Towards the close of the seventeenth century, Aurangzeb conquered Bijapur, and Hamid who now lost his patron, fell on evil days. Daring these lean years, he borrowed money heavily from a Kashmiri trader named Khwaja Nurruddin, and eventually released himself of his financial obligation by surrendering the sacred hair to the Khwaja, who proceeded to Kashmir with the relic. But he was not allowed to go to Kashmir without hindrance. Aurangzeb, on coming to know of the trade in the relic, intercepted the merchant on his way and seized the sacred object as the emperor considered Khwaja Mohinuddin Chishti’s tomb at Ajmer (which the Mughal thought the greatest shrine in their empire) the fittest place for housing the relic. Poor Khwaja could do nothing but wail. But on the night of the seizure of the lock, Aurangzeb had a dream in which the prophet, it is said, appeared before him, threatened to punish him for his high handedness and peremptorily ordered him to return the hair to its rightful owner. Thus chastened, the Mughal ruler returned the relic to the Khwaja with as good a grace as he could command.
Nurruddin (or his friend Khwaja Medinesh, according to certain legends, which say that Nurruddin died of grief on the seizure of the hair by Aurangzeb) took the relic to Kashmir. For some time the sacred hair was kept in certain mosques in Kashmir, but it was eventually housed in the Hazratbal mosque, its present resting place. The hair is normally kept in a glass bottle locked up in a cabinet, and is exhibited to pilgrims on important Muslim festivals. Only certain male members of a family who trace their descent from the Khwaja, are allowed to touch the bottle and show it to the people.
It may be mentioned that on the feast of Shab-e-Barat in 1963 AD, when the reliquary was opened for public exhibition of the hair, the precious relic was found missing. Lamenting, highly excited crowds paraded the streets of Srinagar, and there was considerable disturbance in the city and its suburbs over the loss; but fortunately the relic was found shortly after under mysterious circumstance, to the great relief of Muslims all over India, and also of the government.