The Haji Ali Dargah Mumbai is a house of prayer, a dargah (a Tomb) which is set on an island off the coast of Worli within the southern part of the Mumbai city. Haji Ali Dargah Mumbai is close to the center of the town and it is one of the most identifiable landmarks of Mumbai.
Explore Mumbai – Haji Ali Dargah Mumbai
Haji Ali Dargah is the best example of Indo-Islamic design, also it contains the spot of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari.
This famous Dargah was made in the year 1431 in the memory of Muslim saint, Sayyed Peer haji Ali shah ji Bukhari, Who actually was a great businessman who gave up all his holding just before his journey to Mecca. Love from Bukhara, in Republic of Uzbekistan, Bukhari traveled all around the world within the early to middle fifteenth century, and in the end settled in the Mumbai city.
There was a story that once the saint haji ali shah saw a poor girl crying on the road, holding an empty vessel. He asked her what the matter was and why was she crying, she told haji ali shah that her husband would thrash her as she had accidentally spilled the oil which she purchased and was carrying it in her vessel. Hearing this, saint asked her to take him to the spot wherever she split the oil. Reaching there, he jabbed a finger into the soil and surprisingly after that the oil gushed out. The joyful girl stuffed up the vessel and went home happily.
After that incident, Pir haji Ali Shah Bukhari had a continual and distressful dreams that he had injured mother Earth by his act. He was choked with self-reproach and grief from that day. He became terribly serious with his health and wasn’t well. After that he take the permission of his mom and started his journey to Mumbai (aka Bombay at that time) together with his brother and eventually reached the shore of Mumbai – close to Worli or at some place opposite the current Haji ali dargah Mumbai. He then asked his brother to go back to their native place. Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari sent a letter with his brother to their mother telling her that he was keeping good health at that place and he had determined to reside at that place for the good spread of Islam and she ought to forgive him.
Till his death the saint spread the teaching of Islam to the folks and his devotees which would frequently visit him. Before his death he suggested his followers that they must not bury him at some place after his death and will drop his shroud (‘kafan’) within the ocean such it should be buried by the folks wherever it’s found.
He then went to hajj .But unfortunately he died during the journey and according to his wish the Dargah Sharief is constructed at the very site where his shroud came to rest in the middle of the sea where it perked on a low mound of rocks rising on top of the ocean. The topographic point and Dargah Sharief were in-built the years to come back.