The construction of Hazrat’s mausoleum took nearly twenty years to be fully completed. High quality marble for the mausoleum was requisitioned from the famed Makrana mines in Jodhpur princely State in un-divided India. The builders were also invited from Jodhpur. These men stayed on in Golra Sharif until the completion of the work, and have now become Pakistani citizens.

During the time of Hazrat Ala the first structures to be built were; a room to serve as Hazrat’s living quarters, another room for the storage of the necessities for the langar and two rooms for the use of Guests. Some other huts were added later for the use of students and their teachers. With these inputs, the first part of this stone, clay and mortar structure was completed in 1313 A.H. (1895 A.D.) A Large masjid was constructed for the daily and Friday congregational prayers, originally in the year 1896 and was completed in 1897. Hazrat Ala used to offer his daily prays here and give dars.

Hazrat Babu ji (R.A), who occupied the spiritual throne of Golra for 37 years from 1937 to 1974. In line with this self-image, he devoted his energies throughout his lifetime to the improvement and expansion of the facilities at the Shrine, in order to ensure that people visiting here in ever-increasing numbers were duly taken care of. It is principally due to these efforts of Hazrat Babu ji (R.A) and after him of Hazrat Ghulam Moin uddin Gillani that the Golra shrine today ranks as one of the best-managed shrines in the country.

Expansion of the Darghah Complex

Between 1903 and 1907, a large guest house, and buildings for the Madrassah and the library, were constructed and donated to the shrine by two devotees of hazrat from Peshawar. The guest house initially comprised about forty rooms for visitors, flanked by verandas and corridors, spacious hall to be served as a Majlis Hall. With the passage of time, even this spacious accommodation fell short of the needs of the ever increasing number of visiting devotees, with the result that three more guest houses, a very large Majlis Hall for indoor congregations and several other buildings were constructed during the period of Babu ji. The expansions process continued after the passing away of Babu ji in 1974, and the shrine complex has now attained the position of a magnificent landmark on the outskirts of Pakistan’s federal capital Islamabad. The shrine attracts large numbers of crowds during the Bari Gayrvi sharif the Dargah sharif has the capacity of holding over 40,000 at any one time.

The mausoleum is a beautiful structure and presents an eye-cooling view. Its design conforms to the traditional Islamic style of architecture, with an imposing dome in the middle and arched verandas on all sides. Just below the ceiling height on all sides both inside and outside the building, carefully-selected verses of the Quran along with excerpts from the Prophets (P.B.U.H) a hadith of similar meaning, both of them with their translations, and equally well-selected Persian verses of eminent Sufi poets such as Maulana Rumi, Khwaja Hafiz of Shiraz, Shaikh Saadi, and others, have been engraved with black stone in exquisite calligraphy.

There is no extravagance in good things

Hazrat Babu ji (R.A) was considerably concerned about the question whether the construction of a mausoleum over Hazrat’s (R.A) grave would be proper from the shariah point of view. Although most of the ulama ruled such construction as permissible in itself under the shariah, one of them, while agreeing with the majority view, opined that such a structure was likely to involve such large expenditure as to fall within the definition of undue extravagance, which is looked upon with disfavour by the shariah. Thereupon, Hazrat Babu ji (R.A) consulted various scholarly writings on the subject in order to make some definite decision. In this process, he came across a ruling of Hazrat Shaikh Abu Saeed Abul Khair (R.A) in these words: Translation: There is no extravagance in good things. He also saw Hazrat in dream around this time, pronouncing the following words of the Quran: Translation: And when we made the House (in Makah) a resort for mankind and a sanctuary.(II,125) Hazrat Babu ji (R.A) interpreted these words as a favourable and positive pointer and decided to go ahead with the construction of the tomb.