AJMER SINGH

AJMER SINGH was the name given a seventeenth century Muslim recluse of Chhatteana, a village in present day Faridkot district of the Punjab, as he received the initiatory rites of the Khalsa. His original name was Ibrahim, popularly shortened to Brahmi or Bahmi. According to an old chronicle, Malva Desh Ratan di Sakhi Potbi, Ibrahim had himself dug a grave, duly lined with brick and mortar into which he intended to descend, through a hole he had kept for the purpose, when his time came.

But when he met Guru Gobind Singh, who had come to Chhatteana after the battle of Muktsar (1705), he was so deeply moved that he requested to be admitted to the Khalsa fold. The Guru, says Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, observed, “Being a Muslim desiring with conviction to join the Khalsa Panth, you are setting a good example. Among the Khalsa it is only proper that every one, high or low, take the pahul (baptism of the double edged sword).” Ibrahim received the pahul at the hands of Bhai Man Singh, and the Guru gave him his new name, Ajmer Singh. Ajmer Singh diligently learnt the Sikh prayers which he regularly recited morning and evening.

References :

1. Malva Desh Ratan di Sakhi Pothi. Amritsar, 1968
2. Santokh Singh, Bhai, 5ri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth. Amritsar, 1927-35
3. Gian Singh, Giani, Twarikh Guru Khalsa [Reprint]. Patiala, 1970