Born Khwaja Shamsuddin Ansari on October 17, 1927 in Siharanpur, U.P., India into a radical Sunni cleric household; young Shamsuddin saw firsthand the superficiality of the legalistic outward religion. Growing up he had several encounters that provoked his interests in the esoteric religion. At the young age of twenty, he set out on the quest of finding a true murshid (Sufi Master). That nine-year journey took him from his native city to places like the Patiala State, India and then to Lahore and then to Sadiqabad, Pakistan. Finally in Karachi, he arrived at the doorsteps of the Syed Muhammad Azeem

• Qalandar Baba Awliya (1896-1979), founder of the Sufi Order of Azeemia and grandson of the famous Indian Sufi, Baba Tajuddin of Nagpur (1852-1929).

The next fourteen years under his tutelage saw the transformation of this undereducated and functionally illiterate person into the author of around a dozen books and several articles on parapsychology, telepathy, and spirituality. In 1962, Shaykh Azeemi started writing articles on spir- ituality in various Pakistani newspapers and magazines. The most famous of them was his advice column Roohani Daak, in Urdu Daily Jung. People from all walks of life and faith would write to him for his advice on their problems. On average, Shaykh Azeemi received 3,000 mails a day. Because of its huge success, a monthly magazine Roohani Digest was launched in 1978. Shaykh Azeemi is the Editor in Chief of the magazine, which now has its own website www.roohanidigest.com. Shaykh Azeemi has inaugurated Qalandar Shaoor Monthly (http://qalandarshaoormonthly.com/) and is Editor in Chief of same. In 1979 before his physical death, Qalandar Baba Awliya designated Shaykh Azeemi as the Patriarch of the Sufi Order of Azeemia.

What sets this Sufi Order apart from most of the other Orders is that it is available to people from all the faiths. Hence, a number of Shaykh Azeemi’s students are Hindus, Christians and Zoroastrian as well as members of other faiths. The main headquarters of the Sufi Order of Azeemia is its convent (khungah) at Surjani Town, subdivision of Karachi, where Shaykh Azeemi still receives and gives free advice to people daily. The convent holds weekly Muragaha sessions as well as training classes and lungar.

Since 2001, Shaykh Azeemi has delegated most of his editorial responsibilities to his eldest son and shaykh-designate Mr. Waqar Yousuf Azeemi. Mr. Waqar Yousuf Azeemi, himself an author, was recently elected the Finance-Secretary of the prestigious All-Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), an organization credited with upholding and striving for the freedom of the press in that country.

— Syed Shahzad Reaz