by Shuaib Wani
SRINAGAR: The annual Urs of Hazrat Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom (RA), popularly known as Sultan-u-Aarifeen, was observed on Wednesday at Kohimaran hill in the city of Srinagar with religious fervour.
Thousands of devotees including women and children throughout the day thronged at the shrine of the revered saint located at Hari Parbat in which special prayers, salutations, and supplications were held.
Devotees across religious lines visited the shrine for 12 consecutive days prior to the main Urs day (today).
On the occasion, religious scholars threw light on the teachings of Hazrat Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom (RA).
The mystic was instrumental in guiding thousands to the stages of the spiritual domain and had a huge number of followers.
The Urs was celebrated throughout Kashmir valley by organising special prayers at different places in which thousands of people participated. However, the main congregation was held at the shrine of Hazrat Sheikh Makdoom Sahib RA at Kohi-Maran hill, in the downtown here.
The saint, popularly known as Makhdoom Sahib or Sultan-ul-Arifeen, is one of the venerated sages of the summer capital and his followers have been paying obeisance at the shrine for more than 450 years now.
Makhdoom Sahib lived in the sixteenth century and was born as Hamza Makhdoom. He hailed from Tujjar Sharif in Sopore. The sage, however, spent most of his lifetime praying at the mountain where his shrine is currently located. Open-source information suggests that the young saint studied in the Shamsi Chak monastery for a year, and later studied jurisprudence, tradition, philosophy, logic, ethics, and mysticism in a madrassa founded by Ismail Kubrawi. In 1576, when he passed away, he was of the age of 82 years.
