The order was brought to Herat and later spread across South Asia by Mu'in al-Din Chishti in the city of Ajmer.

[5]Chishti practice is also notable for Sama: evoking the divine presence by listening to and losing oneself in a form of music and poetry, usually Qawwali.

However, the order also insists that followers observe the full range of Muslim obligations; it does not dismiss them as mere legalism, as some strands of Sufism have done.

However, this has been countered by the more historical excerpt of Nizamuddin Auliya's quotation:[7] The hearing, the person that is being heard should be a mature man and not a young boy or a woman.

How can this be Haraam if it brings the listener closer to Allah?The Chishtis follow five basic devotional practices (dhikr).

[14] Before returning to Syria, where he is now buried next to Ibn Arabi at Jabal Qasioun,[15] Shami initiated, trained and deputized the son of the local emir, Abu Ahmad Abdal.

He was born in the province of Silistan in eastern Persia around 536 AH (1141 CE) into a sayyid family claiming descent from Muhammad.

Two prominent lines of transmission arose from Nizamuddin Auliya, one from his disciple Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlavi and the other from another disciple, Akhi Siraj Aainae Hind, who migrated to West Bengal from Delhi on Nizamuddin Auliya's order.

Siraj Aanae Hind was followed by his notable disciple Alaul Haq Pandavi settled in Pandava, West Bengal itself.

From this chain of transmission another prominent sub-branch of Chishti way emerged known as Ashrafia Silsila after the illustrious saint Ashraf Jahangir Semnani, who was the disciple of Alaul Haq Pandavi in the thirteen century A.D. Later, yet other traditions branched from the Chishti lineage; in many cases they merged with other popular Sufi orders in South Asia.

[20][21] In more recent times, a more contemporary expression of traditional Chishti Sufi practices can be found in the establishment of the Ishq-Nuri Tariqa[22] in the 1960s, as a branch of the Chishti-Nizami silsila.

[23] In addition, a number of mixed-Sufi type groups or movements in Islam, have also been influenced by the Chishti Order proper.

[25] From the 14th century onwards (during the rule of the Tughluqs), the Chishti Order came to be associated with political prosperity for the Indian subcontinent's Muslim kingdoms.

It is said to be by the blessing of Shaikh Salim Chishti that Akbar's first surviving child, the future Jahangir, was born.

Shah Jahan's daughter, Jahanara Begum Sahib, was also a devout follower of the Chishti Order.