Imom Buxoriy xalqaro ilmiy-tadqiqot markazi bukhari.uz
Since the time the humanity appeared on the Earth, his way of life has not always been full of delight and happiness as well as peaceful. Through its history, any nation or nationality has seen both delightful and happy as well as hard, dark and unhappy days of life. The role and place of “piri murshids” of the inhabitants of the society was great in those days. With their teachings, advice, manners of life, behaviours in the society and attitudes towards the surrounding world, the figures of such status called people to be frank and kind-hearted, to live faithfully, mercifully and peacefully, and supported the members of the society spiritually, if necessary, financially. Our countryman Khoja Ahrar Vali (1404-1490) was one of such greatest figures in our history.
As a great and estimated representative of the Naqshbandiya trend, Khoja Ahrar Vali owned his own place in the lines of Sufis of the Muslim world. Observing his manner in the social life and his activities in the spiritual life, we may evidently see that he had such an important eastern principle for Muslims as “measure off seven times and cut once” and deep Islamic thought in his soul. However, it is a great pity that during the reign of the former Soviet regime, alongside with the names of other great ancestors, his name and reputation was slandered and soiled. During his whole life, he acted with good will and fought for the benefit of the ordinary people. But he was calumniated by the advocates of the Soviet regime and his name was blackened as “a scoundrel of evil deed”, “an enemy of enlightenment”, “an extreme reactionary”, “an oppressor of free thinking”, etc.
We should be thankful to God that due to the independence gained by our country, there appeared opportunities for us to study and investigate the scientific and spiritual heritage of our great ancestors from unbiased points of view.
At the dawn of the independence our President stated: “Today we are facing such historical possibilities as studying our past from the critical point of view and defining the roots of our state system that returning to our ancient heritage we must implement our ancient traditions to the construction of our newly built society”. The positive reforms carried out in our country in this field with good will and charitable purposes make our people happy and satisfied in the eyes of the whole world. The Decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of our Republic “On the celebration of 600th anniversary of Khoja Ahrar Vali’s date of birth” is a logical continuation of the important measures being taken in this field.
It is natural that there arises a question “What did he do for the benefit of the ordinary people and what was the essence of the scientific and educational heritage he left for the future generation?” First, it should be kept in mind that he studied the legacy of his ancestors and contemporaries in the field of Sufism with great interest and taking into consideration their benefit for the ordinary Muslims, made suitable conclusions to form his plans for the practical use and further development of these theories. Khoja Ahrar Vali lived a long and fruitful life. He made a motto of his life to call people to reach the highest levels of requirements of Sufism by their own labour and endeavours, live with the care of people’s welfare, fight for justice in the society, be generous to surrounding people and fight for peaceful and friendly life of the ordinary people. The motto of the Naqshbandiya order “Your hands should be busy with work and your soul with the name of Allah” was the main perspective of his life.
Relying on the facts mentioned above, we can state that the range of his spiritual world was very wide and deep in meaning. The main point in his activity is that his legacy absorbed the deep spirit of humanness. In addition to these features, as an owner of a great amount of property, he made a noticeable contribution to the development of proprietorship in agriculture, craftsmanship and trade. His contribution to the development of trade can be seen not only in the regions of Maveraunnahr but also in the neighbouring countries as Eastern Turkistan, Khorasan and Small Asia.
