above statement is not quiet true there were and still there are many Guptis in Gujarat state and other part of India the author only noted Punjab province which is true for Shamsi Guptis but if we counts all Guptis then he should need to mention Gujarat state as well, where most Guptis were resided during the time of Sultan Mohammad Shah (s.a.) and there are still many guptis even right now living there, they look like Hindus, their names are same like Hindus and they observes all the Hindu festivals and when they died they burns their bodies instead of burried the it but they secretly pray 3 times du’as at there home.

Please visit the link below which is backing my above description:-

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=103748

A welknown missionary name KADAR ALI B. PATEL was also Hindu gupti family from Gujarat State. He was a teacher of MHI and prince Amyn Mohammad during their childhood.
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Post by Admin »

I visited Bhawnagar in 1988 December and attended their Jamatkhana ceremonies there. There were about 3,000 Gupti Ismailis in Bhawnagar at that time.

On my way to Dhanduka, I also visited a Gupti family (I don't remember the name of the place, the person's name was Pitambar), it was off main road and there were only few houses there.

In Sind, in a village named Khaybar, I met new converts from the Bhill community. They told me many wanted to officially become Ismailis but were not accepted by the Institutions yet but they were practicing Ismailism anyway in secret.

There are countless Guptis in Rajastan also. They will link to our jamat openly when Imam decides so.

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Post by Admin »

As received:


he Ismailis in Punjab are known as the Shamsi, the followers of Pir Shams. They professed their faith secretly, and were also known as the gupti (secret ones). They were tinged with the Hindu social customs, and called the prayer-hall as dharamshala and the Imam as dharam guru. The gupti Ismailis spread over 73 different villages of Punjab, having 35 Jamatkhanas. In 1912, there was a riot between the Hindu and the Shamsi Ismailis in Amritsar, and several Ismailis lost their lives. Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah thought it was a peak time that Ismailis in Punjab should forsake irrelevant customs and assume Islamic names and identify themselves as Muslims. The Imam thus issued a farman for them, asking to declare publicly as the Muslims. Most of them obeyed the orders and changed their names, such as Karam Chand as Karam Hussain, Sada Nands as Sadruddin, Khushi Ram as Khushi Muhammad, Ram Das as Rahim, etc. Thus, these Ismailis assumed Islamic names and added the term Shaikh with their names, therefore, they also came to be known as the Shaikhs (new converts).
In India, another group of the gupti flourished in north Gujrat. Fourth in the line of Syed Mashaikh bin Syed Rehmatullah Shah bin Pir Hasan Kabir, was Syed Fazal Shah; who operated proselytizing mission in north Gujrat with a tremendous effect upon the local peasants. His disciples islamized their names and forsook irrelevant customs. He is said to have visited Iran in 1035/1625 during the period of Imam Nizar and was appointed as a vakil. The tradition relates that Imam Nizar also sent with him his one relative, called Pir Kassim Shah. Both of them not only conducted the proselytism afresh, but also accelerated the economical condition of the Ismailis. It appears that Aurengzeb at Gujrat closely noticed their secret mission. In the meantime, Syed Fazal Shah died in the village of Jetral in 1068/1659, and left behind two sons, Syed Hasan Shah and Syed Mashaikh Shah II (1060-1108/1650-1697). Syed Hasan Shah
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