He assumed as a poet the nom-de-plume of Ṣarfī, and in him were displayed both the accomplishments of learning and the perfect qualities which distinguish a pious man. He was the spiritual successor of the great master Shaikh Ḥusain of Kh'ārazm (may God sanctify his tomb!), and acquired honour by performing the pilgrimage to the two most excellent holy places. He received from Shaikh Ibn-u Ḥajar a licence to give instruction in the traditions of Muḥammad, and clad in the robes of a Shaikh he travelled much and visited most of the Shaikhs of Arabia and Persia, and profited much by his intercourse with them, and received authority to assume the prerogatives of a religious teacher and spiritual guide, and as such he had many disciples, both in Hindūstān and Kashmīr. He was the superior of an hospice. He was the author of some sublime and beautiful works, and completed a Khamsah,* and wrote many treatises on the art of composing enigmas, and also quatrains on the mysti­cism of the Ṣūfīs, with a commentary. His works, indeed, are too numerous to be recapitulated, and had it not been necessary that some slight mention should be made of his Ṣūfī-ism, and his mystic longing for God, even these few works could not have been noticed. He was illustrious and much relied upon as an authority in all branches of learning which are treated of in Arabic, such as Quranic commentaries, the traditions of Muḥam-mad, and Ṣūfī-ism, and he was an authorized religious leader. Latterly, not long before his death, he was writing a commentary which was one of the most wonderful productions of his perfect genius. Both the late emperor and his present majesty had a wonderful belief in him and conferred distinction on him by admitting him to the honour of their society, regarding him with gracious favour, so that he was held in high estimation and much honoured. He was generous and open-handed beyond any­thing that can be imagined of his contemporaries.

Although his poetry was very poor, in accordance with the verse:—“Poetry does not become the learned,” he used neverthe­less, continually to exercise his intellect in this direction. These following few couplets are by him:—

Couplets.*

“I see that comely face manifest in whatever I regard, ¹⁴³
“Though I look at a hundred thousand mirrors in all that
one face is manifest.
“On all sides people are wandering in search of the Friend,
“And the strange thing is that the Friend is manifest on
every side.”

Other couplets by the Shaikh are these:—

“Thy mole lurks near the corner of thine eyebrow to
deceive,
“Wherever a recluse, lurking in a corner, is to be found,
deceit is in him.”
“Break not my heart, Oh grief! and regard not whose that
heart may be,
“The heart is indeed mine, but consider who dwelleth
there.”
“If thou sayest to him, “It behoves that Thy foot pass
over my head,”
“(Remember that) thou shouldst at once forsake all thought
of self.”

This enigma on the name of Shaidā is also by the Shaikh:—

“My moon hath cast the veil from off her face,
“See, how she hath of set purpose turned day into night!”

At the time when he obtained permission to depart from Lāhor to his dearly loved native land, he wrote to me from the far side of the river Rāvī a letter, which I copy here as a fortunate relic.

“My helper and my mighty one! After laying before you the prayers and supplications of true friendship, I represent to your mind, brilliant as the sun, that the cause of your neglecting to observe, in respect of your sincere and true friend, one most excellent institution was probably the fact that, though the approved custom of travelling with a friend for a part of his journey is one of the requirements of the observance of setting ¹⁴⁴ him on his way, you were not able at the present time to perform this office and therefore could not help but leave it undone. I hope, however, that you will not entirely efface the memory of me from the margin of your bounteous heart, and that you will adopt the graceful habit of remembering the absent. If you should have any need of Kashmīr paper for rough notes and drafts I hope that you will inform me of the fact, so that I may send you from Kashmīr the rough copy of my commentaries, the writing of which can be washed from the paper with water so completely that no trace of the ink will remain, as you yourself have seen. And now peace be with you and grace be upon you.”

When he reached Kashmīr he sent me from there another letter, which was the last he wrote. I copy it here.

“In the presence of the bounteous Shaikh ‘Abdu-l-Qādir, him who is removed beyond the need of praise, recommendation, or encomium, that is to say our lord and leader in learning, may this letter be opened.

Without a doubt Badāonī excels Dawwānī*
In all branches of learning,

Thus a proof of the superabundance of the signification of his
name,
Is that its very beginning appears to be redundant.

As to the suppliant letters which from time to time I send to you, although owing to their not being worthy of an answer I do not trouble your wonder-describing pen to write one, nevertheless the pen of sincere friendship cannot be restrained from running on in (its desire of) setting forth my submission to you. I hope that whenever you sit in the Nawwāb Faẓiī Fayyāẓī's* apartment of fragrant grass,* on the floor with its matting cooler than the breezes of Kashmīr, in the midday heat of summer,* drinking the water which, though warm, has been cooled with ice, and listen­ing to sublime talk and witty conversation, you will think on me, the captive of the hardships of disappointment.”

Couplet.

“Ah! ye who meet in the cheerful assembly of union extend
a helping hand to the absent,
“For the hand of those who thus meet is never withheld
from the absent.”

“I pray you to accept, on behalf of your most honoured, most ¹⁴⁵ orthodox, and most glorious son, Shaikh Muḥīyyu-d-dīn Muḥam-mad, my humble submission. May God, the most Holy and most High, assist him in the acquirement of all knowledge, both secular and spiritual, by the honour of him* who was named with the name of his sublime title (may his pure tomb be hallowed!).

It is probable that, owing to your claims as a neighbour to confidence, you may have heard what that resort of chiefship, Mīrān Sayyid Qubu-d-dīn, had to say with regard to his failure to answer my humble letter to him, but it behoves you rather to regard my essential claims upon you, for these claims are clearly to be preferred to the claim of mere neighbourhood; and likewise you should not place too much confidence in the display of affec­tion which the worshipful Mīrān makes, for in the end it has no stability. God the most High knows the truth!

I have lost the rough copy of the verses which I wrote in the new Āṣafkhānī style, explaining what had not previously been clearly expressed. It is possible that you, my honoured friend, may have taken a copy from my rough draft, and, if so, I pray you to send me a copy of your copy. If you answer this letter it will be well. (I call to mind) God!”

Verses by the Author.*

“O thou, at the thought of whose face intimacy comes back
to me,
My desire cannot be borne on paper,
As the lofty mountain cannot be weighed in a balance,
And as the ocean cannot be measured by a water-gauge.

Why should I sing your praises? They are far beyond the pretensions of the bald style and the impotent rhetoric of me, ‘Abdu-l-Qādir; and any attempt to comprise them therein would resemble the endeavour to imprison the sea in a jug.”