THE real name of Hazrat Data Ganj Bux was Ali and he was also known as Abu-al-Hassan. It is said that when Khawja Mueen ud din Chisti was granted Wilayat of Hindustan from the darbar-e-Rasalat, he was ordered to stay for some time at the tomb of Hazrat Ali Hajveri and then with his blessings introduce Islam in the deserts of Rajputana. So he stayed at the tomb and when he left he said a verse in praise of Hazrat Ali Hajveri and named him as Data Ganj Bux.
At this time he was started being known as Data Ganj Bux.
However the reality seems different from the opinion of general public. Hazrat
Ali Hajveri in his book Kashf ul Asrar wrote that he was called Data Ganj Bux
and he was of the view that he did not keep even a single grain with him and
the only Ganj Bux is only the ALLAH who he has no companion in his property. It
is evident from here that this name of his became popular in his life. Khawja
Ghareeb Nawaz also mentioned this name in one of his verse while he was
praising him. He is the eighth descendent of Hazrat Ali and belonged to
Fiqah-e-Hanfi.
One day his teacher Abul Fazal directed him to
go to Lahore
and start teaching there. So he with his two fellow students left for Lahore and stayed for spending a night near river Ravi. Next day he entered city and move towards the place
where his tomb is situated now. It is stated in Safina tal Auliya that he built
a mosque near his residence and few scholars of Lahore criticized over the direction of this
mosque. On one evening Hazrat Hajveri invited all those critics on dinner. He
offered prayer with them and after the dinner he pointed you all doubt about
the Qiblah of mosque. He directed all of them to look above and asked if they
see Holy Qabah. Every one of them saw Holy Qabah in front of them and was
convinced after seeing this miracle that he was right.