Women Sufi saints are found all over the Islamic world but very few of them came into limelight whereas a large number of preferred to remain behind the curtain because of their personal reasons or the adherence of strict Purdah system. Now, credit goes to research scholars who have been doing their best to enlighten our future generation about our glorious past through their works with special reference to the written collection of life stories of saintly personalities especially women Sufi saints who contributed a lot towards the wellbeing of whole human race. So far as the valley of Kashmir is concerned, there are few unsung personalities whose life description is only available to us in verbal mode. Reason may be many, one of the prime reasons was poor literacy rate and non- availability of resources in the earlier times. But, today the situation is very much favourable and there is need to put the written record of those historical events or biographical accounts so that those events or biographical sketches can become the source of inspiration for our future generation.
In this connection, I am here to throw light about the biography of lady Sufi saint popularly known as MukthDedRA ; belonged to my native village- HariporaHarwan (New Theed Srinagar) This particular village is 22 Km away from Srinagar. It has a unique importance in terms of its history and geography. Since it is not my topic right now. My instant focus is to throw light on the spiritual dimension of her life. As narrated by the senior residents of this particular locality, her decedents and her followers, she was known for her divine love and Chastity who conquered herself (Nafs) through devotion, meditation, contemplation, patience (Sabr) as well as fear and trust in God. (Tawwakul). She was known for her extreme virtue and piety, revered by all. People had abundant faith on her. If anyone from the locality was in any kind of agony or any health issue, they sought the special Supplications ( Duwa) from her.
Her spiritual status was so high that even one of the prominent saints of the valleySyed Mirk Shah Kashani( RA)often visited her residence at New Theed to have a spiritual discourse. Peer Yaseen SahabRA, one of the deciples of Mirk Shah SahabRA had also a very close spritual connection with her. One day, when one of the disciples of Syed Mirak ShahRAasked him why he visited here why not that lady came to his Khanqha at Shalimar to meet him there? He uttered these famous lines in favor of her. “She attainted the high spiritual status because of the deep meditation and prayer. Her beautiful manners, manifestation of her intense humility and love, deemed her the particular position in the way of spiritual journey and right now she is sitting close to our beloved Prophet PBUH. The same kind of words were enunciated by another saintly personality Abdul GafarGanaiRA¬in her favour. She had a good number of followers that include the areas like Dalgate- Kutar-Khan, Khaniyar Srinagar. It is said that an epidemics broke out within the surrounding areas of Dal- Lake. The People of that particular area requested Mukth DedRA for supplication in order to get away from that Pandemic situation which snatched many lives during that time. She organized a special prayer and the situation became normal within few days.
One more episode that is connected to her life is that just a day before her physical death, she deputed one of her disciple to go Shalimar to ask Syed Mirak Shah Sahab(RA)there to pay his last visit to her . Shah SahabRA gave due respect to her call, and paid a visit to her residence. The day was Monday, they had an half an hour spiritual discourse or exchange of thoughts. Shah SahibRA was only few steps away from her residence when that saintly lady left this world for good. Her last resting place (graveyard) is situated New Theed Srinagar.
Very little is known about her childhood but according to her close relatives, she was born at Theed (This particular place is the same location which is presently known as Chesma-Shahee) During the Dogra rule, the inhabitants of that particular village were relocated at HariporaHarwan in 1940- 1942 by then Dogra ruler, Hari-Sing). There is no as such any birth record available to us with regard to her date of birth because there was no culture of writing diaries or keeping any sort of written account of any event or occasion. According to her relatives, she was married at an early age but her married life could not sustain for a long time. The sudden death of her better half followed by the instant deaths of two siblings in prime age perturbed her psychological. In order to have peace of mind, she used to pay frequent visitsto the shrine ofSultanul- Arifeen, Sheik Hamza MuqoomRAand shrine of renowned Sufi Saint KhajaHibibu-Ulla Noshahri( RA) .Those visits not only brought stability and calmness in her emotions but that practice also opened a new ray of hope for her life. She became more and more close to the world of spirituality. There was a particular platform built by the locals within the vicinity of said village where she used to spend hours and hours in complete seclusion, doing Zikr or meditation. There, she was constantly absorbed in the thought of Almighty Allah.Mukth Ded(RA) never forgot to attend annual celebration ( Niyaz ) organized every year in the memory of great Sufi Saint KhajaHibibu-Ulla Noshahri( RA) . She even collected material donations like pulses, vegetables for that noble cause from her native village.
A week before her departure from this transient world to the world of eternity, she asked one of her nephew Abdul Samad Bhat to arrange a simple and unwritten remaining stone for her grave. The same stone was imbedded on her grave as the mark of identity. Her disciples insisted her to erect a mausoleum on her grave but she refused. She had such an amiable nature that everybody in the village whether young or old addressed her by the special name “Ded” which means grandmother in Kashmiri. May almighty Allah grant her the best place in Jannah!
Many thanks to the elders of my locality, her relatives especially Mohammad Khalil Bhat (Muqdam) who provided me an indispensable information about MukthDedRA

Email:---minamharoon123@gmail.com