THATTA: The newly-built shrine of Sufi Syed Shaheed Mohammad Ali Shah Karriwal, which replaces the 400-year-old crumbling edifice, was inaugurated on Monday.

Parveen Madad Ali, mother of PPP senator Dr Karim Khwaja, formally inaugurated the new shrine at a special ceremony by laying a wreath on the saint’s grave.

Former vice chancellor of Sindh University Dr Ghulam Ali Allana and member of the PPP Sindh council Aijaz Ali Khwaja who participated in the ceremony praised Senator Khwaja for raising funds and rebuilding the mausoleum within a short span of five months.

Dr Allana informed the devotees on the occasion that the saint’s ancestors, five brothers and a sister, arrived in Sindh from Iran slightly over five centuries ago. They were linked to the family line of the fourth caliph of Islam, Hazrat Ali, he said.

He cited a number of books and said the Syed family first settled in Ooch Sharif and Multan in Punjab after arrival from Iran and then they moved to the historical town of Rarri in Sindh.

After Rarri was reduced to ruins by some natural disaster, Syed Mohammad Ali Shah shifted to Mirpur Bathoro with the help of a big landlord Mohib Ali Khwaja, while his brothers Syed Fateh Ali Shah, Kabir Shah and others shifted to Jherruck and Matli near Tando Mohammad Khan town where their tombs still existed, he said.

Senator Khwaja, who is a great-grandson of the Mohib Ali Khwaja, said that the Sindh government had also allocated a sum of Rs2.5 million for the reconstruction of the mausoleum.

He announced that a Sufi Mela (festival) would be organised at the shrine within next six months and intellectuals and followers of Sufism and prominent vocalists particularly Abida Parveen would be invited to it.

Dr Dilshad, Prof Abdul Salam and Prof Pir Bux Piyasi informed the participants that poet brothers, Saith Mohib Ali and Sultan Ali, were buried in the outer yard of the tomb. Their poetry was being compiled at the moment and would soon be brought out, they said.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2014