His family was of Hashimid lineage, and thus traced their descent back to Asad ibn Hashim, one of the ancestors of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

[3] For fifteen years, Zakariya travelled to different cities in southern Punjab, where the order was able to attract large numbers of converts from Hinduism.

[4] During his lifetime, Zakariya befriended Lal Shahbaz Qalandar - a widely revered Sufi saint from Sindh, and founder of the Qalandariyya order of wandering dervishes.

[6] Zakariya, Shahbaz Qalandar, Baba Farid and Syed Jalalauddin Bukhari, together became the legendary Haq Char Yaar, or "Four friends" group, which is highly revered among South Asian Muslims.

[9] Zakariya's preachings emphasized the need to conform to usual Islamic practices like fasting (roza) and alms-giving (zakat), but also advocated a philosophy of scholarship (ilm) combined with spirituality.

[4] His successors continued to exert strong influences over southern Punjab for the next several centuries, while his order spread further east into regions of northern India, especially in Gujarat and Bengal.